Today was pure pandemonium. I have been fishing the Bay for the last 50 years and I have seen some wild bluefish blitzes, but today ranks right up there with some of the best of past years. For hours it was wild blitzes around the boat with schools of blues tearing through vast schools of peanut bunker, hundreds, maybe thousands of birds diving and boaters in a frenzy chasing down school after school that were popping up along a mile of Bay water. At one point I moved around in a complete circle and could seen birds working and fish breaking as far as I could see. I saw schools of breaking fish that were hundreds of yards long.
And, the blues were real good size, running 6-10 lbs. on average with a few bigger brutes in the mix. Anything you threw at them got a hit. We went with topwater lures. My brother Mike was using a homemade popper while I was using a Zara Spook. I saw boater tossing every plug imaginable and catching fish after fish. I can't tell you how many we caught...maybe 40, 50 or more.These bluefish have been around the Bay all summer drawn to the vast schools of bait such as bay anchovies, peanut bunker and adult menhaden, that have flooded the Bay. Now, the predators are far more active as they begin their fall feed, and their numbers seem to be ballooning every day. It is about as good as it has ever been right now in the Bay for boaters. Just like the ole days!
