Mark's Memoirs

Mark Pagnozzi and Capt Richie

My Starstream adventure began in 1982, at the young age of 12. My father would take me fishing several times a year, and one day we showed up to go fluke fishing on a boat from Seaford, and unknown to us, the boat was chartered. This was obviously way before days of the internet, cell phones, etc, and we hadn’t bothered to call first. What to do, what to do, off to Freeport for the first time for me anyway. So, off we went to catch some fluke, think we sailed on the Capt. Lou, and got there just as the big blue 85’ Starstream II was spinning around….wow was I impressed with that boat from the start.

That summer, my dad took me bluefishing with his friend, who was a die hard Capt. Al regular. And that’s where we went. As we pulled out first and sailed past the railed Starstream II, I did wish I was on there….even more so when Capt. Richie passed us on the way to the Jersey Shore. Don’t get me wrong, I love Al too, and ended up even filling in on deck for him on several occasions, and continued to flounder fish with him in my teens, even did a cod trip or two just to say I did it with Al, but I needed to be on that big blue boat!

Next summer I got my wish, made 3 or 4 jigging trips with Capt. Richie and crew, if I remember back crew was Lorraine, Peter, and Kenny Werle, and thus my adventures on that Gulf Craft began. Fished a few times in the spring the following year for mackerel, then ling and seabass, but loved to jig blues, and got pretty good at it…

Thankfully Richie saw my interest in fishing and my desire to work, I helped scrub the boat a few times, etc etc.….June of 1987 I think he gave me a call at home asked me to come down if I wanted to work. I went bottom fishing for the day, on deck were Peter and Chris (yes Chris Specht). Richie asked me to shape up and work weekend nights for now, WOW nights, a whole new world. I ended up working weekend nights, and that first summer was even needed during the day during the week…. I worked with Danny Piscopus, and either Kenny or Lorraine. All three were great to work with, and either Capt. Chris or Capt. Richie were at the helm. At night that first year it was either Capt.Chris or Capt. Gary Smith at the wheel, boy did I finally see some weather some nights!!! Never got sick, but saw plenty of people ready for the morgue when they walked off the boat after a night of hard Northeast or Southwest winds.

Next summer I finished high school, had a driver’s license, and for the next 3 summers, worked full time at night with many different crew members and several different captains, Chris Specht, Bob Nagy, Gary Smith, Bobby Franks, and Paul Kramer. We caught a ton of fish, I made lots of $$, and learned lots of good lessons, like how to deal with all types of people, but the most valuable thing to me anyway was I really developed a strong work ethic. Face it, being a crew member wasn’t the easiest of jobs. We worked 7 days (or nights) a week for the most part, long hours, in all types of weather, dealt with drunks ( at least we did back then), seasick people, too many fish, no fish, poor tips some nights, odd hours, etc etc. But for me, the good by far outweighed the bad. That boat paid for a large part of my college. Gave me the knowledge that when I wanted to work on a day boat, I was immediately hired because I cut my teeth on the Streamer.

A lot of good memories for me on that blue boat. Caught my first striped bass, first tuna, first weakfish, first Pollack, and first mackerel on that boat. The wreck trips I sailed on were incredible, wow could that guy double anchor a boat on top of a shopping cart if he had to! I could go on with stories that could fill up a book to rival the thickness of “War and Peace”, I’m sure we all could.

Many people I need to thank for this experience.

1) Chris Specht, and Tommy Weiss, for driving me home nights before I had my driver’s license.

2) My Mom for driving me to the boat days and evenings, and picking me up in the afternoons as well before I could drive

3) Danny Piskopus, Chris Specht, Lorraine and Peter Kessinger, and Kenny Werle for treating a 17 year old kid as their equal on deck. I never said it, but I should now, that meant the world to me and I always looked up to you guys, and gal. Especially Danny and Lorraine, and Capt. Chris for taking me under their wing. And Danny also for showing me how to catch cod. Wow.

4) Most of all my heartfelt thanks to Capt. Richie for giving me a chance, teaching me how to fish, and reinforcing the values my parents taught me.

I still manage to fish with Richie a couple times a year, wish it was more often. Fish with Peter a little bit as well, plan to more this year. All I can say is it was one hell of a ride those years in the late 80’s and early 90’s. To conclude I’ll take a quote from John Mellencamp, “When I think back about those days, all I can do is sit and smile” And that’s the truth!

April 15, 2011

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