Peconic Gold Oysters Winter Operation

January 16, 2025. Matt Ketchum contacted me last night to see if I would give him a hand sinking some of his oyster cages. The last week and a half has been very cold here. High 20s at night and low 30s during the day. That coupled with north northwest winds blowing between 25 and 30 miles an hour leads to icing in the creeks and bays. We pushed off at 7am and were underway. enroute his strings of cages northeast of Robins Island, located approximately a mile and a quarter south of Wickham Creek. The cages have two 10 gallon hard plastic air bladders attached to them, which keep the cages floating with the oysters appropriately 12 inches below the waters edge. If the ice froze in the harbor, his gear could be dragged by ice moving in the current, thereby pulling his gear off station. This dragging would also result in damaged or lost equipment. With the next week and a half calling for more freezing temperatures, Matt decided to error on the side of caution and sink his cages. I’ve been after Matt for over a year for him to take me on his boat, as I wanted to see his operation. Well, today was the day, so I jumped at the chance. As an added bonus this old guy got to learn a couple things, the most important was that oystering is not for the faint of heart. Commercial fishermen have the deck stacked against them, between weather, equipment management and constantly changing state and federal regulations. The icing on the cake was watching my old gray Pickerell Sharpie coming into the creek as we were preparing to leave to head home. Matt, thanks for the invite, I had a Blast!!! You brought me back in time, to when I was a young man working the Great South Bay clamming during the winter’s of the 70’s Tom