Bluefish in the Early Morning

Bluefish are a strong fish, being built for speed and endurance, they fight from hook-up to your feet. The prime time for Blue's are early morning-about an hour after sunrise. Bluefish are a predatory fish that feed in massive schools, cruising the beach in search of prey. Occasionally, a large school of Sea mullet, Shrimp, or Menhaden is found and the bluefish swarm them while driving them to the surface. Down South, these swarms are known as "baitballs."

An effective outfit is surf rod with a 2 hook bottom rig and circle hooks. These are best baited with Sea mullet heads or strips completely covering the point of the hook. Sea mullet can be caught in th surf with a cast net fairly easily. Clark Spoons and Johnson silver spoons with a treble hook are deadly on cruising Bluefish. The spoons need to be thrown ahead of the school and pulled in front of the lead fish. If no schools are seen, repeated casting and retrieval of the spoon over a sandbar or through a drop-off will work fine. On rare occasions, Spanish Mackerel will feed alongside the blues and can be caught with the same spoons.

Bluefish need to be cleaned within a few hours to remain fresh and must not frozen uncleaned. These fish spoil in a day only cleaning and freezing will keep them fresh.

Small Blue's caught also make excellent bait, as do jigs with cut mullet strips for a tail.

Always follow local regulations on size and bait.