Memories of our changing times

[jakesdad]

Now that the snow is flying, I started to think about the different rigs I have seen over the past 60 years. In the 50's and 60's if someone had anything other than a 3 way and a 3 foot leader for fluke you would have thought he wouldn't catch anything, How times have changed
In the 70's and 80's beads showed up, and also skirts. Over the past 20 years, soft baits , stinger hooks, double hook rigs, power pro etc

Baits have also changed, from squid strips and spearing to an assortment, sand eels, whole squids, bunker strips, and many more.

Some have worked , some have not. What have you seen?

This is just to start the memories going, Bluefish, Tuna, Mackerel, Whiting , Ling, Flounder, Striped Bass, Blackfish, etc. all have stories to tell.

Let's hear some of the good ones, and also some of those that didn't. Captains & Mates current and former please chime in, with what you have witnessed.

Henry

[BCinerie]

Caught my first bluefish on a Bengal banana jig. In 1977! Then a a jigs came along with higher speed reels. 5 to 1 used to be fast!

[bulletbob]

I started using bucktails for fluke 40 years ago.. Really there's nothing new under the sun there.. Whole squid always worked for big fluke even decades ago.. We weren't worried about "catching keepers".. Everything was a keeper, and there were always way more than enough to go around.. However fishing pressure in NY/NJ has quadrupeled since then.
Back in the day, we used mackerel chunks/strips for whiting and ling.. Clams were never used... The Mackerel worked GREAT back then and I bet would work just as well today for ling, but few guys use it...

Weaks, was a sandworm on a 3x3 rig.. Drifted.. Deadly,, Later on we stretched the bait supply by using a sand worm with a big red plastic jelly worm.. That worked well.. If your sand worm was broken, or small and sickly, the weaks would smell it and still hit the jelly worm..

We would catch tons of cocktail size blues in the 80's using tea spoon handles, butter knife blades, pieces of car radio antennas filled with nails, and drilled for split rings and hooks.. That junk worked very well..

Flounder, we never bought bait when I lived in union beach.. We would walk the shore at low tide, dig clams, bloods, tapes, pick mussels, whatever.. Crack a few mussels. or clams, and 2 pounders started flying into the boat... year after year, anywhere in the bay. until they got decimated by draggers, IMHO...

We didn't fish much for stripers, there weren't any.. Well a few, but a 30 pounder made all the local papers...
We never missed them anyway.. Lots of other stuff to catch.
In May just around the Hook, you had a mixed bag of winter flounder and ling on the same rigs.. Imagine catching 1-2 pound flounder, and big fat ling, right near the beach, on a 1 handed rod with 1 0z of lead???
Or baseball bat whiting mixed with masses of ling, right between the channels off sandy hook.. Thats what we did in spring... Mackerel were everywhere as well.. As I said, we didn't fish for stripers much, but never missed them...
In those days, we didn't see that many porgies.. We caught them, but they were small.. Actually I think there are more and bigger porgies today... Didn't matter, the sea bass were everywhere, and easy to catch.. We didn't miss porgies really..

Triggers were few and far between.. I caught one on a wreck in Raritan Bay in the 80's a BIG one, maybe 18 inches or better.. Never saw one before that day.. All I remember is, it fought like hell, filleting it was akin to filleting a catchers mitt, and it was VERY good to eat...
Oh yeah eels.. eels by the hundreds, thousands, anywhere,, ANY salt or brackish creek, any salt or brackish river, any bay, anywhere all year except winter.. You COULD catch 100 on a good night, on ANY bait, just in Morgan Creek or someplace like that.. Big ones too... No more, at least from what I understand... No Croakers those days either.. We did have Spots some years, others not, Kings some years, others not, Blowfish some years, others not....
I dunno, times change, fisheries change.. I no longer live there, but when I did, I never noticed the intense every day pressure I see these days... I used to fish on week days mid summer, and any time before about 7 am, I was alone out there.. Today, there are armadas underway coming from every direction at 5 am.. No one to blame.. Just a LOT more people all after the same fish these days, and more commercial pressure as well..
We didn't need regulations 30-40 years ago, to be honest.. Sadly we do need them today... So many people out there..... bob

[bulletbob]

Sorry, forgot Tog... Easy to catch everywhere... I fished the old 40 foot Skipper out of Belmar, and we always caught dozens per man..
Really, you didn't need a boat however to catch some nice tog... A good fisherman could spend 10 minutes digging mole crabs in the surf at low tide, walk out on a jetty , and catch lots of decent tog from mid tide up, to mid tide down.. Spingtime, they loved sandworms on the jetties as well... I MISS that kind of fishing.. Boats were best of course, but you ALWAYS caught Fluke, flounder, blacks, blues, eels, blowfish , kings,and ling and whiting from shore, jetty, and pier IF you knew where and when... Today, its not as easy without a boat... bob

[hartattack]

Good topic Henry - nice to reminisce over these next coupla' snowy days. Great memories Bullet, I agree that shore fishing was much more prevalent and much more productive back then.

