Quote:
Originally Posted by Denlon
I guess most of you guys are too young to remember the glory days of whiting and ling fishing in the 40's, 50's, and 60's.
In those days you could literally fill up a coal bag or a bushel basket with a mixture of these fish while fishing off the surf or jetties around the Long Branch area. The Long Branch Pier (Burned down around 1985) was a mecca for whiting and ling fishing when the ocean was calm and a light NW wind kept it flat. The guys literally fished 3 deep at the railings. It was a mad house out there.
Then sometime in the late 70's, I believe, the federal fisheries guys determined that this great fishery was under utilized, and that it would be both politically and financially beneficial to open up the fishery to the Russian and Eastern European factory ships. In a few years you couldn't catch a whiting or ling along the Jersey coast. They were essentially wiped out until the federal guys put a stop to it. I think they assumed the the fishery would recover without the factory ship pressure. In the 40 years since, maybe it has slightly recovered, but it never became fully restored and I don't think it ever will.
Denny
|
Denny,
FYI the pier burned down in June of 87' and it was a travesty when that happened and it's a shame they never rebuilt it. I wish I enjoyed the fishery there (born in the mid 70's) when it was in it's hey-day!
Ling fishing was different "back then" as ling were viewed by many (and many old timers see it the same way now) as trash fish. But we caught ling until the 80's right inshore with the whiting when they schooled up, just #'s were less. Ling are now mostly a deep water fishery and I haven't seen a ling in on the beach in years...
Whiting are on the rebound, somewhat. Rebound is a term used loosely here. There have been a good deal of whiting the past few summers out to the east, mostly spikes, but we've seen some bigger ones and we've even caught some while fluke fishing. But, the traditional late fall, winter stuff we know years ago is long gone like you said.....
