How on earth did I miss this thread?
For the guys living away from the striper coast, you have no idea how silly some of these rules get. It's all been pretty well explained here in this thread. I do a fair amount of seabass and tog fishing in the winter. Sometimes bluefish are the targert as well. We've caught those pesky rockfish as much as 28 miles offshore this time of year. We just throw them back and keep after out intnended target.
I have a buddy who got stopped last Saturday. 4 miles off the beach. He's a charter. The fines go up after ten fish. He was legal for size & number, but busted on location. Those twelve fish will cost him between 6,000 and 12,000. The officer doesn't write the ticket, it comes from the FEDS. He's just watching the mail box now to see how bad its gonna be...