Quote:
Originally Posted by hammer4reel
Blackfish are the new designer fish . Can fish for them using pretty much what ever tackle a person wants to use . And lots of specialty gear has been made for them .
Guys fishing jigs use anything from ice rods to heavy tackle .
Rig guys have lots of choices now in rods , reels etc .
Pressure on them isn’t changing for any of those other species .
Must be a long time since you fished Nj , as blackfish have been sought after from November till mid January for at least the last 30 years .
Been 20 years since the opener went from October to Mid November
Here is the summary card from 2005
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not getting around like I used to, but give me a bit of credit,, I fished NJ from the early 60's as a kid, right up till a couple years ago. I am well aware of the iconic status the lowly blackfish has been elevated to.. I was blackfishing when "blackfish specialist" party boats were getting 10 guys on a weekend day while a bluefish boat say around late Oct was railed. There are a few guys still around that will remember capt Dom on the old 40 ft Skipper out of Belmar.. He stuck with blackfish later than most, into Dec, long after most boats switched to Whiting an Ling.. I often sailed on that boat with 10-12 guys on a nice Sunday, while the Ling boats were packed.. You are gravely mistaken if you really think there would be no impact on pressure placed on tog if there were other solid, productive,viable sport fisheries available as there once were.. In my day, tog were a species a poor guy could enjoy.. Today, members here are discussing their $15,000 spot lock,nav/charting/sonar setups that go on their $60,000 boats, armed with rocket launchers loaded with $1,000 rod /reel combos. Thats progress I suppose, but frankly I prefer the days when I could catch a LOT of blackfish in a battered 17 foot CC with a 115 that still had ignition points. I those days our "navigation" was the Red Church in Elberon.. If you could see it in a fairly straight line to shore, you were "on the meat" as they like to say these days.. Laugh, make fun if you want, but i dunno, plain old Blackfish being elevated to such noble status?... I'll take the days when all you needed was a penn reel with braided dacron, a "boat rod', and a snelled hook with a tarred cuttyhunk leader...
