Stripers then and Now....Reprinted with permission of ShoreLady

[DarkSkies]

Just wanted to give thanks to ShoreLady, who gave her permission to post this article that was originally published in the Asbury Park Press.

ShoreLady's family has a long-standing connection with fishing and fishermen. She's sent us pics to post in the past of her family's sporting goods store, but this is the first time I've seen this story in print.

Thanks again to Judy, and also to the Asbury Park Press and Dan Radel for doing such a great job chronicling part of NJ's fishing history! :clapping: :thumbsup: :HappyWave:

[DarkSkies]

http://www.app.com/article/20110501/NJSPORTS06/110501014/Stripers-then-now


Stripers then and now

The names and places may have changed but not the pursuit

10:32 AM, May. 1, 2011 |
Comments (http://www.app.com/comments/article/20110501/NJSPORTS06/110501014/Stripers-then-now)

http://cmsimg.app.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=B3&Date=20110501&Category=NJSPORTS06&ArtNo=110501014&Ref=AR&MaxW=640&Border=0
"Squidding for bluefish at Asbury Park," a woodcut by Theodore Russel Davis (1840-1894) that appeared in Harper's Weekly, on July 3, 1880.~ / File Photo







http://cmsimg.app.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/persbilde?Avis=B3&ID=dradel&maxH=55&maxW=55 (dradel@njpressmedia.com) Written by

DAN RADEL (dradel@njpressmedia.com)


[ Per Shorelady, this is the Seger Family fishing shack at the end of the First Ave Pier in Asbury Park. It operated as a satellite branch of the main sporting goods store on Cookman Ave.]

http://cmsimg.app.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=B3&Date=20110501&Category=NJSPORTS06&ArtNo=110501014&Ref=V1&MaxW=300&Border=0 An angler stands outside Seger's Sporting Goods store with two striped bass in 1910.

/ File Photo



A new spring run has started up and a new generation of surf anglers is taking to the beaches where the tracks of their predecessors have long been washed away by the tide. It’s as if they were never there. But they were.

The black and white 1910 picture on the Asbury boards captured a glimpse of them but still leaves much to be known. Who is the angler standing out front of Seger’s Sporting Goods with the two striped bass, the boy leaning in the doorway or the man staring out from behind the glass windows?


We’ve been covering fishing on the Jersey Shore in print in three different centuries. Over that time the names have changed, certainly the fashions and tackle have, and some fishing spots are no longer here. One thing however, has remained constant during those years. Every season when the stripers showed in the surf people have been there to catch them.


We can start this story in the 1880’s when Asbury Park was a young seaside resort and the train depots were bustling in people daily from the cities. Hotel arrivals were announced in the weekly newspaper The Daily Spray, the forerunner to the Asbury Park Press.


Many were coming to take in the “beneficial qualities of sea bathing,” as they called it.

Beach life as we know it at the Shore was in its formative years and fishing from the surf was beginning to take its shape as seen in the reprint of the July 3, 1880 Harper’s Weekly woodcut. In this image men are seen throwing squid spoons into the surf during what must have been a bluefish blitz witnessed by Theodore Russell Davis, the artist who created the woodcut.

The squid spoons were tied to spindles planted in the sand. Once the spoon was thrown a fishermen could release his hands from the string and allow the spoon to hit the surface and sink. Then came the fun part: fighting bluefish with bare hands while they made their hard runs.


Spectators dressed in fine clothes are also drawn to the frenzy. Perhaps some are vacationers seeing it for the first time and will spread the word of fishing at the Shore.

[DarkSkies]

http://www.app.com/article/20110501/NJSPORTS06/110501014/Stripers-then-now

(Page 2 of 4)




If the fishermen of this era could speak what would they say to us? Did they have any concerns over fish stocks or regulations like we have today?


Arguably, they might find today’s circumstances head scratching but they did have their own gripes in their own time, principally with moss bunker. In the woodcut, Davis’s attention to detail allowed him to include the vital baitfish as they were pushed up on the beach by the blues.


The relationship between bunker populations and strong spring runs of fish were most likely well understood by the fishers of the time. Likewise, “bunker wars” were already taking place and the resentment found its way into the papers.


A headline on the front page of the June 24, 1885 edition of The Daily Spray read “Pirates on the High Seas.”


