Glory Days Let's Hear Em

[bulletbob]

The Weakfishing with plastic worm/sandworm in the Reach was good back in the early 90's no doubt... however, 10 years earlier between the channels, you needed NO bait, just a tiger tail. This was sunset into the night fishing. Drop it down, rod in holder, no action needed other than the drifting boat, and you were into massive tide runners one after another,,, Seldom anything less than 6 pounds, with some as big as 12 or 13, and all you could carry.. Sadly a lot of guys carried a hundred home time after time....


Flounder fishing right off Union beach where I lived... Just drop the anchor, bat a few bank mussels around the boat and in minutes an all out blitz of flounder unlike anything one could imagine these days in only 10 foot of water right off the beach a few hundred feet.. BIG, a 12 incher was a baby, and lots of 18 inchers.. Some huge yellowtails mixed in as well.. Never saw school stripers in those days when flounder fishing in those days like we see today.

Fishing a wreck right in Raritan/Sandy Hook bay, somewhere out past Raritan Reach. No one knew about that wreck, I don't think it was all that big, but a guy from his marina gave my friend the loran number one time in around 82 or 83.. We hit it and it was a motherlode of massive tog right in the bay with boats all around us unaware.. Huge blacks one after another till we ran out of greens, and then a few more on whatever legs, shell fragments we could scrape off the floor of the boat... Got a massive Trigger there as well.. I don't think that wreck exists any more, or it might be covered, but it was like nothing I had ever seen the one time I fished it.

Also remember lights out blackfishing in lovely sept/oct weather in shirt sleeves on sunny calm afternoons, and if you had a decent arm you could skip a rock to the shoreline from where we were fishing in pretty shallow water, 30 feet or less off the Red Church in Llberon... No limits, either bag or size, Plenty of room for all, and the fish were always there spring and fall.. No freezing your ass off in ""backfish weather"".. blackfish weather in those days was a gorgeous sunny early October day, in the mid 60's..Then one day, someone found out that blackfish were good to eat raw with soy sauce and maybe some thinly sliced daikon, and we are where we are today..

Fluke fishing where it was just non stop all day, until your arms hurt and you just had enough and wanted to leave, and all you need was a cheap ass box of squid.. want a doormat?.. Leave the rig as is, except for a massive hook, and put a whole squid on... When the fluke started to get annoying, move to where the boats we clustered and mohawking blues.. usually not monsters, but decent fish 2-5 pounds, and they showed somewhere almost every time we went for fluke, sometimes you would see the birds on the horizon, other times, they were destroying your squid strips, and cutting your hooks and you simply tied on an AVA right where you were fluking, beat them up for a while, and then when they moved off, went back to fluke which were always ready to hit after the blues were gone...


Whiting and Ling that were ALWAYS there in massive numbers, all winter every winter year after year, until one sad day, they weren't. Started in november usually, and typically lasted until the water went below 39 degrees.. That number was given to me by a wise old head boat captain, and many years ago, I kept an eye on coastal temps and he was pretty close.. Mild years the fishing lasted all winter,, Some years it slowed in late January, but was gangbusters again by april.. A partyboat might go down for a month back then, but never for 4 months unless thats what the captain wanted...

i recall when the Atlantic Highland boats all ran all winter, as there were plenty of winter fish to catch, and then in march they started fishing the river for flounder... The ONLY thing that stopped them was when the bay froze to the point where they simply could not get out... I DO recall ice on the bay one weekend, but one of the boats broke it for the others on the way out.. Might have been the Super Cat or the old Sea Fox, can't really recall the boat but I do remember it happening...

I remember fishing the shrewsbury river and if nothing else was around, the eels would bite all day every day, until you got really sick of looking at them and handling them.. they were there by the millions and millions. It was like a plague.. until one day they weren't... I wish i could go back... Or at very least i wish the fish would come back... bob

[Gerry Zagorski]

Ahhh.... Great stories here, love reading them so please keep them coming...

[EddieG]

Have a few but for this time of year I would have to say winter flounder fishing in shark river. 15 yrs ago I remember renting a boat and pulling 30-40 fish easy even bringing up two at a time sometimes on the chum pot... now I live 2 minutes from shark river and take my dog for a run every day there and don’t see anybody catching anything not even one.

[porgylber]

As a 10 year old kid, going out on a party boat with my best friend and his Dad. We went fishing in the spring for mackerel. He taught me how to jig for them. I remember how proud I was to catch my first fish and bring home my 8 mackerel to my Mom.
She then taught me how to clean them and cook them.
As the years went by, I would go out with them for blues, sea bass, flounder, fluke and blackfish. And of course porgies! We would travel out to Greenport on Long Island, because the big humpbacks were there! We would come home with burlap bags stuffed with those porgies, then give away plenty to neighbors on the street.
Fun times!

