Moving to New York City, amid the logistical planning and excitement about the future, I knew I had to include plans for a fishing trip. Especially with the new species that come in new, unfamiliar waters, I immediately searched for bottom fishing party boats in the area - that way I'd get a basic introduction to some of the popular fish in the area that may not be as famous as the stripers and fluke. I also like to see the differences in party boats in different areas, as while many of them tend to go bottom fishing, there also tend to be some variations in fishing methods in different areas. I found out that the nearest fishing boats were down in Brooklyn by Coney Island, and that from my apartment I'd just need to take the Q train all the way down to get to Sheepshead Bay and onto a boat. The most appealing trip I saw was a full day, 7 AM - 3 PM trip on the Marilyn Jean IV, so I set today in my calendar and bought a ticket. After weeks of anticipation, I prepared my backpack last night and went to sleep relatively early so that I could wake up at 4:30 this morning.
The time had come, and my plan had been in motion. I woke up, took a shower, put the cold freezer block in my "cooler" which was an insulated lunchbox I'd recently bought at Bass Pro Shops for this purposes and headed out into the early morning to the subway station. There may not have been many people, but it is still always interesting to see the other people taking the subway so early in the morning, especially from Manhattan to Brooklyn. With my fishing shirt, backpack, and lunchbox, I probably stood out, and I definitely felt like I did when I came back and was walking through the city streets in the afternoon. But, I was on a great trip and I was excited for what laid ahead. It was somewhat surreal getting to the boat this morning, considering how much I'd anticipated it for the last few weeks. I was finally in Sheepshead Bay, and walking over to the boat. I got there a little early but it was definitely better to be early than late especially with an hour-long subway ride between me and the dock. Seth, a friendly deckhand, welcomed me on board and set up the rod I'd rented with the ticket. I asked to be placed somewhere near the stern and got it. The first difference with this party boat was the choice of bait; each station had a bucket with cut pieces of shrimp. The conventional reels were rigged with a simple high/low rig and an 8 oz sinker. At 7, as the boat filled up, we left the dock. It was cool heading out of the inlet and seeing the faint New York skyline in the morning haze.
As we headed out, I asked Seth whether we'd be going for any ling, a cool species I'd honestly only heard about when doing my research for the trip, unlike any of the other fish we might have caught, which I'd known of for years. He said that we'd start fishing for porgy, and if that went well and the decision was popular, we'd move on to ling. I was happy just to fish and catch whatever I could, but I definitely did have the desire to catch a ling burn a little more than others. The first stop we made was right past the jetty, but no dice. The boat didn't have any nibbles, so we soon left to look for fish. Same with the next stop. This he entire boat was fishless. I was still optimistic and we had a lot of time left, but it was somewhat concerning that we hadn't even felt nibbles at the first two spots. Very soon into the third spot, however, I felt a heavy pressure and my line went straight to the right as I fought a big fish. It took me to the right (crossing the next fisherman's line) and then to left before cutting me off. It was an absolutely exhilarating fight, and the fact that I saw color before it cut off made it sting. Apparently it could have stung me physically had I caught it, since Seth immediately knew that it was a Cownose Ray. They must normally do this kind of thing since right after cutting me off the boat started the engines and we left in order to avoid the rays. Naturally, with so many lines in the water, another bite from a ray can take out many of them at once - which isn't quite what party boats want to have happening. That being said, having had one on the line, the break was heartbreaking. Still, I was assured that there was nothing I could have done, and the 40 lb line was not enough to stop it. There was a clean cut on the line. Leaving the rays behind, we made a long run further southeast past Sandy Hook.
Finally, at the next spot the boat started feeling nibbles and catching fish. Most of what came up were Black Sea Bass, but there were some sea robins too. Lowkey I was getting outfitted by the boat. Right as I was trash talking myself in my head due to the dismay and frustration at getting outfished by some other newbies on the boat, however, I get some strong nibbles and keep the pressure on to hook into a fish. I reeled in a double up of black sea bass on both hooks! While it wasn't my first time catching these fish, and they weren't big enough to keep, they were my first saltwater fish in the state of New York and also the biggest black sea basses I've ever caught. Soon after I reeled in another bass before we moved on.
