The New York Fishing Community and the Celtic Quest

Welcome back to the New York Fishing Podcast, where the thrill to the cast meets the hearts of New York's waters as Thanksgiving approaches. Let's dive into the parallels between this festive season and our fishing adventures. Thanksgiving, folks, is more than just turkey and trimmings. It's a celebration of bounty. And what speaks of bounty? More than our vast, vibrant oceans? There are playgrounds, our pantry, providing us not just with sport but substance, much like the first Thanksgiving feast the crisp morning air, the calm waters, the anticipation as you cast your line, mirroring the excitement of Thanksgiving preparations. Each catch is a story, a victory, a moment of gratitude, much like each dish on our Thanksgiving table. This year, as we gather, let's raise a toast to the waters that connect us, to the fish that challenge and fascinate us. Let's be thankful for the pulls on our lines and the fish tales that follow, for the camaraderie among anglers and for the oceans' gifts that just keep on giving. So here's to tight lines and tall tales this Thanksgiving, remember, every cast is a story waiting to unfold and every catch a reason to be thankful. Stay hooked and have a fish-tastic Thanksgiving. Today we embark on a journey not just across the sparkling waters of New York, but through a tale of resilience, community and the unbreakable spirit of a fisherman. Our story begins with a party boat, not unlike many boats that dot our shores, but with a destiny that almost slipped away into the depths. Picture this a fledgling business, a boat bobbing on the waves, more often anchored by despair than by hope. There were days, many days, when the phone laid silent, as still as a sea on a windless day. Advertisements and papers seemed like messages and bottles, lost in an ocean of indifference. But then, amidst the struggle, an engine fails, a transmission blows. It seems like the final anchor dragging down the dreams to the seabed. But as every season fisherman knows, the ocean is full of surprises. Enter Norriscom, a beacon on the digital horizon. A simple post, a few pictures of a triumphant blackfish trip, and suddenly the tide began to turn. In minutes, the silent phone became a siren, the song of hope, calls poured in, bookings filled the calendar and the boat that once drifted in despair now sailed on waves of success. This wasn't just a turnaround, it was a transformation powered by a community of passionate anglers, united by a shared love for the sport. A tradition was born the Norriscom Charter, a gathering of enthusiasts from behind their scenes, casting lines as friends, not just usernames. Together they wrote chapters of unforgettable memories, a bounty full of catches and of bonds forged over the thrill of the catch and the peace of the sea. So as we navigate through this episode, we will dive deeper into the story of the Celtic Quest. I'd like to welcome a very good friend of mine and a great guest and a great fisherman and a great person from a great family, I guess all around the guy is great. I'm speaking to Desi O'Sullivan from the Celtic Quest. I called Celtic Quest years ago. Frank Delickey called it Celtic Quest. Which one is it, by the way? But everyone you prefer, stay with Celtic, all right, so he's with the Celtic Quest. This is a man who, desi, had a lot of foresight, and that's not because he recognized Norris right in the beginning. There were a lot of things that I learned about Desi First time I ever went fishing with him and we were mohawking these monster blackfish, and I mean mohawking them. It was crazy and all he was doing was he wasn't telling us all to throw all our fish back, but he wanted us to throw a lot of fish back because he was like we got to save these fish and this was at a time when there was a lot of fish and in my mind I knew he was right and I'm going to say we look at what happened today and, des, you were right. So talk to me a little bit about blackfishing today, gosh.

I missed those days, george, you and I had some absolutely amazing trips together when and some of my fondest memories are when you bring the staff from the nor'eastcom out, the all the moderator we had some absolutely epic trips. It was amazing. We were really fortunate to be fishing together at that time when the eastern Long Island Sound, particularly, was very untapped. There wasn't a lot of fishing pressure and all the potting and everything hadn't taken its toll yet. So, yeah, we used to go out there and have some unbelievable trips and definitely always thought ahead to say we really have to protect this resource, which unfortunately was not protected nearly well enough, and today it's a far cry from what it used to be. And we were blessed to have those amazing trips and I'll cherish them for the rest of my life. I remember one in particular with you and your team, and the couple days before you came out I found a new wreck, a really small wreck. It was about the size of a car, maybe just a little tiny piece and I quickly tried it and the 25 rods went off instantly and I said, oh geez, okay, let's save this, because we already had a ton of fish in the boat on a particular trip. So I was like I know George is coming out with all the staff and you guys were great customers of ours and great friends and I said you know what? This is going to be a special drop for that trip and we had already had a great day. My customers have plenty of fish. So we wrapped up, we went home and I remember going out with you and we wailed on them. We had hundreds and hundreds of black fish and we had so many that we ended up throwing back like 50 or 100 keepers at the end of the day just catching them.

