I love catching bluefish....well accept when I was fishing soft plastics.
Running joke....if you want to see if there is bluefish around put on a
soft plastic. I hear they will swim a mile to just cut it in half.
That said....I find asmfc to be suspect in their bluefish assessment and
therefore apply the same opinion on anything they say about any fish.
15 bag limits and no assessment of over-fishing.
http://www.asmfc.org/species/bluefish
What a joke. And that graph appears to be more or less stable since 1990.
For me they have been in steep decline since 2008. In 2008, you could not
get away from them in the surf. Perhaps catching hundred in a season. Now...they
are almost as rare as weakfish. You need to seek out geographic haunts to
find them. A couple years ago I did not catch a single one. Last year it was
two. I fish NY to MA....a good chunk of the northeast.
I have always felt the asmfc numbers are manipulated, but with bluefish they
seem wildly incorrect. My findings....my numbers of bluefish caught annually
would suggest that they should be on an endangered list.
I know bluefish is not held in high respect and we often just ring the bell
about striped bass....but once again we have environmental management
at its best. 15 bag limit on unicorns.
Science....humbug.
The bluefish and striped bass have a partnership in the eco system. I often
have reflected on how blues eat the tails and bass eat the heads. We can
probably chalk that up to the list of why we dont have as many bass
around...their partners in crime are also absent.