New Jersey will eventually be getting new, more liberalized speckled trout regulations; eventually.
The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) and its Division of Fish & Wildlife (Division) have legally determined that spotted sea trout (speckled trout or specks) and weakfish are not the same species, prompting the New Jersey Marine Fisheries Council (Council) to vote on a separate set of regulations for that recreational fishery.
Following a motion by Council member Bob Rush at their May meeting to bring the New Jersey speckled trout regulations in line with Delaware’s more liberal 12-inch minimum size and zero bag limit, the Council officially took a vote at their July 11th meeting in support of the new regulations.
However, it was also inferred at that meeting that getting the new regulations into place could take another year.
There were roughly a half-dozen members of the public in attendance at the Thursday night meeting in Galloway Township, some including Cape May County angler Ken McDermott who embraced the decision to finally separate the two species in terms of the regulatory process.
“Our speckled trout fishery is fantastic in the fall, it starts about October and it can run all the way into January…if you get the right water temperature, the right wind direction and the right water clarity,” said McDermott, adding “We have a fabulous speckled trout fishery here in New Jersey, but nobody knows about it, it’s been tight-lipped for many, many years, but there’s no reason to have a one-fish limit.”
According to McDermott, when management efforts were applied to the weakfish fishery many years ago to ratchet down the limit to one fish at 13 inches in an effort to rebuild that iconic species, the specks essentially got thrown into the same bag as the weakies.
“There was no intention anywhere to keep it at one fish,” McDermott told the Council.
According to the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) which manages the seatrout fishery along Atlantic coastal inshore waters, a coastwide stock assessment of spotted seatrout has not been conducted given the largely non-migratory nature of the species and the lack of data on migration where it does occur, although states like North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida have performed age-structured analyses on local stocks.
ASMFC also notes how spotted sea trout mature quickly and are able to “reproduce prolifically,” noting that when compared to other marine gamefish this particular species has one of the longest spawning seasons.
“Right now we are more restrictive than ASMFC requires,” said the Division’s fisheries chief Jeffrey Brust, telling Council members that New Jersey could adopt the same regulations as Delaware has on speckled trout without issue. “We need to let them (ASMFC) know in our annual compliance reports that we changed our regulations but as long as we are still compliant with the plan that is sufficient,” Brust added.
Margate’s John Depersenaire also spoke before the Council at the July 11th meeting, thanking Council members and Division staff for efforts to untangle the speck/weakie regulatory mess.
“This is an important issue, I also think it’s a rare opportunity where it’s great for the angling public to get something back, especially the land-based anglers, so I’m very appreciative of that,” Depersenaire said, adding “I think it makes perfect sense since we have shared waters to have the same regulations (as Delaware), 12 inches, no bag, no season.”
The new regulatory change in speckled sea trout, while approved by the Council in July, will still need final legal approval in Trenton which could take up to another year, hopefully in time for the 2025 season.
