A NJ Marine Fisheries Council Meeting is tomorrow March 7th at 5pm where the Fluke regulations for BOTH 2024 and 2025 will be set. The written comment period is over but anglers can attend in person at the Atlantic County Library – 306 E Jimmie Leeds Rd, Galloway, NJ or online via webinar.
As I shared in my 2/23/24 blog post, the front runner is Option 32 which will give us 3 fish at 18″ and the longest season at 145 days offering early spring and later fall fishing. But there are six other options. Over the past couple weeks I’ve seen a lot of comments and a large number mentioning the commercial minimum size at 14″ being a problem. So in regards to the summer flounder minimum size debate, I must share the follow info so others better understand.
The smaller minimum size at 14″ for the commercial sector is in place for a reason. The idea is to let commercial boats fish, catch their limit and then get off the water. The quicker they catch and finish up, the better for the stock. If they were forced to cull and toss back shorts (under lets say 18″ range) there would be a significantly more dead discard. So rather than throw back dead, why not allow harvest so it goes to their quota and best utilize the resource? As recreational anglers we have a much better ability because of our fishing methods to catch and cull. But we too have a release mortality issue. It is a major issue in the management of striped bass right now. It is a significant issue with fluke too. We have to be careful with structuring regulations so we don’t box ourselves out of a fishery by having our dead discard exceed our harvest. Also remember that the summer flounder fishery is about a 55% commercial and 45% recreational fishery with regards to quota. With an 80% commercial discard mortality rate, it would be a MAJOR needle mover if the commercial minimum size was increased from. So we (recreational anglers) must be careful what we wish for or complain about.
This week with the opening of back bay striped bass (on 3/1/24) we expanded our hours a little bit. In a few more weeks we will extend some more.
Right now we are Open 7 Days A Week At 7am. Monday thru Thursday we close at 6PM, Friday and Saturday 7PM and Sunday 5PM. Stop in and gear up for the season.
Live Bloods & Grass Shrimp
The two best early season baits for striped bass and white perch are live bloodworms and grass shrimp. Right now we have both and will do our best to have both all spring.
Stay tuned for a bloodworm blog that will be published soon. On the grass shrimp side of thing… We are now carrying preserved grass shrimp. They come in a small dish like container at $8.99. See photo below.
Grass shrimp are a killer white perch bait and work great for many other species like weakfish, fluke, winter flounder, striped bass, snappers and blowfish. Everything eats grass shrimp! They are small baits so scale down with a small hook and light leader.
NJ Saltwater Fishing Expo
Reminder: Saltwater Fishing Expo is next week, March 15,16,17th! Be sure to stop by and See Us At Booth 401. Show Hours: Friday 12PM-8PM, Saturday 10AM-6PM, Sunday 10AM-5PM. It’s the best show of the year by a landslide so don’t miss out on the great event packed with informative seminars and demos. Explore fishing tackle hands on from A to Z.
Also, Sunday is family Day! Children 11 and under are free when accompanied by a paying adult and the first 100 kids 11 and younger will receive a Daiwa rod/reel combo!
Here’s a little throwback to something we did in the late 90’s and early 2000’s. At that time, when customers would email a question we would share it and the answer on our blog. While we might not post a bunch of these we’ll see where it goes!
Question: Andrew from Phoenixville, PA asks, “Would you recommend an either…a Super Strike Darter or Super Strike Swimmer for New Jersey surf fishing on LBI/ IBSP? Any suggested color? I have a Tsunami 10’6” Airwave 1-3.5 oz rod. Thanks!”
Answer: Hi Andrew – Both the Super Strike Darter and the Super Strike Bottle (aka little neck swimmer, casting swimmer, rattling swimmer) are two great lures that are a similar in size and profile. But they are very different lures from Super Strike.
The Super Strike Zig Zag Darter as its name implies has a lazy zig and zag swimming pattern. It is a slower and more shallow swimming lure that is most commonly a night time stand out. It likes an easy flowing current or rip but in a heavy side wind or very fast sweeping current the darter can struggle. However on a calm night, open beach with rolling sand bars with pockets of water and small swell pushing, a Zig Zag darter can really produce.
