{"id":1959,"date":"2011-10-17T18:03:03","date_gmt":"2011-10-18T01:03:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/healthygrinsportfishing.com\/?page_id=1959"},"modified":"2011-10-17T18:03:03","modified_gmt":"2011-10-18T01:03:03","slug":"mid-atlantic-blues","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/healthygrinsportfishing.com\/?page_id=1959","title":{"rendered":"Mid-Atlantic Blues"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Blues are Back<\/strong><\/p>\n

After a long absence, big bluefish return to the mid-Atlantic.<\/p>\n

Ric Burnley<\/p>\n

published in Salt Water Sportsman Magazine<\/p>\n

It was a sad story. Typical blues lyrics. My first true love had left me.\u00a0 Here one day and gone the next.<\/p>\n

When I was a kid coming up in the waters off Lower Delaware, my first tangle with big fish was trolling for chopper bluefish with my dad.\u00a0 We would pull Green Machines and cedar plugs and catch 10 to 15 pound slammers one after another.\u00a0 I was so in love that my dad would have to wait until I fell asleep to get the gimble belt off of me.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And what\u2019s not to love.\u00a0 Big bluefish, called choppers, are an arm\u2019s length of taunt muscle and bad attitude.\u00a0 Their bulldog face is armed with a mouth full of razorblades that are controlled by a one track mind.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In those days, bluefish were prolific.\u00a0 From New York to North Carolina, hordes of these fish marauded from the beach to the bluewater. These blues made for millions of happy anglers.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Then the fish disappeared.\u00a0 Vanished.\u00a0 For twenty-five years I rarely saw a big bluefish.\u00a0 A few run-ins offshore, a random blitz in the surf, a handful of choppers mixed in with migrating striper, were the sum total of my bluefish catch.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That is until a few years ago when the blues came back.\u00a0 Once again, anglers are encountering chopper bluefish from the surf to the 100 fathom curve.\u00a0 Without any love lost \u2013 my old flame reignited \u2013 I had the blues again.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Singin\u2019 the blues<\/strong><\/p>\n

As soon as I heard reports of giant bluefish on the inshore wrecks off Virginia Beach, I went head over heels.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I wasn\u2019t alone.\u00a0 Other guys had been jilted by the big blues, too.\u00a0 With-in a few days of the first reports, my buddies and I were heading towards Triangle Reef, 30 miles off Rudee Inlet, aboard Ken Neill\u2019s 30 foot Albemarle \u2013 Healthy Grin.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was late October and the water was cold and grey, but a steady blow and 4 foot seas couldn\u2019t keep us from this date.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When we arrived on the scene, the bite was already on.\u00a0 A couple charter boats were crisscrossing the artificial reef, which consists of a half dozen scuttled ships scattered over several square miles.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ken slowed the boat to 5 knots and the rest of the crew went to work setting the lines.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We started with a quiver of 20 pound combos spooled with 25 pound test.\u00a0 A bimini\/no-name knot connected 30 feet of 80 pound monofilament to the main line.\u00a0 At the end of the leader, a 150 pound-test snap swivel hosted either a large swimming plug or an inline sinker followed by 20 feet of 100 pound test mono and a big, tear-shaped spoon.<\/p>\n

Ken navigated like a pin-ball, bouncing among the half dozen wrecks that make up the reef-site.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While the boat rolled and bobbed in the grey, choppy seas, we trolled along waiting for a bite.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

When the first few passes didn\u2019t produce a fish, Ken began to experiment. The next turn across the wreck was faster. Still no bites.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n

Then we went slower, creeping over the structure, the rod tips bouncing as the spoons and plugs swayed back and forth through the water.\u00a0 Boom!<\/p>\n

