Article by Sue Foster
“I heard there’s some bluefish in the surf!”
As the season moves towards September we see more and more bluefish in the surf. These guys are not large, but they are fun to catch. Plus, a fat 12 to 14-inch bluefish is very good to eat!
All summer long, anglers are fishing with bloodworms, Fishbites and little strips of squid or other cut bait. The blues will take the cut bait, but usually are not interested in bloodworm or Fishbite bloodworm. One of their favorite baits in the surf is finger mullet!
Finger mullet are baitfish about 5 or 6-inches long that are packed and frozen in packages of a dozen. There are three ways you can fish with finger mullet. If you are good with a fillet knife, you can fillet off the sides of the finger mullet and attach them to a medium-sized, high/low type surf rig. This will also attract flounder or sea trout. However, blues are not big on presentation, so the filleting is not really necessary. You can take the mullet and cut it into one-inch chunks, discarding the head and tail. (Some anglers like to leave the tail on.) Hook the mullet chunk once through the dark, back section so it stays on the hook. The smaller size of the Sea Striker bluefish rigs work well for this. They call them DT34 and DT34S. The S signifies wire. I personally prefer the DT34 made with monofilament because it does not kink up after fishing for a day like the wire does. Rarely does a snapper blue bite through the stryofoam float and long shank hook and bite off the monofilament. If you lose a hook this time of year, it’s probably due to a shark “bite off.”
The most popular and effective way to fish for blues in the surf is with a mullet rig! A mullet rig lets you fish the finger mullet whole. You do not need to cut the finger mullet at all. The finger mullet rig is made with a float, a leader, a three-way swivel, a snap for your sinker, a steel rod to run through the body of the finger mullet and a detachable double hook. What you do is run the rod in the mullet’s mouth and out its anal cavity and attach the hook back on. The hook naturally tucks into the mullet’s anal cavity so only the two prongs of the hook stick out of the mullet’s body.
Cast the rig out with a 3 to 5-ounce pyramid sinker attached to the duel lock snap. You can put it in the sand spike and watch the tip of your rod or you can hold the rod and wait for a bite. I like to fish with a light rod this time of year, in the 8 to 9-foot range, and hold my rod. When I feel a bite, I jerk the rod tip and reel in a little to see if I hooked the bluefish. If not, I leave it for a minute then start to “ever so slowly” bump it back in towards shore. The blues will follow and nip at the mullet, so keeping it moving gives you a better chance to hook them.
“What if the mullet is bit half off?”
Throw it back out and continue to fish with it. No need to change it until there is only a head left. Snapper blues are generally pretty aggressive and will continue to hit the rig as long as there is some meat left on the mullet. You will know when you quit getting bites! Then it’s time to put on a new finger mullet.
The other neat thing about fishing with a whole finger mullet this time of year is that flounder will also grab this bait. Flounder are often close in, feeding right on the drop off going into the surf. They are usually there when the water is clean and relatively calm. The casting and slow bumping in with the finger mullet rig works well for flounder. Some anglers cut the surf float off when fishing for flounder, but you do have to keep your bait moving or the crabs will chew off your bait. Hint: If there’s one flounder, there’s generally more and if there’s one bluefish, there’s generally a lot more!
There’s one very important thing to note when buying finger mullet rigs. The little double hooks can easily fall off or get bent when fishing for blues. The bluefish can make a quick turn and pull off the hook. The hook can get lost when the blue starts to wiggle while taking off the hook. It’s always a good idea to buy extra hooks. They are relatively inexpensive and come in several different sizes from #1/0 to #4/0. This time of year we suggest using #1/0 or #2/0. We charge a quarter for an extra hook in our stores. When you lose the hook, the rig is useless, so always buy a couple extra hooks!
“What else will take a whole mullet on a mullet rig?”
Rays, sharks, puppy drum and flounder. For kingfish and croaker you need to fish a second rod with smaller hooks and bloodworm or Fishbites along with a little strip of box squid or other cut bait. Adding cut bait to your kingfish rig will let you know if there are other fish out there such as bluefish or flounder. Plus, kingfish often like a little piece of meat on their hook along with a bloodworm bait this time of year.
“The bluefish are tiny!”
Even though you are fishing with a six-inch finger mullet, you can catch a seven-inch bluefish! If you are fishing extremely close to the beach, the bluefish might be running tiny there so try casting out to deeper water. Also, wait for the tide to change and the blues may increase in size. Another nice thing to know is that a light, easterly breeze will bring in bigger blues. So will a falling barometer and some cloudy weather. The old saying that fish bite like heck right before a storm is often true. A flat ocean, with a westerly breeze usually sees slower fishing and smaller blues.
Fishing is fishing and some days are better than others. You know what they say. A bad day of fishing is better than… OK, we won’t tell your boss!
Good fishing…
Sue Foster is an outdoor writer and co-owner of Oyster Bay Tackle in Ocean City, MD and Fenwick Tackle in Fenwick, DE.
