Though the brutal cold will put a big dent in saltwater fishing effort, offshore anglers are getting in their last shots at sea bass before the season closes at the end of the month while blackfishing closer to shore continues and stripers remain a possibility until ocean water temperatures drop much further.  Party boats are making their last trips directed at sea bass this weekend. The Jamaica from Brielle has been doing very well with them on the far offshore wrecks though Wednesday's trip started out slowly before picking up. Some anglers still ended up with sea bass limits plus porgies. Bill Effing of Bensalem, Pa. won both pools with sea bass of 6.25 and 6.5 pounds. Even weakfish are sometimes caught from those wrecks. On the Dec. 15 trip, there was a 34-pound cod boated by Ralph Catagno of Egg Harbor Township, while Joe Walsh from Lake Hopatcong topped the sea bass with a 7-pounder.  The Jamaica will switch on Jan. 1 to offshore trips on Saturdays for jumbo porgies, cod and pollock, and will then sail again that day at 8 p.m. for Block Island cod on Sunday. All of these trips require reservations. Call 732 528-5014. There is an outside chance that federal waters could be opened in February for sea bass. That option will be discussed at Thursday's Marine Fisheries Council meeting in Galloway Township Library, 306 East Jimmie Leeds Road, at 4 p.m. The initial public reaction to that possibility was negative because sea bass caught then would come out of the 2018 quota and probably result in a couple of lost days during the season. That, and all other sea bass options to be discussed at that meeting, were detailed by Paul Haertel of the JCAA in my Wednesday daily blog which is posted at nj.com/shore/blogs/fishing The Canyon Runner from Point Pleasant is now catching bluefin tuna in North Carolina. There are all sizes of bluefins from schoolies to giants in that area during the winter and they can be caught on a variety of tackle. For information contact Adam La Rosa at 732 842-6825. He's also taking reservations for the Canyon Runner Seminar coming up on Jan. 27, 2018 in Atlantic City. The first N.J. outdoors show the season is the Garden State Outdoors Sports Show which runs from Jan. 11-14 at the N.J. Convention & Expo Center in Edison. For details visit www.gsoss.com Though the Ocean Explorer from Belmar stayed in port on Thursday due to the bitter wind, they plan to fish every possible day at 7:30 a.m. in search of bigger blackfish in deeper waters.  The Big Mohawk out of that port had some tog limits Wednesday, though not all did well under the windy conditions. Both jigs and sinker rigs worked as well. Capt. Stan Zagleski has tied up his Elaine B. II from Highlands for the winter. There are some trophy blackfish out there. Jim Hutchinson Jr. of The Fisherman magazine reported a 22-pounder caught and released out of Manasquan Inlet by Robert Cameron on Fish Monger II from Point Pleasant. Carlos Cludino boated an 18-pound tautog last weekend while fishing with Capt. Dustin Strehl on Sea Beast from Leonardo. There was some great striper action for the few boaters still able to enjoy it before the Artic blast. Capt. Rob Semkewyc had trips when his fares on the Sea Hunter from Atlantic Highlands needed Advil for their sore shoulders after releasing so many large stripers, but his luck ran out when he made one last trip on Tuesday. The weather forecast didn't work out, and rods froze to the rail in a northeast wind as he ran down the beach only to find no birds working or bass marking. Just one mackerel was caught before an early return. The Gambler from Point Pleasant had their best striper jigging of the season during the Christmas Eve trip. Everyone caught a striper of 28 inches or more, the largest was almost 40 inches, and some slots were added -- while none of the bass were under 25 inches. Capt. Bob Bogan will try to get back out for stripers after Friday's offshore sea bass trip. Even surf stripers are still a possibility for those willing to endure the extreme cold. Jerry Lasko of Point Pleasant said he caught school stripers Tuesday evening in Lavallette as they were swirling among small herring at dusk, but there were very few showing Wednesday evening -- and none caught. Even though the water temperature will drop further with the present temperatures, ocean waters just fell barely below 50 degrees offshore. Stripers have also surprised us occasionally in recent years by returning in January after seemingly completing their migration to the south. As long as there are herring around to feed on, there's always a possibility that the keepers we've been missing in the surf this fall could show up for a brief visit. That happened in early January, 2016. Though I got back from Christmas in Florida just a bit too late for them, I still managed to release two bass up to 26 inches plus two hickory shad and two sea herring on a Mombo Minnow and teaser on the evening of Jan. 2 at Normandy Beach, and then a 23 1/2-incher the next morning before the surf went dead.