Singing The Blues

[Billfish715]

While reminiscing about the old days of fishing around here, the topic of the good old days of fishing for bluefish came up. We talked about "spots" like the Klondike, Manasquan Ridge, Barnegate Ridge, the Acid Waters, etc. etc. The bluefish fleet was extensive. There were even bluefish boats sailing from Atlantic Highlands and Highlands and the bayshore area. There were boats that sailed day and night trips. There were boats anchored on pieces that made it look like a fleet when you saw it. The night fleets looked like cities when they were all lit up and fishing near each other. That was then, which raises the issue about now.

So, where are the gators, choppers, yellow eyes or whatever you want to call the bluefish? I know they are in the area of Block Island and Massachusetts but why are they not around here? I have no guesses. If I thought it was bait, I'd be wrong. If it was water temps, I'd be wrong. If it was draggers, I'd be wrong.

Umbrella rigs, bunker backs, Bingle Bananas, Pony Tails, Squid Spoons, Pet Spoons, wire leaders, burlap bags, planers, Penn 500's and 114's, 50H Daiwa's, buckets of bunker chum, ladles, chum grinders, bloody decks, 3406 Mustad Hooks, rubber core sinkers, and more were standards for catching blues. Now, we have party boats that were traditionally packed with fishermen looking to catch bluefish, currently fishing for anything with fins supported by
"groupons" to get customers to the rails.

Anyone care to weigh in?

[shrimpman steve]

It is a sad state of affairs. People forget that the party boat fleet was built on blue fish.

I used to love those night trips on the cock robin

[CadiShackFishing]

I miss those days as well filling those big burlap bags till they were overflowing. Then getting back to the dock and there were people willing to buy the fish for like $2 each. Then to the laundromat to wash the blood out of your clothes. Not sure what happened to the bio-mass but I know it was a lot of fun.

[dakota560]

I miss those days as well filling those big burlap bags till they were overflowing. Then getting back to the dock and there were people willing to buy the fish for like $2 each. Then to the laundromat to wash the blood out of your clothes. Not sure what happened to the bio-mass but I know it was a lot of fun.

Fishery was over-fished recreationally and never rebounded. Prior to possession limits being implemented, burlap sacks of big bluefish cooking on the deck without ice killed the fishery. Fishery never rebounded. That and to a lesser degree fillets in the supermarkets the color of cardboard wasn't helping. Check the attached link for historical landing and destruction of biomass. You'd think we'd learn. No fishery no matter how healthy it appears in today's day and age of technology can't be wiped out in a matter of years.

http://www.asmfc.org/species/bluefish

[a-baum]

I miss those days as well filling those big burlap bags till they were overflowing. Then getting back to the dock and there were people willing to buy the fish for like $2 each. Then to the laundromat to wash the blood out of your clothes. Not sure what happened to the bio-mass but I know it was a lot of fun.
How can not correlate your experience and memories with the downfall of the fishery. Boats stacked up like a city at night, people filling burlap bags full of bluefish, and then the next line is "Hey what happened to the fish?"

Seriously?

[RAMMFISH66]

Yes, I used to do three charters a year for my company for blues and we were battling the blues along with party boats from Brooklyn in NJ waters and NJ party boats too. All the blues you wanted 'till your arms were sore...That was the way it was--10-to 15 years ago....now I can't even surf fish for them....o'well, that is the way it goes

[Rocky]

They are becoming like blowfish cyclical. I remember my friends looking for them for shark bait without any luck 3-4 years back and then the next year I couldn't get away from them the Raritan bay.

https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/67178058_10215210449600785_5845167266827599872_n.j pg?_nc_cat=102&_nc_oc=AQkbOtjNw7sv-ikcxHnrpSY-LgFeY_5FjxOXXt7OKlC7oAMVO9PlrxHJtO3WjB_Fwa_pKTfhoa hLvsdIwABEBveJ&_nc_ht=scontent-iad3-1.xx&oh=1b6cad34508fb4d30bd79d55f5bf58e3&oe=5DE71B69

[RAMMFISH66]

Nice chopper Rocky..haven't seen one like that is a while

[krob8979]

My first ever trip on a party boat was with my father. Remember it was on the Gambler. Fishing was so good that we didn't dock till like 4am. Best trip of my life.

[tombanjo]

The old timers used to say that the blues were gone for like 5 years in the 70's...or was it the 80's? Being an old timer now myself it's hard to remember. Put me down for cyclical.

[bunker dunker]

it was the 70"s when they left.we have always had good and bad years with bluefish.i can't believe this is because of rec fishing.

[bulletbob]

Simple -they became commercially viable at some point.. they are for sale in white plastic trays wrapped in clear plastic up here all over.. Some even look pretty fresh... Don't see fillets, but I can buy them all day long in the round, in the 1-2 lb class.. I agree with those also that say we were too greedy years ago.. everyone taking garbage cans full of them home and dumping them in the garden.. It happened, and a lot of us need to realize that it can't happen again... bob

[Fun King]

The link posted by Mr Dakota is interesting. It shows that blues were booming in the 80's, kind of how I remember it. I used to catch so many that I stopped going on the party boats, I didn't want to deal with a hundred pounds of bluefish. Every fish was gaffed. The link also shows that in the 80's stripers were almost non-existent, also how I remember it. Strict regulations, like one fish over 36", led to the recovery of stripers.

