December 31, 2013 — The black sea bass season closes today to both inshore and offshore grounds, putting a lid on what could have been an excellent winter fishery judging by the amount of life that was reported on the deep water structures.
“There’s plenty of them out there. Just like there is every year,” said Capt. Howard Bogan of the Big Jamaica.
Bogan made his first offshore trip for sea bass Thanksgiving weekend, and said he made a total of ten before the season ended today.
“They showed up a little earlier this year even with the water being a little warm. Usually on the first trip we see more porgies, cod and pollock than sea bass, but we started catching them right away,” Bogan said.
Since 2010, the year fishery management bodies first closed the offshore sea bass fishery in the winter, the winter season has only been opened once, this past year.
Bogan said anglers had no problem landing their 15 fish daily bag limits throughout the entire two-month season this past January and February. He felt this winter would have been no different because anglers were already catching their limits and more fish were migrating in.
Read the full story at the Asbury Park Press