One of the rod tips dipped and one of the anglers jumped on it.\u00a0 Ken continued to troll until two more rods were bent double.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Three anglers each worked in a big blue, but even on heavy tackle the fish were no pushovers, taking drag and dragging their adversaries around the cockpit.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When we saw the size of the fish, I put away the net and grabbed the gaff; this was a bigger class of bluefish.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Several of the blues weighed over 16 pounds \u2013 big enough for trophy citations from the Virginia Gamefish Tournament.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The super slow troll was the ticket to fooling these monsters, so Ken put the boat into a turn and headed back for the wreck.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Each pass produced a handful of monster bluefish.\u00a0 After each of us had scored a citation blue, we decided to put away the trolling gear and bust out the light tackle.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Blue Light Special<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ken pulled the boat over the wreck, each of the anglers produced a medium action conventional or spinning rod spooled with 50 pound Power Pro.\u00a0 Half of the crew went for live croaker that Ken had stored in the livewells and the other half grabbed boxes full of artificial spoons and jigs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was obvious that this was going to get real ugly, real fast.<\/p>\n

My rod was rigged-up for dropping a jig.\u00a0 On the mainline, I had attached a rod\u2019s length of 80 pound mono to protect against the jagged edges of the wreck and provide cushion against the blue\u2019s jarring strike.\u00a0 I connected this shock leader to the mainline using a Bimini\/Bristol combo.\u00a0<\/p>\n

To defend against the bluefish\u2019s serrated teeth, I twisted a foot of No 15 wire to a 200 pound test low profile swivel with a haywire twist. To attach the shock to the swivel, I used a uni-knot, which is easy and reliable. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

For the business end, I elected to drop a 4 oz. Hopkins spoon.\u00a0 \u00a0I figured that the 4-inch metal lure would help to protect my line from the bluefish\u2019s gnarly mouth.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0I chose the model with a single hook; considering the blue\u2019s propensity for violence, hooking up isn\u2019t usually a problem.\u00a0 Also, the single hook makes it easier to set the bluefish free with a simple T-handle dehooker.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On the other side of the boat, the live bait contingent was using similar tackle that was rigged with a fishfinder slide and an arm\u2019s length of 80 pound mono leader. The fishfinder slide goes over the main line and an 8\/0 hook is snelled to the leader.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Between the leader and the main line, a 200 pound test swivel holds everything together.\u00a0<\/p>\n

To encourage the live bait to swim into the dark depths of certain doom, each angler clipped a 6 to 8 ounce inline sinker to the fishfinder slide. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Since the blues were acting a little finicky, the guy\u2019s first drops were not met with immediate success.\u00a0 To slow the presentation, Ken\u2019s crew uses a special trick.\u00a0 Instead of dropping the sinker and bait straight to the bottom, they slow the descent by holding the bait at the boat, taking the reel out of gear, and dropping the sinker to the wreck 120 feet below.<\/p>\n

Once the weight reaches the bottom, the guys release the baitfish then slowly turn the reel handle to retrieve line as the fish swims down towards the bottom.<\/p>\n

Very sneaky.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The trick worked and the blues responded.\u00a0 One after another, the guys using live bait started to hook fish.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Taking advantage of the feeding frenzy, I dropped my spoon into the water, careful to clear the other anglers\u2019 line, and waited for it to hit bottom.\u00a0 A few bounces off the wreck (the single hook also makes it harder to get stuck in the structure) and I started to jig the spoon back to the surface by alternating between cranking the handle and jerking the rod tip.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After a couple turns, my spoon was attacked by a big blue.\u00a0 \u00a0As I jigged up, the fish pulled down, nearly ripping the rod out of my hands.\u00a0 At first, the fish didn\u2019t realize that it was hooked.\u00a0 \u00a0I could feel it thrashing 100 feet below.\u00a0 When I applied pressure, the blue took notice, peeling off line and heading straight into the wreck.\u00a0 I pulled every trick to apply more pressure \u2013 pinching the line, raising the rod tip high, even lightly thumbing the spool.\u00a0 Nothing would stop the blue until it reached the jagged wreck crumbled on the bottom.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I winced as the braided line transmitted every headshake, the butt of the rod kicking me in the gut over and over again, I could feel even the sharp edges of the wreck rubbing the line.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Getting the fish to the surface was a long give and take battle.\u00a0 Since they are near the top of the food chain, blues aren\u2019t used to losing a fight.\u00a0 When the fish saw the boat, its energies were renewed and I had to wait a while before seeing it again.<\/p>\n