I'm never forgetting that.

Remember we were just like, oh god, I don't know, it was a beautiful day, we didn't want to go home. But yeah, you and I were just saying and, and it was unbelievable. And I think back to those days now I can't even the thought of catching that much that you could be releasing them like that, or I just it was. I knew it was special what was happening in those years but. I didn't you wish you could go back in time and really truly appreciate it even more, because those trips were so epic you just never knew. I don't know we'll ever see it again, and I cherish them. There's some of my fondest memories fishing with you and your team, and the good old days. Now it's just another fish story.

No, no, you know what the truth is. So many of us feel that way. Right, it was so special. Noriex was new, the internet was new, you were new. I remember going out, you had that smaller boat in the beginning. And here we are. Think about the people that were on that boat, right? So we had Kill Swung, we had Alberto, we had Johnny Skinner, we had myself, we had Kris Bees, we had one Ralphie, we had every Sharpie. I think that there was a Long Island and they loved fishing with you and together, the camaraderie. Those were special days that will be tough to ever repeat. But again, I'm gonna stress, I remember you saying we got to keep this fish, we, we got to let a lot of these fish go. Granted, we were way over the limit, but the fact is I fish with you and we fish with you many times and you always, you knew, and we all knew, how much could it take, but those were great days.

Yeah, it was a remarkable time and, like I say, I was just super fortunate to be starting my business with such an incredible fishery to tap into. Like I said, the eastern sound was there was not a lot of fishing pressure at the time. A lot of the bottom was a lot of the wrecks and stuff were not fished yet undiscovered and so when you found a piece, it was incredible, it was absolutely incredible. And, yeah, going with all those guys like the people you just named back in the day and we had so many wonderful trips and now I don't know, I it's so sad that right in front of our eyes we saw that fishery and, listen, we bought a lot of fish. Right, I'm not. I was fortunate to, to have an amazing fishery and we certainly contributed to the demise of the blackfish, but it was such a tiny percent that we were catching and sharing with thousands of customers over the course of the of our fishing seasons, compared to the pressure that was put on by the potting and all the black market stuff that was going on. And we watched that and would rant and rave at the meetings. I remember seeing you there many years saying, hey, we got to do something about this fishery like we got to preserve this. This fishery had maintained itself as a healthy recreational fishery for decades, leading up to the 90s, where the price tag was put on the heads of blackfish for live blackfish and we were watching the pots just blow up year after year, just pots and pots. There was areas where I couldn't even get into anymore because the pots were so numerous and watching these boats come in and out of the harbour two, three, four times a day, with hundreds of blackfish being thrown into these ends and shipped into the city and and no record of them and the sadly they just did a number on the population and it's never recovered well, that level of that quality fishing again it breaks my heart at that because it's absolutely my favorite fishing and we were lucky we got to enjoy it when it was going on and and I hope it comes back. I hope it comes back, but it's just a far cry from what it used to be you know what there's.

So you and I, we can relate. I was always a tug fisherman in before I met you, but I always knew that it was just a matter of time they were once we started finding them. I just knew and you knew, and I remember we had a 10 fish limit. Imagine that, folks, it was a 10 fish bag limit. I don't even know if there was a minimum size, but we would go and Desi would basically wouldn't tell us, but he'd urge us not to keep the 10 and he would talk to me about we should be keeping four fish. I'm upset, that's come on, man, that's 10. Now you want to go to four and you're like it's gonna be a year or two and there's only gonna be four and it's hard for me. Not hard for me, but when I think about that. We've lived this in such a short time. We have seen this fishery which was phenomenal. I can remember being a kid of five years old and my father taking me at a Kings Park on a five horsepower freaking Johnson, and I don't care where you stopped that boat. You were loading up with blackfish, you were loading up with flounder. You and I, we have seen this thing go from this phenomenal, world-class one place in the whole world fishery to now it's a managed fishery that's being managed to have small fish. I've said that from the beginning when you have the commercial limit where it's at and you have the potting the way it's happening our fish you're gonna average 14 and a half to 17. A big fish gonna be 18. Hopefully you're gonna get that real big one.

