Essex County Coast

No closed season.

Striped bass are measured from the tip of the snout or jaw (mouth closed) to the farthest extremity of the tail. The discard of dead legal sized striped bass is unlawful. The practice of high-grading, whereby legal sized striped bass are released in favor of larger fish caught subsequently is unlawful. Accordingly, it is also unlawful to keep a striped bass alive in water by attaching a line or chain to the fish (stringer), or placing it in a live well or holding car.

Striped bass must be kept whole, meaning the head, tail, and body remain intact. Only evisceration is allowed. Permitted for-hire vessels may fillet striped bass for their customers.

The use non-lethal devices to remove striped bass from the water is required; gaffing striped bass is prohibited. Revised Circle Hook Requirement: All recreational anglers—including those fishing onboard for-hire vessels—who are fishing for striped bass with bait are required to use inline (non-offset) circle hooks. This shall not apply to any artificial lure with bait attached. Bait is defined as any marine or aquatic organism, live or dead, whole or parts thereof. Striped bass caught on an unapproved method of take (while targeting other finfish species)—such as a baited J hook or treble hook—must be returned to the water immediately without unnecessary injury.

Please note that this requirement applies to all recreational anglers, whether fishing from shore, a private vessel, or a for-hire charter or party boat.

The hook of an artificial lure does not need to be an inline circle hook to have bait attached. This allowance provides for the continued use of tackle such as a tube-and-worm rig, a bucktail jig tipped with a pork rind, and an eel skin plug. Conversely, a rigged eel (a whole dead eel with hooks threaded through its body) cannot be used unless the hooks are inline circle hooks, and a menhaden snagged on a treble hook cannot be used as bait until transferred onto an inline circle hook.

An inline circle hook is defined as a fishing hook designed and manufactured so that the point of the hook is not offset from the plane of the shank and bend and is turned perpendicularly back towards the shank to form a circular or oval shape.

While it's understandable that striped bass may be inadvertently caught on an unapproved rig when other species are being targeted, such fish must be returned to the water as quickly and gently as possible.