Darters are easy to fish too. Cast out (if there is a sweep be sure to cast up current a smidgen) and then catch up the slack to feel the lure’s swimming tension. At this point you need to retrieve slowly, just slightly more line than the conditions (wind, waves, current) call for to slow crawl the lure. It needs to move slowly through the water to work its magic. Every so often add a twitch. Some times a specific pattern or rhythm works better than others. Also don’t overlook omitting the twitch and going with a super simple straight consistent retrieve.
The Super Strike Bottle Plug (casting swimmer) has a more aggressive face/lip which digs into current and makes the lure swim with a tight wiggle and thumping pattern. This can drive fish nuts! The Super Strike Bottles also have a rattle and many believe the sound is an aid in attracting.
Bottles cast a little better than the ZZ darters, especially in a wind. Bottles also dig in more but they really don’t swim that deep, maybe ~2-3’deep. They are a great choice when there is swell and rolling white water. Also when there is a side wind and sweep. Bottles can be fished slow or at a moderate speed with or without imparted action.
As far as color goes, if I could only pick one color day or night it would be yellow over white. It is a classic color that has done me well for many years; day, night, clear water, dirty water, full moon, new moon. My #2 choice would be bone which is also a very versatile, followed by black and purple. The blurple color way has performed for me on cloudy, grey over cast days but I primarily fish it at night and in low light situations (early morning before sunrise and late in the day right after sunset).
Tight lines! ~Greg
PS the 10’6 Airwave is a great rod for casting a variety of lures on the surf. It will cast both the darter and bottle from Super Strike a mile.
The New Jersey back bays opened for striped bass at on March 1st. There were chilly westerly winds but some anglers got out and fished. We received catch reports from locally here in the early season spots of Barnegat Bay as well as others in the state. We had one weigh in from Carl Hartman who checked in a keeper striped bass which was caught out of town.
UPDATE: Added March 3 fishing report video…
The water clarity is murky and in the 40-43º range in the bay mid island. We got heads up from a friend who was moving his boat yesterday. “Down in Tuckerton Creek the water was 47º. But it dropped fast once I was in the bay. Most of the bay running up to Beach Haven West was 43º.”
For the next month or more with the cold water temperature live bloodworm will be the best bait.
At times the right lures will get the job done too. Great spring time bass lures are soft plastics such as 3-5″ NLBN’s, Kettle Creeks Paddle Tails, Z-man and Tsunami shads. Hard baits like the smaller size Rapala X-rap jerk baits, as well as the Guides Secret Slim Twitchy and Mucho Minnow are awesome small profile lures that stand out in the back bay spring fishery. All of these and much more are available in store or online at Fish Heads.
Reports of white perch continue at the local lagoons as well as rivers and tributaries. One customer reported that the perch have been in his lagoon since the last warm stretch before the snow. Others are catching in the Mullica.
Stop into see us at Fisherman’s Headquarters and get geared up with early season essentials. ~ Tight Lines!
With the spring fishing season approaching, everyone is asking us… What are the 2024 fishing regulations?
One would think these decisions would be made well in advance of the season however thats not the case. Due to the levels complexity with so many different regulatory bodies each one’s decision basically works down the line in a chain reaction. This year expect the NJ recreation fishing regulations to be finalized at the NJMFC meeting on 3/7 in Galloway 5pm.
Here’s Anthony Butch with more than his handful after a fun wreck fishing trip.
For the most part everything is the same except for the following 2024 changes…
Summer Flounder: 28% Reduction – See the list of 6 options in the chart below which are currently on the table. These all passed technical committee review confirming they meet the reduction mandate. *Update: The Summer Flounder Advisory Board meeting 2/28/24, all advisors were in favor of option 32. Since these advisors talk to a lot of the public and many different stake holder groups, it’s safe to say the majority is in favor of 32. For what it is worth, based on the social media posts that we made 80% were in favor of option 32. Option 57 had 9% and Option 23 has 7%.
Porgy/Scup: 10% Reduction – Expect a 30 fish bag at a 10″ minimum size with a with first half of the year season running 1/1/24 to 6/30/24 and then a second half season 9/1 to 12/31.
Yes we couldn’t believe the ASMFC news either but lets be honest going from last years reg to potentially 3 fish at 18″ looks like a win and liberalization and not a cut in most anglers eyes.
