Thank you finchaser.
Printable View
Thank you finchaser.
Your welcome it's great to see some new blood step up to the plate to save these magnificent fish which really has nothing to do with the pier. So my thanks goes out to all the new blood:clapping::clapping:
DS Matty was a Sowul not Dolly's sister Dotti was her sister
Yep the entire group fished for Fluke, blues ,weakfish,bonita,albacore and dusky sharks the rest of the year from the pier. With our 10 to 11 foot rods and 146 or 145 squidders. we could all cast well over a hundred yards out and land just about anthing we hooked except for the huge cow nosed rays that were the size of table tops back then. They were great times.We even live lined moths for bats that lived under the pier but that's another story.
finchaser, great stories. Thanks for putting them up. Waiting for more.
Happy Trails
I had no idea how hard JCAA folks fought for the great fishery we have now. On the one hand I am dismayed because many guys with boats only know how to catch trophy fish from the bunker schools. Of course, being the sharpie that I am, I would never do this.:rolleyes:
A big THANK YOU:clapping::clapping::clapping::clapping: to finchaser, Melillo, and the JCAA. You guys can't be thanked enough for your efforts. In honor of that I solemnly swear for the rest of 2009, I will make no unkind or pot-stirring remarks about finchaser.
This is truly a great thread. I have lots of memories of going down with my folks to the mansion and the pier. Thank you all for the stories.:clapping:
finchaser I wouldn't sign any deals with Dark with those terms, he's a sneaky sort. Have you seen the full page rants he posts?:kooky: He must type like a 1000 words a minute. Even at .001cents a word, you could end up paying him at least $25/day for that public relations gig. Contact me in private, I can offer you better rates than that. We'll talk, (at your favorite fishing spot, if you don't mind me meeting you there;))
I'm a prefessional at this. If you get any e-mails in the next week from my very famous PR firm, Bababooey, Wecheatem, and Bigg, you will know it's from me.:laugh:
Amazing pictures and stories guys, wow! I wish I could have been old enough to see some of that. Finchaser I hope I get a chance to meet you someday. You cant posibly be as grouchy as darkskies says you are, can you? Thanks for sharing!
:clapping: Awesome! thanks!
:thumbsup: Thanks finchaser and dark and all the others. This is one of the best NJ threads. This is what I found on the early history -----
Long Branch
Long Branch, located on the long branch of the Shrewsbury River in Monmouth County, north of Long Beach Island, was also one of the earliest Jersey Shore resorts. According to Gustav Kobbe, Philadelphians were frequenting a local inn as early as 1788. Before the turn of the century, a boardinghouse operated by Herbert and Chandler presented competition for the first summer rentals. [38] By 1840, New Yorkers were coming by steamers (through an inlet, now filled in) that docked along the Shrewsbury River. [39] Steamship transportation made Long Branch (Fig. 12) a competitive destination with Cape May and Saratoga, establishing the future of the quiet Quaker resort that, in 1876, Harper's Monthly Magazine would declare "the great marine suburb of the great metropolis." [40]
http://www.nps.gov/history/history/o...ages/fig12.jpg Figure 12. Steamboat Landing. Long Branch. Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper. 23 August 1879.
By 1860, Long Branch offered the social schedule and accommodations necessary to attract wealthy celebrities and politicians such as Edwin Booth, Maggie Mitchell, Gen. Winfield Scott, and Mrs. Abraham Lincoln. [41] The city's tradition as a presidential summer resort began in the late 1860s when a group of business and newspaper men bought up beachfront property. After supporting Louis P. Brown in his land-development project, which resulted in the creation of Ocean Avenue, George W. Childs invited President Ulysses S. Grant to experience a Jersey Shore summer. Childs and others pooled their resources to purchase 991 Ocean Avenue for the President and his family, beginning Long Branch's reign as the "summer capital" of the United States. [42] Other presidents followed Grant's example, and Shadow Lawn, the old Elberon Hotel, and an Episcopal church (Fig. 13) near the Takanasses Bridge became known for presidential patronage. The construction of Monmouth Park in 1870 also attracted approval from federal officials. A life-size statue of Grant in front of the track proclaims his fascination with racing.
http://www.nps.gov/history/history/o...ages/fig13.jpg Figure 13. Church of the Seven Presidents, Long Branch. HABS No. NJ-1083-2.
