This story, “Brooklyn, Whiting, and Heated Rails,” appeared within the January 1981 difficulty of Out of doors Life.
In Brooklyn, within the winter, on a day that broke Kodachrome vibrant, I boarded the great ship Atomic for a day’s fishing. The thermometer had dug in for a purpose line protection on the brief facet of 30, and the wind coughed out of the northwest, chilly and punishing. I wanted I had introduced alongside a six-pack of Sterno.
If it had been Might, there would have been much more fares. The remainder of the Sheepshead Bay celebration boat fleet would have been lengthy gone. Nevertheless it wasn’t Might and the fleet rode at anchor. Winter’s harvest was lean for the celebration boat captain. We had been the arduous core. Twenty-six of us had paid $18 a head for an tour that promised to combine the comforts of ice fishing with the fun of seasickness. Ah, Brooklyn, the place the trustworthy nonetheless root for the traitorous Dodgers.
There have been fish to be caught — whiting. The whiting is a small beast, so insignificant that I’d be stunned if it had a Latin title. A Latin abbreviation can be extra prefer it. However in that a part of the world, at the moment of 12 months, the whiting is the one sport on the town. It’s a fish that you just go fishing for, and for those who stay to fish, which I do, then “there ain’t no unhealthy.”
I used to be there to fill my pail, however extra vital, to play hooky. Hooky, you recall out of your faculty days, is a two-part operation. Half one includes not being the place you’re speculated to be. Half two, the essential half, requires that you just use up the higher a part of the day in ungainful pursuit. There are quite a lot of methods for grown-ups to play hooky. You may hit the bars and drink your means by cleaning soap operas. You may go to the flicks alone and hope that you just’re not mistaken for one of many raincoat crowd. You may go to the observe and watch subsequent month’s lease neglect the place his legs are within the again stretch. Or you may go fishing — distant from the phone, the insurance coverage adjustor, newspapers, submethods, air pollution, noise and all the opposite pleasures of the Large Apple.
Hooky, you recall out of your faculty days, is a two-part operation. Half one includes not being the place you’re speculated to be. Half two, the essential half, requires that you just use up the higher a part of the day in ungainful pursuit.
The engines begin, twin diesels, 1,200 horsepower’s value. We glide away from the dock previous the opposite celebration boats — the Apache, the Enterprise and the Brooklyn. The previous Eagle isn’t round anymore. Her captain works for the oil corporations. More cash in it. All you do is motor out 100 miles and look forward to one thing to go unsuitable on the oil platform. If issues get messy you evacuate all people and head for dwelling. You save loads on gas payments, parked that means. I miss the Eagle like I miss the Dodgers.
Breezy Level lies to the left. On our proper, Kingsborough Neighborhood College, sunwashed and angular, appears misplaced in drained, previous Brooklyn. As we attain open water, the morning solar catches the highest of the parachute bounce at Coney Island. Captain Jerry hits the throttle. I really feel good. The G-force sends my espresso sloshing excessive of my cup. The new liquid stings me out of my reverie. A Dutchman named Lou rhapsodizes the fun of flyfishing to the previous black gentleman throughout the desk. The previous man says, “Yep, freshwater fishing could be enjoyable,” hoping to place an finish to the dialog. He has a determined look in his eyes that I final noticed when a Hari Krishna preacher buttonholed my agent exterior a Japanese restaurant on Madison Avenue. We’ve bought a two hour run forward of us, and the previous man isn’t ready for a nonstop harangue from a born-again flyrodder.
I’m, kind of. “What’s a flyrodder doing on a head boat?” I ask.
“What else you gonna do now?” Good reply.
In again of me, a reasonably Asian lady wakes with a begin. Her espresso has invaded the desk too. She wears a humorous little patch that claims Tonkin Gulf Yacht Membership.
“Vietnamese?”
“No.”
“What did you come for immediately?”
“Dinner.” Extra good solutions.
There are just a few others underneath 65 on board, however most of my shipmates have reached the purpose in life that condominium promoters name the golden age. That is their boat, their clubhouse. Tom greets Sal and Sal greets Abe and all people is aware of all people’s grand kids’s first names. They’re the year-round celebration boaters. They’ll’t afford high-priced charters. They’re glad if the day’s catch saves them just a few {dollars} at time for supper, however largely they like each other’s firm.
Take away the grey hairs and the stubble from their faces, and so they seem like a bunch of preschoolers bundled up by mother for a romp within the snow — galoshes, ear flaps and about eight layers of jackets and pants. Purple noses and rosy cheeks heighten the impact, al although these final owe a debt to Demon Rum. At the very least I surmise it’s Demon Rum. Possibly it’s Demon 4 Roses or Chateau Tub Tub. I can’t inform as a result of nobody drinks from a correct whiskey bottle. Pops No. 1 takes a furtive pull on a small jar labeled Gerber’s Child Meals. Pops No. 2 resorts to a bottle that when held a 12 months’s provide of Vitamin E. Every smacks his lips and emits a satisfied sigh — one thing you by no means see a grown man do after he’s eaten child meals or Vitamin E.
