Fishing: Combat Style - YouTube (http://youtu.be/Ab12-o0QAiQ)

It used to be worse than that in the late 90s. The rick was working the fish to the left of the washing machine into the big hole where you could actually land it away from the crowd. I have pictures of folks lined up sholder to sholder...you start on the right side (facing the water), cast out and allow your bait to bounce along the bottom over the point (to the left). Once you hooked up the fun began...

Those were the days of throwing 8oz. frog tongues and a menhaden head...

You should have seen it when the guys were throwing metal at spanish mackeral and stripers...that was the real mess!!

Bill-

Is the structure dictating that everyone needs to be that close to get into a small strike zone?

I was happy that the one guy who continuously got pounded by waves was the only one who landed a fish...

Bill-

Is the structure dictating that everyone needs to be that close to get into a small strike zone?

The area is a point of land jutting out into the ocean. The currents come from both directions and there is depth on each side. Depending on the weather (storms that add or reduce sand) you can have as many as 150 people standing side by side. In the old days it was orderly chaos with old heads enforcing the rules. You cast into the deeper water and could feel the sinker bounce up the shelf. The fish lay right in the wash becasue the bait was pounded from both currents and pretty much just swirled around waiting to be eaten.

The real deep water was on the north side (left in the video).

When the sand built up you could walk out further. I can remember walking out almost a mile off shore. I can also remember wading out on low tide and getting stuck out there because the water was too deep to return at high tide. We didn't think of wetsuits back then...

That's so cool.