# Jersey Surf Fish Story



## murphman (Sep 4, 2003)

Fishing fiasco nets big catch

Brothers-in-law have 60-lb. black drum, funny story to tell

By GLORIA CAMPISI

[email protected]


This is a fish story like you wouldn't believe.

Paul Waters had been angling in the surf at Ocean City for only minutes last weekend when he felt a tremendous tug on his fishing pole.

As Waters battled what turned out to be a 60.4-pound catch, his brother-in-law, Antony Ayres, got so excited he rushed into the water in his chest-high waders.

Waters' fishing line wrapped around Ayres' body and snapped. The fish swam away - "It just tore off like a freight train," said Ayres - with one of two hooks from Waters' fishing pole lodged in its mouth and the other hook dangling in the water.

From the shore, Waters was giving his brother-in-law a piece of his mind. Then Ayres' fishing pole, lodged in an aluminum sand spike, began to go crazy.

A fish was fighting to get free. Ayres, still in the water, pounced on it it, "like a football."

When Ayres and friends got it to shore, the brothers-in-law were dumbfounded to find Ayres' catch was the same fish - a gigantic black drum fish - that had gotten away from Waters moments earlier. Waters' hook, dangling from the fish's mouth, had tangled with Ayres' hook.

"It was a lifetime catch for us and a miracle to have salvaged it after it got away the first time," Waters said. His second largest catch was a 10-pound bluefish. Ayres' was a 17-pound striped bass.

Ayres said he wasn't sure at first, when he saw something moving as he waded into the water, whether it was a shark.

"I'm not a tough guy. I was scared to death, but this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," he said. "I wasn't going to lose it again."

Besides, he said, his brother-in-law was steamed. "He was giving me a look like, come out of the water and you're mine."

The fantastic fish story happened Saturday at a tournament with co-workers from the electrical-supply company where Waters, 37, of Downingtown, and Ayres, 32, of Glenmoore, both of Chester County, work.

When they tried to weigh the fish, Ayres said, "My friend's scale on the beach read 54 pounds and then it broke."

Ayres and his friends threw the fish into the back of his SUV and headed for Fin-Atic Marine Supply in Ocean City, where owner Ed Bronstein reweighed the fish and said it was a big one.

Bronstein said he'd weighed another that was bigger - a 77- pound black drum - but that was from the Delaware Bay. Black drums usually weigh 20 to 25 pounds, he said.

Black drum usually are caught in the spring, from boats, Ayres said.

Waters said their catch was so big that when people saw photographs of it, "they thought it was a fake fish."


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## HighCap56 (Oct 21, 2003)

Good story, but a waste of life if you ask me.

I would have loved to catch that fish, but its the "throw it in the pickup" bit that gets to me.

Not happy enough with the catch, the Drum is destroyed so it can be weighed.

Lost a great breeder in an ever dwindling eco system and species.

...Climbing off soap box to go fish Chix in VB.


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## Fishbreath (Nov 11, 2004)

*Chix Beach*

Hey HighCap, where's Chix Beach in VA? I'm in Alexandria and thinking of swing by there...


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## Newsjeff (Jul 22, 2004)

*Chix*

It the stretch of beach between the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel and the Lesner Bridge in Virginia Beach. It gets it's name from the nearby watering hole, Chicks Beach Cafe. It officially called Chesapeake Beach, but the locals use Chicks i.e. Chix. 
It a good spot for striped bass this time of year. When the locals say the are fishing Chix, it usually means at the base of the CBBT on the Virginia Beach side. Get off the CBBT on Shore Drive and take a right. Take Shore Drive to Pleasure House Road. Right on Pleasure House until it dead ends at the water. Now take a right. This is Lookout Road. Follow this road under the CBBT and around the sharp curve until you get to Chicks Beach Cafe. Take a left just after you pass the Cafe and drive to the end of the street. Park on the street across from Alexander's on the Bay restaurant. From there it's a short walk to the base of the CBBT.


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