{"id":17582,"date":"2021-01-11T00:18:32","date_gmt":"2021-01-11T05:18:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/?p=17582"},"modified":"2021-01-11T00:18:32","modified_gmt":"2021-01-11T05:18:32","slug":"circle-hooks-now-required-in-nj-for-catch-and-release-striped-bass-fishing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/2021\/01\/circle-hooks-now-required-in-nj-for-catch-and-release-striped-bass-fishing\/","title":{"rendered":"Circle Hooks Now Required in NJ for Catch-and-Release Striped Bass Fishing"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"A<\/a>

A customer at The Dock Outfitters with a 53-pound striped bass he caught. (Photo: Dock Outfitters)<\/p><\/div>\n

When the calendar changed to 2021 last week, so did an important \u2013 but little reported \u2013 rule on striped bass fishing at the Jersey Shore.<\/p>\n

As part of a multi-state agreement, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection is now requiring anglers to use circle hooks when catch-and-release fishing for striped bass with natural bait, the DEP\u2019s Division of Fish and Wildlife announced. Federal regulators had been applying pressure to states on striped bass stocks, claiming the species was overfished. The hook replacement rule was part of a compromise on regulations.<\/p>\n

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission also reduced New Jersey\u2019s striped bass bag limit in 2020 to one fish, between 28 inches and less than 38 inches long.<\/p>\n

The purpose of the circle hook, as opposed to the traditional J-hook, is to keep fish from becoming \u201cgut hooked,\u201d or swallowing the hook instead of simply biting on it. Removing a hook from a gut-hooked fish significantly decreases its chance of survival.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe vast majority of striped bass caught in the recreational fishery in New Jersey and all along the coast, are released,\u201d said Ray Bukowski, Assistant Commissioner for Natural and Historic Resources. \u201cWe know release mortality is a substantial contributor to overall striped bass mortality, and circle hooks have been shown to increase survival of released fish. These new regulations are expected to be a significant step forward in our efforts to rebuild and protect one of New Jersey\u2019s most sought-after species.\u201d<\/p>\n

A \u2018circle hook\u2019 is formally defined as a non-offset (inline) hook where the point is curved perpendicularly back toward the shank. The term \u201cnon-offset\u201d or \u201cinline\u201d means the point and barb are in the same plane as the shank.<\/p>\n

Release mortality contributes significantly to overall fishing mortality in the recreational striped bass fishery, officials said in the announcement of the new regulation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are other ways anglers can help reduce release mortality in recreational fisheries by using proper fish handling and release techniques,\u201d said Joe Cimino, Division of Fish and Wildlife Marine Fisheries Administrator. \u201cAll of the states are working together to increase education and awareness, but ultimately we need anglers to assist us in this effort.\u201d<\/p>\n

More detailed information on circle hooks is available at the DEP\u2019s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When the calendar changed to 2021 last week, so did an important \u2013 but little reported \u2013 rule on striped bass fishing at the Jersey Shore. As part of a multi-state agreement, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection is now requiring anglers to use circle hooks when catch-and-release fishing for striped bass with natural […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4454,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-boating-fishing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/striped_bass.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgt2Ft-4zA","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17582"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17582\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}