Do you remember — April mackerel?

A recent blog about my April 7, 1989 trip aboard the Fishermen out of Atlantic Highlands over to the Staten Island clam beds to catch 29 winter flounders resulted in a couple of readers who remembered not having to go that far, as the Miss Take II and other party boats anchored in Shrewsbury River off The Quay to catch lots of flounders as long as the tide was running. I used to kid Capt. Stan Zagleski Sr. of Elaine B. II about that being his most profitable trip of the year since he barely had to turn on his engines at Bahrs Landing before dropping the anchor on the other side.

Before the month was out, I was gathering up kids on my block in Wall to make a run on my Sheri Berri out to Southeast Lump to jig mackerel. I didn’t record how many we jigged that day, but my personal figures were 80 mackerel and one herring.

When I was a kid growing up on Long Island there were always mackerel every spring. It was just a question of when they would arrive on a spawning migration from Virginia — and how abundant and easy to reach they’d be. However, the foreign fleets virtually wiped out what had been the most abundant species of the Mid-Atlantic and New England coasts. Fortunately, mackerel made a big comeback after the 200-mile limit went into effect. That lasted until NOAA Fisheries gave into pressure from the State Department and ignored the advice of both the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council and allowed excessive Soviet mackerel fishing to continue. I originally thought that the migratory population may have shifted further offshore, but that wasn’t the case. Despite their historical abundance, the Atlantic mackerel remains a rarity in the Mid-Atlantic and a monument to NOAA Fisheries mismanagement.

Capt. Frank Massaria said striper fishing in Raritan Bay was great this morning on both shads and live bunkers. He had his grandson Frank along on Vitamin Sea from Keyport, and was proud that he released the two largest bass at 36 and 37 inches.

There’s another fine forecast for the morning with west winds at 5-10 knots before increasing to10-15 plus gusts to 20 in the afternoon.