But when you get that real big one you almost want to let it go right this oh man, when I see the big ones come up now I'm like, yeah, I hate when I hate to keep them, I really do me too. They're so far. In between we'll get the occasional eight, ten pounder, but it's that used to be every day. Oh, it was common. It was always a ten pounder or eight pounder was nothing. Back in the day we'd have dozens of them. And yeah, now you don't see and I don't know, I don't know. A couple of years we had some great short life and there was some optimism. Maybe there's a new class coming through. But you know, they did start. Finally, after 20 years of this fishery getting pounded, they finally started with tags the last couple years, which was a good step. Yes, we were asking for that years ago. If they just started with tags, maybe it could have slowed down the black market. I mean, I remember being in the fisheries meetings and they would say the commercial, the recreational fishermen, account for 90% of this fishery and therefore we have to cut them back or whatever. And I'm like there's a. I could literally tell you certain ports and whatnot that single handedly, one or two commercial guys down the black market were counting for thousands of black fish. Just right there and none of it was being recorded. It was all under the table and of course, none of that makes it into the data with which they decide our regulations and therefore they. The problem was never addressed. They was focusing on the recreational, which I was fine. Having limits on the recreational side, that was all good, but the fact that they just let the free-for-all continue while they caught us back was it was like we were just screaming. We see that in every fishery.

Think about it. They're doing it to us right now in fluke. They're doing it to us right now in seabass. It's look, the fishery was fine for centuries, not decades. Centuries until they found a way to catch them in pots. Hook and line fishermen are not the reason that those fish have left. We always caught them on hook and line and oh yeah, people are gonna go, oh, we got, so no now, so we found them. That's not what did it. What did it is what I just saw yesterday. You might know this, but right now live black fish in some Korean markets or Asian markets in the city are going for 25 pounds of pound, 25. You catch a 10 fish. 10 pound fish is 250 bucks and they're getting it. I have the video, I've seen it, I know it's happening. I don't say anything unless I know it's for real. And how are the fish going to make it at that value? How they're going to make it? They're not. A few things need to be done. What you know the potting size and the recreational size needs to be changed, needs to be at least the same. If not, I think that the commercial comms should be a little bit higher. But I don't even want to go there. But when you think about it, it's not the wreck angler that destroyed that fishery and now we have this fishery that's going to have just like Stripe Pass. We're going to end up just having a bunch of keepers for everybody and the day of the big fish, sadly, is over unless we make some serious changes.

Yeah, and it breaks my heart, George, because like you, I cherished black fishing and it built my business. I'll always be grateful for having fished the years that I did and I just I don't even know what to say to a helpless feeling watching it slowly get worse and worse every year. And now for us it's amazing, back in the day, on the moons and stuff, when things were a little slower, if we caught 50, 60 keepers, that was our slow trip and I only took 25 guys out at the time. 50 keepers was our slow day. And we tell them I'll come back off the moon, it'll be good again. Now I think about 50 keepers is our normal decent day. Now we catch 50 keepers, we're happy. That's our good trip. Now it's just, it's unbelievable.

And our lifetime. Do you feel that oldness? Do you feel like you've been around that long that the change should be as drastic as it is? Or did it happen so much faster than you ever expected?

I don't know because I've watched so many other fisheries thrive at the same time. So, for example, seabass fishing has been extraordinary and it's gotten better and we're at 16 and a half inches this year and we're still going out and catching 100 keepers and limiting out the boat I lived two days ago I was out and we limit about the boat with beautiful. We were throwing them back. We had too many we couldn't get away from. I had to leave the drop. I had 50 foot of seabass underneath the boat. If I showed you a screenshot, you can blow your mind how many seabass there were. So we never used to have that in the sound when I was a kid working on the boats. If we caught two or three seabass for the trip that were 12 inches, we were happy. Oh yeah, so you watch other fisheries thrive, like seabass and porgy. Porgy fishing is as good as it's ever been Fantastic. Thank God for porgy and seabass because that's become the mainstay of our business and people still can come out and they can fill a bucket of fish and the kids catch and the families catch and that's been our staple. I missed the flukin and the black fishing but thank God at least we have the great bottom fishing, so those are doing great, and striped bass fishing this year was the best I've ever seen it. The amount of striped bass that I don't sound this year was more than I've seen my entire life. It was amazing and coincidentally they cut that back to a three inch slot this year when there's more bass than anyone knows what to do with.

