South Jersey Blues

[Notch]

I know hardly anyone looks at this forum but I figured I'd contribute since Jersey is one of my many fishing destinations throughout the year.

My son and I fished out of SH on Sat and we were mainly interested in blues, yes blues. Everyone is hip on stripers, but things just didn't really get rolling there for them just yet. We set out to find some blues around the TI inlet. We were jigging and marking alot of bait balls but had no hits. We then heard on the radio about a big school of blues heading south along the beach, down towards Wildwood. We went for it and I'm glad we did. For three hours we bailed blues and big ones to 12#. We quit around noon and had a cooler full for the freezer. They were spitting up rainfish, small bunker, and baby trout, yes trout. Had one spit one up that was about ten inches long. All fish caught on metals. We lost count around fourty between the two of us. Had great weather, light winds, and a beautiful day to be on the water. Water temp@ 53* ocean.


Notch

[getreel]

Thanks for the report Notch!! I rememeber fishing a bluefish blitz off the Jersey coast as a kid...nothing like!! We've had some nice catches of bluefish down here too but they've been over the wrecks that are just offshore, out about 25-30 miles.
Thanks again for the info!

--Don

[one fish]

Thanks for the rpt Notch,[grin]

Big blues on lite tackle.....been years since I have experienced that.

[Jersey Blues]

Thanks for the report. seems like south side of Barnaget inlet was lit up the last couple days. I know everyone is waiting on a large school of strippers to move down from Sandy hook. I'll be in the suds the weekens after thanksgiving--nothing in the world like a Jersey Blue in the surf--pound for pound only albacore fight better

[HJS]

Only twice have I gotten into blues that big and both times they left me shaking. But just wondering, how you prepare blues that big for eating??? Only once have I kept big blues and after eating them I swore I'd never do it again. Now I know why I never see big blues at the fish market.

[Jersey Blues]

Trick on preparing big blues, first I bleed them as soon as I get them, chill them real good filet them take out dark ridge in filet. Then either batter them in strips or chunks andfry them or fresh on the grill with sliced onions in a foil pan. The other thing is if you have a smoker season and some up a bunch. Lastly never freeze them unless you want to boil em up for cat food.

[Notch]

I love blues! The smallish ones I fillet and freeze. The bigger ones I eat fresh, or I freeze them and later thaw them out, marinade the p1ss out of them, then on the smoker they go. Delish!
The whole trick to it as JB's said, is to bleed them and when you fillet them, don't run your knife right down against the skin. This eliminates alot of fat and the bloodline (red meat) around the latteral line.
Gonna try it again tomorrow. I'll try for stripes, but if they don't cooperate, then I'll target blues.

Notch

[slowpoke]

We caught many blues out of Shark River this past Sunday. We had enough by 11:00 and headed to the barn.

If anyone needs a fishing partner then contact me. I am stationed at McGuire AFB in Burlington Co.

Fred

[lonelyangler]

We had a very similar situation with large blues this past May on the Delaware coast. Spent some time at Sea Colony just around the hurricane time. Man, it was awesome.
Ben