The combination of presidential prestige and the competitive spirit of Monmouth Park, which tacitly sanctioned gambling, resulted in a burst of popularity for the city during the 1870s-80s. Stimulated by gambling activity, Long Branch opened clubs such as the Pennsylvania, where the lucky could flaunt their winnings in style. A parade of larger-than-life characters flocked to "the Branch," eager to partake of the action and outdo their contemporaries in lavish display.
Here Lillie Langtry kept her private car for an entire summer on a railroad siding adjoining the home of her current protector; there Diamond Jim Brady drove Lillian Russell in an electric coupe brightly illuminated on the interior rather than with headlights, so that all might see and enjoy; and here Josie Mansfield and Ed Stokes admired Col. Jim Fisk and his regiment in their gold braid as they played at drilling on the Bluff Parade Grounds. [43]
Summer visits by subsequent Presidents Rutherford B. Hayes, Benjamin Harrison, James Garfield (who died at his cottage in Elberon after being shot in Washington in 1881), and Chester A. Arthur contributed to Long Branch's status as the premiere American resort of its time (Fig. 14). Completion of the New York and Long Branch Railroad in 1875 brought train loads of both the urban rich and the middle class to the seashore, where they stayed in elaborate Victorian hotels and boardinghouses.
The hotels were titanic masses of wood and fancy ornamentation. . .two or three stories in height and usually a block long. Their porches were furnished with wicker rockers and chairs, shaded from the sun by huge striped awnings in bright colors. [44]Hardly a stick of wood remains from hotels such as the West End, which had a wooden footbridge across Ocean Avenue to a two-story beach pavilion.
http://www.nps.gov/history/history/o...ages/fig14.jpg Figure 14. Shadow Lawn. Summer Capitol, Long Branch, NJ. Postcard, Sarah Allaback, Ca. 1916.
Along with the visitors came speculators with money to invest, attracted by what was later described as "brave, expensive and perilous" advertising, sold with "elaborate pressure methods." [45] These investors have left more tangible evidence of their times. Promoter Lewis B. Brown made huge profits subdividing oceanfront plots in Elberon, a seaside neighborhood in Long Branch's south end. [46] Actor Oliver Byron built fourteen cottages at Long Branch, and financier Jay Gould built four. Elberon's streets were lined with shingled, turreted Queen Anne mansions. Old postcards show street profiles of Ocean Avenue porches, gables, towers, and awnings facing the sea. The house Solomon R. Guggenheim bought in 1899 on Ocean Avenue was "festooned with fretwork from porch steps to gable peaks." [47] Though Guggenheim's house was torn down in the 1940s, examples of cottages by Charles McKim of McKim, Mead and White, such as the Charles Taylor House, remained through the early 1980s. New York architects Peabody and Steams, designers of the now-demolished Elberon Casino, were also active in the city. Artist Winslow Homer came to Long Branch in the late 1800s, engraving beach scenes (Fig. 15) for Harpers and other popular magazines and painting his famous "Long Branch, New Jersey," depicting women with parasols peeking over the bluffs.
http://www.nps.gov/history/history/o...ages/fig15.jpg Figure 15. On the Bluff at Long Branch. Winslow Homer. Appleton's Journal. 21 August 1869.
Other evidence of Long Branch at its height can be found inland, mixed with the suburbs and shopping centers that have since surrounded the old business district. In 1905, Murray Guggenheim, son of mining magnate Meyer Guggenheim, hired New York architects Carrere and Hastings to design a palatial residence (Fig. 16). The partners' New York Public Library had gained them a reputation for the kind of civic monumentality Guggenheim must have desired; the Beaux Arts mansion, set amid landscaped grounds at Norwood and Cedar Avenues, resembles a pavilion from the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. The residential design won the architects a gold medal from the New York chapter of the American Institute of Architects. [48] In 1960, the Guggenheim Foundation of New York donated the house to Monmouth College, which now uses it as a library. Also part of Monmouth College is Woodrow Wilson Hall, previously the presidential mansion Shadow Lawn and the set for the movie "Annie." The mansion was built for Hubert Parson, president of Woolworth's, the five-and-dime store chain, and was later used by Woodrow Wilson as a summer residence.
http://www.nps.gov/history/history/o...ages/fig16.jpg Figure 16. Murray Guggenheim House, Long Branch, HABS No. NJ-1178-1.
Seabathing
http://www.nps.gov/history/history/o...ages/fig17.jpg Figure 17. Bathing at Long Branch—"Oh, Ain't it Cold" Every Saturday, August, 1871. Library of Congress.