The New Jersey Marine Fisheries Council is seeking public comment on the 2024 NJ Recreational Summer Flounder options. The 6 are listed above, but note status quo is not an option and only there for reference. Written comments will be accepted through March 4, 2024 (11:59 p.m.) to njmarinefishpubliccomment@dep.nj.gov.
Submitted comments will become part of the public record for the NJ MFC public meeting 3/7/24 5pm at the Atlantic County Library, Galloway Township Branch, 306 East Jimmie Leeds Rd, Galloway, NJ.
Basically the document assess the potential impacts that could result from the development of six “new” lease areas (488,000 acres) offshore of the NJ and NY coastline offshore wind in the NY Bight. I’ve attend most of BOEM’s in person meetings (in NJ) and virtual meetings/calls for a number of years now. However BOEM has not held a classic public hearing. So when I heard about the public hearing on 2/20/24 in Long Branch hosted by Clean Ocean Action, a champion ocean advocate, I couldn’t miss it.
The meeting was recorded so if you would like to tune in, my comments are at the 28 minutes mark and I’m followed up by Jim Hutchinson at the 38 minute mark. The timer on the podium was broken so my five minute slot ended up being 10 minutes and I still didn’t get through much of what I had prepared. So I’ll include the entire write up below. An Asbury Park Press reported attended and included me in their recent article, but really didn’t share much meat. So I’m including my entire public comment below, most of which I did not get time to share. I encourage any and all anglers whether pro or against offshore wind to formulate your thoughts and submit public comment to BOEM before the deadline.
First and foremost, the deadline must be extended or better yet canceled altogether. The speed of development is outpacing the speed of science and the needs of the sea. Top scientists are working in these topics and acknowledge vital data gaps with regards to potential impacts.
There’s so many massive topics; however, I will stay in my lane with regards to fishing…
The offshore waters of the NY Bight (NYB) have long supported populations of coastal fishery resources (CFR), highly migratory fish species (HMS; e.g., tunas, billfish, mahi mahi, sharks) and many fisheries that target them. Serving as a migratory corridor for numerous CFR and HMS (Galuardi and Lutcavage, 2012; Vaudo et al., 2016; Kohler and Turner, 2019), NYB is ecologically-important and contains Essential Fish Habitat (EFH; i.e., the waters and substrate necessary for spawning, feeding, and growth to maturity) for many economically important species as well as a handful of endangered and critically endangered species.
1) Recreational Fishing Contributions
NYB also contains historical fishing grounds for iconic species and supports an extensive HMS recreational fishery in which thousands (NJ/NY Private Boat 6927, including charter/head boat the total is 7779; 2022 NOAA Fisheries HMS SAFE Report) of vessels participate each year. In 2021 recreational anglers in New Jersey and New York contributed $4.2Billion in economic output and supported 28,290 jobs. (Southwick, 2021) Imagine the updated numbers due to inflation.
A large portion of this recreational fishing effort occurs within popular fishing areas that have been leased for offshore wind development. The diversity of the rich fisheries and the threat from offshore wind development’s impacts are not bound by lease area borders. The Socio-Economic Impact of OCS Wind Energy Development on Fisheries in the US Atlantic predates the NYB Leases. Therefore the economic impacts as well as a cumulative analysis of impacts to the fisheries must be completed for the entire region. There must be a comprehensive assessment of baseline recreational fishing effort for both coastal CFR & HMS in NYB and the associated Wind Energy Areas.
At the recent NYB Draft PEIS BOEM public meeting (Feb 8th in Toms River) I reviewed the recreational fishing hand out and poster (3.6.1-22). I questioned subject matter expert Brandon Jensen (Fisheries Biologist at BOEM), Why is the recreational fishing industry which I am part of largely left out in Section 3.6.1?
