Stripers & Anglers Education Series: Understanding Bluefish Migration

[DarkSkies]

2012 bluefish migration NJ....

The winter Herring presence...

As mentioned, the big bluefish usually show up first, known as racers.....big head and lean bodies....
followed by the smaller ones from the Southern Coast.

This year they are all mixed together.....
A lot of folks may think of them as eating machines...but may not know what draws them to particular areas...in years past it has been the grass shrimp and spearing on the floor of the Raritan Bay flats that has drawn them in and held them in the spots adjacent to the flats.

In 2012, it was the herring....loads and loads of it....so much that it darkened the bay waters at times in the channel areas.....

I have been following those herring since Dec......long before bunker were around.....and tracked the biggest schools, kept tabs on the locations...and waited for conditions to align......

As herring usually don't stay in the bay or harbor areas too long as the water warms up in the Spring,. I knew the window was limited.....

For the last 3 weeks, bigger bass on the migration trail and these bigger bluefish have been gorging on the herring, not only in the bay but in the ocean.....

This made it so the early season bluefish weren't "racers" but instead are fat bellied pigs, spitting up 3 and 4 herring at a time when you bring them in.......

And has made for an incredible, once in years, plug bite as the herring are the same size as bomber type plugs.......

I last remember a bite this robust about 8 years ago when hooked and landed over 100 bluefish one adrenalin filled afternoon at Sandy Hook....only a few others in on the action,...it was a bite that you always think back to and wonder if if will ever repeat itself....

And this week, it did.....

[DarkSkies]

Bunker can be a problem....
"Bunker suck all the Big Fish out of an area like a Vacuum"



Finchaser has made the above statement over and over, and his wisdom is sometimes lost on people....
So I'll break it down and show how it worked in this situation......

There have been herring in the Raritan Bay since December...
Fish have been feeding on these herring since that time....

In the last 3 weeks the bay has become filled with bunker schools. They were there before but scattered...and moving around.

Many boaters were not aware of this, travelling all the way to Staten Island to net bunker, when in fact they were a short hop from most Raritan Bay marinas.

I was out in my kayak April 15 and came across an area of bunker a mile in circumference. Most boaters marked them but could not get a visual. Every time they would motor close to where I was the bunker sounded.....Most who piloted by where I was saw no activity when in reality the water beneath them was teeming with these schools.....


Bunker naturally feed into the wind....
In general... a N/NW wind will cause some of them to swim to the NY side of the Bight.....When they swim the predators swim with them...

This week, Jamaica Bay and the NY side of the Bight got a fresh influx of bluefish, bass, and bunker....right around Wed and Thur, which is when the NJ action slowed down a bit......and the N/NW winds built up...








It might be fair to make the assumption that some of the fish that were on the NJ side, gravitated to the NY side...as this is part of the natural Spring migration for bass AND bluefish anyway...







This furthers Finchaser's statement that bunker suck all the bass out of an area like a vacuum.
Thanks for trying to educate others, Fin, even when they don't want to listen.....



There are more bunker out there than the bass could ever possibly eat...
If folks put as much effort to saving and conserving bass as they did bunker, we would have less "gaps" in YOY stats....food for thought, people....

[hookedonbass]

Good read, thanks.

[DarkSkies]

The bluefish action in the bays is shaping up to be some of the best inshore and surf action he have had in years. I'm very excited about this. Hope other folks are as well.
...good luck out there, people....

This really is turning out to be an exceptional year for bluefish. Over the last 2 weeks, the bluefish bite on artificials has been somewhat inconsistent. Throwing bunker chunks brought more consistency. The assessment from that is that the water is a little cold and they were sluggish..all true.

And although I have been doing well on them at night, if there is not a lot of bait present in the water they can be very picky. I don't think people who say "you can catch bluefish with a spoon and a hook" have ever seriously targeted them with artificials at night....because it ain't that easy in colder water......

However, with the warming of the water, the last few days things have ramped up a bit. Coupled with the sunny and hotter forecast for the next 5 days, look for the bluefish action to explode during this time in more places instead of the usual traditional back-bay areas.

They are truly a lot of fun to catch, especially the bigger ones, at least to me they are....get out there and get some before they leave...








**Jamaica Bay is now heating up as the region's premier area they are drawn to because of food and water temps.....so while they are still in our area as well, try to get out there soon....

[VSdreams]

That is very informative. You could write a book on what you posted here or at least an article for on the water. Thanks for posting that.

[VSdreams]

"Blues migrate south in winter. They migrate offshore late June/early July to spawn"


I read this on the internet today and was going to ask if someone had any different ideas? I read page 1 of this thread and don't see how this can be true. Do they all migrate south in the winter?