8/25: A quick skunking

[Tuna]

Wasn't out on the water that long Saturday (and was mobile little of it due to something repeatedly blowing the fuel pump fuse). Saw something going on between Shagawong and the Point - some birds working, some boats stopping by them - but was immobile at the time so I never got a close look. Got skunked (not making a cast could have had something to do with that).

Before I left the island Sunday morning, I drove to Maidstone Park to see the waters outside of 3 mile harbor. What a beautiful morning - light wind, sun and clear wisps of clouds with a hint of fall in the air. Purple martins buzing the surface, picking up their breakfast. What a change from Saturday morning's NE bluster.

[joshr]

Peter--

You didn't miss too much this weekend. Sat. was pretty sloppy...got a few blues in the bay (and a bunch of sea robins when I was working the bottom with a lead-core head). Snappers everywhere. Sunday was nice and calm, so ran up to the Gulls for the incoming, and Levison joined me and my Pop....On our way, we ran into a single pod of very big blues (in the rip north of Bostwick) that popped near the boat and then swam right under it, but we didn't hook any, and once a couple other boats got on them, they bolted....up at the Gulls: nothing...a good rip was formed up, but no signs of life. I heard Rafferty got a 35 lb. bass on fly early in the morning at the ruins. So the early bite may have been better. Lots of blues in the mid-late afternoon off Tobacco Lot.

Talk soon.

--JHR

[AndyF]

Took a long weekend and didn't see a lot of activity though I did hook into one nice striper in the rip off of Gardiner's Island. Snappers indeed were everywhere, especially Tobacco Lot and the entrance to Three Mile Harbor, but most were really small and feisty. However, on the way back to the harbor, I checked out a lot of bird activity on the northwest side of Cartright and wham--ran into a school of rather nice sized and hungry blues.

Now, I know there are a lot of experienced striper/tunoid purists out there who scoff at the blues, but they are sure fun to catch. I even kept a few for dinner. Most people don't like them but when they're fresh, cooked on the grill in foil with local tomatos, onions and some wishbone Italian dressing, they're delicious. (And given the hordes of blues in the bay wreaking havco on those poor little baitfish, I don't feel so bad keeping a few for dinner.);

Tuna's observations about Maidstone on Sunday morning are right on. You should have seen how nice it was around dusk.

[Tuna]

Often, around this time of the year, right before the albies show, we get a good run of large bluefish. Sometimes on peanut bunker, sometimes on other bait.

And a large blue on a fly is one mean fish. Broke a bunch of my pop's old Stu Apte rods on them over the last few Augusts, high sticking to try to get that last few inches to the boat, so I can reach down to the mono and have the blue nip my fingers (well, I don't plan that last part, it just happens).

Bluefish jump, which is something I have against bass (which will jump rarely) and albies (never seen a hooked one jump yet).

Bluefish hits can be incredibly explosive.

And bluefish can take off like a freight train.

Hmm, I haven't run into any big ones this August, but it sounds like Josh and Andy have seen some good ones.

[venture]

[venture]

