Spring ends, summer begins, and the memories continue.
Despite the heavy and frequent rains of March and April, the month of May turned out to be quite nice weather-wise for fishing at the Jersey Shore. True, all that freshwater dumping down from the streams and rivers into our estuaries seemed to impact the inshore presence of bunker while keeping water temps a bit lower than we might like, but by the Memorial Day weekend it seemed as if the seasonal action was back on track and headed in the right direction.
New Jersey’s 2024 fluke season got underway on May 4, while sea bass reopened for a short spring run from May 17 through June 19 with a 10 fish bag limit and 12-1/2-inch minimum size (as of July 1 and through August 31 there will be a one-fish bag again for sea bass). Regrettably, we also saw a summer break for the five fish and 23-inch size limit on cod along the coast.
Expect the offshore season in the New Jersey, Delaware Bay region, and NY Bight, to intensify heading into the month of July, but it’s a good time to look back at few of the family memories made through the second quarter of the year.
