WiLDWOOD by-the-sea: Nostalgia & Recipe
Wildwood Crest Fishing Pier
is an excerpt from the forthcoming book by Anita Hirsch

In 1916, Philip P. Baker, the founder and first mayor of Wildwood Crest met with his friends to form a fishing club because of a “need by men of the community to enjoy good companionship and fishing.” This group of surf fishermen hoped for better facilities than those which they had.” “Turtle-Gut”, a stream which formerly cut across the island and separated Wildwood Crest from “Two Mile Beach,” was a favorite fishing spot for the founders of the club.”

Philip Baker was the president from the incorporation of the group in 1919 until his death only one year later.

The fishing club held meetings, at the first clubhouse on Seaview Avenue. The meetings began with a Pledge of Allegiance to the flag, ended with a fifty fifty drawing and in-between they smoked cigars and discussed business. Mostly, the discussion centered around building a fishing pier, although in the beginning, they could fish out the back door of the fishing club. The water came up to Seaview Avenue in those days when Seaview was called Atlantic. As the water receded and the beach grew, Atlantic Avenue was moved out toward the ocean.

In 1919, a fishing pier was built at Heather Road and the beach. Members who did not wish to fish enjoyed the ocean breezes in the club house where they could also enjoy a friendly game of pinochle. They felt men came to Wildwood Crest to purchase a home where they could enjoy their fishing hobby.

When the Fishing Club was active, there were rules. No drinking on the pier, a fee for guests, and no women were allowed on the pier past the yellow line. No one could fish if they were not a member or a guest. ”No one off the street,” says former member Mike Baklycki.

There was a blackboard on the site where the members would record fish caught, when, size, type, weight, and the fisherman. The fish caught was the important topic of conversation.

Mike Baklycki remembers that many fish were caught from the pier when he became a member in the late sixties. His wife Mary decided to give him a membership in the club when they moved to Wildwood Crest. He recalls that a blue shark measuring between 4 to 5 feet was landed and brought up on the pier. He remembers catching weakfish fishing with his sons from the pier. Ralph Catanese, who has lived in Wildwood Crest for about 40 years, remembers fishing on the pier.

He caught 8-9 inch long Kingfish and other men caught bluefish, skate, striper, sea robin, blowfish, perch, spot, stingray, pilot, croaker and fluke. He thought he could still fish at high tide in the year 2000.

Prizes were given for the largest edible fish each weekend in June, July and August plus a prize for Monday to Friday and extra prizes on July 4 and Labor Day. There was a Season Pool Prize for the largest edible fish caught from Memorial Day to Labor Day. There was an Annual Casting Tournament and Pinochle Nights on Friday evenings in June, July and August. “A ladies night was held one Friday evening in August with prizes for the ladies,” according to the 1954 Fishing Club yearbook and William Stansbury who was President and Paul Berner Jr. who was Vice President.

When the pier had to be extended in the early nineties, Mary Baklycki, got together with her friend Liz Pasquine, whose husband Lud (Ludwig) was also a member and decided to raise money by serving breakfasts and dinners. About $130,000 was needed to extend the pier. They didn’t have to raise all that money, but they did come up with some very special meals that helped.

The first dinner was a Hawaiian Luau served in 1991. Mary and Liz planned a menu, and also hired entertainers from Urie’s Restaurant, where a Hawaiian group wearing hula skirts performed fire dances and entertained.

They followed that with dinners with a gypsy theme, a Polish menu, and then they began to serve breakfasts on Sunday mornings.

Because the beach increased in size, the pier was extended over the years. The club members would raise the money by each giving money, which might have been as much as $10,000; some even mortgaging their own properties. But finally the cost of extending the pier became astronomical, the end of the pier barely extended into the water during high tide, and the membership dwindled from the original 100. The pier was turned back to the borough of Wildwood Crest in 2006, not quite to the end of their 100 year lease.

Commissioner Don Cabrera got behind a renovation project which was completed in 2008 with the help of a $400,000 grant from the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs that awarded the money to make the pier compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act regulations. Now those with a handicap can observe the beach and the ocean from an elevated view. The project was completed at a cost of $700,000. At the end there is a 1,010 foot long viewing platform which can be used for health classes such as yogi and aerobics.

Now reopened as the Wildwood Crest Beach Pier, the pier has a new life and purpose and the borough is looking for someone to lease the old clubhouse.

Wildwood Creat Fishing Pier
	Mary & Mike Baklycki in their Wilwdood Crest home.
	Ralph Catanese at the grand opening of the “Beach Pier” on July 11, 2008. “It will be fabulous to go out on the pier in the morning with a cup of coffee to watch the sunrise.”