NJ shore Memories and Old-time fishermen from the past...

[buckethead]

I have seen so many good places and attractions get swept away by progress. It may be inevitable, we don't have to like it. I really do miss some of the old nj shore attractions. Anyone care to share with some old postcards or clippings?

[DarkSkies]

A friend sent me this clip of Seaside Heights back in the day.

[DarkSkies]

I just realized there is a whole thread on Asbury Park by itself if anyone wants to stroll down memory lane.

http://stripersandanglers.com/Forum/...read.php?t=958

[bababooey]

Asbury got taken over by the alternate lifestylers who couldn't afford Ocean Grove, Dark. Who remembers the Long Branch fishing pier, and frostfish whiting in November?

[storminsteve]

Who remembers the Long Branch fishing pier, and frostfish whiting in November?

My grandpa took me there when I was a kid. There was this chum machine that put out ground up chum to the water, way cool. Also the Sea Bright wall used to be a lot different, but I didn't do much surf fishing back then, just pier fishing and fishing off the jetty for seabass and sea robins at Shark River.

[DarkSkies]

Asbury got taken over by the alternate lifestylers who couldn't afford Ocean Grove, Dark. Who remembers the Long Branch fishing pier, and frostfish whiting in November?

I decided to add another dimension to this thread. During the last few days I've met so many old timers and got to listen to them reminiscing how things used to be. In many instances what they are relating is new to me. I soak it up like a sponge, I really enjoy it.

So I'll periodically be putting up snapshots of some old time fishermen in this thread along with some cool fishing stories.

Some of them will be well-known, others maybe you never heard of them. I can promise you I will try to get the funniest or most unusual stories from them, in my usual folksy style.

I hope you people enjoy it. If you have any older fishing friends or relatives you feel should be featured here in this thread, feel free to PM me or e-mail me and I'll see what I can do.

[DarkSkies]

Met these 2 characters today in Point Pleasant. They had stories from fishin that pier you wouldn't believe!





I was honored to hear their fishing stories and how things were 40 years ago. I'll fill this post and the pics in when I can. In the meantime, here's a fishing nugget:

What was the biggest crab ever caught in NJ?

22", claw to claw (that's how they measured em back then), caught by Louie, in the 1950's.
The story - he caught it in the bay around 1955. It was the largest crab anyone had ever seen. Instead of eating it, Louie kept it in his freezer. Whenever anyone asked him about that crab, he would pull it out of the freezer and show it to them.

When they first told me this story, it seemed hard to believe. Then I realized the "claw to claw" thing, and I'm thinking this crab could have been at least 12" across the shell, or bigger, for it to "tape out" at 22". No matter how you look at it, that was an impressive crab, and could have been a record if he documented it back then.

Current NJ record crab:
Crab, blue8 1/2"pt.to pt1995William DoolManahawkin

Thr "world record" crab was caught in Va, and is around 11".


Long Branch cast of characters from the LB fishing pier:
Little Johnny
Shop Rite Eddie
Matty
Cigar Tony
Eddie the Hammer

[finchaser]

Asbury got taken over by the alternate lifestylers who couldn't afford Ocean Grove, Dark. Who remembers the Long Branch fishing pier, and frostfish whiting in November?

I do, The restaurant was at the front of the pier. I started fishing the LB pier in 1955. First bass I ever caught came out from under the pier and hit a whiting (frost fish) in the shadow line when I was about to reel it up on to the pier. Caught many whiting,ling,fluke,sharks, bonita,albacore ,bluefish and weakfish to 15 and 16 pounds off the pier, they were great times. I'll put up some pictures after I digitize them

Then again I remember swimmingin the saltwater pool in Seaside in the video clip when I was kid

[DarkSkies]

I have couple good memories of being invited to his house near the beach when we were kids. We caught a few striped bass and some bluefish back then. It was chiefly a bait and wait kind of thing, but it was exciting.

Sometimes we caught, sometimes we didn't. That's fishin.

I think it was the first place I got a striper, short, but still I was happy. I remember reeling it in, and how that bass fought! To me it was a start of the saltwater addiction.

