October 18th, 2016 — This Saturday, October 22, the New Jersey and Delaware black sea bass fishery will officially reopen for the rest of 2016. For wreck fishermen in both states, the bag limit increases to 15 fish bag through December 31, with the minimum size of 12-1/2 inches in Delaware and 13 inches in New Jersey.
By all accounts, this should be a banner opener for the fishery as inshore waters have been loaded with smaller black sea bass on the move eastbound, with local wrecks and reefs practically blanketed by the tasty, hard-fighting fish.
“Sea bass are a menace on the reefs but that should be taken care of starting this Saturday,” noted Alex from the Reel Seat in this week’s report for The Fisherman Magazine’s Central Jersey report, explaining that folks dropping clam for the porgies on the Axel Carlson and Sea Girt spreads as well as the inshore lumps and wrecks.
“Can’t wait for Saturday,” added Capt. Joe Bogan of the Jamaica II who said getting jigs down to monster bluefish has even been tough because of the sea bass numbers of late. “Giant sea bass were slamming the jigs meant for the blues,” Bogan said.