From all of us at Fisherman’s Headquarters, Happy New Year! Wishing everyone all the very best in 2018. May your lines be tight and rod tips heavy.

Thanks to all of our blog readers. 2017 was a year with a big transition for us making the jump from our old to the new current platform. We hope all enjoy much better now. Once again, thanks for reading. If you like our blog please share with a friend and be sure to send in your fishing reports this year.

Here’s our Instagram Page’s 9 Best From 2017…

The holidays came, winter really set in and the Arctic took over. Hope everyone is staying warm! With the local surf temp in the low 30’s and the ocean temp out at the Barnegat Ocean Buoy in the low 40’s there isn’t much going on other than bottom fishing. When weather conditions have allowed some boats have been into good tog fishing. For the rest of this month select boats will be fishing for blackfish, cod, porgies pollock, ling.

Some anglers that are immune to the cold are fishing locally. Here’s a photo from Dante at Magictail Lures a couple days ago, “Bass still chewing in the snow.”

While home for the Holidays store staffer Nick Deg did some fishing in the cold. “Frigid weather but smiling through leaky waders with an unexpected successful striper bite. With out a doubt, the MVP lure was Yozuri Mag Darter. The fish were all over it. It has definitely earned a spot in my lure bag when back down at school in Florida.”

Some local anglers have or are soon to scoot out. Here’s some recent reports from local anglers…

Greg O’Connell recently reported, “Certainly not the best weather and fishing for our annual Christmas run to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. But the kids fought through the cold searching for a decent bite from Rodanthe to Ocracoke. Small blues, dog sharks and skates was the story before finally stumbling onto a good jig bite with Brayden getting the pool fish.”

Joe Handley Jr was also down fishing the OBX for a week. He had fun catching jumbo sea mullet and a couple specked trout. “Came up empty on drum.”

Hunter Gutwein is loving life down in the Florida Keys. “I’m never coming home!”

John Parzych is making the most out of the cold winter days. He shared a report from his recent fishing trip with Salmon River Guides, “Started at -16 degrees and ended at 6 degrees. Some quality fish on a cold ass day. What a way to end the year with great signs of things to come in 2018!

Fisheries News

Update 1/3/2018 @ 6:30 PM

The meeting has been rescheduled to Thursday January 11th. The Marine Fisheries Council Meeting begins at 5pm. The public hearing begins at 7:15 pm. Both will be held at the Stafford Twp Municipal Building at 260 East Bay Ave. Manahawkin, NJ 08050.

Thursday January 4th 7:15 PM at the Galloway Branch of the Atlantic County Library (306 East Jimmie Leeds Rd. Galloway, NJ 08205) the NJ Marine Fisheries Administration has a public hearing for the Draft Addendum XXX to the ASMFC Summer Flounder, Scup and Black Sea Bass Fishery Management Plan.

The addendum will establish recreational black sea bass management measures for the 2018 fishing season.