[Brewlugger]

Growing up I was fortunate to have my Father take me along. We did it all Flounder Whiting , Ling , Mackeral and alot of Blues. We had alot of good trips and some not so good but always good times. We would trailer the boat from Mahwah to Delaware bay in May for tiderunner Weakfish I always looked forward to those trips .When I got older I started tuna fishing, I believe in 1988 there was a great run of Tuna in the Mudhole from late June into October. Big Yellowfin at Little Italy and alot of boats there day and night. Anyone here recall that great fishing? My glory days were any time I spent fishing with my Dad.

[Reel Class]

The weakfish bite in September in Raritan Bay in early fall/late Summer from the late 90's just past 2K was pure insanity. I was off for Yom Kippur from work (as many of you know I am a teacher) in 2001, just 10 days or so after 9/11, and my buddy and I hit the Capt John out of Keyport (a lot of the other boats were doing half-days and we wanted to make a day of it) and we shot out to the reach in his Gulfcraft (later became the Voyager) and started drifting sandworms. Crowd was light. First couple drifts were ehhh, after roughly the second drift though, everything turned on and we slaughtered the fish the rest of the trip until the boat was limited out with weakfish (14 fish at 14" then) and headed back to the dock at about 12:30 with coolers full of 16-20" weakies plus a few porgies and small blues. I've had MANY great days of catching weakfish, especially in Barnegat Bay, but this day is tops in my memory.

I've had so many great days winter flounder fishing it's hard to really pick one. When I first started chartering in ~04-05' the spring runs in the Manasquan River and upper Barnegat Bay were great. We had MANY days where we limited the boat out or came close to it (10 fish per person at that time) and the best part was I was burning 2-5 gallons of fuel doing it lol. But the one day that stands out was on Capt Robbie's Sea Hunter in 2004 - again off for Spring Break my buddy Brian and I decided to jump on knowing the bite was good out at the Cedars (and I've had MANY good days at that spot!!!) light crowd, and we chugged out got the anchor in and proceeded to beat on the flounder for the half day. 2004 was the last year that I remember there was no BAG limit on flounders so we pasted them. In about 2.5 hours fishing I caught well over 20 nice flounder, only keeping 16 of them for the table. It was insane, drop and reel fishing. And for those of you that don't remember, the Raritan Bay Flounder fishery was a true world class fishery for that species, man I miss fishing for those fish up there

Fluke fishing has gone through so many ups and downs it's hard to say when the glory days were, but in the 80's and 90's you could scrape up a good catch of smaller fish (when the size limit was 14 or 15") just drifting the shallows along the beach. You didn't need to fish the rough stuff with fancy bucktails to catch actual keepers! Many times 18-20" fish would take pools on party boats lol. With that said though, we've had MANY great days bucktailing fluke on my boat and I think this fishery is ever changing and the population is in pretty good shape despite the draconian regulations.

Seabass fishing these days is BETTER than it was 30 years ago.

Toggin' these days is a joke. Fancy, expensive tackle, fancy rigs, jigs (which I absolutely love doing!)... We never had to fish into December to put nice catches together. Like now, the best fishery is September-October, BEFORE "the opener" in November.... Also April was a great month as was May and even into June. Yes fishing was better for them because of less pressure in the 80's and 90's but it was NEVER so specialized and almost as elite as it is now.

I even miss the days of taking my boat out to the offshore reef, the edge of the Mud Hole, Mud dump, or even inside of that and anchoring up and chumming for bluefish from May-October. It was a great fishery and it was GREAT for charter and party boats... Happy people, lots of fish, and great memories were made.

Striper fishing now is just like fluking - always changing but still pretty good just different. This fishery changes with the types of bait these fish are chasing, and when some baits are more abundant than others, the fishery goes in that general direction.

Great post Gerry!

[bassnblues]

As a teenager in the 80s with my dad launching out of Chris’s landing in sea brightt. Barely had to run the motor to get into all the fluke, weaks and cocktail blues you wanted.

When I first got my own boat in the 90s, fishing the highlands bridge with frozen bunker catching stripers.

Drifting for fluke off officers row and the coast guard stating and being able to catch keepers.

I really miss weakfish. I remember a couple of days out of keyport. My fish finder wasn’t working but I bailed them by drifting worms over the edge of the reach. Also chumming with grass shrimp out of barnegat light. Had some awesome trips for big ones on the sea fox.

