Capt. Karl Anderson

This article originally appeared in On The Rip, the magazine of South Jersey Tournaments.

When Dutch Captain Cornelius Jacobsen Mey made his way down the South Jersey coast in 1614, he gave names to the places along the coast that are still in use today, most famously, Cape May and Cape May County. There is no way he could have envisioned the incredible bounty offered up along this part of the coast and around the Cape. 

The area’s history has seen abundant fish stocks inshore and offshore, vast shellfish grounds with oyster beds, clams and mussels, along with incredible numbers of birds from sea and land. Mey’s expedition in June also offered up incredible rookeries that led to the naming of Great Egg and Little Egg Bays with the finding of so many eggs on the shore and in the marshes. 

America’s first whaling industry began in the Delaware Bay at Lewes then moved North to the West side of the Cape. From the 1680s and 90s Cape May families built generational wealth selling whale oil and by-products. Through the 1700 and 1800s the local environment provided not only work but products to harvest and sell to markets in nearby cities like Philadelphia, with a robust oyster industry, the beginnings of commercial and recreational fishing industries as well as the evolution of tourism creating a destination and industries that still thrive today.

Much like her neighbor ports to the North, Cape May and her Cold Spring Inlet have been a fixture on the South Jersey fishing scene since the late 1880s. The railroad played a huge part in the fishing operations of the early1900’s through the 30’s bringing tourists from Philadelphia and surrounding areas to the resort with daily trains in summer. The railroad time table even included a “fishing” schedule to accommodate day fishing on the growing and substantial head boat fleet that blossomed during this period. 

The inshore fishing for weakfish, bluefish, black drum, channel bass (red drum) and striped bass was written about frequently in the newspapers of the day. In 1917, members of the Corinthian and Cape May Yacht Clubs organized the Isaac Walton Fishing Club of Cape May with an annual contest for Atlantic tuna, striped bass as well as red and back drum culminating at the years end with prizes of colored lapel buttons signifying the size of the catch for each angler participating. By the 1940s and 50’s the charter boat fleet grew in Cape May targeting inshore fisheries in the Delaware Bay as well as along the coast out five to ten miles. 

As the boats and power developed and skill levels rose the skippers began to sail beyond the 10 to 15 mile area to the Five Fathom Light Ship and even further still off the edge of the Five Fathom Bank. Like their neighbors to the North, football bluefin tuna were abundant on these grounds and became targeted regularly. In this mix another exciting development became more and more prevalent, white marlin were attacking the cedar plugs and feathers, in the spread of the tuna boats wreaking havoc on their tackle, much to the dismay of the skippers who wanted the tuna. 

Cape May’s charter fleet had some stand out skippers in the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s including Bill Garrison Sr. on the Miss Columbia and later Bill Jr. on their Dorothy T, Bert Bivens on the well known BIVO, Frank Cassidy aboard his Lady Grace, Guido DiAntonio on the Vir-Jean, Ike Swain on the Katherine B who caught the first blue marlin to come into Cape May in the summer of 1958. The fish weighed 510 pounds and after the weigh-in was loaded on top of the incredibly ecstatic clients Cadillac convertible car and made it all the way to Baltimore that evening! 

Other noted skippers were Ray Blumberg on the Ray Bets, Dick Weber on the Bonito, Capt. Bill Lewis on the Ginny B who would later skipper the Lobster House and Bob Bennett a Princeton grad that built his boat, Tuna in his back yard and earned a reputation as one of the finest inshore fisherman the area produced. 

It didn’t take long however, for some of these captains and their clients along with several enthused private boat owners on Yacht Avenue across the harbor from the charter docks at Cape Island Marina, (presently South Jersey Marina), to become enthralled with the antics of the acrobatic marlin. They began a fishery targeting them that still to this day attracts anglers from near and far to the fabled port. The Yacht Avenue crew had quite a fleet and you can be sure there was a bit of good natured competition and camaraderie amongst them. 

Dr. James Lummis, a third generation dentist from Bridgeton, NJ who started fishing out of Brielle, moved his fishing to Ocean City, NJ then further south in 1951 to Cape May. “Doc” was known as very thorough and technically proficient fisherman who taught many how to rig baits, especially the much favored squid for white marlin. Doc Lummis fished from his Troth Boatworks hull that he finished himself and later built another, both were called Fishin’ Fool. The Galantino brothers on Anna M, Wally Lauderman’s Lobster House, the Kontes brothers, Jim, Bill and Nontason their Prowler III and IV fished from the Yacht Ave boat house docks as well.

Through the 50’s boats were catching marlin out to the 20-fathom curve, and in 1958 the Cape May County Marlin Tournament started fishing out of Stone Harbor, later to be moved to Cape May with nearly 100 boats participating by1967. Boats came from Beach Haven, Ocean City, N.J., Avalon, Stone Harbor (which had the largest Bertram dealership in the world at that time and a large fleet in the latter 60s and early 70s until the inlet filled in) Cape May and some ports further away. 

These Yacht Avenue guys, especially the Kontes brothers knew they could get into more fish with frequency the further offshore they could go. In those early days the recreational private boat anglers and the commercial fleet found they could work together to help each other. The private boats actually learned there were more fish offshore from the commercial fleet, however the private boats were limited in how far they could go. 

