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From: Fred Mockler
Date: 04 Jan 1999
'Moss Bunkers",.. now that was a fish!! Boy did that fish stink! It was so full of oil, and died as soon as it was taken out of the water. "Bunkers", as they were known, was used for chumming Blue Fish. The backs (dorsal fin) was cut out for jook bait, the rest was ground up for chum. Most people bought their chum at Abe Kline's barge, or Mike Scabarra's. If you were lucky, you had a job on one of those barges. Early on a Sat. & Sun., you would head over there,.. (1:00 AM), and cut bunker backs, and shovel the fish into a big meat grinder. It was sold in 20 lb. preserves cans. And you were full of the stuff,..and you stunk to high heaven. After a day on the barge, when you got home, you had to undress outside, and stand your pants up in the corner somewhere. They were stiff from slime, scales, and oil. And your hands stank, and you had scales under your finger nails, and cuticles, and, then, you took a shower and went to church. You would ask your friend sitting next to you to smell your fingers, "do they stink"? The pastor was delivering his sermon, you werre sniffing your fingers. Boy, what a circus. There was a fishing boat,.. "The Silver Star", at the end of Seba Ave. They hauled bunkers for Abe's barge. Thaty was a big mistake for Capt. Jack Schmidt. He used to take people out to the fireworks on Tues. nites, but after he was carting bunkers, nobody wanted to ride his boat. Bob Sutherland was using it for awhile, but, he ran aground a few times on the sand bar by Plumb Beach, and that was the last of that. Well, I thought I would stir up a few memories of those bunkers for some of you out there. Have fun,.. Fred Mockler.
