Article by Sue Foster
It’s September and time to enjoy the great outdoors and go fishing!
One of the things I love to do this time of year is catch bluefish. I know, they aren’t real big, but they are usually plentiful and fun to catch on light tackle. As the days turn shorter and the nights become cooler, schools of shiners and finger mullet start jumping around all over the bay. Bluefish in the 10 to 16-inch range are usually right behind them. If you watch the schools of bluefish you will notice that they are moving pretty fast after the mullet.
Therefore, when you are standing from the shore drowning bait, you can bet if you got that bait moving up and down a little more, you could be attracting some bluefish bites!
If you are on one of the piers like the Oceanic Pier, the 9th Street Pier, or standing on the Route 50 Bridge, you can cast out one of your favorite flounder rigs that have a little flash to them like one of Dale Timmons’ Deadly Doubles, or one of Aqua-Clear’s fancy silver fish rigs. Bait up with frozen shiners or chunks of finger mullet, cast out as far as you can and jerk the bait up and down as you drag it back in towards you.
If you see the baitfish splash, and you see gulls working and diving down into the water, you can bet there are some bluefish in the mix. That’s a good time to grab a lead head and some Berkley Gulp! Swimming Mullets or Minnows and cast and retrieve into the mix. If the blues are thick you can also use bucktails, spoons, spec rigs, lead heads with curltail grubs, or Got-cha Plugs. Anglers also add bait to some of these lures. Spec Rigs, which are two shad darts tied in tandem work good when you add a frozen shiner to each lure. Bucktails can be tipped with a strip of squid or mullet. Use Got-cha Plugs just as they are. Cast against the tide or straight down in the deeper current and jerk the lure with short, sharp jerks of the rod tip.
Night time is the time to really catch a lot of bluefish. Go up on the Route 50 Bridge or to the Oceanic Pier under the lights and jerk those Got-cha plugs or Spec Rigs! As the water cools down, anglers also catch shad which are really fun to catch and release. Shad generally take the smaller of the jigs and sometimes even go for Sabiki Rigs. Anglers attach a sinker to the smaller spec rigs or Sabiki Rigs so they can cast them more accurately and to get them down to the bottom.
“Why do the fish go after such small lures sometimes?”
Besides the schools of finger mullet, there are also huge schools of shiners in the water this time of year. They are smaller baits and flashing all over the place underneath the water. The flashing little Sabiki Rigs and spec rigs look just like the shiners in the water. Match the hatch, as they say.
Finger mullet are larger, and when you see fish chasing the finger mullet, you want to break out the larger lures like Got-cha Plugs (see below), Swimming Shad Lures (if you don’t mind losing several dollars worth of soft lures to the bluefish), bucktails, spoons, Sting Silvers and lead heads tipped with Gulps (one of my favorites.) If I’m using bait during the day, I really like the Aqua-Clear rigs with the Silver or Green Fish. The blues will tear these up too, so plan on losing some of your rigs and lures to bluefish!
“Maybe I should use wire leaders!”
Well you can, but I think it deters from the action of the lure. Unless the blues are real thick they can become leader shy just like any other fish, especially in the day time. I would stick to monofilament leaders and just plan to lose a few lures. You’ll catch more fish! And if Mr. Striper is lurking down there, or Mr. Trout, you’ll be more likely to catch him too!
“How about inlet fishing!”
Blues come in with the tide in both the Ocean City and Indian River Inlets. The Indian River Inlet is especially famous for their bluefish runs. Just spend $14 for a weekly fishing license in Delaware and you are on your way to fun casting for the blues at the Inlet. The north side of the Inlet, close to the Coast Guard Station, will put you on some popular “rips” that generally hold bluefish on the incoming tide. Bucktail jigs are very popular at the inlets. Rig the bucktail with a 30-inch length of monofilament leader. Tie on an inline sinker, anywhere from one to two-ounces, to one end of the leader material, and tie the bucktail to the other end. Attach a 4 to 6-inch grub or plastic worm to the bucktail or use a Berkley Gulp! bait and cast up current. Let the bucktail sink for a count of 10 or so, then start jigging with the tide as it passes by you. Reel in after it is past you. Watch others, and cast as they do, so you don’t tangle or cross other lines. It’s fun! And you’ll find that blues and other fish usually hit the lure as it sinks.
The surf!
Snapper blues are prevalent in the surf this time of year. No, they aren’t big. You can usually catch bigger blues on the bridge at night or from the inlets. Some of the deeper holes in the bay will actually catch you some citation blues, BUT, the blues in the surf this time of year they are usually small, in the 12- to 16-inch range if you are lucky, so scale down on the big hunky rods and just have some fun! An 8 to 9-foot rod spooled with 12 to 17- pound test is all you need. A top and bottom bluefish surf rig in the smaller realm with one-inch chunks of finger mullet will catch the snapper blues. Sea Striker Bluefish Rigs with the smaller ¾-inch Styrofoam balls are good. Dale Timmons’ Assateague Tackle Snapper Whapper Double Hook Float Rig is a good one.
Another good rig to use is a whole finger mullet rig (see above)! Slide a whole finger mullet on the detachable rig and you are ready to go. The trick to these rigs is to buy extra hooks and buy the smaller ones this time of year. Some of the rigs may come with a 4/0 hook. Replace them with a 2/0 hook and you’ll catch more fish. Snapper blues are thieving bait stealers. “How did it get the mullet off a mullet rig!” you ask? They are fast and slick. So you have to be slicker. Keep the rod in your hand. Cast out and slowly bump your rod back in and the blues will think the bait is getting away from them and grab it more aggressively. Set the hook and reel the fish in!
You will find that on calm slick days, the blues will run very small. On choppier days, when the wind has a little east to it, the blues will run larger. Look for rips, holes, sloughs, and bait jumping. If you see lots of bait and splashes, have another rod ready with a spoon or Sting Silver in the 1 ½ to 2-ounce range ready to cast and retrieve. Sometimes you can cast a lure like a Sting Silver a whole lot further then you can with a rig and sinker and reach the schooling blues. Other days, the blues are in closer than you think!
“I don’t like to eat blues!”
Then catch and release! It’s fun, but don’t knock a small fresh bluefish if you haven’t tried it. They are much better than large blues. Fillet, skin (lift your knife up a bit to leave the red meat on the skin) and cut out the rest of the blood line. Broil with some butter, Old Bay, and lemon. Some people like mayo as well. Fresh is great. Freezing… no.
September bluefish… just plain fishin’ fun…..
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.
