FinFun: Close for Comfort

FinFun: Close for Comfort: "With his bikini-clad girlfriend looking on, a Jones Inlet surf fisherman went jaw-to-jaw shouting match, exchanging verbal insults with a bo..."

FinFun: Remembering 9-11

FinFun: Remembering 9-11: "I saw tragic world history take place right before my eyes yet I sat there puzzled to what actually was taking place. On the morning of Sep..."

Remembering 9-11

I saw tragic world history take place right before my eyes yet I sat there puzzled to what actually was taking place.

On the morning of September 11, 2001 I headed to porgy fish at Point Lookout jetties. As I drove southbound on the Wantagh Parkway I saw a group of cars and one police car stopped near the first Wantagh Bridge. Folks and the police officer were looking west. I turned quickly to look and I only saw thick, black smoke. My first thought that it was a huge boat fire in the back bays.

I continued to drive to Point Lookout. Once there, I climbed the western jetty to porgy fish. I had luck in recent weeks with nabbing 11” to 12” porgies there so I was confident I would bring home that day some fish. As I sat there on my cooler fishing on the jetty, I noticed thick, black smoke bellowing in the western skies. At first I thought it was an incinerator fire. I was totally clueless to what was causing the huge black clouds of smoke.

After fishing and catching a couple of keeper porgies a fisherman hopped onto the jetty to fish at the end of it. He said something to me but it didn’t register. I continued to fish for another hour or so, catching only throw back short porgies. Just before noon, I decided to pack it in and go home. The thick black cloud was still in the sky and I still had no clear understand of what was taking place.

Until I got into my car and turned on the radio to the news station and heard about the 9/11 attack. All of a sudden the pieces of the puzzle fell into place. The police officer and the crowd of parked cars near the First Wantagh Bridge and why they were all looking west. The reason for the thick, black smoke bellowing in the sky now all made perfect sense.

This country was under attack by terrorists. When I got home, of course, I turned on the television and watched the news report. I sat there on my couch stunned, sadden, angry yet mostly shocked. During the following days, the names of the victims including the brave NYC firefighters and police officers who lost their lives were released. One of my college friends who grew up in nearby Seaford had perished while he was working for the NYPD.

To simply say I was stunned, sadden, angry and most of all shocked. As the weeks passed on, I thought to myself I sat there at the Point Lookout western jetty and saw history unravel before my very eyes and yet I was in the dark about what had happened and what was happening. On that day, I didn’t listen to the radio news going fishing or while fishing so I had no idea about what was taking place. A fellow fisherman said something to me but it just didn’t register. I wasn’t really paying that much attention to what he was saying.

It was the eeriest fishing day I had ever experienced. Mass murder had taken place before my eyes about 35 miles west. At the Jones Beach Piers, the most western one, I used to be able to see the Twin Towers on a clear day, and I probably could have saw the Twin Towers while I stood on the roof of my house. The last time I visited the Towers was when my European family came to visit in 1998 and we went to the city to visit the sites, one of them, of course, was the Twin Towers.

Yet on that morning of September 11, 2001 I was not expecting to see the Twin Towers from the Point Lookout western jetty. And I wasn’t expecting to see thick, black smoke bellowing into the skies. I was just thinking about catching fish. I just was out there to fish and whittle away the passing time in an enjoyable manner. I had no clue I was going to see tragic world history take place before my eyes. Yet I did. It was a sad day, a very sad day.

Close for Comfort

With his bikini-clad girlfriend looking on, a Jones Inlet surf fisherman went jaw-to-jaw shouting match, exchanging verbal insults with a boater who opted to fish close to the shoreline. The fisherman on the boat was furious because he perceived wrongly the land locked fisherman as burying an illegal catch.

Not so, the surf fisherman was just keeping his huge fluke, about 23," possibly 24" out of the sun to retain its freshness by placing it deep in the sand. The boater, however, didn’t and couldn’t realize this since he was fishing on his boat about 30 to 40 yards from the shoreline.

In his fury and anger, the boater grabbed his cell phone and called the authorities. Within 10 minutes the Bay Constable showed up. Since I was the first one they encountered on the beach, the constables asked to inspect my cooler. I complied. After looking inside, they congratulated me on my three huge flukes from 22” to 23.” Then they asked me about the surf fisherman with the bikini-clad girlfriend. I told them that a huge patch of huge flukes had passed through the Inlet, and the irate surf angler most likely had also nabbed huge flukes and buried them.

Upon saying that the constable went over to the surf fisherman with the beautiful girlfriend and asked him about his shouting match confrontation with the boater. Soon afterward, the surf angler dug up his huge flukes. The constables thanked him for his cooperation and then left the sand.

The boater had split before the authorities had arrived, but upon leaving he had continued his insults, choice words to the land locked angler. The surf fisherman was angry yet his girlfriend calmed him down and he resumed fishing.

For about 15 minutes on that summer day, a huge, and I mean huge, patch of keeper-size flukes swam close to the inlet shoreline, about 20 to 25 yards. I nabbed my three keepers, that year fluke fishermen were allowed to keep three as a maximum. My lucky day, for sure, to be there when the huge flukes were swimming through the Inlet so close to the shoreline.

Such is fluke fishing. Flukes often swim in patches like schools. If someone catches one fluke chances are there are other flukes in the area basically the same size. The mystery is, however, how many fluke in the patch? The ones that I were lucky enough to intercept must have been a part of a patch of hundreds of huge flukes.  Since that day, I had never come across such a huge patch. I’ve caught one, some days even two keepers, rare, but nothing like that day of primo fluke fishing.