We spent the next hour or so moving spots, fishing, catching a little, and moving on to see if any other spot might be the honey hole. At one spot, I felt nibbles as I dropped it down but the nibbles soon disappeared. I felt some small shaking, so I optimistically reeled in hoping I had a fish on my hook. I did! It was a small bergall, a common type of wrasse in these waters. I unhooked it and released it, thinking about how now I can finally cross "Bergall" off of the fishing bucket list. It is a small and pesky fish, but I'd always had it on the list because, from what I'd heard, it seemed to be sort of like the standard common fish caught in the New York/New Jersey area, like how the pinfish or bluegill are back in Florida. Now I had experienced catching the fish that practically every angler in this area had, giving me a sort of initiation to this fishery.
My next few drops also resulted with bergall. They were routinely taking the bottom of the two hooks. At the depths we were now fishing, it was difficult to even know if I had a bergall on; I'd mostly just reel in to check on my bait only to discover that I'd caught another bergall. My excitement at the bergall was somewhat short lived. While it is always nice to catch a bucket list species, I had now caught it. I could start to see why they are somewhat hated and branded as "bait stealers" as the rest of the boat was catching other species like ling. I caught two more bergall as time kept ticking and I started to get a little frustrated and dehydrated. After all, it was getting hotter out and it was beginning to be a real pain to reel in the hundreds of feet of line every other minute to check on my bait. As I frustratedly reeled in to check my bait after nibbles I'd felt vanished again, I found a small Ling on one of my hooks. What a reward! My mood changed instantly. "LFG baby" I said to myself having caught the species I'd sought in particular. On top of that, ling do not have a size limit, so it could be kept. Ling are really called Red Hake - ling is what they are called colloquially - and they are in the Cod family. I was excited to try it when I got back. Something I thought was odd about this boat was that, unlike others in California that leave the fish in burlap sacks and those in Miami that put the fish on ice right away, they had a bucket with water for each fisherman to leave their fish to die out. It is commonly known as best practice for the meat to be killed and iced immediately, and this seemed to be contrary to that. I was unsure about how it would taste, but I'm happy to say that it didn't seem to affect the taste of the fish at all - it was delicious.
I got advice from an old timer next to me named Rocky who brought his own fluke rig which he used with shrimp on the bucktails to absolutely kill it with both fluke inshore and ling in the deeper water. As he was reeling each one in, he would sing "Ling-A-Ling-A-Ling" as if it was nothing. He told me to put multiple pieces of shrimp on each hook. I'd been committed to the strategy of one piece for the sake of double hooking it for security on the hook as well as thinking it was all that was needed for a big fish, but it was time for a change as the rest of the boat was catching more than me. I followed through on his idea and, to no surprise, it paid off. I felt a gradually heavier tug on one of the ensuing drops and I reeled in a big ling. It was one of the biggest caught on the boat so far. It was a very nice catch and solidified my having enough to eat. Seth told me the best way to hold them were from under the gill plates, although they were relatively soft and easy to hold by their bodies.
The process repeated itself, leading to more ling. I'd rig up with multiple pieces of shrimp on each hook, drop, feel nibbles, then get a heavier feeling on the rod, and reeling in a ling. At one point the fishing was so hot that it felt like I could expect a ling on the end of the line. Things had instantly changed from how they were before, and I was excited to now have enough ling to take home and try. In the end I had two new species on the day, including the ling which had caught my interest and is harder to catch from shore. I put the meat at the end of the trip into my "cooler" which the freezer block had kept cold, which preserved it very well as I walked back to the train station and hopped on the Q to go back home. I left the fish in the fridge while I went to the store to pick up some extra ingredients before cutting off the pin bones (Seth had been in too much of a rush with all the fish caught on the boat to take them off everybody's fish), breading them, and frying them. The fish tacos came out incredibly. It was a great cap to a special day of fishing. It felt nice now that my plan had come to fruition in its entirety.
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