I have been pretty busy doing a cleanup of my basement, and of course, you come across 'stuff' thats been sitting around for years, never to be used or looked at till you actually go and make space for something new. One of the things which i dug up, was a few books, which i saved old press clippings, and magazine article. One of the first was a article written by Nick Karas in Newsday on February 5, 1995. And its a short little article about how Cholera Banks got its name.
I and many others always asked this question when we were younger, why this very productive area got that particular name. During the 60s and 70s when i was growing up and making trips on the party boats, Cholera was considered the area for Sheepshead Bay party boats to make a OFFSHORE COD TRIP! Hard to believe but here in the Bay, such areas as Scallop Ridge, Ambrose Ridge, and of course the TOURNAMENT Grounds were areas that the Sheepshead Bay would normally fish at certain times of the year to fish for cod, and make very good catches. But to get back on the subject of Cholera Banks, many skippers considered this one of the TOP areas for catching cod to 50 lbs on the west end of Long Island. So it would always make you ask, why would they name a great piece of cod bottom, Cholera Banks.
The article tells the story about how a women sent Nick Karas a article written in the Stan Smiths outdoor column in the Daily News in 1949 that was originally cut out by her father, a avid fishermen who recently passed away. Well it got the ball rolling, with a party boat captain from Brielle New Jersey, 'Candy" Keefe of the Tambo giving who learned his trade during the years of 1904-1909 from the son of the man who first found these grounds. This Captains name was Henry Bebe who ran a sidewheeler fishing steamer from Battery Park NY, called the Mt. Desert. He stated that his father, Alsono Bebe who used to fish commercially for lobsters from a 'small sailing sloop' found these high rocky grounds when his boat became 'beclamed' (aka no wind for the sails) while he was fishing. After two days he took soundings using a lead weight, which indicated shallower waters then the surrounding area.
Mr. Karas writes,
'that Capt. Bebe decided to bait a handline with mossbunker to determine if their were any fish in the area'.
Well it seems that this unfished rocky area gave up so many BLACK SEA BASS, that Capt. Bebe filled up ten barrels with fish, i guess, as fast as you could pull them, in our modern day terminology. The article continues that he tossed a 'flag bouy' on the spot around noon time, and headed home as the wind came up.
Captain Bebe at this point knew that he just found a area that was never fished before, and wanted to name it like fishermen normally do when they find a new spot. After some thought, he came up with the name CHOLERA BANKS because at that time New York City was going through a cholera epidemic. And with such a rampant illness going on at that time, people would 'go out on ships' to avoid catching this malady....the sea acted like a 'haven' as Mr. Karas wrote.
It is not clear in the article, but, party boats began sailing out to the new fish haven, with loads of customers, who were charged 10 cents a head, thus the name we occasionally hear, headboats. And, at that time, party boat captains who only had shore ranges to give them a idea of where a piece of bottom was, would take take their two navigational tools, their time piece and compass, using time and course, head south, and eventually find this rocky high spot, that sprung up from our normally sandy bottom we have in the NY BIGHT.
Most of us today are born within the modern era of electronic navigation, take for granted running out the 8-10 miles out of Jones inlet with the numbers 26770 x 43670 in our lorans to give us the start of the Banks, which comes up from 80 feet of water to almost 60 feet at whats called High Rock on Cholera. Along with it being a great area for sea bass fishing, it of course is one of the top areas for chumming and jigging bluefish, and later in the season albacore and bonita. Later in the fall, we catch some blackfish on the stickier, rocky patches on Cholera. What is sad though, is that for many of us, the first time we fished on Cholera Banks was for codfish, which over the last for years has been non-exsistant.
So for many of us, that wonder how Cholera Banks got its name, we can thank Nick Karas of Newsday, for writing this very informative article.
EC NEWELL MAN*
I and many others always asked this question when we were younger, why this very productive area got that particular name. During the 60s and 70s when i was growing up and making trips on the party boats, Cholera was considered the area for Sheepshead Bay party boats to make a OFFSHORE COD TRIP! Hard to believe but here in the Bay, such areas as Scallop Ridge, Ambrose Ridge, and of course the TOURNAMENT Grounds were areas that the Sheepshead Bay would normally fish at certain times of the year to fish for cod, and make very good catches. But to get back on the subject of Cholera Banks, many skippers considered this one of the TOP areas for catching cod to 50 lbs on the west end of Long Island. So it would always make you ask, why would they name a great piece of cod bottom, Cholera Banks.
The article tells the story about how a women sent Nick Karas a article written in the Stan Smiths outdoor column in the Daily News in 1949 that was originally cut out by her father, a avid fishermen who recently passed away. Well it got the ball rolling, with a party boat captain from Brielle New Jersey, 'Candy" Keefe of the Tambo giving who learned his trade during the years of 1904-1909 from the son of the man who first found these grounds. This Captains name was Henry Bebe who ran a sidewheeler fishing steamer from Battery Park NY, called the Mt. Desert. He stated that his father, Alsono Bebe who used to fish commercially for lobsters from a 'small sailing sloop' found these high rocky grounds when his boat became 'beclamed' (aka no wind for the sails) while he was fishing. After two days he took soundings using a lead weight, which indicated shallower waters then the surrounding area.
Mr. Karas writes,
'that Capt. Bebe decided to bait a handline with mossbunker to determine if their were any fish in the area'.
Well it seems that this unfished rocky area gave up so many BLACK SEA BASS, that Capt. Bebe filled up ten barrels with fish, i guess, as fast as you could pull them, in our modern day terminology. The article continues that he tossed a 'flag bouy' on the spot around noon time, and headed home as the wind came up.
Captain Bebe at this point knew that he just found a area that was never fished before, and wanted to name it like fishermen normally do when they find a new spot. After some thought, he came up with the name CHOLERA BANKS because at that time New York City was going through a cholera epidemic. And with such a rampant illness going on at that time, people would 'go out on ships' to avoid catching this malady....the sea acted like a 'haven' as Mr. Karas wrote.
It is not clear in the article, but, party boats began sailing out to the new fish haven, with loads of customers, who were charged 10 cents a head, thus the name we occasionally hear, headboats. And, at that time, party boat captains who only had shore ranges to give them a idea of where a piece of bottom was, would take take their two navigational tools, their time piece and compass, using time and course, head south, and eventually find this rocky high spot, that sprung up from our normally sandy bottom we have in the NY BIGHT.
Most of us today are born within the modern era of electronic navigation, take for granted running out the 8-10 miles out of Jones inlet with the numbers 26770 x 43670 in our lorans to give us the start of the Banks, which comes up from 80 feet of water to almost 60 feet at whats called High Rock on Cholera. Along with it being a great area for sea bass fishing, it of course is one of the top areas for chumming and jigging bluefish, and later in the season albacore and bonita. Later in the fall, we catch some blackfish on the stickier, rocky patches on Cholera. What is sad though, is that for many of us, the first time we fished on Cholera Banks was for codfish, which over the last for years has been non-exsistant.
So for many of us, that wonder how Cholera Banks got its name, we can thank Nick Karas of Newsday, for writing this very informative article.
EC NEWELL MAN*