As far as the shouting match argument between the boater and surf caster, the boater left so there was no blood, fisticuffs or sinker throwing. And, of course, the boater, was clueless in the end about the size of the fluke the shore angler had buried to keep cool. A year or so later, I became the target of an irate boater. On one weekday I was fishing and nabbed a 20” fluke, a keeper at that time. I laid the fluke in my cooler, right in front of a boat filled with people. The boat was close enough to the shoreline for me to see one of the anglers use his cell phone. In less than five minutes, an authority was on the beach and asked to check my cooler. Of course, I opened it up for inspection. This time, however, the boater, was there to witness the inspection. When I asked the authority if the boater had called, the officer told me not to worry about it, he added nice catch and then left.

It is possible to catch big flukes on the shoreline. Even though a few boaters who have to spend plenty of money on gas and docking don’t seem to realize it. Flukes like to ambush bait fish. So flukes will lie on the sand banks ledges, if they aren’t traveling in huge patches, and pounce on unsuspecting bait fish.

Fluke and bluefish roam Jones Inlet, especially close to the shoreline. It’s common to catch either in water about six feet deep. Those two fish are bold about coming in close to the Inlet shoreline, making for good fishing when they are around. It goes against the grain of popular stereotypical beliefs that fish prefer deep waters. Some fish do, but not fluke and bluefish. Also striped bass, who tend for the most part to stay in the channel at the Inlet, and when they are around weakfish, will come close to the shoreline at the Inlet.

It’s not like I’m going to catch a 100-pound fish at Jones Inlet, but sometimes the big fish do swim close enough to catch. Why? Because food is there. Bait fish will hug the shoreline for protection in an effort to elude predators. Some predators might shy away from about being so close to the shoreline at the Inlet. Yet not all, namely two aggressive predators bluefish and fluke.

FinFun: Dangerous Buck Rut

FinFun: Dangerous Buck Rut: "I accidentally found a hot fishing spot on the backside of Robert Moses Field 5. Nonetheless I ran across competition for the spot. With sev..."

Dangerous Buck Rut

I accidentally found a hot fishing spot on the backside of Robert Moses Field 5. Nonetheless I ran across competition for the spot. With several fish in my cooler I had to slowly pass on an October day a six-point buck in rut standing bold and brave next to his deer.

As I left the area of a dock used for government boats on the north side of the Fire Island lighthouse, I was toting about five kingfish and a big blackfish, all nabbed on sandworms in the Great South Bay. I felt proud that I had ventured out, experimented, and found a desolate fishing spot. In addition to the kingfish and blackfish, I was also reeling in schoolie striped bass. Fishing there was the best. I felt dumb luck had finally arrived.

The elation from my catch shortly ended, however, when I saw a huge six-point buck with his love interest just off the wooden path leading to the parking lot. With the alpha deer about 30 yards away, I stopped dead in my tracks. Armed only with a fishing rod and not a rifle, I knew I could easily be chopped meat if the buck decided to charge at me during his rut season.

Those horns on top of his head looked like cleavers. Just one thrust of anger could have left me bleeding profusely on the side of the shrubbery where few visit.  What the heck should I do I thought? I could easily retreat and declare surrender by heading back and taking the long route to the lighthouse then head to the parking lot. Or I could have just walk pass the lovely dove couple simply wishing I were armed.

All this while I walked the bay beach thinking about the good dinner I was going to have with the fish in my cooler. Everything was going so fine until I saw Bubba the horny, angry buck with his girlfriend Jezebel the darling doe. Messing with buck and doe during rut season could get ugly for anyone dumb enough to interfere with the love interests of wild animals. Yet I was too tired to retrace my steps and walk the long way around.

I said to myself just be careful, walk slowly, and if the buck charged just throw a three-ounce lead sinker at it. I had never heard of a buck charging at anyone on Fire Island so I felt confident that I was safe enough. I have heard of a buck in rut charging in upstate New York or in other parts of the country but here on Fire Island I had never heard it happening. Nonetheless, I really didn’t want to gamble on it. If I were wrong that buck might have decapitated me and put my head on its wall to show off and brag to his girlfriend or anyone else visiting to show off his trophy catch - me.

I knew, however, I had a sharp knife in my cooler that could have provided some protection. Then I thought to myself why the heck I wanted to behave like Tarzan, most likely that buck would have shredded me with his head rack before I could cut a morsel of its ear.

I opted of course to stroll pass the creatures instead of circling around. I had spent the whole day fishing, and catching fish, so I was too tired to backpedal away from nature. Slowly but surely I made my way to the couple. I paid close attention to any sound of snorting or rage a sure sign the beast was going to charge me. Yet as I walked pass the two, about 10 feet away, I took a quick glance as I hurried my steps.

The two weren’t too concerned or paid too much attention to me. They were in love, in rut, and couldn’t care less that I had invaded their love nest. As I finally made my way pass them and kept on walking to a safe distance, about a hundred yards away, I turned around to look at them. They still stood in the exact same spot. They hadn’t moved or budged a bit. They were so concerned with their feeling for the future they paid no mind to a guy with fishing gear who had crossed their path.

The buck never charged. Maybe because it was in love, too preoccupied with the call of nature to bother harassing a wondering angler who crossed its path, carrying a cooler full of fish.

FinFun: Can't Beat the Jetty for Fishing

FinFun: Can't Beat the Jetty for Fishing: "I’ve always considered the long walk to the West End 2 jetty as a walk to somewhere. Even though it’s about a mile-and-a-half trek in sand a..."