I have been surf fishing for over 25 years and I always caught blue fish, the would wear you out rebating. I just spent a week on Ocracoke and never saw a blue fish actually I saw very little being caught. Fishing sure has gone down hill in the last 5 years . There was A time I never got skunked but It becoming a normal these days.
Fished Nags head in August .in 3 day only landed one small sand perch. I didn't have much luck last year either I must be cursed LOL I might make another trip before it gets too cold.but I'm not sure why .

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Hey Rick I can tell you Bluefish were a very big disappointment with the Inshore Charter Boats in the Oregon Inlet Area. Just recently there was some decent sized Blues in the Inlet around the Bar and some in the Sound Channels just West of the Bridge. This action only lasted a few days. From May to the present I don't think my Charterboat caught more than a couple of dozen all Summer. Very perplexing.

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offshore overfishing?

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I have been surf fishing for over 25 years and I always caught blue fish, the would wear you out rebating. I just spent a week on Ocracoke and never saw a blue fish actually I saw very little being caught. Fishing sure has gone down hill in the last 5 years . There was A time I never got skunked but It becoming a normal these days.
Fished Nags head in August .in 3 day only landed one small sand perch. I didn't have much luck last year either I must be cursed LOL I might make another trip before it gets too cold.but I'm not sure why .

We were down September 13-20th. One day I took a drive down to Pea Island Life Saving Station. Walked over to the beach to find about a dozen guys slaying some nice Stripers and a few small Blues

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Rick, was over at Portsmouth this past weekend from Fri till Sun. No problem catching blues down there. Matter of fact, wish they would go away. The only use I have for them is bait for reds.

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They are not up here in Delaware either.

Like you I rarely used to get skunked, now its not uncommon.

People I talk to don't have answers either. Meanwhile the off shore boats are doing well.

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Caught a few off ramp 55 this evening while fishing for pompano. They were chasing the finger mullet in the breakers. The blues were 15-16" and destroyed several pompano rigs. I hold them in only slightly higher esteem than lizard fish.
Water is clearing up and still warm enough to swim.

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A few of you mentioned good Bluefish on "Offshore Boats"! Are you talking about Headboats up North. On the Outer Banks there basically is no Offshore Bluefishing. Commercially there are Gill Nets and Drift Nets normally set Inshore or maybe out to 15 Miles or so. No Recreational Bluefishing here much more than 3 or 4 miles out. Very Poor Year from May Through August. Oh well, maybe next year.

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One of my buddies at work is a netter, he's brought in plenty of blues over the last number of months, and he specifically brings in the larger ones to keep the price up. I can't speak from the surf, as I just recently started fishing again a few weeks back. I took a while off due to unfortunate circumstances. Caught a handful over a few day period early morning before work last week.

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I caught one good eating size Blue in Hatteras last Thursday morning. I was excited because I was expecting some more but it was a 1 and done.

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In theory, how far from the shore should you cast out if targeting Blues?

As far as possible or just behind where the waves break?

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Bluefish chase bait up and down the beach. Depending on time of the year it can be mostly Silversides (Spearing) or Glass Minnows plus Finger Mullet and Peanut Bunker (Menhaden). This bait can be just beyond the surf line or out on the other side of the shoreline bar. Most of the time Bluefish will be caught when bait is sighted. Not a lot of Blues will be caught in the Surf "Blindly". I can get real bored casting into nothingness. I fish above Oregon Inlet, not Hatteras, so personally I like to have a rigged rod just sitting there while i Trout or Bottom Fish. If Bait is seen Jumping, I jump into action. Please understand that depending on the area fished most Outer Banks Blues will be small, under 5 lbs. with most smaller down to less than a footlong. If you are going to cast lures, do not use big stuff especially in the Summer. Various spoons and jigs less than 2 oz. are your best bet in the surf. One note of caution. If you see bait jumping, swirling, flapping or whatever it is not always Bluefish or even other predators. Peanut Bunker Swirl and Flap naturally. Minnows will jump if swimmers are nearby. It is frustrating to see fisherman casting dangerously next to and over swimmers to what is just bait swirling. If you cast to a school of bait and don't get a hit in few casts, forgetaboutit! Good luck.

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Thanks Pickle. I am going to be in South Nags Head at the beginning of April. I have caught a multitude of varieties from the surf and pier, but never a Blue.

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"I like to have a rigged rod just sitting there while i Trout or Bottom Fish."

I always keep a strong rod rigged with a wire leader and a 3- or 4-ounce Hopkins. I've done it for 30 years or more because I know the big ones are coming back. Soon. Any day now.

Let's see if I can post a pic.



Stupid iphone pics. I saw 2 twenties and 2 twenty-twos weighed that day at Red Drum while I was weighing my 17+.

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Thanks Pickle. I am going to be in South Nags Head at the beginning of April. I have caught a multitude of varieties from the surf and pier, but never a Blue.

No blue fish? That's amazing. It seems like I will hook a blue no matter what I fish for. Good luck your next time out and remember, at least with blue fish, bigger isn't always better. But bigger is more fun to catch! Unless you hook 2 at once, which happened a couple times our last time out in 2018. It was fun watching my daughter struggle to reel them in.

johnbt, 17+ pounds? I can say with certainly that I've never caught one that big. That's awesome. I hope the fishing comes back like 1984...

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Thanks Pickle. I am going to be in South Nags Head at the beginning of April. I have caught a multitude of varieties from the surf and pier, but never a Blue.

No blue fish? That's amazing. It seems like I will hook a blue no matter what I fish for. Good luck your next time out and remember, at least with blue fish, bigger isn't always better. But bigger is more fun to catch! Unless you hook 2 at once, which happened a couple times our last time out in 2018. It was fun watching my daughter struggle to reel them in.

johnbt, 17+ pounds? I can say with certainly that I've never caught one that big. That's awesome. I hope the fishing comes back like 1984...

Honestly, I probably have, but none that were boast worthy. My old man and uncles had me in the surf and on the piers every Summer as well as Thanksgiving when I was a kid. I probably caught a small one or two but don't recall. Recently, I have caught a vast array, but no Blues.

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The chopper blues used to move in schools that looked to be a half a mile long while thousands of gulls whirled overhead and dove into the school for scraps. Sometimes the schools would stay too far out to reach and sometimes they would run parallel to the beach in the breakers. Sometimes they'd hit and run and other times they would stay for an hour chasing the bait out of the water.

It was always a hard decision to make about staying in one place and waiting for a school to cruise by or to jump in the truck and chase the massive cloud of gulls on the horizon.

From the Coastland Times 11/29/73. 16- to 20-pound blues.

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The chopper blues used to move in schools that looked to be a half a mile long while thousands of gulls whirled overhead and dove into the school for scraps. Sometimes the schools would stay too far out to reach and sometimes they would run parallel to the beach in the breakers. Sometimes they'd hit and run and other times they would stay for an hour chasing the bait out of the water.

It was always a hard decision to make about staying in one place and waiting for a school to cruise by or to jump in the truck and chase the massive cloud of gulls on the horizon.

From the Coastland Times 11/29/73. 16- to 20-pound blues.

Ah, the good old days

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Compared to 2018...

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The good old days indeed. If only we'd had a camera. Here's something to look at...

"James Hussey with the 31-pound, 12-ounce world-record bluefish caught off Hatteras, North Carolina, in 1972."

www.onthewater.com/bluefish-blues

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Compared to 2018...

Liveline those fukers

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I had this shirt in the bottom of my shop's rag box for 20 years. Then I took it out and promised to wear it when the choppers returned.

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Compared to 2018...

Liveline those fukers

They were the only thing biting that night. I was fishing with my daughter and she was having a ball pulling in two at a time. Threw everything back, but easily one of my best days fishing.

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Compared to 2018...

Liveline those fukers

They were the only thing biting that night. I was fishing with my daughter and she was having a ball pulling in two at a time. Threw everything back, but easily one of my best days fishing.

When we are drum fishing, we fantasize about blues that size. Good story about your daughter having a blast

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I've heard my father talk about times when the big blues ran. One time he says that one and two pound trout were beaching themselves in Fisco to avoid being eaten. I was just a little munchkin when we lived out there, but he kept a surf rod in the back of his station wagon just in case he got a call from a buddy that they were running. This was early 70s. The biggest I've seen caught was a couple of years ago at the point someone caught a 27 inch bluefish. I still dream of seeing big blues run myself, but no luck.

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