Today the New Jersey coast, with its endless boardwalks fringed by shooting galleries and fortune-tellers' booths and hamburger and hot-dog stands and salt-water taffy concessions, is solidly in possession of the millions; the millionaires have been good-naturedly elbowed off the scene. Long Branch, even in its prime, was engaged in the unequal struggle of trying to hold back the masses; it was futilely defying its manifest destiny. It could not be, at one and the same time, the great marine suburb of the great metropolis and the snug harbor of the leisure class. [55]
He's worse! :laugh: But I'm used to it. My Dad used to yell at us every day before he died. OGB only yells at me, Killie, or his buddy Dave once a week. We're just lucky I guess. :don't know why:
That's great, minimize it. It's in Killie's best interest to say nice things because he thinks he's got 1st dibs on your fishin gear when ya visit the final fishin grounds. He would sell his soul to get his hands on your gear. :HappyWave: His comments are inadmissible as evidence in the Grouchy peoples court. :D
Wow, This was one of the best threads I read in a while. Thanks Finchaser for sharing the good ole times. I also like to thank finchaser, Joe Melillo, and the JCAA for their hard long fight to get rid of the bunker boats in NJ, and help shape the fishery we have today.
I used to go there when we would visit my cousins who lived in Long Branch. Some of the stories you guys have here are incredible! I never saw the guys pull a shark in, mostly blues and bass, but I sure would have liked to see that. Thanks for sharing, and Merry Christmas to all you folks. :HappyWave:
Great thread!:fishing:
:clapping::clapping: What a great history and collection of stories. You folks are lucky. We didn't have anything like that in Ct.
I don't know about you guys, but I think the babes today are a lot better than the ones back then. You can't even see any flesh in these pics, how did they know if the chick was hot or not?:huh:
July 22, 1893
u never know some of those chicks in dresses cud of been dudes lol.:scared:modern chicks rule:heart:
Attachment 8931
Attachment 8932
Attachment 8933
Attachment 8934
Attachment 8935
The first girl in the series is my favorite. Got any more?:D
nah the last 2 are my hottest. u can do a search too. cmon post up!
I found some old postcards online, great thread.
Great thread, amazing pics.
A little something I found on the windmill, which has been there since 1964:heart:
aht.seriouseats.com/archives/2009/06/the-wind...
A Great Burger by the Beach at The Windmill in Long Branch, New Jersey
Posted by Nick Solares, June 9, 2009 at 10:30 AM
http://aht.seriouseats.com/images/20...r-close-up.jpg
The Windmill
586 Ocean Boulevard, Long Branch NJ 07740; map); 732-229-9863; windmillhotdogs.com
Cooking Method: Charbroiled
Short Order: Classic backyard grill-out burger served out of vintage, circa 1964 edifice that actually looks like a windmill
Want Fries with That? Untested, but they seem to be proud of their cheese fries; they get equal billing with hot dogs and burgers on the chains tag line
Price: Cheeseburger, $4.19
I don't expect every website, particularly those of hamburger joints, to be the last word in web design, but I do expect the photos of the food they use to look somewhat like the food they actually serve—especially if that hamburger is rather good. Take the website for The Windmill, for example. If I didn't know better, and if a friend who grew up near to the Long Branch original hadn't vouched for it, I would never go to the Windmill based on the picture of the hamburger they use on their website. It looks like a stock photo from an agency: big crusty looking bun, vibrantly colored rabbit food that defies gravity by not sagging under the weight of the double serving of beef, the frilly lettuce perfectly ruffled on top of the bottom bun. The picture looks like something from a generic national fast food chain whose food is worse than shown, rather than what the Windmill is: a distinctive regional chain with a burger that is much better than what is pictured on their website.
http://aht.seriouseats.com/images/20...terior-jpg.jpg
Don't be fooled into getting the wrong burger. While The Windmill does offer a "California" burger with lettuce, tomato, and onion on a hard roll as pictured on their website, the basic charbroiled cheeseburger on a generic white bun is a thing of understated beauty. Even though I am a big proponent of griddle-cooked hamburgers, there is something that just feels right about eating charbroiled burgers near the beach. The salt in the air competes with the smoke from the grill for your attention as the taste of the hash marked patties evoke memories of backyard cookouts, beach parties, and summer vacations. There is something festive about this type of hamburger, but I think that they need to be eaten outdoors for the best effect. And that is where I recommend you eat the hamburger at The Windmill.