Well, you know what, Dad? You've got to listen to a couple of my past podcasts. You are joining the choir here because everyone's saying the same thing and if you want to hear my take on it, I don't care if you want to hear it or not, I'm going to give it to you, oh, so you say whatever you want. So here's the way I see it. I mean, look, fisheries management lacks common sense. I say it all the time. So it's only common sense. So the flukes seem to be moving. Maybe they're going north, we don't know that everything's moving. All of a sudden we got these sea bass. We never had them. The other cold water fish seem to be leaving a little bit, I don't know. They may be moving. And you know, now here we are with this great sea bass fishery, which we never had before, and now we have more striped bass we ever had before. But I'm not sure if you know this or not, but I'm on top of this whole thing. We are going to see a total moratorium next year in the spring for the striped bass. Get ready, it's coming. You haven't heard it. I'm telling you, dad, as you know, I'm always right there, and I'm telling you yeah, it's going to be a moratorium. And let me tell you why. Here's where the common sense goes out the window. So the numbers in the Y-O-Y, the young of the year, the small ones that they find in the Chesapeake, are like non-existent. There are no. The Y-O-Y is falling off the planet down there. So what does that tell you Don't tell me our striper fishery is better than it's ever been. We've seen, you're seeing them on the East end. Imagine what that New York bite is saying. So we're going to, we're going to end up in a moratorium. We basically fish a moratorium. It's 28 to 31 inches. Your shot's one out of 100. Get one of those. But they are going to eliminate that to save the Chesapeake Bay. Now, what is what does the spring fishery in New York, the spring fishery in New York, have to do with the Chesapeake? Nothing, nothing, none of our fish here are going to Chesapeake. They're here and they're staying here. But because of, I don't know, crazy management, no, commonsense management, desi, I'm afraid you're going to hear about a and start to think now and listening and they may just make it a western shutdown. So all of those boats, all of those guys had been practicing catch and release and they just go out there to catch those fish and let them go Hoping to get that 28, 31 inch lottery slot fish. They're all going to be shut down. You tell me how a draw McMurray with all his boats and there's so many of them carrying in. I go on and on. They live on that fishery. They're going to shut it down for no reason. I hope I'm wrong. I think I'm right.

Are you? Going to see that it would tragic if they did that, and I liken it to the collapse of the lobster fishing in Long Island.

When.

I started my business, there used to be 25 boats out of Mount Santa Barbara alone, in and out every day, thriving lobster fishery. And then something happened, not sure what climate change, the pesticide spraying, something killed the lobsters and they're no longer there. But the lobster fishery? Everything was shifting north there and lobsters were at the southern end of their range this particular species. Perhaps the water just formed up too much, nobody knows right. But the lobster fish up north and Maine was still extremely good. But imagine, they shut down the lobster fishing up in Maine because Long Island Sound was now depleted. That's basically what they're doing with the striped bass and everything that you're starting with, because Long Island. Sound no longer has lobsters. Therefore we can't fish for lobsters trap lobsters in Maine anymore. It just makes no sense.

No. And what happens if everything else, the striped bass which they have gotten, the YOL numbers in the Chesapeake every year. Now what happens if they moved out of there? They move it north. There's somewhere else. They're not where they look. They go to look for them. So we can't fish until they somehow find these fish. I'm telling you, nobody knows better than you, we've been through it all. But think about it as, as time gone that fast. Think about what we had and where we are. I can remember getting on Pete Pearson's party boat, 200 bucks ahead. We would run to the canyon and we would load up on bluefin and we would come home. That's over. Everything is that we did then is over. But something else is taking it back Now, me and myself. I would much rather fight a blackfish but I'd much rather eat a sea bass. I would be fine If these sea bass numbers stay. I'll be fine. But I'm a firm believer, des, I don't know if you know this, but I've done a lot of homework on it. In fact I have a podcast on it. We have an estimated 1.1 million pots that are ghost pots. They're laying on the bottom of New York Sound, long Island Sound. Think of that over a million pots ghost pots.

Now we still after they did all the cleanup. They did a massive cleanup the last couple of years.

Yeah, you know what? They got 17,000 and all of the pots that they got from the lobstermen that left the pots there. They just went back and got them, got paid for. But as of right now I can't remember the guy's name. He's the greatest guy ever. He's out there trying to get these pots and they're getting them at a rate of 10 to 15,000 a year. There's a million of them. Do you know that? They told me they finally they just got side scan to find these pots. They just got side scans so far. How long have you had that?

Really.

They just got it this year. So think about it if there's one blackfish and you, I'm sure you've encountered some pots If there's one blackfish in each pot, it's a million fish, a million. Look, there's a lot we could do. I'm glad, though, that you've got those porgis, and you got those sea bass, and what happened? Bluefishes year over there.

Let me just make one more comment about the sea bass fish.

Go ahead.

Because it absolutely boggles my mind the amount of sea bass we run into, especially out of Matta Talk in the Eastern Sound this time of year. Like I said, if I sent you a screenshot from the other day, there was literally thousands and thousands of them on one wreck, wow, and I just caught a tiny little bit of it. It's funny because you and then in the herd moves so you can go back the next day and it's blank. But when you run into these herds of fish like I just wish I could grab the fishery scientists and be like come here, count now.

Yeah, really. It's like on this one spot underneath the boat.

I'll send you a screenshot when we're done. You'll just you won't believe it, and it's one pot.

Their whole view will change, yeah.

Yeah, and they don't realize the amount of it and that's just my one little spot. I'm literally thousands of fish. I'll be in a hundred feet of water and they'll read from the all the way top to bottom through the whole water column sea bass. That is crazy and we've been running into these schools now for a couple of years and it's amazing. When you find them, the whole boat limits out. You catch double headers and they're big and even at 16 and a half inches we're still able to catch a limit and thank God for that and it's really. That is as epic as sea bass Like remember back in the winter fishery going on the big Jamaica and stuff out in Texas town on sea bass. Now we do that in freaking Long Island Sound, which I never thought that would happen. But that's been an incredible evolution of that fishery and we're mother nature give it and take it away. And right now she's really hooked us up with that one and that's really gets people going and makes the trip worthwhile. And hey, if you can catch a couple of blackfish but then you go put half a dozen beautiful big sea bass in the cooler, it makes for a good day. So that's what's keeping us going and it's making for a good product here and the people are very happy with it and that's keeping us going. But again, sometimes when they tell us these numbers, I just want to run my own survey and bring them out and have them see what I see in Long Island Sound. And we're not even at the epicenter where the sea bass population migrates, we're just catching the fringe that comes into Long Island Sound here and that's how abundant they are. And I remember and porgy's as well. I remember one day, george, with my side scan sonar, that I had on my boat, I had a school of porgy's that ran along the edge of one of the shoals when they came in spawning and the school of fish was like 15 to 20 feet high off the bottom but about at least 100 to 150 feet across. When I picked it up with my sonar right and I was like, wow, let me keep seeing how long this school runs for. And I followed the contour line of the shoal and I ran for a solid mile scanning the school. That was again 150 feet width by 20 feet high and a mile long until I finally reached the end of the school and I reckon there had to be probably upwards of a million fish there easily, if you think about it.

And that was just in more than a second.

And you're like, how do they quantify this? And then tell us and you know, that was the day that they restricted the regulations that year because there wasn't enough of them and they had cut us back.

I don't mean to laugh, but there's times when you're like are you kidding me? And they're doing it now, at the best.

That was absolutely one of them. I wanted to literally take my screenshots and send it to Noah Fisheries and be like what is going?

on here. Yes, I went to. I'm almost ashamed to say it, but I'm the representative for the recreational angler on weak fish in New York and I can't remember going to a meeting and it was a year. It was years ago, maybe eight, 10 years ago, when the party boats down in New York by day area were getting them pretty good. So I get to this meeting and I'm looking at the numbers and the number says that New York totaled 150 pounds of weak fish for the whole year. And I'm looking at him like I own a fishing magazine. I get fishing reports every day and I can tell you right now there were more pounds caught last night in New York fight than you have for the whole season here. Those numbers are still there. They're still as, they're still part of their, their entire. How do you want to say it? They're the little course that they have there. I don't know, man, the numbers are always changing. They're never seemed to be right. But I gotta say one thing Look, I owned a fishing magazine forever, 30-some-odd years at the first fishing website ever. When I say that to people that you don't believe it, you know for a fact. If you put fishing in Yahoo, I was it? I've seen it all and I gotta tell you this I've dealt with every business owner there is, and so many. There was the guy you wanted to deal with, or gal you wanted to deal with. They were the ones you dealt with, and then there were the ones that you really didn't want to deal with. What I want to tell you? You were in the top tier, you were just. You were such a supporter and you helped make me a success.

