[Papasown]

I really miss the "good old days"of flounder fishing. When I was a kid growing up on LBI in the late 1940's and 1950's, my Mom and I would walk from Surf City over to the bulkhead on the eastern most part of the old causeway where it enters Ship Bottom from Cedar Bonnet Island. We would open 2 cans of cat food with a beer can opener, and throw them down on the up current side, close to the bulkhead. If we had a couple clams, we would crack the shells and drop one every few minutes while we were fishing. Our flounder hooks, baited with bits of bloodworm and clam, would be tied with one off the leader of the other, and were allowed to move freely from the 3-way swivel and sinker, (the same way I set it up today). We would limit out in the fall/winer season with huge flounders in no time, and if we fished in the spring, the catch would usually be smaller.
I always enjoyed the winter flounder fishery, and since I joined the Jersey Coast Shark Anglers in 2003, I have always fished in their annual Flounder Tournament. These Tournaments, and the one's sponsered by other groups gave the small boat fisherman a chance to get out in the rivers and bays, and stand a chance at winning a tournament. I am proud to say that I won the JCSA's last tournament (and calcutta) , knowing that this too is perhaps a thing of the past. But I still love to get out there with my Grandkids, and catch ém up, Papa