The dialog is all fishing.
Pops No. 1: “Two hours to the Klondike. Krikee. After I was a child you can scoop the whiting out of the surf at Coney Island.”
Pops No. 2: “While you had been a child, Coney Island belonged to the Iroquois.”
All people laughs. Somebody says fishing has fallen off these days. Another person blames it on the Russians. The dialog peters out and the New Jersey coast slips by at 18 knots.
Nap time. I dream that Woody Allen is catching salmon on a dry fly underneath the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge. My grandfather appears on approvingly. He’s wearing my previous snowsuit and smells of candy vermouth and diesel oil. I flip to inform him that I can catch salmon too, however I by no means get the possibility, as a result of the Dutchman nudges me awake.
We’re nearly there. Within the distance I see a half-dozen boats, very similar to our personal. The torpor of the lengthy voyage evaporates. We’re excited. All people has one thought – all these boats in a single place can solely imply good fishing.
The mate comes down from the bridge and tells us that Captain X already has a hogshead and a half. I’m tempted to ask what a hogshead is, however everybody else appears to really feel {that a} hogs head and a half is an efficient signal. What ever it’s, I let it lie. The engines sluggish. We depart the comfy cabin and stroll to our locations on the rails. My rod is on the bow, not a fantastic spot however I bought to the ship late and that’s the way in which it goes.
I drop three baited hooks and 10 ounces of lead right into a 110 toes of water. Scorching water flows by the rails that circle the boat. The water beneath appears chilly. The wind is chilly. I’m chilly however I don’t care. I’m fishing and the Dutchman is fishing and the 2 deer hunters from Poughkeepsie are fishing and issues are simply superb, thanks.
The previous guys begin to decide fish off the ridge. Somebody within the again has a doubleheader. I determine it’s time I checked my bait, and once I reel up I discover a whiting on the finish of the road. Hell of a preventing fish, whiting.
Pops No. 1 and I begin to converse because the fishing slows down. He observes that fishing for whiting closes the circle on the 12 months.
“How do you work that?” I ask.
“Properly, within the spring you bought your flounder and your mackerel. After which your sea bass are available and your blackfish come up [a blackfish is a local species that looks like a beat-up dolphin left in the gutter on a rainy night]. The blues begin working in June and the fluke present up round then too. Possibly some weakfish right here and there. That will get you thru until fall, while you catch your striper run, if there’s one, and that finishes issues off apart from the whiting.”
“However Pops No. I,” I say, “that is February, the start of the 12 months.
Wouldn’t you say that whiting begins the 12 months off?”
He appears at me identical to a person who has found that his prize pet is an untrainable moron.
“Look right here, sonny. I benefit from the spring and the flounder much more than I benefit from the winter and the whiting. When a person reaches my age, he doesn’t care when he begins and finishes the 12 months simply as long as he will get by it. Flounder’s the start. Whiting’s the tip. Get it?”
“Bought it.”
“Good.”
The captain honks the horn. “Traces up, fellas,” he says. “Let’s go discover some fish.”
He has a degree. The whiting have turn out to be as scarce as congressmen with consciences. All of us reel up, tie our poles in place and troop again to the heat of the cabin.
“Shut the rattling door,” screams the keeper of the galley. Possibly he causes that we’ve paid for the chilly and it will be unfair for him to make use of it up. Or it simply is likely to be that he doesn’t look after the draft that’s gusting by the cab in, leaving a movie of ice on the pea soup kettle. In as a lot as he’s additionally the keeper and dispenser of beer, all of us snap to and shut the door.
We motor to a different spot, catch just a few extra fish and transfer on. The wind and tide have began to work in concert. The deck pitches like a drunk kangaroo. I go searching. Nobody is sea sick. Like I mentioned, winter fishermen are fairly hard-core.
As a way to maintain backside, which is the place the whiting are, I’m now fishing 18 ounces of lead, hoping to catch a 16-ounce fish. I really feel fairly foolish, however I do not forget that yesterday on the Tampa a 2-pounder took a $94 pool.
Nothing doing down beneath.
The captain hits the horn thrice. Quitting time. No one places up a lot of an argument. It’s been enjoyable however no Roman orgy. It’s actual chilly now and the cabin is heat. Most of us have caught dinner and issues are fairly jake.
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On the way in which dwelling, I mirror about what Pops No. 1 mentioned about closing the circle on the 12 months. I notice that even New York Metropolis is a part of the pure world. On the land the character experience is just about confined to pigeons and cockroaches. It’s completely different on the ocean. The fluke and flounder and blacks and blues have cruised the coast of Brooklyn ever since God divided the waters above from the waters beneath. The shad and stripers that course the Hudson don’t actually know, or care, in the event that they swim by tepees or high-rises. For now, no less than, issues underwater are just about the way in which they’ve all the time been, and ocean fishing off New York Metropolis retains you in contact.
I like that.
