Glory Days Let's Hear Em

[frugalfisherman]

Nobody mentioned blowfish. Fishing of the railroad bridge between Brielle and PP you could catch all you wanted in the early 60's. Of course now there are no trespassing signs.

[Skolmann]

-LBI circa 1976, massive school of bluefish in the #7-12 class push a school of bait fish into the beach at high and get trapped by a sandbar when the tide drops. Bite lasted for hours, guys catching well over 100 (some released, some not) on anything you threw.

-March 1996 my best friend and I did a bluefin charter out of Cape Hatterass Marina. We brought 18 bluefin (12 for me, 6 for him as he eventually felt the effects of a big sea) to the boat from an estimated #185-325...kept our limit of one and tagged/released the rest. One the way in we trolled up black fin tuna & king mackerel.

-Halloween mid 2000’s, on a non sponsors boat out of Leonardo we had non stop action anchored in the middle of nowhere with striped bass...nothing under 38”s. We’re tight on bass before the anchor was tight.Literally we would flip our clam bait out from the stern/starboard corner and as soon as the boat got in the zone you were hooked up...took a step our a left and fought the fish, while the next guy casted out, once the fish was close we took another step to the left and the fish was netted...you repaired and got back in line. Went on like this for 4 hours.

-Afternoon live lining trip in Raritan Bay, left with a full well of live bunker..found a school of bass (nothing giant #17-30)...went through a full live well of bait in short order..reloaded on bait...went back to the spot and again went through a full live well of bait...did this another 2 times. Bass would hit the bunker within 30 seconds of being in the water, even fresh dead bunker drifted out produced a bite....4 man charter put well over 200 bass (only keeping a 4 man limit) in the boat.

-Fluke fishing in the Manasaquan River aboard the Reel Class, I caught over 110 fluke bucktailing on a 6 hour trip..no keepers but when using trout gear even the shorts put on a good show.

-As mentioned the Raritan Bay weakfish bite was epic at times.

-April 2015 fishing the Marathon Hump, we fished live pilchards on medium spinning gear and crushed the black fin tuna to #25.

-Late March a few years ago (when we had that very early stripper & bluefish jig bite. Jason and I were aboard the Golden Eagle, we each got our two keeper bass on our first two drops..we proceeded to catch a few more bass while also filling 2.5 garbage barrels with bluefish


Those are just the ones that come to mind off the top of my head.

[june181901]

Fishing on the Viking 2 out of Princess Bay. I'd come home on leave and my buddy and I would go there from Bayonne. We'd fill two burlap bags with whiting and ling, bring them back to Slim's Cafe in Bayonne and hand them out to the guys who hung around there. Also recall on those trips the boats from Belford selling lobsters for .50 cents as they would pull along side the Viking.Winter of '65 was the last time we did that.

[Capt Sal]

Shorts?

[bassnblues]

Catching ling in sandy hook bay behind officers row.

Porgys in the shrews by the rumson bridge.

[AndyS]

I would rather not dwell on the past and how great fishing used to be, but instead look to the future and what we can do save some for future generations.

[emcjim]

Sept., 1966 bluefin tuna at 17 fathoms and the Farms.

Started on the Teal w/ the late Capt. Fred Moore. Caught our live bait w/ gold hooks on the bottom. Mostly tinker mackerel, w/ some ling & whiting mixed in. Live-lined live bait in the chum slick. That was the start for me. Rainy weekday in mid-Sept. Nice catch of 20-to-35# "schoolies".

The following weekend, 2 of us in my 16' Boston Whaler at the Farms in a partyboat bluefish fleet. A tub in the small cockpit to keep the bait alive. 2 skipjack, 2 25# tuna, and 2 50-55# tuna. Probably got noticed on the Miss Belmar when they passed close to us returning home. We held up the 2 big ones. No size limits, bag limits -- sold the fish at Carlson's Fishery for $0.06/lb.

Next trip on the Whaler a week later also at the Farms. 2 of us caught 11 bluefin, 25-to-35#. Cloudy day, filled the cockpit. Again Carlson's offered $0.06/lb, but this time gutted. Remember a trying to get a live-lined tinker mackerel away from the boat, but it kept diving under the outboard motor. Replaced the tinker w/ a ling which also tried to dive under the motor, but was not fast enough. A flash in the water, and the tuna was on -- right at the boat.

Labor Day weekend, 1969. Again 2 of us on the Whaler. Huge fleet strung out at the edge of the Mud Hole from 17 to the Farms. We moved the the South end of the fleet, so we might have been on the Farms or close to it. Bill got a false albie, and I got a fish on that I played for 1-1/4 hours. We somehow got the tuna into the boat at 7:20PM. It was longer than the cockpit was wide. Head went up the side on one side and the tail went up the other side. Arrived at the AH ramp in the dark. Someone asked "Tuna, at the point of the hook?". I said, "From the point of the hook, ran about 14 miles at 140". Don't know if he believed me, or even knew what I meant by 140 (magnetic course). No GPS, no Loran, no sonar, just a compass.

The younger readers might find it hard to believe those bluefin tuna stories, as inshore bluefins are scarce, and have been for a long time. But I have a good memory (even at age 81) and all of the above is true.

[Reel Class]

Originally Posted by frugalfisherman

Nobody mentioned blowfish. Fishing of the railroad bridge between Brielle and PP you could catch all you wanted in the early 60's. Of course now there are no trespassing signs.

Bruce, there are still tons of blowfish around there just aren't many in the river. Barnegat Bay was absolutely loaded for 2 months last summer. We even caught lots of them in some of the creeks where the crabs are. I'm not sure why there aren't many in the river anymore though.

[Reel Class]

EMCJIM you also made me remember something else...

It was late September of 1990 and my dad and I hopped on the Norma-K II for an afternoon bluefish trip. We chugged out to the Manasquan Ridge, dropped the hook in and started chumming. JUMBO blues were coming up in minutes and we were all getting our asses kicked with 15-20# GATORS. Breaking them off, fighting them, etc. Bonito and albies were in the mix, and believe it or not, a few small schoolie bluefin tuna even made it to the boat. We were 6 miles off the beach, slaughtering these things and even had a couple tuna - amazing. This was around the time the mud hole tuna bite was slowing so it was really cool. I was 14 at the time and was amazed THEN. Great memories.