2016 1st Bluefish by Dave Spendiff

Posted on April 24, 2016 by VHFC

I left the dock at 7:45 on Monday, April 18th and headed to the Oyster Creek Power Plant outflow. Bay temp was 53. As on the past few trips here, I was trying to catch a weakfish. There were at least 6 boats and a few kayaks fishing the area when I arrived. Water temp at the creek mouth was 63 degrees. After fishing the area for a couple of hours without a touch, I finally got a hit of what felt like a BIG fish for my fresh water spinning outfit loaded with 10lb Power-pro. I could not do much but listen to the drag sing. I had my trolling motor deployed so I followed the fish until I could regain line and wear the fish out a bit. Once I got the fish alongside the boat I saw the big forked tail of a bluefish! I really didn’t think I was going to get this fish to the net since I only had 20lb test leader. Sometimes the stars are all aligned in your favor and good things happen and bingo, the fish is in the net. As you can see from the net picture, the pink BKD is in the corner of its mouth and apparently the line never got in the mouth. On the boga grip it registered 12lbs! I fished for another 4 hours without another touch. I trolled a couple of areas for blues on the way home – nada! It is starting to happen!

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Fishing Facts

Of the fifty United States, thirty-eight have a striped-bass record. New Jersey has the largest striped-bass record—a 78-pound 8·ounce whopper that was caught in 1982. The state with the smallest striped-bass record is Iowa. That landlocked striper weighed only 9 pounds 4 ounces and was caught in 1983.

There’s something fishy about beer these days. Fish Tail Ale is popular as ever, and New Jersey’s Flying Fish Brewery is one of the state’s largest specialty breweries. There’s also Washington’s Wild Salmon Organic Pale Ale, Florida’s Land Shark beer, Delaware’s Dogfish Head beer, and two versions of Stingray beer—a lighter version from the Cayman Islands and a dark beer from Canada.

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