The article portrays disdain for a fleet of moss bunker boats working close to the shore:

“Yesterday morning we were strolling along the beach just as the sun was reaching its first beams and burnishing the waters with its golden rays, when the beauty of the scene was suddenly marred by the appearance of a fleet of moss-bunker pirates each with a look out at mass-head, and all intent upon capturing as many of those scaly wanderers of the sea they possible could.”


There is also a feeling of helplessness to combat this “wanton attempt to depopulate our waters” expressed in the article.


“Why all the efforts lately put forth for the suppression of this great wrong should have so signally failed…Has the state or the general Government any authority in such matters; or are these fish thieves a law unto themselves!”


As the 19th century closed the 1900’s ushered in a new era with significant changes to surf fishing, primarily in tackle. Rods and reels began to be used more commonly on the beaches. In Asbury Park one of the crafter’s of custom fishing rods was John Fielder Seger, a resident of Ocean Grove. Seger began to build his rods in the late 1880s and after the turn of the century opened a sporting goods store on Cookman Avenue in Asbury Park.

[DarkSkies]

http://www.app.com/article/20110501/NJSPORTS06/110501014/Stripers-then-now


(Page 3 of 4)




It’s nearly impossible to know if the rod in the angler’s hand in the black and white photo was one made by Seger or not. One thing is certain its crude tackle compared to what surf anglers are using today. The rod is probably seven feet in length judging by the doorway and features two guides, a tip and a conventional reel. The reel would not have had a drag and the fishing line was made of cotton that had to be dried out after each use to make sure it didn’t rot.


Despite the length of the rod and conventional reel, anglers of this era were more than capable of casting long distances from the beach. The Asbury Park Fishing Club, founded 1888, was noted for having annual casting competitions from the beach and the results of the 1911 contest were published in a June 15, 1912 New York Times article. The winner was William J. Moran of New York with a cast of 314 feet, 10 inches using a 3-ounce lead weight. Second place went to C.M. Day of Morristown with a cast of 299 feet, 6 inches.


By 1912 striped bass fishing by rod and reel was fully developed in Asbury Park. The common terminal tackle being used at the time was 200 yards of linen line, a 2/0 reel, a 3 or 4 ounce lead weight with a two foot long leader and a 6/0 forged hook. The widely used baits were shedder crabs and blood worms.


Called rodsmen, striped bass fishermen had already discovered the secrets to catching bass in the surf and were beginning to pass that knowledge on. Fishing spots were debated but most fishermen in the Asbury Park vicinity casted off the beach while a smaller group favored the Asbury Park fishing pier. The isolated jetties and abandoned bulkheads also received their fair share of fishermen looking for that prized striper.


Bass fishermen sought to cast about 200 yards or more to land their bait in the feeding ground. The Asbury coast was described as a series of sandbars, running parallel with the beach and dotted with deep holes in which clams, bugs and other crustaceans gathered.

It was already a known fact at the time that in high water the bass came into those holes to feed and the “wise fisherman” located those holes during the low tide.

[DarkSkies]

http://www.app.com/article/20110501/NJSPORTS06/110501014/Stripers-then-now


(Page 4 of 4)




The Asbury Park Fishing Club was also beginning to record the names of anglers and their catches. Some names in the club’s book in 1912 were George W. Savage of Mount Holly who had the notoriety at the time of having caught the largest fish from the Asbury Pier, a 47-pound, 9-ounce striper. A few other names were William D. Kelm of Asbury Park, with a 36-pound bass, Niart Rogers of Bradley Beach with a 26 ½-pound bass and William D. Pennypacker, of Asbury Park with a 40-pound bass.


The popularity of bass fishing at the time in Jersey owed a lot to the Asbury Park Fishing Club, founded by Colonel James A. Bradley. By 1912 the club has the largest membership in the country. The club’s President then was George W. Fennimore, the Vice President was James M. Gentle, the Secretary was Rueben H. Norris and John F. Seger, of Seger’s Sporting Goods was Treasurer.


The clubs original clubhouse was located on the Asbury fishing pier however, both the clubhouse and the pier were wiped out in the 1944 hurricane.


Today Joe Pallotto is the current President of the Asbury Park Fishing Club and although the club can no longer boast having the highest membership in the country it can brag that it is the oldest.


One of the biggest changes Pallotto has seen in the bass fishery during his time on the beach is the use of cell phones. “When I started out you had to figure out how and where to fish, now guys with cell phones tell where the bass blitzes are and the spots get crowded,” Pallotto said.


“We also didn’t have these big schools of stripers that we’ve been catching the last decade. Years ago a 40-pound bass was something to marvel, lately it’s been too common. And the new reels and braided lines are making catching them easy,” he added.