Does anyone remember trolling/casting Smiling Bill bucktails with a fat juicy Sandworm or two attached for Stripers This was a great technique we used on Long Island but have never seen it used in Jersey.
Also our exclusive Blackfish bait was Fiddler Crabs, no such thing as Greenies or White Leggers. And if your equipment wasn't a Penn, it wasn't a real reel

[Taxman]

spreaders for flounder

[Dino]

Originally Posted by bulletbob

I started using bucktails for fluke 40 years ago.. Really there's nothing new under the sun there.. Whole squid always worked for big fluke even decades ago.. We weren't worried about "catching keepers".. Everything was a keeper, and there were always way more than enough to go around.. However fishing pressure in NY/NJ has quadrupeled since then.
Back in the day, we used mackerel chunks/strips for whiting and ling.. Clams were never used... The Mackerel worked GREAT back then and I bet would work just as well today for ling, but few guys use it...

Weaks, was a sandworm on a 3x3 rig.. Drifted.. Deadly,, Later on we stretched the bait supply by using a sand worm with a big red plastic jelly worm.. That worked well.. If your sand worm was broken, or small and sickly, the weaks would smell it and still hit the jelly worm..

We would catch tons of cocktail size blues in the 80's using tea spoon handles, butter knife blades, pieces of car radio antennas filled with nails, and drilled for split rings and hooks.. That junk worked very well..

Flounder, we never bought bait when I lived in union beach.. We would walk the shore at low tide, dig clams, bloods, tapes, pick mussels, whatever.. Crack a few mussels. or clams, and 2 pounders started flying into the boat... year after year, anywhere in the bay. until they got decimated by draggers, IMHO...

We didn't fish much for stripers, there weren't any.. Well a few, but a 30 pounder made all the local papers...
We never missed them anyway.. Lots of other stuff to catch.
In May just around the Hook, you had a mixed bag of winter flounder and ling on the same rigs.. Imagine catching 1-2 pound flounder, and big fat ling, right near the beach, on a 1 handed rod with 1 0z of lead???
Or baseball bat whiting mixed with masses of ling, right between the channels off sandy hook.. Thats what we did in spring... Mackerel were everywhere as well.. As I said, we didn't fish for stripers much, but never missed them...
In those days, we didn't see that many porgies.. We caught them, but they were small.. Actually I think there are more and bigger porgies today... Didn't matter, the sea bass were everywhere, and easy to catch.. We didn't miss porgies really..

Triggers were few and far between.. I caught one on a wreck in Raritan Bay in the 80's a BIG one, maybe 18 inches or better.. Never saw one before that day.. All I remember is, it fought like hell, filleting it was akin to filleting a catchers mitt, and it was VERY good to eat...
Oh yeah eels.. eels by the hundreds, thousands, anywhere,, ANY salt or brackish creek, any salt or brackish river, any bay, anywhere all year except winter.. You COULD catch 100 on a good night, on ANY bait, just in Morgan Creek or someplace like that.. Big ones too... No more, at least from what I understand... No Croakers those days either.. We did have Spots some years, others not, Kings some years, others not, Blowfish some years, others not....
I dunno, times change, fisheries change.. I no longer live there, but when I did, I never noticed the intense every day pressure I see these days... I used to fish on week days mid summer, and any time before about 7 am, I was alone out there.. Today, there are armadas underway coming from every direction at 5 am.. No one to blame.. Just a LOT more people all after the same fish these days, and more commercial pressure as well..
We didn't need regulations 30-40 years ago, to be honest.. Sadly we do need them today... So many people out there..... bob

enjoyed reading this-- thanks Bob

[june181901]

There is at least one guy in Sea Bright still using tin squids when the blues come ashore. I caught my first bluefish on one of them back in the 50s. About 10 years ago he found a mould and made a bunch.

[tombanjo]

Bluefishing at 17 Fathoms with the old Bingle Bananas, not like the new ones that have a break in the shaft. Down to the bottom, ten slow cranks and back down. Bucktailing and spearing for albies & bones which would appear like clockwork every fall and no, not a surprise when a 20lb football would come up. Nor would a skippy be a rare event like it is today.

[Billfish715]

It's great to reminisce. Techniques, tackle, electronics, etc have all changed. Linen, dacron, monofilament lines, solid glass rods made by Harlee, agate and plated guides, oversized Colorado style blades on all of the fluke rigs, tiger tails for weakfish, trolling with "nylons" for early season bluefish, hi-lo rigs for blowfish, glo tubing for ling and whiting, long shank fluke hooks, tin squids for the surf, the Klondike, the Annex, Barnegate Ridge have now been replaced or are just memories. And, oh yes, who can forget the Long Branch Pier? And how many Penn 500's, 155's and Squidders do you still have?