Bluefish fill the in-between of winter and spring
Although technically still winter, March is an in-between month for saltwater anglers. You want to go fishing because it feels like spring, but you have to go on those nice days when the wind is not blowing too hard to fish and the air temperature is not bitingly cold as it is in the dead of winter.
Despite water temperatures going up and down like a rollercoaster that are enough to make most fish schizophrenic, there is one feisty fish that remains such a constant that guides including Capt. Blake Mitchell and Capt. Patrick Kelly rely upon it for a bite and a fight.
“The bluefish show up just outside the inlets around the first of March when the water temperatures are climbing into the low 70s,” Mitchell said. “On those nice days after a hard blow when the weather turns so warm that you can ditch your jacket and get out to see what’s going on, the first places you should look for bluefish are the rock jetties at Cape Lookout and Fort Macon.”
Find the baitfish
Bluefish eat schooling baitfish including mullet and menhaden. And these baitfish schools are usually concentrated by inlet currents, especially at eddies created by hard structure. Anglers may see baitfish schools at the surface or bluefish ripping through the baitfish on top. But the surest giveaway to actively feeding bluefish is the presence of seabirds circling and diving down to the water to eat whatever it is that bluefish are chasing up.
Another type of manmade structure anglers should check out are the pole groins that run perpendicular to the beaches. Mitchell said two of them are near Fort Macon, one at Shackleford Banks and a couple of others at the NCDMF Marine Laboratory. Launching his 23-foot C-Hawk from the ramp at Newport or Morehead City, he keeps an eye on the wind.
“I’m also watching for any bird activity,” he said. “One seagull, tern or pelican diving can signal bait activity or fish activity. Even a group of birds sitting on the water may be sitting on top of bait. People will ride right past them, when all they have to do is stop when they see these signs and turn a mediocre day into a great day. The bait was dormant or otherwise not available through the winter. So the birds and bluefish will be eating any bait at all if they find it.”
He also looks for anglers in other boats who are having success. For many fish, anglers should maintain a courteous distance from other boats. However, most anglers don’t mind sharing a school of bluefish because there are plenty to go around. If in doubt, anglers can ask other anglers who are catching bluefish if they mind sharing before they approach. Feeding bluefish are not skittish of boats and engines.
“Single hook lures like jigs and swimbaits make it easier to release bluefish than lures with treble hooks,” he said. “If you are going to release them, use a rubber net because they can bite through a monofilament net. I like casting a jighead with a Z-Man ElaZtech trailer. It holds up well to bluefish bites and can catch a lot of fish before it’s too torn up. I also use topwater Spooks and metal lures. A Little Cleo spoon is a great lure. If it wiggles and flashes, a bluefish will eat it. It’s a great time to use up all the rusty spoons and lures in your tackle box. If a bluefish bites off or destroys a lure you were going to throw away, you haven’t lost anything. I use a No. 3 or No. 5 single strand wire leader or a 20- to 30-pound fluorocarbon leader with a snap swivel for ease of changing lures.”
Mitchell uses his trolling motor to stay on the school as he casts. While the outboard won’t spook them, the trolling motor makes steering easier. When fishing along jetties, he usually lets the wind and current push the boat along while he casts to the structure.
When the fish enter the Pamlico Sound and Neuse River during the third week of March, the reefs are excellent places to fish. The Oriental Reef (AR-396) is a good one because it has manmade structure. The Gibbs Shoal and Raccoon Island oyster sanctuaries are great natural structure reefs that attract bluefish.
“The reefs are in about 12 feet of water,” Mitchell said. “The bluefish are there because oysters form the basis of the food chain, attracting shrimp, baitfish and other marine life bluefish eat. If bluefish aren’t showing on top, look for activity on the surface and on the fish finder. Popping cork rigs work well. Just put on a cut piece of fish, shrimp or squid for bait. I also like to tie two jigs together. If it wiggles, a bluefish will eat it. A lot of people say they want to catch glamour fish like speckled trout, red drum or flounder. But they change their tune when they see a school of bluefish working on top with the birds diving. The tug is the drug.”