Pallotto said the striped bass fishery declined in the 1970s and only recently bounced back with the bunker proving again that bunker are just as vital to today’s anglers as they were to those in the 19th century.


Perhaps the recent decades run of bass, new bait runner spinning reels and cell phones are making bass fishing easy.


But I wonder what the guys throwing squid spoons would have thought of fishermen using rods and reels at the turn of the century? It’s true that one generation of bass fishermen passes the torch to the next. One can only wonder how they will be catching them here in 20, or even 50 years from now.

[stripermania]

Hey Dark,

Thanks for taking the time to post that great story. It gave such great insite as to the really of fisherman years ago. If people don't start practicing C/R then we won't have to worry about the difference between now and 50 years from now.

[bababooey]

It's astounding to me that back then, they dressed up for everything, even when they went fishing. Thanks for sharing that with us shorelady.

[storminsteve]

What a piece of history. Great read, thanks for posting.

[lostatsea]

One of the biggest changes Pallotto has seen in the bass fishery during his time on the beach is the use of cell phones. “When I started out you had to figure out how and where to fish, now guys with cell phones tell where the bass blitzes are and the spots get crowded,” Pallotto said.

“We also didn’t have these big schools of stripers that we’ve been catching the last decade.Years ago a 40-pound bass was something to marvel, lately it’s been too common. And the new reels and braided lines are making catching them easy,” he added.



Amen to that, I wonder if some of these guys could catch a fish without a cell phone!
Cool article.

[surferman]

Back in time, awesome story.

[Shorelady]

It's astounding to me that back then, they dressed up for everything, even when they went fishing. Thanks for sharing that with us shorelady.

From the stories I heard from my father, my grandmother was also an avid fisher. Not a hair out of place, in her skirt, fishing from the surf. That is one photo I would have loved to have had.

[voyager35]

Very impressive article shorelady. The image of a lady dressed in a skirt fishing from the surf is one that evokes an earlier time, when folks dressed up and even the recreational activities demanded neat attire.

[cowherder]

I wonder if some of these guys could catch a fish without a cell phone!


Probably not, they should transport them back in time to the 1940s when they had to use that old fashioned gear. I would like to see how they handle THAT.

[seamonkey]

From the stories I heard from my father, my grandmother was also an avid fisher. Not a hair out of place, in her skirt, fishing from the surf. That is one photo I would have loved to have had.

shorelady I did some research on this site. There was another thread where you posted about your grandmother and darkskies put up some info about your great grandfather. This is so cool that your ancestors were part of this history.



Thought you might enjoy these. Quality of photo is not great, but fishing in your suit and tie?:)
I hope the photos attached, properly...

**********************
Shorelady, the pics attached great! Thanks for posting them. Welcome to StripersandAnglers. :HappyWave:

I took the liberty of doing research about Seger's Sporting goods, and posted the 3 pieces you see below the 2 you posted. Was this someone in your family?

family?

http://stripersandanglers.com/Forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=8415&d=1259197555&thumb=1 (http://stripersandanglers.com/Forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=8415&d=1259197555)

http://stripersandanglers.com/Forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=8416&d=1259197555&thumb=1 (http://stripersandanglers.com/Forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=8416&d=1259197555)





SOURCE:
History of Monmouth County, New Jersey, 1664-1920, Volume 3, pg 242
By Lewis Historical Publishing Co

By Lewis Historical Publishing Co

http://stripersandanglers.com/Forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=8417&d=1259216891

http://stripersandanglers.com/Forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=8418&d=1259216891

http://stripersandanglers.com/Forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=8419&d=1259216891

Last edited by DarkSkies; 11-26-2009 at 01:34 AM. Reason: Added Seger bio

[Shorelady]

thanks for putting that up again. I lost everything on my computer 2 weeks ago and I completely forgot about that. Wow! Thank you!

[voyager35]

I enjoyed reading that. The way things were done back then, and the formality, intrigues me. Thank you for helping to paint a picture for us of simpler times.

[cowherder]

X2, simpler times and a lot stress too! Can you imagine how less complicated life would be if you weren't bothered by texts and e-mails every 15 minutes....what a peaceful existence!:drool:

[baitstealer]

Very nice history and old photos'. Thanks for sharing!

[DarkSkies]

When I go on and on....about the current state of striped bass....some don't understand....this is some early history posted with permission of Shorelady.......

Thought some of ya's might like to read it again......:HappyWave: