To our very pleasant surprise, bluefish are showing up in good numbers in inlets and cuts all the way to the Outer Banks. Good numbers of bluefish are making their way north, and they are hungry! It seems they are out distancing the bait fish migrations.
I ran into them last weekend in both the St Augustine Inlet and the St Johns River entrance in North Florida. My fishing partner was into schools of small bluefish out of Morehead City and along the beaches to the south of Cape Lookout, North Carolina.
Several methods can take bluefish this time of year. They are migrating and they are hungry, so just about any of these will work. I like a small white nylon jig tipped with shrimp. I make my own shrimp tip-ettes and the nylon jigs stand up to the sharp bluefish teeth. A natural bucktail will only last for a few fish.
Friends and guides in and around North Florida favor a green, metal-flaked, swim-tail, plastic grub on a jig head. Again, they draw strikes, but each swim tail is only good fro two or three fish. You are likely to bring back a half a grub tail on many casts.
Some anglers like to troll the inlets and cuts using a small spoon and a short wire leader. This works, and while I've seen times when trolling was the most productive method, it simply isn't worth the gas this time of year.
Most weekend anglers this past week chose to anchor and fish with shrimp behind the boat in the current. Some anchored and threw jigs, but most just fished the bottom. Some were also more successful than others, because they looked for the bluefish in the water column.
Usually, bluefish are schooling and moving midway in the water column. They are looking for food and chasing bait. Bottom fishing picks up a few fish, but the anglers fishing the middle of the column, about half way down, with either a moving bait or a drifting bait will have a lot more success.
Look for the Spanish mackerel to be right behind, trailing the bluefish by about two weeks. Early arrivals will be here this week, and mixed schools of Spanish and blues will be active through May on the Southeast Atlantic coast and all summer further north.
The fish you catch this month will be the peanut fish from this years brood. Larger fish will follow, with the largest usually the last to migrate. Both of these species school according to size, so if you begin catching small fish, you can be pretty sure they will all be small. In another month the schools of shoulder fish will be roaming. I call them fish with shoulders because these bigger guys up to 15 pounds can really tear a light tackle outfit up!.
One word of caution is needed here. Any of these fish can tear up a hand or finger; you can take my word for it. So, be careful unhooking them, and remember to keep only what you plan to eat that day. Aside from the conservation needs, you need not keep more than you can eat fresh. While fresh bluefish is good with a good flavor, it quickly becomes a very strong meat if it is kept for a day or two. If it is frozen, it is very mushy when thawed and even stronger in flavor. Don't get me wrong, some people love that strong flavor. My taste is for a milder fish, so two fresh bluefish is about all I will keep.
Take your kids out to the inlets this time of year. Small blues are very cooperative and you can literally catch hundreds of them when they are running!