I appreciate that, george, that's really nice to hear, and we took care of each other. Your business absolutely launched my business and I never could have done what I did as a young kid starting out. I almost went out of business twice when I first started Because I was literally getting fares in to put fuel in my tank so I could fish the next day, and then I blew my engine. I blew my transmission. My sister bailed me out with a loan and but if it wasn't for your site I'll never forget this I was doing so bad my first season that I was literally going. Maybe I'd get out two trips a week. When I first started I'm like, oh, this would be easy. You put an ad in the paper and the people will just start coming. But that's not how it works and I would go days and days. My phone would not ring and you had just started your fishing site, thank God. And I was doing so bad. I was about to go out of business because I was out of money and I was doing so bad. I had to go beg for my old job back running another party boat and then I ended up running another party boat in Port Jeff, so I was showing up there running that party boat just to make fuel money so I could run my boat on the weekend with two or three fares that would show up. And somehow I managed to make it through the season to blackfish season and I knew I had good blackfish drops lined up because I had been searching for them for years and I knew if I could go blackfishing maybe someone would want to come with me. And my first day out blackfishing I went out, we wailed on. I had two customers we wailed on fish and these two customers were like beside themselves. I took pictures, whatever, and I was like you know what? There's this new website, norriscom. Let me go put some pictures up on that website, maybe that will help. This is way back in the day. And I went and posted that night and within I kid you not 15 minutes my phone started ringing and ringing and I'm like whoa, something just happened here. And that next day I somehow or another got eight fares to come with me the next day and we went out again and we wailed on fish again. I took pictures of my old digital camera, like a two megapixel or something like that yeah. When you put the SD card. It would take like 20 minutes to upload the pictures to your website with the little beach ball spinning, but I was like I had to do that and after the second day of posting on your site, my phone started ringing off the hook. And because black fishermen are crazy bunch, oh still are. So passionate and they couldn't believe that, wow, there's some new boat in Mount Sinai. No one had ever heard of them going out and whaling on blackfish. I got to check this out and then I started getting the calls from all like the hardcore blackfish guys Alberto and the EC Newell men, like all these guys that you talk about. Oh yeah. They started hey, is this real? Are you really catching blackfish like this? Because there weren't many boats that were hardcore blackfish in those years. Not at all. And then I ended up my next trip because of the posting on your site. I was sold out with 25 people and we went out. We'd limit it out again, whaled on fish, took pictures now of 25 people, posted those on your site and they all started chatting with each other on your forum telling the fishing stories that how great fishing was. And do you know that for the rest of the season I was sold out every single trip, every single trip.

I was sold out. I got to tell you something, desi. I don't want to cut your shoe up, but I got to tell you. That is one of the most rewarding stories I have ever heard, only because I really like you as a person. And to hear you say that I knew what's going on and no one was admitting it at the time because they were afraid I was going to charge them, which my prices were always very inexpensive. But to hear you say that means more to me than anything you could possibly imagine.