3.6.1-38: “Based on NMFS data, there is no substantial for-hire recreational fishing activity in any of the six lease areas.” This is far from true. And due to this oversight Table 3.6.1-16 misrepresents the small business revenue from inside the NYB lease areas. The fishing hot spots known as the Resor, Atlantic Princess, Chicken Canyon, Triple Wrecks and the Corvallis, The Star, 20/30 Fm Curve, among others are all in the same area. Large fleets of 50-100+ recreational private vessels commonly congregate in small areas when tuna fishing. These same areas are popular sharking, mahi, cod and sea bass fishing areas. I can somewhat agree with “the most impacted species includes cod in OCS-A 0544 (NMFS 2023h) and bluefin tuna, red hake, and black sea bass in OCS-A 0538 (NMFS 2023j).” However the chart (3.6.1-22) poorly represents the recreational fishing effort with a long fishing history in the NYB and more specifically in the lease areas. There’s more effort at the hot spots mentioned (in and around the NYB lease areas) than the Barnegat Ridge (also a fishing hot spot) which is painted with significantly more fishing effort.
In blue OCS-A 0538 is better known as owned by Attentive Energy. This 131.7 square mile lease area is located 42 miles east of Barnegat Inlet and 54 miles south of Fire Island Inlet, NY. It is the summertime tuna fishing mid-shore grounds in addition to home of a number of prominent wreck sites.
There are major data gaps that the PEIS must consider. Recreation catch and effort data is severely lacking and there is little to no spatial data collected for recreational private boat anglers. MRIP through APAIS (Access Point Angler Intercept Surveys) collect catch per trip data do not record specific fishing spot/location data, only the location of the intercept and the general area of fishing such as shore, private, for-hire. NOAA’s own study finds their estimates are way off and their program needs an overhaul. The lack of information on recreational fishing does not constitute a free pass for evaluating PRIVATE RECREATIONAL fishing impacts occurring in the leases.
The state and feds largely do not know exactly where private anglers fish and do not know where these same boats transit unless monitoring AIS which the majority of private boats do not have. To learn more about this I believe that there must be work done now similar to what URI/CRMC/RISA did to determine where anglers are fishing and where anglers are from, but must look at the broader area to obtain private recreation fishing effort in federal waters.
BOEM must formulate recreational fishing surveys (not MRIP) that directly obtain recreational fishing information (even if qualitative) to help characterize the fishing activity within the lease areas. To do this, developers should be required to collect data (survey and engage with the recreational fishing community). This engagement must come with significant oversight so that developers can’t just check a box by doing nothing, like they do now by relying on MRIP.
Extrapolating private recreational fishing spatial data utilizing a fishing app like Fish Rules such as in Scott Steinback’s (Economist with NOAA Fisheries) work is suspect. Many saltwater anglers know the rules before they go fishing. Some anglers may check the rules via app, but the location when checking is not necessarily where they fished. It would be a different story if it was a fish catch logging app (like Fish Brain) that tracks the gps and needs a photo’s metadata locations to acquire position. But still there are not enough anglers participating so the sample size is far too small.
It is unfathomable that this amount of time and progress has passed without baseline data.
2) The Negative Reef Effect Production vs Aggregation
Despite what Anglers For Offshore Wind promotes, the majority of the recreational fishing community does not support offshore wind. Many of the anglers I talk to have major concerns. Not all marine life flourishes in a hard bottom ecosystem and it does not necessarily help NJ and NY anglers. It brings a lot of uncertainties to the table, many of which management has no handle on. OSW is not a magical solution to help the fisheries, fix climate change, fix ocean acidification and the changing currents. It adds a lot of uncertainty and jeopardizes the ecosystem.
Turbines are offshore fish attracting/aggregating devices which greatly increase fish catchability. This is stated in 3.6.1 as a benefit to for-hire recreational fisheries however this is a very large issue that fisheries managers must understand and manage properly. The fish will come from other fishing grounds and these concentrations will be easier and quicker to catch leading to localized and regional depletion. Overfishing can happen fast resulting in a closure of the fishery and then economic hardship follows. Or effort is turned to another species which stresses another fishery. “Some fisheries could experience substantial disruptions indefinitely, even with the implementation of the AMMM (avoidance, minimization, mitigations, monitoring) measures.”
OCS Study BOEM 2015-037 – 3.2.3 Artificial Reef Aggregation: Many aspects of the fisheries resources communities within the wind energy areas are expected to be affected through habitat changes and the introduction of new structures; species abundance, density, composition, diversity, dominance, size classes, and productivity (McCann, 2012; Rodmell and Johnson, 2005). The introduction of new structure is expected to provide new habitat for species to colonize and aggregate around, and the local communities are expected to change from non-structure based to structure based (BOEM DOE/EIS-0470, 2012). Species compositions of artificial reefs have been found to differ from natural reefs and their presence can also affect the surrounding biodiversity, thus areas outside the footprints of these wind energy areas may be impacted (Inger et al., 2009).
