Anyone’s think, I guess.
The delightful northern puffer, many typically referred to as the blowfish, and, from the cooking corner, “Chicken of the Sea,” has actually been oddly missing up until now this summer season, revealing here and there is spurts, however no place near the numbers and places accustomed to the previous 16-17 years.
Could it be the arrival of the down pattern of this cyclical types?
Some ligature here from a from personal experience.
As a child in the Sixties, late May was constantly when the blowfish gotten here, staying through perhaps the 2nd week in June. The numbers were large, the quarry so ravenous it appeared they bit the little squid strips baits on the high, slack, and low tides. It was crazy ridiculous psycho drop ‘n swing fishing.
Our blowfish acme was the Memorial Day weekend in ‘69 when, from a Friday afternoon to early evening Sunday, we (five kids and a couple of uncles who eventually left us to our own devices, returning periodically with more buckets to hold the fish) amassed a total of 869 puffers. You bet we counted them…and cleaned every one the old-fashioned way via nail in dock piling, cut to the back of the head, and a pull with the tongs. Our sandpaper hands were Blowfish Badges of Honor!
All were caught from the bulkhead at the end of Butler Boulevard in Bayville, where two adult cousins each had a bungalow. No boat needed. We enjoyed scrumptious fried and baked Chicken of the Sea dinners well into September.
Expecting another blockbuster take, the ride down the Parkway the Friday of the Memorial Day weekend, 1970, seemingly took forever.
And it was a total bust. Twenty blowfish were caught that weekend, the following year a total zero.
And just like that, the incredible puffer fishery was over and remained so for decades. Then, in June 2006, some reports filtered through the tackle shop network that blowfish were being picked off in the surf from Belmar down through Long Beach Island, and parts of the Shark and Manasquan rivers, and in the Barnegat Bay. Within a couple of years, the fishery was going gangbusters and remained so until this season. To be sure, catches approaching and exceeding the century figure were common…until this season.
Who knows. A small boat bay charter captain told us just the other day at a bait and tackle shop in southern Ocean County that his logbook showed the 2022 Barnegat Bay blowfish bite started in earnest August 4, and with the capricious weather so far in ‘23, it could rev as soon as this weekend or next week.
We can only hope because if history repeats, the cyclical droughts can be a generation-long.
Don’t put away the friend pot, baking meal, or deep fryer right now…
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APPEARANCE: Here are the family pets prohibited in each state
Because the guideline of unique animals is delegated states, some companies, consisting of The Humane Society of the United States, supporter for federal, standardized legislation that would prohibit owning big cats, bears, primates, and big dangerous snakes as family pets.
Read on to see which family pets are prohibited in your home state, along with throughout the country.