Many more...

[Billfish715]

Gerry, You must really have the fishing "Jones". Don't worry. It happens to all of us at this time of the year. We go to bed every night with dreams of the fishing that many of our kids and grandkids might never see. Even when we share stories of the good old days with some of the younger members on this board, they won't quite understand. The young guys today will certainly talk about their good old days later in their lives but they need to hear about what they missed. What was different then compared to now, is the abundance and varieties of fish that were so close and so accessible.

Flounder........they could be caught in Raritan, Sandy Hook and Barnegate Bays as well as the Shrewsbury, Navesink, Manasquan and Shark Rivers. Add to that, in the ocean off the Cedars of Sandy Hook. Party boats would line the rivers and bays in places that they are never seen anymore.

Fluke........from the jetties, rowboats, docks, along the sandy beaches, from the surf.......everywhere.

Weakfish........jelly worms, tiger tails, nordic eels.........in the bay, bridge abutments and mixed in with the fall run of bluefish and stripers

Bluefish........Bingle Bananas, trolling with pony tails/nylons, the Klondike, Augies, Annex, Acid Grounds, Barnegate and Manasquan Ridges, chumming.........all summer long

Mackerel........full coolers, stripers mixed in, three miles off the beach

Whiting.........from the Long Branch Pier, twilight fishing, fleets of boats on the hills at night looked like floating cities, ling mixed in

Blowfish.......Barnegate Bay, small pieces of squid on high-lo rigs with freshwater gear. Off the jetties in Long Branch........almost everywhere.

Tuna.......footballs on cedar plugs and feathers on the Klondike with skipjacks mixed in.

Bonito.......chumming on the inshore hills with spearing with bluefish, bluefins, false albacore mixed in

Seabass.......there were too many fluke to bother fishing for them

Blackfish...... party boats and guys with secret spots caught them.........no state of the art fishfinders back then

Loran Numbers.........got you close but not like GPS and sonar units of today

No Loran Numbers........compass headings and dead reckoning.......Along the beach, you had to line up a flag pole or a house on the beach or a jetty to find your spot.

Stripers........tie up to the old railroad tressel abutments by the Highlands Bridge and drift worms. Troll umbrellas or bunker spoons up against the Sea Bright wall. The water came right to the wall back then.

Giant Tuna.........in the Mud Hole in the fall

Yellowfins........in the Mud Hole at Little Italy

Outdoor Fishing Editors.........Ristori, Brandt, Duffy.......to name a few


There is so much technology today to help even a novice fisherman do well, but the numbers of fish and varieties of fish have dwindled substantially. Still, younger fishermen today will be telling stories of the good old days to their wide-eyed kids and grandkids in the future. And that is how the tradition lives and thrives. Stories of fishing and fishermen from now and long ago are what keeps our sport alive.

Someone will no doubt start a thread about the old fishing/charter boats and bait and tackle stores which were so much of the history of fishing in New Jersey.

Thanks, Gerry for the starting the thread.

[bulletbob]

quote:
"Toggin' these days is a joke. Fancy, expensive tackle, fancy rigs, jigs (which I absolutely love doing!)... We never had to fish into December to put nice catches together. Like now, the best fishery is September-October, BEFORE "the opener" in November.... Also April was a great month as was May and even into June. Yes fishing was better for them because of less pressure in the 80's and 90's but it was NEVER so specialized and almost as elite as it is now.

Amen,, when blacks were still around, before people went crazy about snapping up
as many as they could get a hold of to sell so they could be eaten raw, it was a "boat pole' type of fishing and everyone was in the game.. Took a half hour to get the "touch" but the bites came so quickly you always had another chance in ultra short order... No "mystique", no "special touch", no 'blackfish weather"., no custom built $750 rod and reel. Just a good eating bottom fish that bit willingly, fought hard, and required a short adjustment period to get good at.. Lord how I miss those days..
now, you get 50 guys on a party boat, and sometimes 30 or more of them go home without a keeper, and the explanation is "well thats blackfishing".
yeah I guess so now, but for 100 or so years it wasn't... bob

[Merle31483]

From those endless fall nights fishing on top of the highlands, seabrite, and the oceaniac bridges for stripers you guys all know who you are if you have ever fished these bridges back when we all could... To about 18 or so years ago myself and buddy going to belmar nailing weak fish both in the back of the river and the inlet as well fishing all night long for them than renting a boat in shark river and coming home with a cooler full of weekies and fluke driving home on the parkway with my eyes closed only to do it all over again the next night definitely a lot of fun