years, been given names by the party boat fishermen. These are il- 

 lustrated in Figure 2« It will be noted that most of these fishing 

 localities lie within the 20 fathom contour and west of the Hudson 

 Canyon. Relatively little, if any at all, party fishing takes plaoe 

 outside this area. 



There are no definite fishing grounds for mackerel other 

 than the area in the vicinity of Ambrose Lightship. The schools 

 ere fished by party boats along their entire migratory route from 

 Cape May to Montauk Point and return. 



b. TBE 1948 PARTY BOAT SEASON 



The 1948 New York and New Jersey party boat fishing season 

 was well under way by the third week of April (Figure 3). Good 

 catches of sea bass were made from early April until the last week 

 of September. Peak periods were recorded during the third and 

 fourth weeks of May, the six-week period, June 13 to July 25, and 

 the two-week period, August 22 to September 4. 



The party boat fishing season for mackerel began during the 

 first week of May, a week earlier than the charter boat season. 

 The reason for this being that these early catches were made by 

 party boats operating from Southern New Jersey ports. These vessels, 

 because of their location, had the opportunity of fishing the 

 migrating schools of mackerel before they had progressed along the 

 coast and entered the Middle Atlantic Bight proper. In the 

 general area of the "Mud Hole" the mackerel fishing season had its 

 beginning during the second week of May. Like the charter boat 

 fishery for mackerel, the spring party boat fishery for this species 

 was virtually over by the ttiird week of JuiM* 



The party boat operators of New York and New Jersey capitalized 

 on the large fall run of mackerel that appeared in the vicinity of 

 Ambrose Lightship early in November. Mr. Henry Bearse, Agent in 

 charge of the New York Fishery Market News Office, reports that 

 several hundred thousand pounds of "jig- caught" mackerel were landed 

 and shipped to New York's Pol ton Iforket during November and December 

 by party boat fishermen. 



Soup, fluke, and weakfish began to appear in the party boat 

 catches the fourth week of May, Soup was taken in large quantities 

 from the second week of June through the second week of September. 

 Fluke catches were small until the week of July 4. The peak was 

 reached in iate August, after which the catch fell off rapidly. 

 Weakfish catches fluctuated greatlyj the greatest weekly oatoh 

 was registered during the second week of June. 



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