Frost Fish

[Billfish715]

For all of you youngsters out there, here's a bit of fishing lore you may have missed. For all of you old timers, I hope this takes you back to a place that will make you say," I remember that."

In another thread I mentioned something about Frost Fish and sand eels and the Long Branch Fishing Pier. Enjoy the article and the memories.

https://www.surfcastersjournal.com/t...ng-frost-fish/

[NoLimit]

Great article - its a shame that so many never experienced ling and whiting fishing in the winter. In some respects, it was more popular than summer fishing.

[Capt. Lou]

Is don't even remember going for ling in summer except for tuna bait . Winter it was cod , whiting & fall n winter mackerel runs .
Whiting would get washed on the beach chasing bait in late fall , some nites u could pick em' up,off the beach they were so thick .
LBP was also,a hot spot for weakfishing in the fall on the nite tides , it was a solid fishery in the fifties , as was summer king fishing in the deal area surf .
The pier produced a variety of species throughout the season and in fall it really shined .
Those days in the fifties an area off the off SH known as the cedars was the ling hot spot in spring , u could load burlap,bags with them as u could fall n winter whiting fishery . Whiting so thick in site of AT u could catch them baiting your hook with a strip,of red cloth and catch all u wanted !
What we enjoy today is a very poor facsimile of the great NY bight fishery we enjoyed some 50 - 60 yrs ago .
Tuna we regularly took at 17 and BA & Farms . Giants were in same vicinity later in season usually after Labor Day .
Cod were caught at SR's , 17 and Cholera banks regularly . Funny in those early days most fluke were taken along the beach and in inshore channels in huge numbers . We use to tin can on the Belford flats and load the boat with flatties
Flounder fishing in spring was un reel taking 20-40 on the tide in SR was normal
as was in most rivers up and down the coast .
U can thank the 200 mile limit and the lack of fisheries enforcement that allowed our commercial,vessels to,literally clean out out ground fishery up,and down the coast , this is what we're left with practically nothing 😡

[zhitoman]

I was catching plenty of ling this past November and December of a pier in Brooklyn. I could've probably caught a bucket or two if I fished the whole night. So I have no idea what you guys are talking about. Ling is here in huge numbers. Smaller variety though.

[jerseyhunter]

I couldn't have said it any better Capt. Lou

[Reel Class]

Originally Posted by zhitoman

I was catching plenty of ling this past November and December of a pier in Brooklyn. I could've probably caught a bucket or two if I fished the whole night. So I have no idea what you guys are talking about. Ling is here in huge numbers. Smaller variety though.

There's a good chance those ling you were catching were squirrel hake or maybe even tommy cod.

[Reel Class]

Great article. I remember as a very young kid in the late 70's my neighbors down the street coming to our house with buckets of BIG whiting mixed with some mackerel. This was after thanksgiving and the bluefish had chased them right on the beach and they just were left there. People would go up and literally pick them out of the sand much like how bunker get washed up on the beach after a blitz.

We've been seeing some whiting the last few years during spring seabass season. Some trips, on certain spots, we see no more than a few and they're usually spikes but we had a couple this past spring that were actually OK sized, but compared to the fish we used to see, these were small.

The last time I was on a whiting TRIP was in 1994 on the NK3. We went up to the Farms and we did OK. That particular trip was in late april/early may. In my memory, that was the last year that there was a viable fishery especially for the magic hour boats targeting whiting. In the 80's, fishing was still good and all the boats did either half-night whiting trips or magic hour trips.

[joetheplumber]

hi wow use to fish coney inland peir years ago early 60 ths all whithing you wanted at night plus stripers were 16 inch to keep great fishing in 60 ths only bad thing about 60 ths was 1966 got Drafed in army bad times OK going to sportmans show saturday suffern take care every body Good luck fishing this year

[Capt. Debbie]

People tend to exaggerate a bit as they get older with the good old days stuff.

I'm 61 and remember fishing off a Ambrose when it was actually a four legged tower with a building atop it, I remember night whiting off Long Branch Pier in Januaries and don't remember anyone getting tuna off of Sandy Hook. Memories.... Perhaps a few hundred years ago? LOL

Originally Posted by zhitoman

I was catching plenty of ling this past November and December of a pier in Brooklyn. I could've probably caught a bucket or two if I fished the whole night. So I have no idea what you guys are talking about. Ling is here in huge numbers. Smaller variety though.

[zhitoman]

Originally Posted by Reel Class

There's a good chance those ling you were catching were squirrel hake or maybe even tommy cod.

Nope, spotted hake. A lot of them. This was going on for two month non stop.