Rack n Fin

Kicking off the winter “show season” for anglers and boaters, is the Eighth Annual Wildwood Fishing and Boating Expo being held at the gorgeous Wildwoods Convention Center.

The fifth turn of the calendar page is prime time for the Garden State’s inshore and back bay/tidal river fishing fraternity, and the first round of a grand double shot goes off Saturday with the opening of the fluke (summer flounder) season.

The Discover Boating Atlantic City Boat Show in Partnership with Progressive gets underway at noon Wednesday and runs until 6pm Sunday at the Atlantic City Convention Center.

Segment B of New Jersey’s 2023 black bear season re-opens Monday and will run through a half-hour after sunset, Saturday, December 9.

It was around the second month in October that reports started filtering in about the booms, blasts, and blitzes occurring around the seemingly infinite schools of bunkers slowly moving down the coast.

So here it is for October 1-31: a 10-fish limit with a minimum possession length of 12.5 inches. There’s a bump to 15 sea bass from November 1 through New Year's Eve.

This is our prime time to wet wade the NJ rivers that harbor that tawny, vertical barred, scarlet-eyed ultra-light tackle terror: the smallmouth bass.

The diamondback terrapin was once abundant along the Garden State tidal salt marshes and estuaries until its delectable flesh, and fancy as a pet, led to unregulated capture, and nearly proved its demise.

The April portion of the split seasons concludes Sunday, April 30, and while the first week was spotty, as expected, the second week showed rapid improvement to the point where four fish limits were being dropped in coolers and buckets with smile-wide regularity.

One of the largest saltwater fishing tackle shows along the east coast is going full throttle at the New Jersey Convention and Expo Center in Edison this weekend.