Hi, I am Tony Santella and many of you know me as the owner/operator of the Marilyn Jean Fishing Fleet, along with being a partner in the new Freedom dinner cruiser out of Sheepshead Bay Brooklyn.

I was very fortunate to get into fishing at the young age of 9, making my first trip on Captain Billy Dolls original Jet out of the Bay, and it is not the ‘supercruiser’ you now see tied to the dock.

Over the next few years as teenager I would go back and forth in fishing on the party boats, or renting skiffs out of Bay End rowboat station. This eventually led me into buying my first (who knew at the time), fishing boat, a 16 foot AMF Crestliner with a 55 horsepower engine which allowed me to fish through the great weakfishing fishing we had here on the Tin Can grounds through the late 70s and early 80s.

I later jockeyed back and forth within the fishing industry on boats, working deck on the night bluefish trips on the Friendship II, before leaving NY for a while. I loved fishing so much though that I always traveled back to go fishing, no matter the distance away from the ocean.

After a few years, I returned back to NY and started working deck on the Sea Queen with Captain George, and that is when the fishing bug really hit me. I ended up buying a 23 foot boat with the intentions of using her as a charter boat, but sadly she was stolen right before I earned my ticket in 2005.

Looking back, the theft of this boat made me look for an even more comfortable boat to fish this area, which led me into buying the first Marilyn Jean charter boat where we earned a well deserved reputation for catching fish, especially blackfish, and customer service which I really pride myself and business on.

I can always be seen down at the Marilyn Jean II fishing boat in Sheepshead Bay, and everyone is always welcome to drop by to talk about the days fishing because this is my life and I really love being out on the water and catching a few fish. Thanks!