Tom P.

With the black sea bass season-closing 11:59 pm New Year’s Eve, and with the torrid bite occurring as you read this, well, if you want to fill the freezer with luscious fillets that will also include pie plate and hubcap-size porgies, these next 19 days are when to do it.

The traditional six-day firearms deer season starts Monday, December 9 and runs through Saturday, December 14.

Well, the “Big Tog” crab crunch is underway, kicking into gear the middle of last week.

The general consensus is that there’s two, maybe three weeks remaining for the opportunities to catch ‘n ice keepers, along with the occasional fat cow mama.

With the inevitable arrival of colder water, the bigger blackfish are moving in from the wrecks and structures in deeper water.

Ringneck pheasants and bobwhite quail (on two wildlife management areas only) will become legal quarry Saturday, and the “bird” season is eagerly anticipated by the 12,000-plus uplanders who have shelled $40 for the mandatory Pheasant & Quail Stamp.

Whitetail deer mating season (aka “rut”) is 95% on, and, to put it mildly, the bucks will be love loco for the next two, maybe three weeks.

It’s a striped bass explosion along the northern and central stretches of the Garden State coast, and these are nuclear detonations for sure, going by the sizes of the linesiders.

This week’s blow set the clock running for the last week, maybe two, of crabbing before the crustaceans settle in the mud for the winter.

Segment A of the two-part New Jersey black bear season opens Monday and runs through Saturday, October 19.

It’s rod and reel time in both arenas starting next Tuesday as the New Jersey Division of Fish & Wildlife’s wildly successful two-week autumn trout stocking season gets underway.

The last weekend in September is packed with activities and action in the woods and on the waters and is the unofficial kickoff of autumn’s outdoor season.