May 8, 2013 — The fish aren’t the problem. They’re still biting. It’s just that the people aren’t. The recreational fishing season for winter flounder and striped bass in Sheepshead Bay started last month, but boat captains and bait shops in the neighborhood hit hard by Sandy have been seeing less business than usual.
“People don’t have the money now to go fishing,” said Captain Mike Ardolino of the Brooklyn VI. “They’re rebuilding. Fishing just isn’t a top priority right now. And I think it’s going to be that way for a few years.”
Barely a month into the season, it’s still too early to know for sure how recreational fishing will fare, local fishermen say. A winter that was colder than normal after the storm hit also complicates matters. No one knows whether they have Sandy or the cold winter to thank for the slow start to the season. Or whether it’s a combination of the two.
But one thing has been certain: it’s been roughly six months since Sandy swept through the neighborhood—and for the area’s residents and businessmen, it’s been a rough six months.
On a recent afternoon, a pile of straining black plastic bags and waterlogged wooden furniture sat on the sidewalk next to Bernie’s Bait and Tackle down the street from the pier where the boats rode out the storm. A handwritten banner hanging on a fence behind the trash heap implored the city to return the dumpsters formerly used to get rid of the household belongings Sandy turned into garbage.
“I’m lucky I only had three feet of water in my store. I was able to deal with it,” said Jim Giordano, the bait shop’s owner. “The problem is the neighborhood’s ruined. Our customer base is destroyed.”
Captain Nardiello isn’t faring any better. The number of people he took out on his boat one warm and sunny April weekend was “embarrassing,” he said. Customers numbered in the low teens that Saturday and Sunday. The figures should be at least two or three times that during this time in the season, he said. He can’t afford to go out every day. “It’s atrocious. It’s terrible,” Nardiello said of business now.
Read the full story at the Brooklyn Ink