Bluefish in the surf

[tlapinski]

I caught my first bluefish of the year last week and had several chopped baits after that the same night. For the past several seasons, I haven't seen them in the surf until sometime in mid to late August. It is a bit disconcerting to me that we see some massive ones in a few spots each year but they're not as widespread as they presumably should be.

As an aside, dogfish have more than made up for the lack of bluefish. Going back about 8-9 years, a dogfish was a rarity for me in the surf. Heck, the first couple nights I got into a lot of them I was almost nervous about the idea of sharks being in the surf. Now if I eel or chunk, and even some tides when I plug, I'll land 6-8 dogs for every bass I land.

[Thumper]

Originally Posted by tlapinski

I caught my first bluefish of the year last week and had several chopped baits after that the same night. For the past several seasons, I haven't seen them in the surf until sometime in mid to late August. It is a bit disconcerting to me that we see some massive ones in a few spots each year but they're not as widespread as they presumably should be.

As an aside, dogfish have more than made up for the lack of bluefish. Going back about 8-9 years, a dogfish was a rarity for me in the surf. Heck, the first couple nights I got into a lot of them I was almost nervous about the idea of sharks being in the surf. Now if I eel or chunk, and even some tides when I plug, I'll land 6-8 dogs for every bass I land.

I have caught a stupid amount of dogfish this year. Nothing on plugs but I fill like every time I toss eels or chunk I am into dogfish. Lots of huge spider crabs too!

As far as blue fish go, the last few years I have probably landed less than a dozen. Last Thursday was the first time I fished cigar butts.

[puppet]

I wonder if the blues just get pinned by the great abundance of bait.

Like, they get on a bait source and just never leave it.

I fished for some early spring down in NJ. So much fun. Hours and hours of gator fishing.

Up here in the NE...not one all season. Part of me likes it. Selectively targeting them if I want to.

I have only bait fished once this year....and there were a ton of toy
dogfish. Last year I caught an mature model on a redgill teaser. I
found that to be pretty weird. I thought it might have been a big
fluke or something until I shined a light on it and saw the robot eyes
shining up through the surf.