The Kontes brothers teamed up with Capt. Bert Gable the owner of a 65-foot dragger to go offshore to the canyon. They installed a davit on the deck of the boat that could drop a Boston Whaler in the water. On one such trip, Nontas Kontes caught several dorado and a white marlin from the Whaler while the rest of the crew also caught from the dragger. This desire to get farther offshore forced the private boats to be built to go farther and faster. 

The Kontes brothers built the Prowler II, III and IV, all Troth Boatworks, built with the IV being a 40-foot hard-chine design by John L. Hacker of Hacker-Craft fame. Clem Troth Sr. & Jr. built the boat in their shop in Tuckahoe, N.J. The brothers powered the boat with twin 300HP Cadillac engines giving them a 23-24 knot cruise. An absolute rocket ship for its time, the boat topped out at 28 knots. Because those engines were not meant for the work load of the long run to the canyon, they did have a third engine in the boat house on stand-by. Several times they had to limp in on one engine and work through the night to change out the bad one so they could fish the next day. 

The biggest change in the fleet came in the very early sixties when several private boat owners really got the marlin fever and began to reach the far offshore grounds of the canyons finding much success. This was also a time when production boat building was embracing fiberglass construction and beginning to boom in South Jersey with Pacemaker, Egg Harbor, Post, Jersey, Viking and in the latter 1970s, Ocean Yachts.  They were building boats that were capable of traveling the distance to the canyon and back in a day, with relative comfort. The evolution of the reliable, powerful and safer diesel engine gave the builders the power their boats needed to make the trip.

The Anna M, a 45-footer with a pair of war surplus 6-71 J&T diesels was built by Harry Moak of Cape May Boat Works and she was the very first to make the journey to the Wilmington Canyon from Cape May. Brothers Carl and Pete Galantino were well-known as hardcore, good fisherman and they pushed every weekend possible to go to the canyon. With a blistering speed of 14-knots and depending on the scant weather reports available, they would leave Friday night and fish all day Saturday, lay-over Saturday night fish part of Sunday and head back to port. On one of these journeys to the canyon they were joined by a young Dick Weber who was immediately stricken with the passion for white marlin fishing that would blossom into a lifetime hobby and profession. 

Weber started charter fishing 1958 working for Capt. Frank Thompson on the Rebel B. By 1963 he had purchased a boat and named her Bonito and began his weekend and summer charter business while teaching at a college in Virginia during the winter. By the 1970’s, most of the charter boats focused on customer favorites tuna and bluefish, but once the party had a decent catch the offer would go out that for another $10 they could slide offshore and look for a marlin which often answered the call. In 1975 Weber and partner Guido DiAntonio opened the South Jersey Fishing and Hunting sporting goods store across the street from the current marina. 

By 1977 they put on the first White Marlin Open Tournament out of the shop with a $5000 prize purse. Also in 1977, the Cape May Marlin and Tuna Club was founded, put together by a group of dedicated Cape May fisherman, Karl Evans, Ken Shockley, John Fleming, Scott Smith, Brit Palmer and Paul Burton. The club still functions today with its building down the street from South Jersey Marina. 

By the late part of the 70s and throughout the 80s many boats, captains and crewman from Cape May and other South Jersey ports began to reach out to other parts of the world such as the Bahamas, Mexico, Venezuela and St. Thomas along with many other places. More production boats were being built to be canyon and travel capable and Jersey crews took them where the bite was.

Through a whirlwind series of events, Weber was approached to purchase the marina he fished out of by then owner Colt Summers. With allot of luck, perseverance and hard work he turned it into the white marlin hotspot marina of the 1980s and ‘90s. They hosted a Blue Marlin Invitational and the White Marlin Open which later became the South Jersey Marlin Mardi Gras. In 1982 the Marlin Mardi Gras fished from two ports, Cape May and Atlantic City which by 1984 became the Fish for Life to benefit the Leukemia Society. In 1988 it came back to fish out of Cape May. Also during this period the Luxury Tax had crippled recreational boat building and fishing along the coast. 

Always the keen promoter, in 1992 when the Luxury Tax was repealed, Weber and his team at South Jersey Tournaments blew the roof off the east coast tournament scene by guaranteeing a $500,000 prize purse if 100 boats showed up, and they did. It was as big as a P.T. Barnum event. Under the big top at the Canyon Club Marina, the air was electric with excitement. The gathering of the some of the finest offshore talent on the coast converging in Cape May would push the fishing completion right to the edge. The Mid-Atlantic $500,000 was a huge success and continues today as simply the Mid-Atlantic with a purse of over a million dollars for those that chase the canyon bluewater for that week in August. 

With its prominent position on the South Jersey coast, her quaint charm, great restaurants, wide array of hotels, excellent inshore and offshore fishing opportunities, world class marinas and well-earned place in the history of sportfishing, Cape May calls to those that love the sea and the thrill of billfishing. Long before many places on the East coast even thought about developing recreational fisheries, the robust charter fleets, club participation and the tournament circuit over the years in South Jersey, were well documented in Newspapers and books. 

The Jersey crews have used their seamanship, fishing skills, camaraderie and information sharing, to travel up and down the coast and fish far off ports like Bermuda, the Bahamas, the Caribbean and around the Pacific. Since the 1930s and 40s, they have used the all-around good fishing inshore and off of their local grounds as a training field. This enabled the captains and crewman to be innovative and well-versed fisherman. It’s hard to go anywhere in the world where the threads of the New Jersey fisherman haven’t been woven into the story of sport fishing in those ports.