By Alex Davidson
A day of fishing in Howard Beach for Enrico Santarelli and Louis Raia started when the two packed up their car with coolers full of the day's meals, two chairs equipped with homemade rod-holding devices and at least five basic fishing rods to increase the odds of making a good day's catch.
The pair then drove from their homes in Flushing and stopped at a bait and tackle shop on Cross Bay Boulevard in Howard Beach to pick up clams and $5.50 worth of bloodworms, 6- to 8-inch creatures that could bite the fishermen as the worms try to wiggle free of their fate of being food for flounder and fluke as well as striper, otherwise known as striped bass.
Santarelli, a retired bus driver, and Raia, a retired butcher, have been friends for more than 20 years and make fishing together a priority in their relationship.
There is only one constant variable for the two veteran fishermen, who regularly travel long distances to catch their prey, and that is where they're going to plant themselves for six to seven hours and wait for a tug on their fishing lines. This time on a sunny recent Monday afternoon it was Howard Beach.
“We fish all over, but this time we came here,” said Santarelli, an Italian immigrant who moved to Queens in 1951. “We had heard they were catching some good fish here.”
Santarelli and Raia, who have traveled as far as Montauk and Jones Beach on Long Island to fish, were just two of several men who came to the northwestern tip of the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge in Gateway National Recreation Area to fish on the early spring day.
The two men met when Santarelli began to frequent Raia's butcher shop and started talking about fishing. The pair both owned boats for 25 years and would talk about how much they enjoyed spending time traveling at sea.
Unfortunately, they had to sell their boats once they retired because the crafts were too expensive and time-consuming to maintain. But this did not deter them from coming to the beach right off the Joe Addabbo Bridge to practice their surf casting technique – a method of shoving a fishing rod into the sand where it won't move until a fish is hooked.
Or, in this case, when the tide came in and Santarelli had to run to rescue the pole before it was buried in the rising waters.
“You better get that one,” Raia shouted to Santarelli, who quickly ran to save the fishing rod and move it safely away from the ocean.
The jovial atmosphere at the beach continued as the men discussed their histories and their wives. Both men laughed at how their wife reap benefits from the long amount of time they spend outside of the house.
“They're glad to get rid of us,” Raia said.
Santarelli and Raia both received their proper fishing permits that allow them to travel and catch fish at the designated areas. They said, however, that fishermen have been having problems catching fish in local spots because of over-fishing.
“Some places are fished out,” Raia said. “Nobody gets that much fish.”
But the prospect of catching fish does not seem to be a major factor in whether the pair will keep coming to spots on Long Island to catch the flounder, fluke and striper. The weather instead plays a bigger role.
“It's a little windy today, but still nice,” Santarelli said.
As of 4 p.m. , neither had caught a fish, but they were still content to sit calmly among their tackle boxes, chairs, five poles and other trinkets brought to the beach to make the day as enjoyable as possible. Coming away empty-handed will not deter the men from journeying to Howard Beach to give it another try.
“They say you catch stripers here,” Raia said. “We got to give it another shot.”
Reach reporter Alex Davidson by e-mail at TimesLedger@aol.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 156.
