Stripers & Anglers Education Series: Understanding Bluefish Migration

[finchaser]

Big blues the teen size not the 1 to 5# variety moved off shore to spawn, some of the bluefish fleet in NJ after not being able to find them yesterday switched to fluke fishing around mid day. The sharkers had them all over the place finning on the service and they didn't bother them. You are on an Island not the coast. Long Island is on a 90 degree angle to the east coast draw a straight line from the middle of the Island out into the ocean and notice how far off the east coast you are. They could just be moving off the island or passing it on there way to the deep as the biggest spawn is the last week in June through the first 2 weeks in July

From a bluefish head boat:

6-28 Report

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Bluefish have still been hard to find. Capt Dale read fish last night along the edge of the Mud Hole but other than one nice size blue they were not interested.
There were plenty of bait fish and squid in the area.
During the day we have been looking for the blues and switching to bottom fishing.
Today we had a number of limits of winter flounder, ling and some sea bass.
Everyone went home with fish.
We will be doing the same tomorrow and this week.
If we can't find the blues we will go bottom fishing.

[DarkSkies]

^ Great explanation from finchaser.....As always......You folks don't realize how lucky we are to have someone with the decades of knowledge he has...share it so freely with us here......



An early fall season pattern for some NJ and LI areas: big blues come into the back bay areas for a month or so around this time. You can sometimes find them where the highest small bait concentrations are.

Those bunker that we had in our area, were thickest back in July...Since then, they have moved around the NY Bight area like a game of musical chairs...no real consistency for the folks targeting (bigger) blues from land......

Friends on the other side of NY Bight started catching bigger ones 4 nights ago....I got a few nicer ones last night....

I will targeting these bigger bluefish at night from now on.....with artificials.....
the reward....to me...is worth the effort.....

Good luck to all......

[cowherder]

^ Great explanation from finchaser.....As always......You folks don't realize how lucky we are to have someone with the decades of knowledge he has...share it so freely with us here......

Gentleman thanks so much for sharing. I have improved my game by going through some of the advice. Every winter I take the nastiest days and try to learn some more about surf fishing. These threads have really helped.

[fishinmission78]

Nice writeup on the 2015 bluefish run by Capt Al
http://www.nj.com/shore/blogs/fishin...rt_river_index

[buckethead]

Good read thanks for the post.

[buckethead]

Have been reading some real mis-information put out there lately on the internet about bluefish. As many here have said, the bigger blues migrate from the east. The smaller ones from southern states. That is why there is a disconnect between different areas and different states. Delaware and maryland, they are migrating from the southern states and were catching them last week. The NJ area are migrating from the east. Sometimes they coincide. Most years they do not. JMO

[fishinmission78]

True that. Also a lot of guys don't fish bait. When you do you see the migrations more clearly because you know exactly when certain species show up. Buds of mine have been catching big blues on bunker for over a week now.

[baitstealer]

that really makes sense the way you guys explain it. Thanks for the info.

[cowherder]

Thanks for sharing guys. Some dudes the other day were standing around saying yeah when the blues are in they are sooooo easy to catch there's no challenge. Well looks like they have been in for about 2 weeks according to some of you guys here. It's always good to learn why things are the way they are. Very informative.

[basshunter]

Lots of knowledge here thank you for sharing.

[jigfreak]

You guys are all wrong here. Whats posted makes too much sense. The real story is blues come in early in february. The biggest ones are sent in as scouts. They then report back to the main group that is offshore. Kinda like the worker bees in a honey hive. Get it? Good, that's my gift to you folks for today.

[DarkSkies]

As always, people, your commentary and opinions are appreciated. Let's try to keep things positive if we can, thanks.

[DarkSkies]

"Bluefish cold water behavior"

After I'm done targeting bass for the night, lately I have been getting into some pretty decent bluefish bites.
The thing is... I'm usually targeting them deep in the night, which is the coldest water of the day. The activity I'm seeing is much less aggressive than what others are seeing.
I have had about a half-dozen people come up to me in the last few days scratching their heads, and say "where did the blue fish go? We had them at "X" beach a few days ago and now they went away!"
They need to understand that they never left, but their behavior is different with different water temperatures.


To understand this better, folks need to understand bluefish coldwater behavior. For the past few days I have had them all to myself in areas where people assume that they had left.
I have found them to be sluggish and lethargic until the hookset.
Some decent numbers and sizes, but I have had to work for every single one in the cold early morning water.

Something to add to this -
A lot of people are only focused on fishing artificials.
The people I know who are using bait
have had very consistent bluefish action in the last weeks.

Remember that when you're out there. A temperature difference of 5 degrees can make all the difference in the world.
Good luck everyone.
I'm having a lot of fun with all the bass and bluefish opportunities out there. Hope you all are as well.

[finchaser]

^^^ your making up excuses for them not feeding anymore at night like when they first arrive and feed 24 hours a day. We have had them solid from dawn to dusk then they shut off been like that the past 4 days. Water temp between dawn and dusk is like 1 to 2 degrees different Even head boats are now jigging them during the day for the first time since they arrived.,

Here's a picture that disgusts me. from Yesterday afternoon

[basshunter]

I went out yesterday trying to find some of that great Bluefish action I have been reading about. Maybe I suck because I could not find them I was out around noon time. here's an internet report where a guy experience the same thing -

sunday i couldn't get them to hit anything but bait and it was one hit every 30 minutes or so very slow...i guess now they are everywhere hitting everything in sight haha.

[basshunter]

Another one, at least I don't feel so bad that I got Skunked 2-

This past Saturday they were around but would not hit anything, 2 guys 5 hours, one Bluefish about 10 lbs.

[surferman]

Interesting, thanks for sharing.

[hookset]

Anyone remember back when all the little bait fish you still have the shorelines type and the bass and blues would follow them in the surf. It was right around this time of year. Good times.

[baitstealer]

Good read. I would like to ask if anyone knows why they are so "picky"? I was out tonight and missed a lot of hits. They would follow and not commit. Had a couple blowups at the last second. Any thoughts? thanks

[fishinmission78]

When the water is colder and they are not in a Feeding Frenzy, they are little hinky.