On Wednesday, October 30, 2025 the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) and its Striped Bass Management Board voted 13-3 in favor of “status quo” for striped bass, meaning no seasonal reduction to the fishery in 2026. The board also agreed to establish a new Working Group comprised of stakeholders, scientists and fisheries managers to look more closely at the health of striped bass “in consideration of severely reduced reproductive success in the Chesapeake Bay.” The day prior, ASMFC also voted 16-2 in favor of a 20% cut to the commercial menhaden harvest starting in 2026.
As I sit here at my desk on Halloween, gathering up my meeting notes from Dewey Beach, DE where I was the day prior, it’s hard not thinking of “tricks” and “treats” – some are disappointed by the ASFMC votes, others quite happy with the decisions. We’ll have more on that next week in the printed December monthly edition of The Fisherman Magazine as I try to break down the ASMFC striped bass decision (see my weekly video fishing forecast and management report from October 30, 2025 in Dewey Beach, DE).
And so we wrap up another year here at The Fisherman, this being issue #37 of the year; December’s printed monthly copy is issue #38, the final 38th edition of 2025. From there on out, we’ll continue compiling weekly fishing reports to email directly to our subscribers every Tuesday, with the regular Thursday video fishing forecast (52 weeks a year).
The weekly digital edition with inshore, surf, freshwater and offshore columns – as well as tips, tackle reviews and regular news brief features – will return in April of 2025. Just remember, as paid subscriber to The Fisherman you will receive 12 monthly print (and digital version) with full access to all three editions (New Jersey, Delaware Bay; Long Island and Metro New York; and New England) and the 26 digital weekly supplements from April through November.
If you’re not currently receiving our biweekly emails with fishing reports and a Thursday video fishing forecast, visit our homepage and select either the E-News Signup option or update your account to ensure that we have your email address in the file.
Look for the December edition of The Fisherman coming out during the week of November 17th with our annual Holiday Gift Guide, packed with over 70 unique holiday gift ideas for the angler on your list (even if it’s your name at the top of that list!) This annual gift guide is something we’ve been doing over the past 50-plus years of publication, and harkens back to the days of catalogs we received by mail during the holiday season. There’s still something about that printed guide with dog-eared pages and Post It notes on favorite items that makes the holiday season so special.
What’s really special to me is that my own deadlines for the rest of this month and into December have been reduced significantly. That means chasing reports up and down the Jersey Shore just everybody else, hoping to stumble into that once-in-a-lifetime striped bass blitz during the middle of the week (shhhh, let’s keep that secret).
That said, I’m also working on the full schedule of fishing seminars for the 2026 show season, with the Philadelphia Fishing Show at Oaks, PA from January 9-11, followed by the New Jersey Boat Sale & Expo in Edison from February 12-15, and finally the Atlantic City Boat Show scheduled for February 25 through March 1. If you’ve got some “how to” seminar experience under your belt and might be interested in offering up some of that expertise drop me an email at jhutchinson@thefisherman.com.
Just be forewarned that it might take me a little while to respond in the coming weeks; again, those blitzes wait for no working man, or woman.