George you have no idea Like I think back about those days and weeks. I had literally had a day where that fall I had no money. I had blown my transmission. It was like $12,000. I literally went to bed that night saying you know what I'm done, at some point you can't keep digging a hole like that. I was tens of thousands in debt. And I went to bed that night and I said you know what I tried? Whatever just not meant to be, I'm not going to be a party boat fisherman, I'll do something else. And I woke up that next morning. I don't know what overtained me, but I was like you know what? I know I can make this happen. I know I can figure this out. I'm just I'm freaking going fishing again and I had two fares again that day and I just struggled through it up until this moment that I told you with the black fishing in your website and after posting those and being sold out like that, it's like the momentum just catapulted and I got enough money from those final weeks of black fishing, all from Norriscom Like just the crazy black fisherman on your chat forums just going crazy. It was like madness. I could have filled the boat three times over, because it was like a starving audience just wanting to go black fishing, and I scrounged enough money together to keep the boat going through the winter and then that spring we used to have a great spring black fishery as well. So when I started, picked up from that momentum, as soon as I posted on Norriscom hey, I'm going to go black fishing again. Boom, the phone started ringing. That's great I ended up having a great season and I never looked back and that next year was the first time that Norris Charter started and hard to think back like nobody ever did that it was the first time that everyone on your website and it was arranged by Kilsong the great Kilsong, the one and only who many of us fish with over the years, and Mike Marks Togmaster and EC Newellman and all these guys who were like, hey, let's all meet each other and get together. And Kilsong that next year arranged the first ever Norris Charter. It was the first one and everyone came out from behind the keyboard and your screen names oh, you're Togmaster, you're Togslayer, you're Fluke, whatever. Everyone's name was right and met on my boat for the most epic trip and we were so fortunate. If I had to pick one day as a fisherman that I could relive, it would probably be this one. But yeah, kilsong, it was the first ever Kilsong, that Norris Charter. Okay now.

I'm going to add something to this that's going to make it even, I believe, that much more special, as we had that food. Remember we had the soup going. Everybody was freaking out. I had that big bowl of soup in the middle of the boat and my brother was there. Guy rest his soul and it turns out that was his last trip. He had a fish and I don't know if you recall, but he went out. He fished for five minutes. He was working the whole time getting the food ready and my brother fished for five minutes and he won the pool with an 11 pound blackfish. He beat out John Skinner. You saying that it really means I'm a believer in faith and it means a lot to me. You saying that is a lot to that trip.

Yeah, that trip was so special because, again, all these people were united for the first time Through. It was the when the internet was still somewhat pure and positive for oh, it was so beautiful then. Before all the freaking, kick talk, nonsense and all this other crap that's in the algorithms that make us hate each other, like all this nonsense. Back in the day, we just were fishermen, connecting and enjoying our passion and learning from one another and making new friends. I made so many friends through Norriscom back in the day, but that particular trip we were blessed with it was 70, it was November 1st. I still have in my logbook November 1st. And it was 70 degrees. We're fishing in short sleeves. I went to a virgin wreck that I had never fished before. We caught 300 keepers and then some, and it was flat calm and we had the best day and all these fishermen got to know each other and then we had I was kill songs, but he was a sushi chef and mammoth. Oh, man, he was cutting that stuff up A beautiful tray of sashimi for everyone, oh my. God, captain Neil was there. Captain Neil filmed that with his freaking camcorder back in the day.

Oh, he's still after fishing, I hear.

Yeah, he came out with me this year. But when I look back at all those faces and we're like God. We only knew how special that was. That was the first many phenomenal Nor'east charters. Dozens of Nor'east charters and many other different charter masters started up over that in that season. For the next 10 years it was like reached its peak and its heyday and that was such a huge part of my business, not only for black fishing but fluke fishing. Tons of fluke charters and like the whole Nor'east community just came together in those years and it was just a remarkable time. But that's what got me over the hump. When you start a business, a lot of businesses really struggle and that's why they go out of business. They just can't make that. They can't reach critical point where the money coming in is more than the money going out. When you got to just pull them. It's not easy. Yeah, it was. It wasn't easy, but I'm so thankful to have had that opportunity and it was great working with you all those years, george, like I say, you relied on us boats for bringing content to your site and very much we received in return 10-fold in business on helping us grow and get the word out and it was amazing. The whole thing was amazing how it happened back in the day.

Well, you know what we became family we really did. We all knew each other. We were all you mentioned, larry. You knew who it was Like. We were all on a first name basis. You became look, there were plenty of boats that would love to have had the Nor'east crowd. But when we met you and we fished with you, we knew this is the guy we want to talk, fish with from here on out and fluke fish with and do whatever we got to do. I can only say I keep saying it, but I really mean it. It's hard for me to believe that it's all gone by and it happened so fast and the change that has occurred in our lifetime or not in all lifetime, but in our time in this fishery.

Yeah, it seems like a dream. You know that back in the day, I mean, I remember, and when we first started that I, we didn't have smartphones, no, I would go out. I had a baby like I have a next, tell a flip phone.

Yeah yeah, yeah.

