Fishing Memories Page 1
|
Recently we received an e-mail which gave us an idea. We thought it might be nice to have a section where people could write about the "fishing days of old",or maybe their favorite fishing trip, an unusual fish story, how you got "hooked" on fishing, or caught your first striper or any fish. The e-mail read as follows:
"I recently visited your site and enjoyed it very much. It also reminded me of many good summers I had in the Villas as a young boy. In the late 50's and early 60's me and a couple friends use to jump on our bikes to go fishing and crabbing from the many piers that adorned the shore line. Starting from the North end there was Wroyces', Abbinatti's, Fishing Club, Jackson's and Neeley's. I think Neeley's was last and they sold it and it became the Leatherneck's pier??. ( During those times the only thing that out numbered the piers were the bars) Ha Ha . Back then we rarely got skunked whether it be crabbing or fishing.
Spot, Porgy, Weakfish, Croaker, King Fish and even Flounder and the occasional Blow fish from the piers and there was always plenty of crabs towards the end of summer.
I think around 1965 I started to work Abbinatti's pier during the summer. A resident and I loaded the rental boats with motors and fishing equipment and also towed boats out who did not rent or have a motor. When those boats returned from fishing(6:00 till 6:00) they usually had huge catches of weakies and other varieties of fish.
Believe it or not during those good days we sometimes had to sink the rental boats and let it soak over night to get all the scales and fish stink out of the boats from all the fish that was thrown in them. Although the fishermen rarely cared about the catch and often left a good bit of them behind, Abbinatti's made good use of them by giving them to people on the pier and donating the rest to different church groups for fish fry's. The powers that be should start working on rebuilding the Weakies as they did the Stripers. Strange as it may seem I don't remember much talk about Stripers back then.
The entire length of the Villas about 1 mile out( 20 foot) was all you needed to go and catch fish. Of course you had to find the HOT spots but that was rarely hard to do. Two favorite spots I remember were at the North end around the stakes and out in front of the old Layer's Dutch Kitchen.
In Abbinatti's store there were many, many pictures of fish catches and I also remember pictures of huge drum. I remember the old timers talking about a 'Green Shanty'(long gone) at the Southend of Town Bank. They said about a mile out from there is where they caught the Drum??? Have you ever heard any old timers telling stories of catching drum there?"
A Fisherman
I'm sure there must be loads of fish stories out there. You don't have to be a famous writer or even a semi-famous writer. We would like to hear your own words. You don't even have to sign your name if you don't want to, just tell us a story. Send your story to :
patti@stripercam.com
|
As a young boy growing up in N. Cape May, I spent many hours during the summer around the railway. The best part of the day was watching Al fire up that old six cylinder Chevy engine to haul the boats from the water after a day of fishing the bay. Wow, it was noisy. Sometimes he would let me ride down the rail on the car to help load the boats when the tide was real low. It was the best. The fishermen always had a good catch. After helping out, I was rewarded with a cold soda from Bud and Anns grocery across the street from Als. The sodas were always good and cold in the old style ice boxes. Bud was a grouch, but I think that was an act for us kids. Where have all the good times gone! It was the best growing up on the bay. More later.
Paul Will