Good News, Clams Returning to GSB

[Snapprhead27]

In the late 50's and 60's, there were 8' trees marking the entire Snake Hill Channel. The bars to the south end were not there. Once in the channel, it was deep water to the south end of the channel. The pier, where the sunken barge is, was really nice and regularly used by boats going to the bar called Way Way Yonder. My Dad and Uncle Bill were regulars as I played on the pier and beach catching crabs and blowfish. Uncle Bill owned a deli on the corner of Steinway Street in Astoria. He would pay me a nickle per blowfish. He and my Dad caught and supplied the deli with fish for the Catholics on Friday. Life was great back then. And yes, fluke size limit was 14".

There's a sunken barge in GSB?

 

[pequa1]

big ugly thing but mainly beached on the west side towards the south end of Snake Hill IIRC. Once I returned to the saltwater in the mid 90s, and trailered, and only from Massapequa or a couple of times from Oyster Bay, I never went further east than Amityville.

 

[Snapprhead27]

That must be it, I've never noticed it.

 

[pequa1]

coud be, but I could have sworn it was up against the shoreline, but I am talking the early to mid 80s

 

[Crabman]

Yes, there is a half sunken barge in Snake Hill Channel. It was tied up to the pier. You can still see the remnants of the barge and pilings. It holds some blackfish at times. About 20 years ago, an older friend, Joe (70 y.o. at the time), who died a few years back from complications of Vibrio vulnificus (a very scary water bacteria often found in oysters and coming our way) after getting the tiniest scratch on his calf from the chicken wire of a crab trap, fished the area solo in a 26' Shamrock tied to the barge. Unfortunately, a boat going by rocked him onto one of the submerged pilings and blew an 8" hole right through the hull below the waterline and about eight feet back from the bow. It's a very dangerous area and sits about 75' east and offshore of the island. It's in plain sight on any tide but the old pilings are sometimes hard to see. The area has been taken over by the nasty, invasive cormorants. BTW, Joe stuffed a blanket into the hole which fortunately had a flap of fiberglass to hold it in place and stuffed the bow onto the beach until I got there to help. We limped to Captree along the shoreline with a trash pump running and hauled the boat onto my trailer. The fix was not that difficult but there was a lot of sanding to feather and it took time to glass. Turned out good as new.

 

[Crabman]

The barge in Snake Hill Channel. A lot of you might not have seen it because the main channel is east of the bar in Snake Hill.

Barge near center screen and the bar. If you look to the right of the bar, you can see the wake of a boat going through the often preferred route. With regular passage, locals know a small depression over the bar and along the beach.

 

[Crabman]

Barge is in the circle. The arc is the preferred route.

 

[Crabman]

We need that bar dredged out again but the powers in charge just don't get it. When I was a kid, 65 years ago, it was dredged and that's what form what I called Sand Island in SHC. It's the island at the top of the photo in the above post. As many of you know, they are oyster farming just south of that island. The old, rusting dredge pipes are located near the top of the arc.

 

[Snapprhead27]

Yup that's what I posted. I've probably seen it a bunch of times and never occurred it was a barge

 

[Rakin it in]

I also tread and like you did it throughout the summer in high school and college. I made a clam rake that I will use at times in the right spot. I saw someone had a rake like this and went home and welded this one up. With the butter knife teeth, it's used differently than a regular clam rake. This one is much easier on your back.

View attachment 52448

That is an awesome rake. Do you sell them?

 

[Crabman]

That is an awesome rake. Do you sell them?

I don't. I made a couple of these rakes years ago. I did not design the rake. I knocked it off in my shop.