Remembering Jersey Shore

Palm Coast Observer
Opinion

I moved here from New Jersey in 1990. Watching the destruction that Hurricane (Super Storm) Sandy caused has saddened me.

For the last 15 years that I lived there, I worked as a telephone repairman in Jersey Shore — an area that has been devastated by the storm.

Seeing footage of all the towns I worked in brought back a lot of memories and a lot of them have to do with fishing. If you don’t mind, I’d like to take some time and reflect on a few of them.

I used to carry a fishing rod in my truck when I was working in case I ran across a striped bass or bluefish blitz. One day, that happened, and I went out on the jetty fishing while I was supposed to be working.

Not surprisingly, someone reported me, and I wound up getting suspended without pay for three days. Needless to say, I never did that again.

Then there was the time we had just gone on strike against the telephone company, so with I decided to spend my free time fishing. I went out on the Manasquan Inlet jetty in some pretty rough conditions to fish for striped bass.

The water was so rough that I got broadsided by a wave which knocked me off my feet. It knocked me into a hole in the jetty. I must have passed out for a split second because the next thing I remember was having a broken ankle. As the waves came in, they filled my waders with water, and I had to hold my breath until the water receded each time. I finally got my waders off and forced myself to climb to the top of the jetty where I received assistance. That one was definitely a close call.

One Thanksgiving Day morning, I was supposed to meet my friend Lou to do some plug fishing in the surf for stripers. When I woke up that morning, the wind was blowing out of the northeast and it had snowed about a 1.5 feet, but I still drove across the river to Point Pleasant Beach and met Lou.

We walked about a 100 yards through the snow with waders on to fish the south side of the inlet. The water was very rough, but I had one of my best days ever of surf fishing.

For about three hours, we caught a bluefish or a striper on nearly every cast. We finally packed it in and headed home to our families for our Thanksgiving dinners. It was the last time that I fished with Lou. He lost his battle with a brain tumor about three months later.

I could go on and on with plenty more stories, but just like a lot of the Jersey Shore, they are all just memories now.
One more thing, though. I met my wife at the Stone Poney, in Asbury Park. About a year and a half later, we were married in Pt. Pleasant aboard a boat.

Here’s to hoping everyone in the Northeast is safe and can overcome such a terrible natural disaster.