At one offshore wind energy facility the species diversity was lower on turbines compared to nearby natural boulders, indicating the artificial reef effect of the turbines was not as beneficial as having natural rocky habitat (Wilhelmsson and Malm, 2008). Background research did indicate there may be potential positive impacts, if these areas have exclusion zones the areas may act as marine protected areas (MPA) for fisheries resources (Inger et al., 2009).
Access can not be restricted!
Another negative reef effect is the altering and possibly stopping of the seasonal movement of fish to the inshore waters. This could impact availability to the non-boat-owning or only small boat owning inshore fishing segment of the public.
Inshore/nearshore anglers (private rec, for-hire, party/charter) will lose opportunity if fish are aggregating around OFW structures. They will need to run further offshore which adds time and fuel costs. I classify this impact as an environmental justice issue since non-boat owners are most impacted and the mitigation solution is being focused on anglers who have the means to access the OFW structures in a private or for hire boat. Some can and will fish these areas on head boats and for-hire boats BUT that represents less that 9% of total trips. Land based trips represent the vast majority of fishing effort in the state of NJ in any given year and that mode (as well as the fishing tackle retail, bait & tackle, tackle manufacturers, boat builders and ancillary businesses) is expected to the bear the brunt of the negative reefing impacts. These potential losses and the environmental justice must be reviewed and included.
3) EFH – Essential Fish Habitat
The NYB leases are in the middle of the 20/30/40 fm midshore offshore fishing grounds which is some of the most productive fishing grounds and also home to a number of prominent/historic wreck sites. The area’s sand ridges are home to abundant colonies of sand lance aka sandeels which are a quintessential link in the food web. They are not only forage to ground fish and pelagic species but also whales and sea birds. Anyone who has fished these waters in the summertime knows the show is better than Sea World! Based on documents which detail the strong association of sand eels to sandy sediment, sand eels will most likely be negatively affected by the radical change in habitats when hundreds of turbines and thousands of tons of rock scour protection are added around the turbine and substation bases. If and when sand eels leave, so too do all of the other species.
How can it be that no HAPC (habitat areas of particular concern) are designated within the NYB yet summer flounder spawn in the winters on the OCS and use the areas during all four stages of their life cycle (egg, larvae, juveniles and adults)? Many other coastal species rely on the Chicken Canyon and Hudson Canyon during one or more life stages and use the NYB’s lease areas. Also mako sharks should be of concern as they spend a lot of time in this area. As of 7/5/2022, U.S. fishermen may not land or retain Atlantic short fin mako sharks; however these water used to be prime shark fishing grounds. It seems many of these are conveniently overlooked. A lot of these ecologically sensitive area (what I would call HAPC) and fishing hot spots were detailed in the very basic early work of Buchanan at the NJDEP in 2010, NJ’s Area of Interest – Wind Power On The OCS. Was any of this really basic stuff even considered?
While this is outside the scope of the DPEIS: In March 23, 2022, the NJ Marine Resources Administration was involved in dialogue with several other state/federal agencies regarding the need and appropriate size of a buffer between offshore wind turbines and artificial reefs and fish havens. Some of these reef sites have material right along the edge and commonly outside of the actual boundaries. There was discussion with the NJ MFC Offshore Wind Advisors which suggested 1-2NM buffer area to minimize damage to the reef habitat during construction from sound, vibration, sediment plums as well as safe drifting and transiting. With regards to NJ saltwater fishing, 25% of all fishing trips occur on a NJ reef site and 65% of bottom fishing occurs on the reefs. There is significant effort and traffic in these areas. To the best of my knowledge this was largely ignored.
5) EMF – Electro-Magnetic Field Cable Emissions
With regards to EMF there MUST be a threshold level of EMF emissions that are identified as acceptable or unacceptable for the marine environment and this should change in consideration to the water depth. The same emf emissions in deep open water that fish may feel, react and get up over very well may have a much more powerful effect in shallow estuaries and bays.
