Tom P.

The six-day firearm deer season commences half-hour before sunrise Monday and concludes half-hour after sunset Saturday, December 11.

The last of the autumn run of stripers is underway, and if the numbers are any indication, it looks as if bass will be caught through December.

Only a couple of weeks remain to get your striped bass bonus tag.

Saturday, September 25, marks the opening of the grey squirrel and cottontail rabbit seasons, two of our favorite small game/upland quarries.

I’ve heard it at least a dozen times the past few days from anglers working the flats and channel edges in the likes of mid-to-lower Barnegat Bay, Great Bay, Great Egg Harbor Bay and down the ICW through Stone Harbor, the diminutive Gulp! crustacean is scoring smashes, thrashes and hits on the fluke.

Announced late yesterday morning in response to rampant disregard of laws governing the 350,000-plus acres of the Garden State’s wildlife management area (WMA) system under the auspices of the Division of Fish & Wildlife, portions of five WMAs are now off limits to all public use through September 15.

Numbers are especially strong in the southern tier counties.

And crabbing, for that matter.

Sure, we’ve sighted a few in late March, these being garters and a lone northern pine snake, but suffice to say they are now in full season mode.

Delaware Bay has long been considered the boomer factory.