Glory Days Let's Hear Em

[hudsonfisherman]

Manasquan inlet, I was just a kid around 1963-1965.We would fish off the rocks on the inlet side just past the end of the seawall by carlsons corner using small long long shank hooks with a tiny bit of fresh surf clam that we purchased from Carlsons and catching endless buckets of blowfish. Over the course of one summer we learned to clean them with one cut and turning them kinda inside out avoiding breaking the stomach or the acids would eat your fingernails away after cleaning a few hundred. Bergalls and blackfish were by-catch and we threw them all back ! we used to call the bergalls "sleepy fish" because rumor was if you ate to many of them it would make you sleepy.

[TogRipper]

Early 80's leaving on a party boat out of Belmar with my brother in January or February catching sacks of whiting. Bringing them home to be fried or made into a salad.
80's March with my best friend Jim and his dad in the Shrewsbury catching flounder all day and throwing back after we got 20.
80's with my dad and uncle's in April all the Mackeral you wanted from the Miss Belmar coming up five at a time.
May fishing from the beach of LBI in the mid 90's catching stripers from the beach during their big comeback.
June Weakfishing in Barnegat Bay in the 90's with my brother chumming shrimp or drifting shredder crab and stopped counting at 150 fish in four hours.
July in the early 80's fishing from the Sea King out of Belmar when their was no fluke limits in size or bag and remember them being sold on the docks.
August blowfishing in Barnegat Bay in the early 2000's with sabiki rigs bringing home as many as you wanted.
September 90's fishing from the Skylarker chunking yellowfins in a morning blitz.
October blackfishing from the Barnegat Rocks catching slobs.
November night fishing in the 90's on the Freddie eeling stripers and guaranteed a keeper every trip.
November Striper fishing off Barnegat Inlet with my bro in 2009 jigging stripers on every drop.
Crabbing anywhere and getting a bushel.
Thanks Gerry for starting a great post.

[Duffman]

....Palace II outta Hoboken with my Dad and Mom, getting there in our baby blue diesel Volkswagon Rabbit and fishing for mackeral on mothers day ......and watching Dad play a mean game of poker below deck

...Buying longneck Buds at Teds in a brown paper bag before longnecks were a thing, then jumping on the Happy for the afternoon fluke trip.

...Summer vaca in wildwood every year hitting up the Royal Flush for night blues.

...Magic hour 330-900 trips and Nordic eels.

...Miss Take II Thanksgiving morning striper trips.

...Earle Pier when you were actually able to fish it by boat.

...NJF tuna trips by AndyS.....some of the best $hit ever and it had nothing to do with the catching

...Peconic bay weakfish trips out of Port Of Egypt.

...renting skiffs from Margos, Jacks and Schupps

[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

[Captain Hook]

Great winter fishing today in NJ...

[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.