Fluke and Sea Bass Regs Set

[Angler Paul]

JCAA Alert - Fluke and Sea Bass Regulations Set

The 2016 regulations for fluke and sea bass were set by the New Jersey Marine Fisheries Council meeting on March 3rd. The NJ Bureau of Marine Fisheries worked hard to develop various options. A clear majority of advisors and others in attendance supported the following options. The council unanimously approved the following regulations:
Fluke – 5 fish at 18” with a season beginning on 5/21 and ending on 9/25 except for Delaware Bay where there will be a 4 fish limit at 17” and at Island Beach State Park where there will be a 2 fish limit at 16”.
Sea Bass – 10 fish at 12.5” from 5/23-6/19, 2 fish at 12.5” from 7/1-8/31 and 15 fish at 13” from 10/22-12/31.
Striped Bass – An overview of the 2015 fishery was given but the regulations, including those for the bonus bass program will remain the same.

In 2014, marinas, tackle stores, charter and party boats as well as other businesses were negatively impacted by the fact that New Jersey had an 18” size limit on fluke while Delaware had only a 16” size limit. This was unfair in that anglers from both states were fishing essentially the same waters of Delaware Bay. Due to the 2” size limit many anglers opted to fish out of Delaware rather than New Jersey.
JCAA representatives worked hard to correct this inequity by testifying at various meetings sponsored by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries, NJ Bureau of Marine Fisheries, the NJ Marine Fisheries Council. Written comments were also submitted. Though our complaints fell on deaf ears for 2015, an option for 17” fluke was approved by the ASMFC for 2016. The discrepancy in size limits between the two states is now only 1” rather than 2”. While not a perfect solution, hopefully it will be enough to bring some business back to the southern portion of our state.
While JCAA played an integral part in establishing the improved regulations, credit has to be given others as well such as the NJMFC and particularly to Brandon Muffley, Administrator of the NJ Bureau of Marine Fisheries and his staff for developing this option. Brandon served as one of our commissioners at the ASMFC Black Sea Bass, Scup and Summer Flounder Management Board meeting this past winter along with Commissioners Tom Fote and Adam Nowalsky. All three lobbied hard for the new option while explaining the problem to various commissioners from other states. Ultimately, the board voted unanimously to approve our preferred option.
The situation for sea bass was also a tough one as we were forced to develop regulations that would result in a 23% cut in our harvest from 2015. Peter Clark, a marine biologist for the NJBMF developed various options that would result with the mandated cut. They were presented at the advisors meeting where modifications were suggested. Most advisors were in agreement with beginning the season on 5/23 and extending it through 6/19. Even though the season will then close for eleven days the reasoning was that there will be plenty of sea bass biting in the early part of the season while fluke may be biting better towards the end of June when the sea bass season will be closed. Also, the vast majority of advisors were in agreement that we needed to have the season opened for most of the summer even though there will be only a two fish bag limit. This will give anglers an opportunity too spice their catch with a couple nice sea bass during July and August which is particularly important when the fluke fishing was slow. This is an important improvement from last year when the season was closed during all of August. However, the size limit did have to be increased to 13” from 10/22 – 12/31 so that the bag limit during that time could remain at 15. Most sea bass are offshore at that time of the year and charter and party boat captains expressed concern that it would be hard to sell trips if the bag limit was reduced rather than increasing the size limit. There are predominantly large sea bass caught on these offshore excursions.

Paul Haertel
JCAA Board Member, Past President

[njfisherman1975]

Hoist the flags mate! Yo ho yo ho...a pirates life for me!!!!

-captain jack sparrow

[Ice Cream Bill]

Thanks for the 2016 fluke and sea bass updates Paul !

Bill Fish
SWABC

[SaltLife1980]

Thanks for the report. Atleast fluke stayed the same

[Blackfish Doug]

Thanks for all the info Paul it's a lot of hard work that you do . I like everyone else don't like the regs but at least we know what were in for.

[Madgriffer]

Thanks for the update Paul. We always get screwed, but at least we still have a winter sea bass fishery.

[Reel Class]

Looks like we're gonna be pounding on the ling a little longer this spring.... At least we can keep the seabass all summer when they're fluke by-catch LOL

Anyways the spring seabass regs are a joke - not sure how a 26 or 27 day season makes sense for all parties....

[tautog]

need to find some spring ling first....

[frugalfisherman]

Glad I make my own regs.

[Sullivan]

At the end of last year we were being hit with quite a reduction of fluke .Due to the hard work of men like Paul,Adam, and Tom we will be flukeing. We know we should not be taking all the breeders,but if all boats limited with 16 or 16.5 in. fish , it would be like the ling,as Tautog said , we have put quite a dent in their population.