Some ended up as shark bait for the big-game offshore fishermen and I am sure some made it into a smoker, but far too many were wasted.Īs the striper population rebounded in the 1990s, even more anglers began to regard the bluefish as a nuisance for stealing and destroying expensive striped bass plugs and lures. I think back now and wonder what we did with all those fish we kept. At that point, I’d sit back and watch the craziness unfolding around me. In many cases, after battling about 10 of these fish, I was done and needed a break to give my arms a chance to regain their strength. Bluefish size full#At times, the mates could hardly keep up with the calls for “Gaff!” Losing a few fish was inevitable, but most anglers still left the boat with a burlap bag full of 15-pound blues that they could barely drag off the boat at 4 a.m. The anglers on board dropped down a weight and a huge chunk of mackerel, and within minutes, all of them would be locked into serious battles. When the fish found the slick, the incredible bite would last all night. On any night during the summer, an angler could hop on a party boat that would anchor up a mile or two off the beach and chum up enormous bluefish. Out in the surf, if I fished a mullet rig using four dozen frozen mullet from the previous fall, I’d catch four dozen blues in a single outing.Ĭome summer, the big schools of bluefish headed back out to sea but not far. I grew to resent them back then, and it took me many years to really appreciate what wonderful gamefish they really are. In the back bays at night, the blues were so thick that I could barely avoid them while trying to catch tiderunner weakfish (and losing many lures in the process). On one occasion, I got stuck in the rocks trying to land a particularly ornery blue. I recall walking all the way out on the north side of Cold Spring Inlet and some of the biggest bluefish just about pulled me into the water with their strength and attitude. At that same time, the striped bass population was severely depleted, so bluefish provided the best opportunity for catching big fish from shore. It didn’t matter where I fished because the blues were there day and night.
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