[AndyS]

I thought the guys sharking the Glory Hole recently said "we can't get away from all these blluefish !!!"

[Billfish715]

Way back when.........there were sand eels inshore of the MudHole on the high pieces. Those inshore sand eels attracted and held bluefish for weeks or months. The inshore sand eels also held a population of sizeable yellowfin tuna. In both cases, a profitable and prolific fishery was supported by the desired baitfish. Where there are sand eels, there are gamefish. There have been huge amounts of sand eels 30-40 miles out for a few years now. They have attracted bluefins and bluefish and the rest is history.

The amount of rainfish in those same areas has been so thick that even whales are attracted to the scene. We have bunkers by the acre inshore, but no blues around. We also have a resurgence in the smaller pelagics like bonito and Spanish mackerel but they are not bunker eaters so, perhaps some of the sand eels or rainfish are moving inshore a bit. Early, in the first part of the seabass season, those fish were spitting up sandeels when they hit the deck. We were using AVA's to catch them.

These are only observations and not scientific by any stretch, but I do see a correlation.

[SaltLife1980]

How can not correlate your experience and memories with the downfall of the fishery. Boats stacked up like a city at night, people filling burlap bags full of bluefish, and then the next line is "Hey what happened to the fish?"

Seriously?

He was being sarcastic......

[NJ219bands]

I tagged more than 2,200 bluefish in NJ and they were recaptured from the Cape Cod Canal to Atlantic Beach, NC. 3 were found dead in a December Oyster Creek fish kill. One was found in a NC fish market.

[Billfish715]

Congratulations on the tag returns. It's always fun to get one of Jeff's Goldfish Patches in the mail and to find out where the fish you tag have been recaptured. The information is shared and used by other agencies and helps in understanding migration patterns almost exclusively.

Not too many people are tagging bluefish probably because their teeth can be so threatening when you get your fingers close by. I know from your reports that you tag a lot of mature blues in the spring as they migrate north. Unfortunately, the tag returns only show where the fish were and not how many there are. If there were more of them, I'm sure many of us would tag them but they seem to vanish as the summer approaches and only a fraction of them hug the beaches on their way south in the fall.

There were some monster blues in the Sandy Hook surf in the late spring albeit at night on most occasions. Tagging a 10# bluefish at night is not something I try or like to do. Still, they seem to have left, despite the abundance of bunkers almost everywhere. However, the number of snappers has been very healthy for the last several years as well as the appearance of more and more taylor blues. As for the gators, I guess they have decided to vacation in New England waters.

[Fluken-Around]

Use to make me sick when I would pull in to belmar to launch the boat and look into dumpsters and see the wrath from the night blue fishing trips. Tons of uncleaned bluefish that were kept on boat but then tossed in to dumpster before heading home! People still treat the species like crap, especially the snappers this time of year! Catch 15 of them put them in your bucket for bait and they use one and toss the other 14 back dead.

[Capt. Debbie]

There was a 10 fish limit since the 1980s when I ran charters.

More like migratory patterns have changed. But that's a theory too- as good as anyone else's guess I suppose.

I remember being in that night fishing fleet fest. Lights ablaze covering a city block awash in chumming.




Fishery was over-fished recreationally and never rebounded. Prior to possession limits being implemented, burlap sacks of big bluefish cooking on the deck without ice killed the fishery. Fishery never rebounded. That and to a lesser degree fillets in the supermarkets the color of cardboard wasn't helping. Check the attached link for historical landing and destruction of biomass. You'd think we'd learn. No fishery no matter how healthy it appears in today's day and age of technology can't be wiped out in a matter of years.

http://www.asmfc.org/species/bluefish

[coltsfan61]

I remember going on the palace outta Hoboken for blues day was mostly jigging and at night we fished bait. Got 20 pounders too. Ive notice even in the hudson river we had big blues but no more just cocktails in the bay.
Even with a 10 fish limit. Maybe its because of all of the snappers being caught thats killing it

[coltsfan61]

Remember the days fishing on the palace outta Hoboken day or night jigs or bait killing them. Blues use to come in the river but only cocktails in the bay. Maybe its because of all them snappers being caught. That's killing it

[shrimpman steve]

I guess they have decided to vacation in New England waters.

They better keep a yellow eye open for the great whites

[reelfitter]

Ill give my two cents. Back in the 80's while Drum fishing down at the mouth of the Chesapeake, the blues were pests. Trying to keep a bait down long enough for a Drum to suck it in was impossible! Then along came OMEGA PROTEIN and their reduction boats. Year after year you would see less and less Blues. But, Hey, they were only netting menhaden,right! Wrong, those reduction boats sucked up whatever was in the net. Those nets don't know the difference between a blue or a bunker. Stripers also! Omega Protein has just about wiped out everything in the Chesapeake. Those same fish are the ones that migrate North in the spring of the year. Their gone!

[Brewlugger]

My Grandfather told me in the 40s and 50s Bluefish were very scarce and they were a rare catch in those days.

[coltsfan61]

Fished the palace outta Hoboken day or night for blues.

[Capt Joe]

My Grandfather told me in the 40s and 50s Bluefish were very scarce and they were a rare catch in those days.

There were some very lean years in the 60’s and 70’s also.