Boat captains ranging far and wide for mackerel
Published in the Asbury Park Press 4/27/04
Party boat captains from Manasquan Inlet north decided over the weekend that they would start the mackerel season regardless of the distance.
It became obvious Friday that the fish were comfortable with the water temperature and the forage east of Atlantic City, and were not moving north as hoped.
Capt. Jimmy Elliott, skipper of the Suzie Girl out of Belmar Marine Basin, said Sunday that he and other boat captains were pressured by their customers to produce mackerel.
"It was 40 miles for us and 67 miles for the boats out of Sheepshead Bay, but we decided to go for it," he said.
And go they did, with the big diesels throbbing and the white water boiling behind the transoms until they saw the fin and humpback whales broaching and the gannets wheeling and diving.
"The mackerel were there -- 5 1/2 miles of fish, 70 percent large and 30 percent mediums -- and we only had to make one drift today," he said.
Elliott found the fish 10 miles off the beach in 80 feet of water, and anglers could catch them from 15 to 30 feet down.
Capt. Willie Egerter's Dauntless out of Broadway Basin, Point Pleasant Beach, Capt. Bob Elsey's Nighthawk, and Capt. Len Forsyth's Golden Eagle, both out of Belmar Marine Basin, also were in on the action.
"We went down 34 miles Saturday and had a couple of shots of mackerel, but there were a couple of boats farther down -- about five miles -- and there were whales and gannets; so we moved down there, and it was good fishing," Elliott said. "It wasn't steady fishing. For awhile it was four, five and six at a time, as hard as you could pull 'em, but then it slowed to a pick, and then there was a good shot again, then a pick -- like that."
Some anglers wound up with 151-quart coolers full of big mackerel. Others had bags and buckets brimming with mackerel.
Capt. Hank Leonard, owner of the Golden Eagle, believes that the fish represent the leading edge of the migrating schools, and, because the water temperature is only 48 degrees and not rising rapidly, he thinks the run could be a good one.
Capt. Bob Elsey, Nighthawk, said the intensity of the action at times and the spread of fish leads him to agree that it will be a good run.
He said all of the fish caught on the Nighthawk were medium to large mackerel, and, at times, anglers were bailing them three, four and more at a time.