6) Discharges/Intakes
With regards to discharges/intakes (3.5.2-24) routine vessel discharges even within USCG regulations brings a hot topic of invasive species to the forefront. OSSs with open loop cooling systems must be prohibited due to thermal plume, warming waters and loss of fish larvae. This could hurt recruitment and jeopardize the sustainability of some fisheries. The NYB, the waters and substrate necessary for spawning, feeding, and growth to maturity.
In New Jersey, PSEG continues to pay compensatory mitigation for the fish eggs/larvae entrained/impinged through the open loop cooling system at the Salem nuke plant. That money goes towards a host of programs that seek to offset the impact of that mortality. Given the fact that we know many important species, fluke and BFT being just two, spawn in those waters or where their larvae are present in waters where AC/DC substations would be needed, BOEM must calculate mortality and execute an agreement to outline a plan to mitigate the impact. A mitigation fund must be set up prior to construction with payments into the fund based on the economic cost associated with their entrainment/impingement.
7) Cold Pool Disruption
The NYB’s unique cold bottom waters support our diverse fisheries and must be protected. The use of “few studies” and “fewer studies” in Section 3.4.2-13 screams, stop and get the scientific work done before proceeding. “The new presence of structures and their impact on regional scale oceanographic processes and potential secondary changes to primary production and ecosystems is extremely important. Structures may reduce wind-forced mixing of surface waters, whereas water flowing around the foundations may increase vertical mixing.” “There has been extensive research into characterizing and modeling atmospheric wakes created by wind turbines in order to design the layout of wind facilities.” Obviously their investment depends on it. Why isn’t this same attention and resources dedicated to hydrodynamics?
8) Mitigation – Financial Compensation
Last but certainly not least
I attended a meeting in July 12, 2022 BOEM Draft Fisheries Mitigation Guidance Document Meeting and have tried to stay up to date on the process of this document. At the time the Fishing Tackle Retail, Bait & Tackle, Tackle Manufacturers, Boat Builders and ancillary businesses were completely left out of consideration for financial compensation in the event of lost income as a result of offshore wind development. Still today I believe this is completely absurd. Congress must give BOEM more direct authority to fund mitigation. The Economic Contributions of Recreational Fishingby the American Sportfishing Association in partnership with the Southwicks Associates (for over 30 years, the leading market research and economics firm specializing in hunting, sportfishing and the outdoor recreation markets) must be included in the DPEIS. The recreational fishing industry is an economic engine that is very much overlooked by BOEM and the entire offshore wind development processes.
DPEIS 3.6.1, 2-32: “Fishing could experience substantial disruptions indefinitely, even with implementation of the AMMM measures. The AMMM measures would compensate commercial and for-hire recreational fishermen for loss of income due to unrecovered economic activity and to shoreside businesses for losses indirectly related to the expected development; provide monetary compensation for lost gear or income. Other AMMM measures propose the development of monitoring plans or adaptive management plans that would increase data and knowledge that might facilitate the development of future mitigation.”
Impacts very well take years to manifest and the fishing industry as a whole must be included in this mitigation package. FURTHERMORE, mitigation payments must come from top line revenue ONLY! They should not be passed along to ratepayers!
For the record I showed my writing/comment to Captain Tony DiLernia a recreational fishing liaison from NYSERDA (NY State Energy Research & Development Authority) at the AC Boat Show on 3/1/23. I asked him to review and asked, “What’s your take on this? Am I off base with anything? ” His reply, “No. This is a great write up. You have done your homework.”
Finally, the long awaited repairs to the ICW Daymarks are taking place! Today (Monday) late afternoon, the working barge was off of 68th Street area of Long Beach Twp around ICW #80.
The crew was working north of the Causeway bridge this past weekend and last week so it seems they are quickly making way working south.
I first reported on the topic with a blog post on March 30, 2019 sharing a local notice to mariners about the hazards. At the time, there were several unmarked hazards along the ICW from the upper end of Barnegat Bay all the way down to Holgate and beyond. To the best of my knowledge the ice flow over the 2019 winter cut/broke numerous decrepit steel pylons (Channel Markers) off right at the water line. It got worse from there.