But we would take pictures on the original digital cameras and then pull out the SD cards, insert them into the computer at night and it was like I think back about. I remember the first time someone showed me a phone where they could pull up a marine forecast on their phone and I was like, wow, yeah.

I remember a time you guys would grab our phones. We weren't allowed on a freaking party about giving you a phone. Why You're going to mark my spot. In the beginning, we actually had to give up our phones. You might have that, might have been before you, but there was actually a time where we were not allowed to hold our own phones.

Oh my god. Yeah Well, started with handheld GPS's and then went to phones and now forget it. I've had so many spots mugged it. Now there's a map of the bottom you can buy for 25 bucks with an app. It's like there are.

There are no C and, as you can put them on the spot, show them where it is, tell them what to do, and they won't catch a thing and they'll never go back. So you got nothing to worry about.

That's been my experience. I missed the day fishing with a Loran when it actually took some skill to be able to get on a piece and go black fishing. Now it's so easy with spot locks and everything else, but that's a whole other issue.

We'll talk about that some other day.

I did.

I want to close this out with you, knowing that you've always been special to me and your entire operation. I've always had a ton of respect for, and as I do for, many of the guys and gals that you know do what you do. It's every other business you have to do a crab shoot from one day to the next. Only you have to deal with some real crazy stuff. You got regulations that you never know what the hell is going to come up. You got fuel, you got docking. You got insurance. You got your boat blowing up. You got God knows what. And then, on top of that, you got crazy regulations, the good people that are good business people, which I know you are able to make it through, and you know I'm so glad that you were able to make a career out of what you enjoyed.

Thank you, george and as many people helping me along the way, like yourself and your business, and by the grace of God, go I like. I've been so, so lucky to do this as a living and it's been a great career. It's been a hard career. There's definitely a lot of sleepless nights and moments of frustration and just when you think you're catching up, mother nature keeps you tied to the dock with crappy weather for a week. But it's a labor of love and every day I still get on the boat with a smile on my face as we steam out to the grounds and I pinch myself and I say, man, I'm one lucky guy that this is what I get to do with my life. It's been nice sharing that journey with you for sure, and I look forward to going fishing again. Be here, or be here or sunny Florida one day or wherever you got it.

Look, this was great. I wish you're nothing but the best. Make sure you mohawk the fish and if, look, I don't tell everyone that I'm snowboarding down here in Florida, but I am now. So if you happen to be down in Naples, look me up and anyone listening you could do that too. I may not answer right away, but Desi's case I'm answering George. Alright, brother, you take care of yourself, and this was great.

Alright, george, take it easy. Thanks so much for having me on this.

Hey, thank you so much for being on the show.

Alright, take care, george.

Our story today is more than just a tale of fishing. It's a saga of the human spirit, of fighting against the tide and finding hope in the most unexpected places. Journeyed from the brink of despair, with engines failing and debts mounting, to the thrill of a phone ringing with promise. Remember the days of the near silence, broken only by the hopes that someone somewhere would answer the call. And then the transformation Norriscom. Not just a website but a lifeline, a platform that connected us, that brought our stories to the world. Each picture posted, each story shared became a beacon calling to all of our fellow anglers, from the first successful blackfish trip to the phone ringing off the hook. It was a journey of rediscovery, of realizing that our passion could indeed be our livelihood. And then the Norris Charter, a gathering that transcended the digital realm, bringing together a community of anglers united not just by a website but by a shared passion that runs as deep as the ocean itself. We remember all of our great members, architects, and all the many friendships that blossomed on the Celtic quest. There's a certain magic in these memories, a reminder that, amidst the turmoil of the world, the simple joy of fishing, of sharing a bowl of soup and a boat can bring us closer than we ever imagined. We recall the triumphant catch of my beloved brother, a moment etched in time, a testament to the unexpected gifts that the sea bestows upon all of us. As we cast our thoughts back to those days of unity and discovery, let's hold on to the sense of wonder, that feeling of being part of something larger than ourselves. The world may change, technologies may evolve, but the heart of fishing, the soul of our community, remains unshakable. So, as we sign off from this episode, let's carry these stories with us as reminders where we've been and as beacons guiding us to where we're headed, until we meet again. This is your, your captain on this journey through the waves and wonders New York's sport fishing. Keep your lines tight, your hearts open and your memories alive.