By Capt. Robby Barradale
Hello Fellow Fisherpeople! When we head out onto the waters, whether fishing, crabbing, sailing, cruising, etc., we look for ward to enjoying our outdoor time and then returning to the dock, hopefully with great tales of our adventures. How big was that fish? The sailboat sped along at how many knots on that tack? The crab got into your back pocket—how? You get the idea…We tend to get a bit complacent, maybe even overconfident, about the abilities and limitations of our vessels (and ourselves) and expect that each trip will have a favorable outcome until something occurs that shakes us to the core.
The maritime community lost one of our own August 25 as the “El Jefe,” a commercial fishing boat out of Belford, sank near Sandy Hook and took Capt. Tom Andresen down with her. Those who make their living at sea understand that there are risks involved every time they set out, and they also realize that bad things can happen very quickly. Capt. Tom knew and accepted the risks because he loved what he was doing. According to the crew of the first boat on the scene the “El Jefe” was rapidly taking on water and went down by the stern fast. There are a lot of theories about what went wrong but we will not truly know until the boat is salvaged and inspected, so speculation right now is pointless.
The vessel was located on the bottom fairly quickly but recovery efforts were hampered by strong tides and net gear entangled in the hull which prevented divers from safely searching it. Capt. Tom was finally found on Friday afternoon and I hope this helps ease the tremendous pain his family is going through from this tragic accident. Rest in peace, Captain. May you have calm seas and full fishboxes from now on.
We are finally seeing more keeper-sized fluke in the catches and they are haunting the channel edges preparing for their offshore migration. Friday afternoon we had Jack Spoto and the Passaic Sewage Authority on the MiJo II and found some nice flatties along with countless shorts. The Tagged Fish continues to do well on a mixed bag of ling, cod, and winter flounder while probing the deepwater wrecks while the Fishermen has been finding striped bass feeding on eels and sandworms in the dark during times of strong current. I got excited midweek when the Brooklyn V out of New York found good bluefishing locally, but it turned out to be a “one day special” as the fish were gone the next day. These fish should settle in soon and offer us some fast action on the yellow-eyed demons. I did a pair of trips on the Mariner on Sunday, the first being a nice three-hour afternoon cruise upriver to Red Bank with guests from as far away as England enjoying the leisurely scenic ride. Up next was a twohour evening sail and after visiting the Romer Shoal Lighthouse in lower New York Harbor we set up for our anticipated brilliant sunset. Unfortunately the clouds moved in and killed that, but instead we got to see a neat full red moon rising from the east (and because I was steering the boat I totally missed this photo opportunity!)
We’ll wrap this up for now with a wish that all of our fisherpeople continue to safely enjoy their time on the briny and return every time. See you here next week, till then, Hook Em Up!
