This podcast will reel-y hook ya!
Anglers with a local fishing club recently began broadcasting their “big fish” stories on a new podcast recorded in Park Slope, which already boasts an audience of hundreds who tune in for their tales and sporting tips, according to its host.
“I know a lot of old timers that have been fishing for years,” said Victor Lucia, the founder of Brooklyn Fishing Club and host of its eponymous podcast. “They tell some amazing stories, and a lot of them are about New York City.”
Lucia, who founded the club after completing a research project on the history of fishing in the borough, started the podcast as a way to record some of the great angling yarns he’s collected over the years for posterity, he said.
And it turns out that the history of the sport and city often intertwine, according to the host, who said his show features many crazy stories that any New Yorker can appreciate.
“I was talking to some guys about how back in the ‘70s they would fish in the Hudson River, and it was so polluted, one time they saw a dead cow float past,” Lucia said. “I just love stuff like that, things are so different than they were, it’s great to capture these stories and keep them some place.”
Of course, the podcast features plenty of thrilling seafaring tales to keep listeners on the edge of their seats, including the story of a freak storm that sunk 21 boats in New York Harbor on July 27, 1988, told by a local fisherman whose monologue rivals Robert Shaw’s legendary soliloquy describing the USS Indianapolis disaster in the film “Jaws.”
“It came up, a line squall, the sky went black, middle of the day, pitch black. The street lights came on, and the rain came sideways — cuts you like a knife,” Captain Frank of Gypsy Charters told the host on the podcast’s Dec. 5th episode.
The program also touches on practical information for line casters, such as the city’s best fishing spots, techniques used by Kings County’s top anglers, and even cooking tips from some of the borough’s top chefs.
Brooklyn Fishing Club’s show is recorded out of the Brooklyn Podcast Studio on Garfield Place near Seventh Avenue in Park Slope, where creators of other locally-produced podcasts — including “Richly Melanated,” which features its Haitian-American and Guyanese-American co-hosts’ thoughts on life; and “Willa Wednesdays,” a comedic take on current events — also tape their
episodes.
