Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Bluefish On The Fourth Of July



The crippled herring spoon in the color and size I used.
Yesterday my dad and I went fishing to the sound on our boat like any normal weekend day. My day started at 5 in the morning and we went to our boat for the morning bite. On the way out of the Cos Cob port i snagged a bunker just in case the light tackle and fly fishing didn't work and we were off. At first we fished around Great Captain's Island with no success on anything, not even a live lined bunker which will normally catch fish under any condition. Eventually we decided to cross the sound and fish the power plant (the big 4 chimneys you can see from Tod's point) and Loyd's neck. We released the bunker and crossed the sound. When we arrived at Loyd's Neck we already saw some bunker being fed on by bluefish. My dad cast a sand eel fly right into the middle of the mini blitz and hooks up with a harbor blue. I casted out a 10 inch fin-s fin and watched it get destroyed by 3 fish at the same time. Unfortunately the lure was too big and didn't hook a fish. The blitz all of a sudden disappeared. We blindly casted until it appeared again. This time using a 1 ounce crippled herring spoon in the color above I casted right into the middle of the action and got bite almost as soon as the spoon hit the water. After one more harbor blue caught by my dad on the same fly we hit slack tide and the action stopped. We decided to go to the power plant and try there. We arrived at the power plant, but there was no blitzing. I took one cast with my spoon and had a nice harbor blue on and my dad had the same story with the fly. These fish weren't terrorizing anybody but they were there. I even tried a popper and it proved to work great! Whatever you threw at these fish that looked like a bait fish would work. This constant action continued until we had caught 23 fish all together and my mom called us and told us to come home. So to go get out on the water and catch these harbor blues here are a few tips...
- go during the day
- go in between high and low tide or visa versa
- use any spoon that is a decent size or a small popper such as a creek chub
- fish what ever you are using FAST!!! but not too fast...
- do not use soft plastics because bluefish rip them up and you'll have to get a new one every time you cast wherever you hook the fish or not
- try to use single hooks and if you can make them barb-less. I spent 1/4 of the time unhooking fish and let me tell you barbs+blues=mess and waste of time. To make a hook barb-less get a pair of pliers and just pinch the barb down. you'll save your selve time and you have more time to catch more fish
- watch out cause those teeth are really sharp! use pliers to unhook them 
so good luck and tight lines!