http://aht.seriouseats.com/images/20...dmill-ext2.jpg
It may be skinny and cooked through, but the fresh, never frozen, beef is juicy nonetheless and has some delightful grill marks that have a pleasing acridity and provide a nice crunch. Underseasoned? Perhaps a tad, but you will hardly notice if you climb the winding stairs up to the outdoor balcony, sit down on the picnic tables, and breathe in the warm, salty breeze. Although the squishy bun may be a bit large for a single patty, it is an otherwise perfect vessel for the smoky patty. You might ask for a double to redress the imbalance or you could just add some pickles and a dollop of mustard or red relish.
http://aht.seriouseats.com/images/20...eeseburger.jpg
The Windmill website might not have the best picture of the hamburgers that they serve, but it at least lets you know that the chain has eight locations throughout New Jersey with a ninth opening soon in Hoboken. I can't imagine that the burgers at any of the other outposts could taste better than the one served at the circa 1964 original in Long Branch, which is the only restaurant in the chain that actually looks like a windmill. You need to be outdoors in the sun with a sea breeze blowing to get the most out of this burger.
You can see the pier and the rides like it was yesterday.:(
the fire
Someone who used to fish that pier and the structure around it sent me this e-mail today, thanks.
"Thanks for the threads on Asbury and the Long Branch pier. Excellent pictures. It was heartbreaking to see that pier destroyed by fire.
Brings back memories of drifting near the pier in my boat. Used to launch out of Shark River. That area was a bonanza for fluke in the summer months. A few weakfish if you got lucky."
old Monmouth park
Attachment 9253
I'm not sure if this was long branch or close by. Some seaside place with a boardwalk, 1900s.
Attachment 9404
Allenhurst and Long Branch pics I found
Attachment 9521
Attachment 9522
Attachment 9523
Attachment 9524
Overheard at the Asbury Park fishing flea market yesterday:
Guys were reminiscing about the Long Branch fishing pier. There are a select few that remember it. I don't. I can only understand those stories through the memories of others.
Anyway, the guys were talking about the memories from the Long Branch fishing pier, and the great stories.
"No matter what the government does for fishermen, or how things are in the future... the guys who fished the Long Branch fishing pier were part of the golden era of fishing. That is an era that can never be duplicated. Those times will never be again..."
Amen to that. I'm grateful to still have some guys around who can still share those stories. :thumbsup:
Right you are, dark. My grandfather used to have a saying that he said when we were little. He said "You can't go home again". I think what he meant was that as we grow, we always want to go back to the times when things were simpler, or more colorful, or we had more fun. As you get older you realize you can't go back there. It's through memories and threads like this that we get to re-visit those places in our minds.
That is why I like looking at this thread from time to time. There are a lot of great memories and stories talked about in here.
http://stripersandanglers.com/Forum/...1&d=1264685042
Note the size of the beach it didn't need to be 300' out into the Ocean to protect houses that never should have been built where they are.
Awesome pics guys. Here's a bit of the modern Long Branch, the Windmill, best cheese fries in the state. :drool:
Attachment 10566
It really sucks to see this again. I grew up as a young boy fishing that pier years ago from 1969 to like 1979. So many memories of that place and the fun times fishing on it.
Might as well bump this one up again, give people the chance to see Finchaser at a moment in time when he was less grouchy. :laugh: :HappyWave:
And, plans are on the board to rebuild the pier.
http://stripersandanglers.com/Forum/...ead.php?t=7000
I'm happy to hear that. But no matter how big or wonderful it is, I know it could never replace the memories or the good times had at the old stinky pier. :thumbsup::thumbsup:
Note to file...
Abundant fish stocks = happy fishermen :fishing:
Declining fish stocks = GROUCHY fishermen :argue:
That is an awesome pic finchaser. I get you could catch fish from any one of those jetties in addition to the lb pier.
Yes we did
This thread is a colorful testament to the way things were. I have been back to read it several times. Thank you. Finchaser thanks for your generosity in supplying the info. Sadly we may never have another place like the Long Branch fishing pier. Dark even though you say they are building a new one I do not feel it will ever be the same. The sights, the sounds. The smells, excitement, I do not think you can capture or replicate that today.
Great thread fellas.
Especially for whiting and ling.The SE corner for Fluke. The front for tiderunner weakfish to 17-18 pounds, slammer blues to 20#, shark,bonita to 10#,spanish mackeral and albacore to 15#
Oh by the way I have pictures to prove all this,those were the good old days