The way it was expained to me when I asked the same question was if you catch something out of season by accident just release it and no harm no foul. But if you are using a black fish rig trying to catch Stripers you're in violation. My question was about using fluke rigs for weakfish before the fluke season opened up last year. Bucktail was Ok but not the rig due to the rig is targeting fluke even though I catch all my weakfish on them and were really targeting weakfish. So just use single hooks and sandworms and you'll be ok, lol.