Whether you’re fishing solely in New Jersey marine waters this month, or spending some time on the Delaware or New York side of the line, keep in mind the following updates to the tristate regional season, size and bag limits for our region.
In New Jersey, the return of the one-fish bag limit for black sea bass comes on July 1, as anglers are allowed one 12-1/2-inch or greater humpback in July and August. Delaware angers on the other hand will continue to fish on a 13-inch size limit with a 15-fish bag limit through September 30, while in New York marine waters it’s a 16-1/2-inch size limit and three-fish bag limit that opened on June 23 and runs through the end of August.
The 10-inch minimum size and 30-fish bag limit for porgy ended in New Jersey as of June 30, but will pick up again on September 1 and run through the end of the year. In New York, it’s an 11-inch minimum size for vessel-based anglers and 9-1/2 inches for shore anglers with 30-fish bag opened from May 1 through December 31. The charter and open boat bag limit expands to 40 scup per angler in New York marine waters from September 1 through October 31. There’s no closed season for porgy in Delaware, with a 9-inch minimum size and 30 fish per person bag.
For those anglers who may stumble into Atlantic cod while fishing in New York or New jersey marine waters, the spring season closed on May 31 but will reopen again on September 1 with a five fish bag limit and 23-inch size limit. Also keep in mind that while New Jersey and Delaware summer flounder regulations will continue along unchanged for the rest of the summer, those fluke fishing across the line in New York waters will have to contend with an increase in the size limit as of August 2, as it goes from the present 19-inch minimum size to 19-1/2 inches early next month. That season runs through October 15 with a three-fish bag limit.
Delaware’s recreational tautog season reopens as of July 1 with a 16-inch minimum size limit through December 31. New Jersey will see a return of the one-fish bag limit on tautog on August 1 with a 15-inch minimum size, while New York’s tautog fishery will not reopen again until October.
One last regulatory item worth noting, and that’s Delaware’s “summer slot” for striped bass with a one-fish bag limit and 20- to 24-inch summer size allowance for anglers fishing Delaware Bay, River and its tributaries from July 1 through August 31. For New Jersey anglers fishing the Delaware side of the line in July, the only way you can bring a 24-inch striper back to port is by having enrolling in New Jersey’s Striped Bass Bonus Program where anglers may catch, tag and possess a single striper from 24 to less than 28 inches.
For more state-by-state regulations visit thefisherman.com/marine-regulations.
