GUEST POST: Jacqueline Molina of Long Island Babes and Bucks on the Empowerment of Female Hunters and Anglers

Guest post from Long Island Babes and Bucks co-founder, Jaqueline Molina. Jaqueline gave us a look at her love of the outdoors, the formation and goals of Long Island Babes and Bucks and the thriving community of female hunters and anglers growing throughout the country.

GUEST POST: What Makes Long Island Fishing Special and How It Inspired Capt. Anthony Gucciardo (TideRunner Media, NYAngler.com) to Start His Own Business

A lot of my friends from outside of Long Island always ask… why do you fish so much? What they don’t understand is just how ingrained fishing culture is around here. Growing up on the Island, I was lucky enough to spend time on boats since I was 6 months old. I had a rod in my hands from the time I could walk, and was piloting boats before I knew how to drive a car.

Fishing happens to be in my blood. I have always felt that I took after my grandfather and great-grandfather who both shared the same passion for it that I do today. My earliest fishing memories are actually with my grandfather, who passed away when I was five. Fluke was usually the main target, but he was a different kind of angler. And even back then I learned a lot from him and cherish those memories.

The Perception of Stripers Vs. Blues: An Oral Account from Respected Long Island Anglers

Bluefish and Striped Bass are two iconic species that inhabit the waters around Long Island. They’re both top-tier predators integral to our marine ecosystem and prized targets for anglers throughout the northeast. Despite playing a similar role in the food chain, they are vastly different fish. I was lucky enough to speak with a handful of anglers that I have a lot of respect for in order to get a better idea of how blues and stripers are perceived by anglers and where the similarities and differences lie.

#NTVArtists - Made in Menhaden: How an Unassuming Baitfish Fuels NY’s Marine Ecosystem (featuring footage + photos from Tim Regan (@SouthForkSalt))

They go by many names - Bunker, Menhaden, American Sardine, Pogy (not Porgy!), Mossbunker, Bug-head, Fat-back. No matter the nomenclature, it is indisputable that these pedestrian-looking baitfish are an important cog in the machine of the marine ecosystem around Long Island. They filter our water, they are an amazing source of omega-3 proteins with a myriad of human-based uses and, perhaps most importantly, menhaden are the primary food source for a lot of our ocean’s top predators. As Paul Greenberg pointed out in his 2009 NY Times Op-Ed, “Nearly every fish a fish eater likes to eat eats menhaden”.

Outdoors Lessons from Long Island's First Inhabitants

Chief among the many important lessons that the first settlers on Long Island learned from the Native Americans was how to make use of the abundant natural resources the island had to offer. The tribes who made their home on Long Island were expert fishermen, whalers, hunters, farmers and gatherers and their descendants still live in harmony with the land in many of the same ways today. They kindly passed that knowledge on to their new neighbors upon their arrival, and the stories of these first interactions between Native Americans and settlers on Long Island were not much different from those of the Wampanoag helping the Pilgrims survive their first harvest season at Plymouth in 1621. We’re all familiar with that tale as the inspiration for the first Thanksgiving Feast.