While there's nothing much to talk about in terms of local fishing in our still very cold waters, the Canyon Runner from Point Pleasant has had plenty of action with giant tuna from their winter base in North Carolina. Capt. Deane Lambros got a break in the normally windy weather down there and only Monday failed to provide any trolling hook-ups though they did have bites. The Leon Elul party had a double hook-up within minutes on Tuesday, and boated one giant before switching to yellowfins which didn't turn on that day. A crew trip on Wednesday quickly produced a bluefin that was released as it was short of the present 73-inch minimum. Two others were lost before a late day bite resulted in a boated giant of 85 inches after another lost giant. A boat associated with the Canyon Runner boated a 92-incher that day.  Anglers frustrated at the lack of giants in our local Mud Hole fishery during the last few years should give the N.C. fishery a try.  Call Adam La Rosa at 732 842-6824.  He also has just a few $99 tickets left for the N.Y. Canyon Runner Seminar on Saturday at the Huntington Hilton on Long Island.  The Ocean Explorer has been trying to get out of Belmar for ocean bottom fishing on a daily basis. Everyone aboard has been enjoying the warm weather though only a few short cod and blackfish have been caught most trips along with a few ling, eels, bergalls and spiny dogfish. A keeper tog was hooked on Wednesday. The Big Jamaica from Brielle will probably find a lot more action with jumbo porgies on the far offshore wrecks during their weekly Saturday morning trip at 2 a.m. Last Saturday's fishing produced an average of 30 porgies up to 4 pounds plus a 10-pound pollock. Reservations are required. Call 732 528-5014.  On March 1, the internal waters season for striped bass opens up, but Raritan Bay anglers must be aware of avoiding N.Y. waters since their season doesn't open until April 15. Winter flounder become legal in N.J. on March 1, but the tautog season closes then.  The Atlantic City Boat Show is coming up from Feb. 28 to March 4 at the Atlantic City Convention Hall.  The World Fishing Expo runs from March 1-4 at Rockland Community College in nearby Suffern, N.Y. Most major tackle manufacturers are represented there with full exhibits. The Saltwater Expo will be at a new location this year for its March 16- 18 run. The N.J. Convention & Expo Center in Edison has a lot more space for that massive show attuned to the local saltwater scene. My usual striped bass seminar will be on the opening day, March 16, this year, and will also feature striper pro Chuck Many and a free Tady jig for all those attending the 1 p.m. presentation.  The Berkley Striper Club's 23rd annual Fisherman's Flea Market is set for March 4 in Toms River Intermediate School North Way, Toms River 08753. Paul Haertel of the JCAA summarizes the latest status of summer flounder, scup and black sea bass regulations as follows (if space isn't sufficient for the full report, get it all on my daily blog at nj.com/shore/blogs/fishing): Sea Bass On 2/8/18 the ASMFC's Summer Flounder, Scup and Black Sea Bass Board approved Addendum XXX   which establishes a regional allocation of the coastwide Recreational Harvest Limit (RHL) as opposed to Coastwide Measures. Allocations will now be based on both historical harvest and exploitable biomass rather than just historical average which had been done in the past. JCAA supported using this new method as it addresses changes in the resource's distribution and abundance.  In recent years this fishery was managed by a two region approach but there will now be three regions.  The three management regions are defined as Massachusetts through New York, New Jersey as a state-specific region, and Delaware through North Carolina.  JCAA supported that option as well because New Jersey is a transitional state in which its sea bass fishery doesn't really fit in with the states to its north or to its south. This option will allow the NJMFC to set regulations that best suit our fishermen while allowing them to address spatial variation in size and abundance. However, there could be more volatile regulatory consequences if we overfish our regional quota. The time frame for setting allocations was a contentious issue. JCAA recommended using the ten year time frame from 2006-2015 as it more accurately captured our historical share of the harvest. States to our north preferred using the five year time frame from 2001-2015 as those were the years when their share of the harvest had skyrocketed.  