I didn't get into the salt fully until years later because there were so few opportunities for us kids to get down there. We fished the hell out of every freshwater place I could ride my bike to instead.

I'm grateful for the times they did invite us down, and I was reminded of those memories 3 weeks ago when I went to visit him.

All the boys in his family fished, and sometimes the girls, but it was mostly a guy thing. They would be out there several times a week, bait fishing at the right time and tide, and I heard some good stories of bigger bass caught over the years.

He loved to go to the beach, just to be there. He worked hard all his life, demanding physical labor, to give his family and others the opportunities he never had when they grew up in the Depression. He paid the college tuition for my Dad, and his other brother. Now he can't walk well, and can't fish. I'm trying to share more fishin stories with him.

He was the rock of the family, never complaining, never griping. If he had something negative to say about someone, he kept it to himself. He generously helped everyone in the family, and never needed a pat on the back for it. In fact, I only found out that he paid for others to go to school because we were on the subject.

He's a man a lot of people looked up to, but who was never comfortable with that, He was happier being humble and just doing his thing to make a good life for his family. I admire and respect that.












His early fishing memories of the Norma K:

"Norma K used to be one of my favorite boats. I've been on Bogan's boats and all the others. Nothing against them, they are all good boats. The NormaK always stood out in my mind, though. We felt she was the cleanest. The mates scrubbed her down every day just like on the other boats, but it was a little different, they always seemed to pay more attention.

It was like the Capn trained them exactly how he wanted it, and they followed it to the letter each time. They also put some kind of car wax on the boat for the weekends, which meant it always looked good. It was a good boat to go out on.

Capt Ken Keller, we used to go with him when it was the old Norma K I. That was his first Norma, an old tub, but he would go all over to get us some fish. And catch we did, we used to get sacks of whiting in the winter, those were the days!

Then he had a boat built in Louisiana, which was the Norma K II. It was fast and new, great to fish on. Heated handrails were the latest. Before that you went out and suffered, and no one complained like these kids today. We didn't care what we had to do or go out in, if the fish were biting and the seas were navigable, we went fishing.

He had a good Capn, **** Hauser, Eventually **** left to open a B&T. I think it was on Channel drive in Point Pleasant, right by the inlet. All the mates and Capns were great, worked hard, and made those boats a good place to fish."

[captnemo]

My Dad used to go on the first NormaK and told me the stories as well. They would use the burlap potato sacks tied to the handrails, and fill them with winter whiting. When the whiting were around thew would fill the sacks. Then the Russian trawlers came and wiped them out, and we have basically a tiny fishery for them today compared what it used to be. Great thread, thanks for sharing.

[bababooey]

I fished on the NormaKII with my grandfather. He liked to take me whiting fishing because it was fun and easy fish for a kid to catch. I think he also liked to have me around so I could carry the fish at the end of the day. I would love to be able to go turn the clock one day and fish with gramps again. Great times, brings me back, thanks.

[DarkSkies]

As related by Finchaser:


Fishing on the party boats, NJ and LI:

NJ fishing:
"We fished on the fastest of the NJ party boats at that time in the 60's and early 70's, the Superspray.
And the Buccaneer, which was later declared unfit for commercial use and sank at the dock.

There were no "heated handrails" back then. You suffered, and didn't complain about it.

Miss TakeII - first jigging trip.
Capt Whitey Morenz brought us as guinea pigs on his first jigging trip - before that they always used bait for bass and blues. He was trying out these new metal jigs, which later came to be known as diamond jigs or Avas.

We were the first fishermen in NJ to use those jigs, and also the "Bingle bananas"

Also went on Bogan's boats, have been fishing on Bogan's boats for 55 years.

Codfish in NJ:
Codfish used to be plentiful in NJ until the commercial draggers wiped them out. We used to catch them at the 1 mile marker out of Point Pleasant, Cholera Banks, Klondike, and Manasquan Ridge. No need to go to the 30 mile wrecks, as soon as it got cold, they were out there.

My father took me on a codfish trip in Feb when I was 6 years old. If I said something about how cold it was, he said:
'You want to be a man, don't ***** about the cold!' "

[jigfreak]

old atlantic city