Hooked on Fishing: Dick Herb Ran Charters for 40 Years, Now Runs State Fisheries Council

Dick Herb at home on his dock.

Well, I thought I knew the name of every street in Avalon, but it’s never too late to learn something new in your own backyard. “Dick’s Dead End” is the eponymous nickname for the street on which Dick Herb calls his home.

Tucked out of sight of the surrounding homes on one side, the view from his interior sunroom is a panoramic view of Cedar Island and Pennsylvania Harbor. Looking out, it feels as though the house is floating on the water, and Herb likes it that way. A lifelong fisherman and boat captain, he feels most at home by the sea.

He has led a busy life and continues to do so to this day. He is part accomplished businessman and part salty dog. His career in the corporate world took him away from the ocean, but he has always found a way to return.

Herb’s parents were married in Ocean City, so as a child he spent all of his summers at the beach there. It was in his youth that he recalls spending entire summers fishing and boating. He attended Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pa., and officially moved to OC during his college years, 1960-65.

After college, he served two years of active duty in the Army, followed by a few years in the Army Reserves. He then got a job with Providence Mutual as a group insurance field representative, and he worked his way up to vice president of the Pensions Division. His work took him to Syracuse, N.Y., and then back to the Philadelphia area. Despite his full-time job, Herb managed to find time to start a charter boat fishing business based in Avalon that he ended up running for 40 years.

It all started in 1977 with a 20-foot outboard docked at Harvey’s Port of Call marina located at 12th Street and the bay, where condos now stand. (Harvey’s has since moved offshore to Clermont and is called Harvey’s Mainland Marine.) In the early days, it was mostly back-bay fishing and near-shore charters. The business went well, and with the help of his son Rob to run the boat, they purchased a 28-foot Bertram they named “Escapade” and started to run more offshore fishing charters for tuna and sharks.

Herb flipped through a photo album from his fishing trips, highlighting all the big fish they used to catch. “There were a lot of fish back then,” he says.

Though he couldn’t recall the year, he was once featured in the Atlantic City Press after his boat brought back a mako shark every day for a week straight. For a brief time, he had to move the boats to Sea Isle, but once the Avalon Sportfishing Center reopened its slips to charter boats, he came back to town.

Dick Herb is well-known in the fishing community throughout the mid-Atlantic and Northeast. Since 2002, he has served on the New Jersey Marine Fisheries Council, and has been the acting chairman since 2012. This council is responsible for approving regulations and limits for all saltwater-fishing species that can be caught in local waters.

“We work with the state Division of Fish and Wildlife to establish the regulations,” he says. “Their proposals are based on scientific research about the populations and locations of fish species. We are the local authority that can either approve them or make suggestions for changes.”

The council regulates commercial, recreational and charter boat saltwater fishing, and oversees all species from clams and scallops to sharks, stripers, and tuna.

“We try to strike a balance that allows people to make a living on the sea, while maintaining the supply of fish so that everyone can continue to enjoy the sport of fishing,” he says.

A model of Herb’s 28-foot ‘Escapade.’

The council meets every other month, and this year has had to meet via Zoom due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“The meetings are always open for public comment, with question-and-answer sessions,” Herb says, “but this year we have seen a drop in public participation, mostly due to the online nature of meetings.”

Chosen for his experience, he also serves as one of three New Jersey representatives on the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Council, which regulates the entire East Coast.

Herb is also known as a teacher. From 1998 to 2014, he taught a rod building class at the Cape May County Vocational Technical School.

“I joined a rod building club back in the 1970s up in Malvern, and always enjoyed it,” he says.

The class spanned 10 weeks and students learned how to construct a rod from scratch.

“At the end of the class, they would have built a completed rod,” he says with a grin, “as long as they did their homework!”

In addition to rod building, Herb frequently ran saltwater fishing seminars at the school. They covered everything you might want to know about fishing, from information about species to how to rig up your tackle.

Today, Herb is retired from fishing as a job. After 40 years, it was time to give it up.

“The Coast Guard-issued license lasts 5 years, and in 2017 mine was up, and I decided that it was time to call it quits,” he says.

Now he has time to enjoy his scenic views, go crabbing, and fish for fun on his 22-foot center console. Besides fishing, he enjoys spending time with friends from the Avalon community and is a trustee of American Legion Post 331 in Stone Harbor. Herb is a busy man even in retirement.

“Looking back on it, I don’t know how I ever had time to do all of it,” he says.

From the looks of it, Herb is living a good life and staying sharp by staying active.