On any given afternoon between February and November, you can find Aaron Nieves fishing from County Park in the waters of Newark Bay.
Aaron, who’s a 17-year-old student at Snyder High School in Jersey City, prefers to fish in Bayonne. His father drops him off after work; it’s more convenient than fishing in downtown Jersey City.
“Sometimes if you’ve had a hard day at work or school, fishing is peaceful,” he says. “The stress is released. You can see people walking or running, and you can meet people.”
Aaron used bunker to catch the striper in the picture on this page. But what he’s really hoping for is striped bass. “The meat’s more tasty,” he says. “I eat the fish that I catch.” He scales, guts, and fillets the fish himself. “I looked on YouTube to see how to fillet a fish. I just watched once or twice.” Now he’s an expert, but he usually lets his mother do the cooking.
“Once a week, I eat what I catch,” he says. “It’s safe to eat the fish, but you can’t eat crabs because crabs are bottom eaters and eat everything that falls to the bottom. Striped bass migrate and eat what we give them, like bunker.”
Aaron fished for the first time with his cousin a few years ago. “He took me fishing, and I liked it,” he recalls. “It’s exciting to feel the fish pull, you bring it in, and you feel the adrenaline.”
Fish that are too small—less than 28 inches—are thrown back.
“Fish is more delicious when you catch it yourself,” he says. “When you spend time and have fun catching it, it’s a good feeling.”
Take it From a Pro
That’s a sentiment Captain Akira Hayashi would agree with. Hayashi, a Bayonne resident who has been fishing in town for 20 years, captains fishing charters in New York Harbor and Sandy Hook.
If you don’t want to fish from a boat, Hayashi suggests fishing off the piers in County Park, Veterans Park, and First Street by the bridge. He adds fluke or summer flounder to the striped bass and bluefish that anglers report catching off Bayonne. He also uses bunker as bait as well as bloodworms.
Hayashi likes the challenge of fishing. “It’s not easy,” he says. “You’re in nature, and you can’t control nature. It’s exciting to challenge nature. You’re fighting the fish, and when you win, it’s very exciting.”
School of Fishers
Anthony Altobelli teaches seventh-grade Special Education at Midtown Community School. He’s 30. He’s a first-year teacher in Bayonne but has been an avid fisherman his entire life. When he asked Principal Christina Mercun if he could start a fishing club, “she supported it 100 percent,” he said.
The only question is, would he be able to muster the requisite10 kids to join. “Thirty kids showed an interest,” Altobelli said. “They came running to sign up.”
It was easy to pick a fishing hole. Veterans Stadium bulkhead was within walking distance of the school. “I talked to numerous people in the fishing industry,” Altobelli said, “and they all said that Bayonne was a great place to fish.”
A buddy in a tackle shop offered to donate the fishing rods. A bluefish was the first catch. “Everyone wanted to take a selfie with the fish,” Altobelli said.
Midtown Community’s fishing club was a great success. The fisherkids will reconvene in the fall.
Religious Experience
Qaid Muhammad is another Jersey City guy who likes to fish in Bayonne. “In Jersey City at Liberty State Park, the fish aren’t biting,” he says. “You don’t have the flow like you have in Bayonne, the currents, cleaner water, whatever.”
Like Aaron, he catches bluefish and striped bass, but prefers the latter. The water is “cleaner than most people think,” he says, “but I usually soak the fish in vinegar for a couple of minutes before I cook them.”
Qaid has been fishing for more than 50 years. He grew up in New York City, fishing with his father in Long Island Sound, Montauk, New Rochelle, City Island, and Coney Island.
“I love it,” he says. “The water is therapeutic and helps you calm down and deal with issues a little better. Good people are drawn to the water.”
He also uses bunker as bait, along with sandworms, lugworms, and clams.
“Fishing is almost spiritual,” he says. “My father took me fishing when I was small.” He taught me “how important it was to be near the water. I learned to look more at solutions instead of focusing on problems.”
Qaid thinks that being a good fisherman is like being a good salesman. “You have to learn not to be aggressive and have patience,” he says.
He relates that he always had trouble catching blackfish until he got some advice from an “old Spanish man,” who said, “You’re not feeling the fish. There should be no slack in the line. It’s an intuitive feeling. The manual is important, but you need to feel a connection to the fish.”
After this advice, Qaid caught about nine blackfish.
Qaid points to the religious symbolism of fish, citing Jonah’s unfortunate sojourn in the belly of the whale, and Jesus’s promise: “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.”
Qaid says, “On the ocean you think more about God than at any other time.”—Kate Rounds