Andy,
'Ata boy11 Don't let them snobs rain on your bluefish parade. Most scourn the species because of how predictable, pleniful, and relatively small they are. The fish got a bad rap from the old days, because the way they caught most of them was in the daylight ours, from the beach, on every cast, with anything that they had. It was pretty tough to brag about your mess of fish as compared with his mess of fish. The one lucky guy, who through a lucky cast and got the 30lb bass was the "pro". Or the guy who came later, at night, he was the "pro" too. Too bad for the little bluefish.
But like anything else, when the conditions, the size, and the challenge all come together, it doesn't matter who is knocking at the door. It could be a mighty blue, acting as sofisticated as the dominant brown in the pool.
In 1984, there was a very famous one month blitz of huge bluefish on the shores of Lobsterville, Martha's Vineyard. All of the old time regulars on the island remember it well. They remember it better than any frenzied albie blitz that's for sure. I believe there were at least 2 fly rod world records caught on that beach, within that month. It was absolutely incredible, and will go down as one of the best blitzes New England for fly fishing. There was a constant school of adolescent blues working the menemsha jetty on outgoing tide, malling sand eels. If you walked down the beach, a mile, 2 miles, 3 miles all the way to dogfish bar, the monster blues took up feeding lanes as trout do, and sipped the wounded sand eels with no more than a ripple. You had to work for them, and cover the beach, but very slowly stripped flies would make them rise broadside in slow motion to merely intercept the flies obvious drift. It was like raising Atlantic Salmon. You needed nerves of steel because, as in salmon fishing, you many times see the fish rising well before the fly reaches his lips. The takes were beautiful, all in less than 2 feet of slick moving water. Not too many albies give you the same rush, but as I mentioned before, it's not the fish, its all the other stuff.
By the way, pictures of this blitz can be seen in the May, 1985 issue of Salt Water Sportsman in an article about fly fishing by Kib Bramhall, a close friend of mine. In one of the pictures in my long time fishing buddy Ronny Hall tailing an 18 pounder in ankle deep water. I am the jerk in the background casting. I did save a copy of the shot. Anyway, I second Andy's statement. Blues are great, as all fish are great.
Howie

[joshr]

I totally agree that it's not the species, it's the way the fish are behaving that makes things interesting. And blues behave in funny and very interesting ways sometimes. About 8 years ago, in late spring when the first blues of the season moved into Gardiners Bay, my Pop and I came across a large school of large 12+ lb. fish in gin clear water about 3-5 feet deep on the south side of Gardiners Island where Cherry Harbor starts to turn into Cartwright Shoal. These fish were skulking around very slowly finning in the surface film and not at all boat shy. We had a more or less flat bottomed bay boat back then that we could sort of pole--or at least control drift--and we set up near groups of 5-8 fish, picked our fish and presented flies to them like they were laid-up tarpon. It was the best day of bluefishing of my life, and far more memorable and exciting than any albie day. Those packs of big blues just stayed there for a couple hours, never swimming fast (except when hooked!), just skulking along like carp in a pond or tarpon under a light at night. It was very cool, especially since Gardiners is sooooooo crystal clear that time of year. We'd pick out a fish 80-90 feet off for distance casting target practice, and then pick one near the boat to watch a close-up take. It wasn't terribly challenging because the fish were so aggressive on the fly/lure and not at all spooky or boat shy, but it was incredibly visual fishing and great fun. Usually when I have seen blues finning it is in the early morning in the slick calm water before and boat traffic or wind stirs things up, but this was midday in broad daylight allowing for great sight casting. Haven't seen that behavior since in Gardiners.

--Josh

[AndyF]

Never seen a bluefish swim slowly. I've had two interesting sightings. One, just about two weeks ago, was when I noticed a few splashes on the surface between Gardiner's Island and Cartright. When I went to investigate (the birds hadn't even seen what was going on)I found a large school of about 10-12" snapper/blues about 5-10 feet under the surface corralling some school of baitfish that I could not see. They were in a very tight circle and from a distance it looked like a black cloud of baitfish. In fact, the behavior looked to my amateur eyes more like they were the prey and not the predators, but I didn't see anything other than the huge school of tightly circling fish. I've seen underwater shots of larger baitfish behaving similarly when chased by tuna and marlin; they group together in a giant ball as a defensive mechanism. But what really made me suspicious that these might not have been blues, however, was that they were finicky! I tried sinking lines, floating lines, big flies, little epoxy flies (since I couldn't see the baitfish I figured they were eating small sand eels), then tube lures, poppers, but only had one or two hits.

The other cool day I had was last year, late summer I think, outside of Three Mile Harbor. I was just hanging out practicing flycasting to some snappers and a large school of baitfish (I thought they were baby bunker)decided to use my boat as cover. They were so thick I literally was able to scoop them up in a bucket, and when the snappers would come up to attack, many would jump right over the transom. It was so cool to watch up close that I just stopped fishing and observed the action. Sounds like a fish story but it happened.