Rocky horror show

Sunday, July 15, 2007

BY BRIDGET WENTWORTH

Star-Ledger Staff

Everything started out fine one fall night about five years ago.

The water off Island Beach State Park was calm, and the north jetty of Barnegat Inlet beckoned to Paul Hofmann and his two fishing buddies

Equipment in hand and footwear strapped on, the three made their way out along the jetty, an expanse of huge, heavy stones that stretches 10 football fields into the Atlantic.

It was well after dark -- perfect for catching striped bass -- and the three settled in for what they hoped would be a bountiful night.

Within hours, they were fighting for their lives.

"We laugh about it sometimes," Hofmann says, "but we were inches away from getting killed."

This isn't party boat fishing, rod in one hand, beer in the other. This isn't casual surfcasting from the beach, rods dug into the sand while their owners lounge around.

Jetty fishing pits man against one of New Jersey's biggest saltwater game fish -- and that's the easy part. The rocks, covered with algae and as slick as ice, can take a fisherman's feet right out from under him. Some have suffered broken limbs, smashed teeth, and concussions.

Then there's the water. Atlantic Ocean on one side, inlet on the other, strong currents everywhere. Waves have swept unsuspecting fishermen off the rocks and into the water, sometimes in the dead of night.

"I've had guys freeze up, turn around, and go back in, and there's times when I'm afraid out there," Hofmann says. "It's nothing to be bashful about. I've gone out for 15 minutes and thought, 'This is too much, I'm going back in.' Everybody gets afraid out there."

But these days this slice of Jersey Shore sports culture is disappearing. No specific numbers are available, but Hofmann, from Toms River, estimates there are just 250 or so serious jetty fishermen left in New Jersey.

"There's a whole generation of people who taught me how to fish, and that I fished with, that are either too old right now, have retired and moved, or passed away," says Hofmann, described by another fisherman as a "top surfcaster among his peers."

Of course, that just means there's more room on the rocks for the old-timers -- and that usually suits them just fine.

"We always said a bass off the jetty is worth five off a boat, because it's a far greater challenge," says Hofmann, a 56-year-old retired civil engineer. "It's not just the act of hooking a fish."

BOULDERS, WAVES AND PAIN

Fishermen have been taking risks on Barnegat Inlet's north jetty for decades.

The jetty, and another one to the south, were built in 1939 and 1940 by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to stabilize the inlet and establish a connection between Barnegat Bay and the ocean. During the early 1970s, the corps elevated the north jetty by six feet using boulders that weigh several tons each. The idea was to keep sand and waves from passing into the inlet.

Today, the corps maintains approximately 10 jetties in New Jersey. Hundreds of smaller man-made structures, commonly referred to as jetties but officially known as groins, line the coast as well.

It is in these places that fishermen -- territorial and isolationist, with names like Fishin' Mission Joe, Broken Nose John, and No Fish -- spend their days and nights.

On this Tuesday afternoon at Barnegat Inlet, the water looks like a postcard from the Bahamas, and Bucktail Joe -- Joe Dolobacs , 63, of Seaside Park -- is fishing off the north jetty with his son, Brian.

Brian, 38, sports a large bandage on his left big toe, hiding the fact he no longer has a nail.

"I got hurt a couple weeks ago," he says. "I took a slide and rammed my toe into the rocks. In the 10-minute ride back to the house, it had already turned totally black."

Many jetty fishermen wear "Korkers" -- sandal-like cleats that strap onto fishing boots for a good grip on the rocks.

Sneakers or bare feet don't cut it on the rocks, which are lined with razor-sharp barnacles. It's something amateurs often learn the hard way.

"Sometimes you'll say something to them, and they'll say, 'Don't tell me what to do,'" Joe Dolobacs says. "The worst thing I've seen out there is a guy with a child on his shoulders."

The water poses an even bigger danger.

"I've been moved by a wave out on those rocks," Dolobacs says. "That's God trying to tell you something. Anyone with a brain has left fish biting when that happens."

Dave Paulick, 57, of Allentown, has fished the north jetty for a dozen years. Last November, he was by himself at 1:30 a.m. when a wave tossed him into the water. He saw it coming at the last second and tried bracing himself with his gaff, a long pole with a hook on the end that fishermen use to haul up their catch.

It was no use.

"The wave just snapped the gaff in half and put me in the inlet," Paulick says. "Luckily, the tide wasn't ripping out, and I was only about 15 feet into the inlet.

"That water was cold. I lost one of my boots."