Eventually, the blue was beat.\u00a0 Since we already had enough fish for the table, I reached down and grabbed the spoon, swinging the big chopper into the boat.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The bluefish thrashed and gnashed on the deck, finally coming to a rest so I could grab it and remove the hook.\u00a0 It measured over 36 inches, good enough for a release citation from the Virginia Gamefish Tournament.<\/p>\n

Before I let it back over the side, I took a moment to admire the big, blue fish.<\/p>\n

True to its name, the fish\u2019s paint scheme faded from midnight blue along the spine to aqua silver on its underside. Turning it in the fall light, I noticed a pink stripe airbrushed down its side.\u00a0 Beauty and the beast.<\/p>\n

That fish went back in the water, but I knew I would see its friends again.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Blues are Back<\/strong><\/p>\n

Since that day, bluefish have been showing up in their old haunts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The following spring, we ran to the edge of the Continental Shelf looking for blue line tiles and sea bass.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When we arrived to the ground fish bottom, Ken marked something stacked up from the bottom almost to the surface, over 250 feet.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Each of us took a guess at what it could be \u2013 sand eels, bunker, silversides.\u00a0 Then, when our tiles and bass came up chomped in half, we figured out what we were marking.\u00a0 A quick drop of a 250 gram vertical jig confirmed it. Big blues had invaded the deep.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Even on the 100 fathom curve the fish were piled up in big columns.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Later in the spring, anglers from Cape Henlopen to Cape Lookout encountered chopper blues on nearshore wrecks and reefs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Not only are anglers happy to see these big bluefish, but alpha predators like bluefin tuna and thresher sharks also love blues.\u00a0 When you find one species, look for the other.<\/p>\n

But it wasn\u2019t until this spring that the resurgence of big bluefish was finally complete.\u00a0 That\u2019s when the fish returned in full force to the surf of North Carolina\u2019s Outer Banks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Monster bluefish used to be a Coastal Carolina tradition \u2013 even earning the name Hatteras blues in some circles.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Last spring, the annual migration of surf fishermen arrived to the Outer Banks beaches in search of sea mullet and other panfish that team in the suds.\u00a0 Instead, they found huge schools of slammer bluefish, too.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Each day, local tackle shops were weighing in big bluefish that were pulled out of the surf.\u00a0 Two methods were scoring the most fish \u2013 whole finger mullet or big spoons.<\/p>\n

The whole mullet is fished on a stinger rig, which is built out of wire and features a small float and double hook set up to snare short striking bluefish.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

When the fish were schooled up and feeding aggressively, anglers would break out 9-foot casting rods spooled with 20 pound mono and armed with a 2 ounce glass minnow spoon.\u00a0 A short length of No. 7 wire between the spoon and the mainline is a good idea. Use an Albright knot to connect the wire to the mainline and a haywire twist to secure it to the spoon.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And the fish are showing in other hot-spots, too.\u00a0 From New England to the Old South, bluefish are being caught in the surf, inshore, and offshore.\u00a0 Once again, anglers are happy to have the blues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Blues are Back After a long absence, big bluefish return to the mid-Atlantic. Ric Burnley published in Salt Water Sportsman Magazine It was a sad story. Typical blues lyrics. My first true love had left me.\u00a0 Here one day … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":1368,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1959","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthygrinsportfishing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthygrinsportfishing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthygrinsportfishing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthygrinsportfishing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthygrinsportfishing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1959"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/healthygrinsportfishing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1959\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1961,"href":"https:\/\/healthygrinsportfishing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1959\/revisions\/1961"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthygrinsportfishing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthygrinsportfishing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}