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Anthony Reyes began his life’s work fishing the waters around New York City as a kid, when his dad would take him to the Bronx River to round up small goldfish near the rocks, grabbing them by hand. He was bit in that same river by a snapping turtle, which almost took off a piece of his thumb.
He’s now the captain of the Marilyn Jean IV, one of a shrinking number of charter boats that set sail from the piers in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn.
A few times a day, he steers his 70-foot party fishing boat to open waters around New York and New Jersey, escorting fishers eager to catch striped bass, porgies or croakers swimming somewhere below.
“I fished all my life,” said Reyes, known as Captain Tony, before rattling off a list of boats he has spent time on: the Apache and Pilot II out of Sheepshead Bay, the Island Current out of City Island.
Chris Kosakowski, 23, reeled in croakers aboard the Marilyn Jean IV, which left from Sheepshead Bay before docking at Sandy Hook, New Jersey, July 8, 2026. Credit: Katie Honan/The City Reporter
Throughout his more than 30 years working on boats, Reyes said he has seen many changes, including environmental regulations restricting what his customers can catch and the Emmons Avenue piers hosting fewer and fewer boats. He attributes it to a confluence of things — Hurricane Sandy affected the business, as did the COVID-19 pandemic. People’s recreation habits have shifted. Customers complain about the lack of parking near the waterfront.
Reyes said he spends most winters maintaining and repairing the boat in a shipyard in Sayville, on Long Island, which can cost tens of thousands of dollars. During the season, sometimes the fish don’t bite. Sometimes there’s a new moratorium on what fishers can legally catch.
“It’s a hard life, it really is,” Reyes said. “It’s very hard.”
But he still goes out as much as he can, for around seven months out of the year, doing full- and half-day trips, along with nighttime sails to catch the fish when they least expect it.
Repairman by Day, Boater by Night
On a recent Wednesday night, around 15 anglers boarded the Marilyn Jean IV — named after a previous owner’s mother — for a five-hour ride between 7:30 p.m. and 12:30 a.m. to find porgies and croakers unknowingly swimming to their demise on the ocean floor.
Seth Rivera, one of the boatmates, greets the fishers and sets up the fishing rods, a task he sometimes does with his wife, Nefise. She joins him after her day job cutting the frozen shrimp for bait before the boat leaves just to spend some time together.
Rivera, 25, spent summers as a kid with family in the Dominican Republic, where he was given the choice of hanging with an aunt or with his uncles and grandfather on fishing trips during the day. He chose fishing, although he dislikes the smell and taste of fish. (“I’m just happy to help people have a great day on the boat,” he said.)
He later attended the New York Harbor School on Governor’s Island and Kingsborough Community College, where he met his wife at the school’s aquarium.
They bonded over their love of the water — his childhood summers spent in the Caribbean, hers at the Caspian, in Kazakhstan.
Now Rivera spends most nights on the boat, while also working during the day cleaning boilers and repairing diesel engines in vehicles and buildings.
The boat took off from the bay after 7:30 p.m., sailing past Coney Island and around the tip of Breezy Point as the sun began to set.
Less than an hour later, the vessel anchored off of Sandy Hook, New Jersey. Reyes blew the horn and announced it was time to drop the lines. This type of fishing is known as “bottom fishing” — dropping the bait to the bottom of the ocean while anchored.
The fish started biting almost immediately. Within a few minutes, the wail of croakers — named for the bellowing, drum-like sound from the fish — were heard across the deck.
Everybody gets a bucket to store the creatures, but there are limits. The New York state Department of Environmental Conservation restricts charter and party boats to 30 fish per vessel. And the fish have to be at least 11 inches long to be kept. Private boats and people fishing along the shore can keep fish as small as 9.5 inches.
Those regulations have been challenging for business, even if he understands why they’re in place, Reyes said.
“Jersey’s able to keep 11 inch sea bass, ours is 16 inches, and we’re fishing next to them,” he said of the different regulations by state. (Boats are sometimes inspected when they return to dock, which is when measurements and counts are taken.)
Reyes said he needs to take at least 10 customers out on the boat to make money, but sometimes the crew only has five passengers and is in the red.
But he loves the water. His vacation last year was on a boat, aboard a freestyle music cruise ship out of Florida.
Seth Rivera, center, cleans shrimp aboard the Marilyn Jean IV in Sheepshead Bay, July 8, 2026. Credit: Katie Honan/The City Reporter
“Away From Reality for Just a Few”
A few hours into fishing, Rivera and his other mate, Paul, who declined to share his last name, began cleaning up and fileting what everyone caught. They worked under bright lights on the boat and partially by moonlight, the boat still anchored in the pitch-black night.
The mates clean dozens of fish every trip, packaging them in plastic bags for people to take home. They put out a tip bucket, a major part of their pay.
“You meet cool people, weird people, annoying people,” Paul said as he rubbed the scales off fish and the boat rocked below. “People who are going through crazy things in life and just want to be here, away from reality just for a few.”
Fisherman clean their catches aboard the Marilyn Jean IV, which left from Sheepshead Bay before docking at Sandy Hook, New Jersey, July 8, 2026. Credit: Katie Honan/The City Reporter
Chris Kosakowski, 23, reeled in croaker after croaker in the darkness, helping other anglers with their bait and when the line tangled up into a bird’s nest.
Fishing has taken him up and down Long Island’s coast, from the tip of Breezy Point to Montauk, and he’s cast off boats and rock jetties.
His dad, a big fisher in the family, died when Kosakowski was a kid. Kosakowski took up the pastime after finding his dad’s gear in the garage.
The best part of fishing, he said, is “getting away from the city while still being close.”
Reyes said he just likes seeing people happy when they catch a fish.
Years ago, before some of the stricter regulations, a 10-year-old boy on a trip with his dad caught a 50-lb sea bass. Now an adult, he’s come back every year.
“The kid’s probably almost 30 years old now, but he remembers that one time that he caught a fish as big as him,” Reyes said.
“It’s all about making memories, especially for the kids and the families that go out once a year, when the fish is good,” he added. “And they had the best day of their life.”
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The post Chasing Croakers With the Night Fishing Crews of Sheepshead Bay appeared first on The City Reporter.