Tom Fote was away on vacation for this meeting and his proxy was unable to attend due to a family emergency. That left Adam Nowalsky to carry the torch for our state and he did an outstanding job representing us. The states seemed hopelessly deadlocked on the timeframe issue until Adam made a motion to combine the allocations from each timeframe and then take the average of the two. This hybrid approach resulted in an allocation of 65.35% of the recreational harvest limit for the northern region (Massachusetts-New York), 30.24% for the New Jersey Region and 8.41% for the southern region (Delaware-North Carolina).  While the compromise was not the best solution for us as our historical share of the RHL was much higher, it is probably about the best we could have hoped for under the circumstances.                              The board also agreed with the JCAA position to adjust management measures to the allowable catch limit, though this may take until 2019 to be implemented as it has to be further refined. This method should be an improvement from the status quo method of annually evaluating the recreational fishery based only on harvest against the RHL. It is expected to result in better data and reduced mortality which hopefully will create more fishing opportunities for our fishermen. Educational programs to reduce mortality such as the one New Jersey has for summer flounder could be developed that would not only enhance our fishing opportunities but help maintain the sustainability of our stock.             So the $50,000 dollar question probably is what does this mean for our regulations this year. Unfortunately, we don't quite know yet but it seems that the severe cutbacks that were indicated in the charts in the draft addendum won't be as severe. New mathematical formulas will be used that will smooth  MRIP numbers that seem way out of line. This will help smooth over extremely high harvest numbers like the ones in wave 6 (November-December) for New York in 2016 and wave 3 (May-June) for New Jersey in 2017. This may result in regulations similar to those we had last year but we won't know for a couple more weeks.             Additionally the ASMFC as well as the MAFMC at their meeting a week later, voted to remove the mandatory closure of the sea bass fishery in federal waters from 9/22-10/21. That will benefit the states to our south as their regulations are identical to those in federal waters. It may also be beneficial to some states to our north as there are transportation issues when moving into and out of state and federal waters in the area of Block Island. At this time though it may not help New Jersey unless we decide to reduce our bag limits and instead fish more days during September and October. Fluke             For 2018, the ASMFC approved New Jersey being its own region with no strings attached to what the other regions decide regarding their regulations. As you may recall, last year we were our own region but we were required to have the same 19" size limit that the Connecticut-New York region had. Our state won its appeal of that requirement and we were able to remain at 18" though our season length was reduced by 24 days.  At the joint meeting of the ASMFC and the MAFMC this past December, states were given the approval to liberalize their regulations by up to 17% for 2018.  Based on that, NJ submitted the following three proposals which were all approved. All have an 18" size limit and a bag limit of 3 fish. The seasons could either be from 5/15-9/16, 5/22-9/20 or 5/25-9/22. It is possible that these options could be tweaked a little or other new ones developed but that is unlikely. While JCAA has not yet voted on which proposal to support, I anticipate that we will favor the one with the season ending on 9/22 as we need to bridge the gap to when sea bass season opens. Last year many of our fishermen were outraged when fluke season ended on 9/5 as sea bass season was closed until 10/22. That left our inshore fishermen little to fish during that nearly seven week long period of time other than a limit of one blackfish and porgies for the boats in the northern part of the state. Scup (Porgies)      We received some good news on porgies as we will be allowed to increase our harvest by 59%. This will allow New Jersey to have a year-round season. Previously our season was closed from March 1st to June 30th. The bag and size limits will remain the same, 50 fish at 9". When will regulations be set for the aforementioned species?             Regulations for fluke, sea bass scup and perhaps blackfish will most likely be set at the next NJMFC meeting. This meeting will be held at 5PM on Thursday 3/15/18 at the Stafford Township Municipal Building located at 260 East Bay Av. in Manahawkin. The public is encouraged to attend and give their opinion on any of the proposals. JCAA will keep you posted as to specific options as they become available via our newsletter and on our Facebook page.