For the past 75 years members of the Manasquan River Marlin & Tuna Club have had a remarkable and profound influence on the world of big-game and inshore fishing. New Jersey’s reputation for big-game fishing began when the Sea Bright Grounds gave up Jacob Wertheim’s 286-pound bluefin tuna in 1915, followed by Christian W. Feigenspan’s world record of 407 pounds in 1923. Ten years later, Francis Low captured a gigantic (for that time) bluefin tuna weighing in at 705 pounds! Low would become one of the founding members of the Manasquan River Marlin & Tuna Club and the club’s first president in 1936. The club was one of the two founding clubs participating in a competition between New York and New Jersey boats that would eventually become the prestigious United States Atlantic Tuna Tournament. Walter O’Malley, owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers, fished against a Manasquan River team and the results were “mailed” back to shore by carrier pigeon. Since then, club members have fished the world over, setting numerous world record catches under the auspices of the International Game Fish Association, and supporting the protection and conservation of game fish.
The History of the Manasquan River Marlin & Tuna Club chronicles the early bluefin tuna and marlin fishery along the New Jersey coast and it follows our members on their adventures to fishing grounds from New England to Central and South America. You will get a sense of what it was like to fish big game with tackle that is primitive by today’s standards. It follows the club’s activities, record catches and great people right up to the present times. The book is not written by any one author, but rather it tells the story of the club through the various members and outdoor journalists who were there, and provides hundreds of pictures that put the reader in the middle of the action.