Shortly after posting the blog, I shared a post on social media and it got a lot of attention. The next day I got a call from NJ State Police, USCG and Ted Greenburg from NBC10, all asking for more information. Ted wanted a ride out to see them so the following day I took him out to report on them. It all got attention and I expected repairs would follow but that wasn’t the case. Very little was done until now.
Here’s a photos from Timothy Brindley on 2/8/24, showing the work near the Causeway. This particular hazard caused a lot of problems for many boaters over the last few years.
Next week is our 2024 Philadelphia Fishing Show in Oaks, PA, Feb 16-18. This will be our 5th Annual and biggest show to date. There are 145 different companies filling out over 220 booths, as well as boats, RV’s, and attractions. This is a pure fishing show, no junk booths. Only five percent of our floor is non-fishing and I hand pick those exhibits: hot sauce, pickles, mustard, jerky, crab cakes, moonshine, bourbon, and more! Check out the Hawg Trough, a 5,000 gallon aquarium full of freshwater gamefish. The kids can even catch a fish at the show in the fully stocked Trout Pond. There is also a fishing simulator where you can go toe to toe with a tarpon or sailfish. FREE Seminars: there are three seminar rooms going around the clock for all three days with some of the area’s best guides and captains sharing what they know about their favorite sport.
I do have some news about the Hi Flier. I retired from my truck driving job, so I will be available full time, 7 days a week for charters. We will be starting to striper fish in late April and will keep fishing into Thanksgiving. Those of you that fish with us know we fish Barnegat Bay to the tuna grounds and everything in between.
We will have a booth at the show, Booth 426, if you want to stop by and say Hey to me or Capt Nick. I am rarely in the booth, as I am usually all over the show making sure everything is running smoothly. But if you want to book a trip, have a question, or just say hello, have Nick or anyone with a bright green STAFF shirt get me on the radio and I will meet you at the booth.
Looking forward to a great show and fishing season!
Today we got our first delivery of live bloodworms for the 2024 season. Time to get your perch game on. Striped bass fishing opens in the backwaters March 1st.
There’s no better way to pass winter than preparing for the spring season a head and attending some great fishing shows. This time of year there are numerous shows. Here’s some of the ones we consider the best and will be attendings
Saturday Feb 3 Canyon Runner Offshore Seminar Series Harrah’s Resort – Atlantic City, NJ (9am-5pm): Attend the 21st annual event and learn from the best offshore captains in the game covering mid-shore and inshore tuna fishing as well as all of the top requested topics from previous years. Tickets required, must buy in advance from Canyon Runner… contact them for more info.
Saturday Feb 10th – Southern Regional High School Fishing Flea Market Southern Regional Middle School – Manahawkin, NJ (8am-1pm): Come out and support the SRHS Fishing Club at their annual fundraising event, the areas best fishing flea market. We’ll have an even larger booth with lots of great deals and this year we are planning on a rod and Gulp blowout. You don’t want to miss it! $4 admission at the door, under 12 are free with adult.
Saturday Feb 17th – Surf Day 2024 by the Jersey Shore Surfcasters Brookdale Community College – Lincroft, NJ (8:30am-4:30pm): The 100% SURF show! “A day dedicated to sufcasters”, Surf Day has a long history as the regions premier surf fishing show full of the best seminars from the best anglers. Every year it is a packed house with top vendors and sought after custom lure builders. As always we will have our same booth space stacked with surf fishing tackle from A to Z. See you there! $10 admission at the door, discount for all veterans.
March 15-17 – The Saltwater Fishing Expo NJ Convention & Expo Center – Edison, NJ: It’s the best saltwater fishing show of the year, packed with great seminars, great vendors and for the most part the entire NJ fishing industry. Just like last year we will have a large booth (BOOTH401) with all of the saltwater fishing essentials, new trending hot products which we caught a lot of fish on last year as well as the best products from the top name brands. Best of all we’ll have some awesome show specials! Tickets available online and at the door, $15 adults, $5 children 6-11.
See you at the show!
PS: We are open daily all winter long, hours posted below.. If coming to the store, be aware the road construction on 9th Street in front of the shop is horrendous. We advise parking across the street at Country Corner’s stone lot.
609-494-5739 
