Bluefish Seasonal Migration:
Bluefish, like striped bass, migrate seasonally.
However there are a few differences.

Let's start with the Spring Migration.
To better understand that, you need to understand what happens to bluefish in the Winter...
Most folks assume bluefish all migrate together with the bass schools.....this is only partially true, here's why....

  1. The biggest bluefish, known by various names as gators, gorillas, etc, migrate differently than the smaller classes.
  2. Generally speaking, the bigger ones are those in the 12# class and above
  3. These fish traditionally winter offshore of the NJ/NY Coasts, out in the Canyons. The water temp there can be up to 10 degrees or more higher. When it's 43 in the NJ/NY surf, it can be 53 out in the Hudson Canyon.
  4. These fish feed on a smorgasbord of bait that is there all year.
  5. The bait types change with the season.
  6. Generally, the most prevalent types are sandeels and herring, and squid, periodically supplemented by bunker, rainfish, anchovies, and many other types depending on the stage of the season.
  7. These sandeel, herring, and squid populations have become so abundant that there has been a shift in the behavior of many of these bigger bluefish.
  8. As of 2011, it was the first year that anglers noticed bigger bluefish seemed to stay offshore and did not all migrate Westward to the bays and inlets.
  9. If this becomes a permanent pattern, Land-based anglers will surely notice it, and their overall catches will suffer.
  10. There is further, detailed discussion of this recent phenomenon in the following thread: http://stripersandanglers.com/Forum/...riped-Bass-Fis