New Jersey · Striped bass (or hybrid striped bass)
Can you keep a striped bass (or hybrid striped bass) in New Jersey?
Yes, with limits
Atlantic Ocean, within 3 miles of shore
Open year-roundA slot means the fish must fall between those two numbers. Shorter than 28 inches goes back, and so does longer than 31.
The familiar coastwide 28-to-31-inch slot, one fish a day, open all year within 3 miles of shore — the same figure used up and down the Atlantic coast under the ASMFC's management addendum.
Atlantic Ocean, beyond 3 miles from shore
Closed to harvestClosed year-round — striped bass may not be harvested beyond 3 miles from shore, under the federal EEZ moratorium. The numbers above are what applies when it is open.
Closed outright. The 28-to-31-inch inshore slot does not extend past 3 miles offshore.
Delaware River and tributaries (Calhoun St Bridge, Trenton, to Salem River and tributaries)
Open todayA slot means the fish must fall between those two numbers. Shorter than 28 inches goes back, and so does longer than 31.
Closes each year Closed April 1 through May 31 on this stretch — open March 1–31 and June 1–December 31
Same 28-to-31-inch slot as the ocean, but this stretch of the Delaware River closes for two months in spring (April and May) that the ocean and most other waters do not.
all other marine waters (bays and tidal tributaries)
Open todayA slot means the fish must fall between those two numbers. Shorter than 28 inches goes back, and so does longer than 31.
Closes each year Closed January and February — the season runs March 1 to December 31
Same 28-to-31-inch slot, closed only in January and February. Check NJDEP's Marine Digest for the Striped Bass Bonus Program, circle-hook requirements and the gaff prohibition — none of those are size or bag numbers, but they affect whether a fish can legally be landed at all.
What we left out on purpose
- This page carries the seven species on NJDEP's own 'Attention Anglers' quick-reference card — the document the agency itself hands anglers first. The full 'Marine Digest' (a much longer document) covers further species — scup, sheepshead, black drum, spot and others among them — that are not carried here. The card explicitly calls itself a summary and not the full law.
- Shark is left out. NJDEP's own card gives only a vessel limit (1 fish per vessel) and defers size, season and gear entirely to NMFS federal rules — no state-published size exists to carry.
- Hard clam and blue crab appear on the same official card but are shellfish and crustaceans, not fish, and are left out along with every other state on this site.
- dep.nj.gov sits behind an Imperva bot-check that blocks direct fetches (curl, WebFetch) even with a live session's cookies. The PDF here was retrieved through a same-origin fetch() executed inside an authenticated browser tab — the same technique would work for the full Marine Digest if a future session wants to expand this state's coverage.
