February seabass

[Madcrab]

Originally Posted by TomKaye

I just got a text that says sea bass will open 2/1 thru 2/28/19.
It refers to a website njsaltfish.com, not the official DEP website.
NJ DEP site still shows sea bass closed.
Anybody know if this February opening text is legit or is it still a proposal ??
Thanks in advance for any official input or a link.

It maybe the federal is open but not the State of NJ, NY, CT and MA

[ESFISH]

Open in Virginia for the month of Feb. 15 fish @ 12.5".

[Madcrab]

Originally Posted by ESFISH

Open in Virginia for the month of Feb. 15 fish @ 12.5".

I got this from another site.

"It shall be unlawful for any person fishing recreationally to take, catch, or possess any black sea bass, from February 1 through February 28, without first having obtained a Recreational Black Sea Bass Permit from the Marine Resources Commission. It shall be unlawful for any black sea bass permittee to fail to contact the Marine Resources Commission Operation Station at (800) 541-4646 before returning to shore at the end of the fishing trip during the February black sea bass season. The permittee shall provide the Operations Station with his name, VMRC ID number, the point of landing, a description of the vessel, and an estimated return to shore time. Any such permittee shall submit a report, for any recreational black sea bass fishing trips, which incudes that permittee’s MRC ID number; the date of fishing; the mode of fishing; and the number of black sea bass kept or released. That report shall be submitted to the Commission or to the Standard Atlantic Fisheries Information System no later than March 15 of the current calendar year. Any authorized permittee shall allow VMRC staff to sample catch to obtain biological information for scientific and management purposes only."

[ESFISH]

They did change it a little this year as the captain/boat owner is the only one on the boat that has to have the free permit and he has to tell them when you are going and give notice when you will be returning.