North Fork anglers are always restless in the winter. Tautog and sea bass are memories, winter flounder are virtually extinct and fluke are at least four months away. If you are lucky like one of our Southold friends who heads far enough south, you can contemplate sunny skies and good snook fishing, but what about Long Island cod fishing? READ
Tag: fishing
Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County has been awarded a $120,000 grant that will be used toward removing derelict fishing gear from Long Island Sound, Congressman Lee Zeldin (R-Shirley) announced Tuesday. READ
The commercial season for Atlantic bluefish in New York State will remain open after it appeared the season would end about three months earlier than usual. READ
Black sea bass fishing in New York was suspended for a month beginning June 1, prompting a backlash from fishermen who say the regulations are unnecessary right now and are only hurting the fishing industry. READ
Just a few decades ago, Greenport Village looked very different. READ
In our brave new world of electronic awareness, no one hides. Thanks to iPhones, GPS devices and roving earth satellites, the old adage “Wherever you go, there you are!” has never been more true. READ
In an effort to increase reseeding efforts and reinvigorate Hashamomuck Pond in Southold this past week, the Southold Town Baymen’s Association spread more than twice the amount of clam seedlings as it did last year. READ
Local commercial fishermen who have had grievances with the state Department of Environmental Conservation — including one Greenport boat captain who was reimbursed over $8,000 two years ago after having his catch taken from his boat in 2011 — may now have some relief thanks to New York’s Inspector General. READ
Fishermen Chuck Purificato and Chris James spent each frigid day this winter in a shed off Main Road in Southold, hunched over work tables and warmed only by their heavy coats and the kerosene heater that would spit choking smoke back into the room.
“No water, no nothing,” Mr. Purificato boasts. “All winter! And it was cold this winter, boy.”
He laughs in short, gravelly bursts.
Their goal behind the madness? To craft Long Island’s best bucktail fishing lures.
Over the decades, Mr. Purificato, 65, has run several tackle shops across Suffolk County, but the other businesses dried up. A store in Ridge was open for years, but closed in 1994. He relocated to do business in Freeport before shutting that down, too.
“Things happened,” Mr. Purificato said. “I got sick — just life in general. It’s the whole nine yards of growing up on Long Island.”
Mr. Purificato holds a new bucktail lure in his hand. The bucktails only take about a minute to make each. (Credit: Paul Squire)
“I said to Chris, ‘Let’s make a last stand,” Mr. Purificato said. “Let’s make it happen.”
Their newest storefront in Southold, a tiny set of rooms set into an former antique shop, is that last-ditch effort.
“We did it,” Mr. Purificato jokes. “We weathered the storm.”
The pair met, unsurprisingly, while fishing. Mr. James was fishing the Shinnecock Canal when he ran into Mr. Purificato. The two began chatting and Mr. James mentioned that he’d recently purchased a set of lures called Chucks Bucks.
He had no idea that it had been Mr. Purificato who made them.
“That was it,” Mr. James said. “We exchanged numbers, starting talking. We fished every day for, like, the next year.”
Between them, the two have more than 100 years of fishing experience. They joke that they are pirates born hundreds of years too late.
“You take that knowledge and put it into this stuff? It’s a winner,” Mr. James said. “With the amount of knowledge he has, I’m always learning something new.”
“We don’t want to sit in bars,” Mr. Purificato said. “We don’t want to get in trouble. We want to go fishing!”
Mr. Purificato focuses on the task at hand: finishing another lure. (Credit: Paul Squire)
The pair like fishing for fluke, but make bucktails of all sizes.
“We make the big stuff because people need it, but we prefer the smaller stuff,” he said.
Mr. James points to the “most important” decorations on the walls.
One is a sculpture of a bald eagle head perched over the door frame, representing America. The other is an old crucifix, flanked by bucktails hanging from the wall.
Mr. Purificato is a spiritual man himself. He burns sage in an ashtray — it keeps away the evil spirits, he says — and the smoke trails up past his wall of tools.
The men admit they have a way to go to get their shop up and running. But they’ve already churned out hundreds of lures and plan to offer new ones in the future. This fall, they’ll host classes to teach local fishermen how to tie bucktails themselves.
“You’ve gotta start somewhere,” Mr. Purificato said. “We decided to start from the very bottom and build it back up again.”
A striped bass caught in Peconic Bay. (Credit: Melanie Drozd, file)
New striped bass regulations are expected to take effect in New York this spring, splitting those who make a living off charter trips and those who fish for sport. (more…)