Little River
Little River is another great place to catch bluefish. Capt. Patrick Kelly (Capt. Smiley Fishing Charters, 843-361-7445), who fishes the area from a 24-foot Pathfinder, said the rock jetties attract bluefish there as well.
“I am usually fishing for speckled trout in March,” he said. “But the jetties attract many different fish and bluefish are among them. They can be a bonus fish when you catch all the speckled trout you want or are a backup plan when the trout are not biting. Bluefish fight hard, bite anything and get everyone excited when they are feeding on top.”
Kelly looks for small baitfish such as glass minnows, disturbances of the surface and bird activity. If he is fishing for speckled trout, bluefish make their presence along the jetties known quickly.
“All you have to do is make some casts toward the rocks and reel fast to find bluefish,” he said. “If the bluefish are around and you are fishing with jigs and grubs, they will bite the tails off the grubs.
“I also fish with Vudu Shrimp, which are tougher than soft plastic grub tails. But bluefish will chew through them, too. When that happens, I switch to metal lures with treble hooks. I especially like Stingsilver jigging spoons and use a packaged, ready-made 6-inch wire leader to prevent cut-offs. The snap swivel makes changing lures easy.”
Kelly also uses his trolling motor to stay on the fish, using the Spot Lock GPS feature. If the fish are hitting on top, he uses the most inexpensive topwater lures he can buy because bluefish can bite off a lure anytime. He tosses them poppers, walkers and anything else that is in the cheap sales bin at the tackle shop.
Nearshore Reefs
“If they are not at the jetties, I head for one of the nearshore reefs,” he said. “The Vesta is about a quarter-mile off of Mad Inlet and the bluefish will be all around the structure. Just start slinging some metal jigs and spoons around the structure, and you should be able to find them. If that doesn’t work, look for them on the depthfinder. Any cloud of fish you see will be bluefish. As with fishing the jetties, anglers should jig or reel their lures fast while keeping the line tight. It isn’t possible to reel a lure so fast that a bluefish can’t catch it.”
By the end of March, the bluefish will be entering the backwaters. Anglers can move from the inlet to the grass beds in the marshes to catch them. Bluefish will be feeding at the grass edges, oyster beds, ledges and channel drop-offs.
“Anywhere you find speckled trout, you will find bluefish,” Kelly said. “They will hit float rigs with a jig or minnow suspended over the oyster beds. They will also strike any topwater lure or jig. Just keep something ready to cast wherever you see bluefish splash and you are going to get some action.”
Don’t overlook ocean piers
This bluefish struck a Sea Striker Got-Cha plug, a classic lure for catching schooling fish like bluefish from an ocean fishing pier.
Bluefish tend to show up in the surf zone along the beaches and around the ocean fishing piers at dawn and dusk. Anglers can walk out on a pier with a rod in hand, a couple of lures in their pocket and a plastic bucket or ice chest to take home the results of a few hours of casting.
As with fishing the inlets, jetties and backwater oyster beds and artificial reefs, bluefish are not choosy about what they will hit. An angler could cast nearly anything into a school of feeding bluefish and have a quick strike-and-fight session. But it is this lure’s design that makes it uniquely suited to fishing piers. Incidentally, it is also an excellent choice for casting from a boat or for trolling in choppy waters, also credited to its design.
It is a metal tube or plastic tube with a heavy metal face that slopes downward and forward like a jutting chin. The angle of the face makes the lure dig into the water, even when it is reeled from the high deck of a pier. That keeps it from skimming ineffectively along the surface. The same feature allows the lure to dig into the water and run deep beneath the surface when it is cast and reeled or trolled in water with a ripple on top.
It comes in many styles, including treble-hook, single-hook and skirted designs. It also is made in many colors, to impress the bluefish, perhaps. More likely, the various features are offered to impress anglers because a bluefish will strike any shiny or colorful lure cast in front of it and reeled fast.
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