Article by Sue Foster
“I hear the blues are finally biting in the surf!”
Yes, our spring run of bluefish was very short-lived. We had blues in the bay all summer around the Rt. 50 Bridge and Oceanic Pier, but surf fishing for blues in the spring was very lame. Now finally, we are hearing about snapper blues in the surf once again.
“How do you catch them?”
Catching snapper blues in the surf is one of the easiest kinds of surf fishing you can do. You don’t even have to cut up any bait if you don’t want to!
The easiest rig to use is the finger mullet rig and bait up with a whole fresh or frozen finger mullet. The finger mullet rig is made out of a piece of wire with a detachable double hook. You simply put the metal piece of wire into the mullet’s mouth, out its anal canal and attach the double hook. Position the double hook so that only the two wire prongs of the hook hang out of the mullet’s body. The rest of the hook will be tucked into its anal canal. (This generally happens naturally after the pressure of one cast.) The rig is usually sold with a three-way-swivel, a sinker snap and a styrofoam float that elevates the mullet bait off the bottom floor away from the crabs.
I always like to tie a good snap swivel to the end of my line and attach it to one end of the three way swivel to help eliminate line twist. Personally, I usually replace the three-way swivel that comes with “certain brands” of mullet rigs with a larger, heavier one. I like to use at least a size #1/0 or #2/0. The larger 3-way swivels also help eliminate line twist. I have also been known to shorten the rig up a bit if I find I can’t cast out as far as I would like. The shorter the rig, the easier it is to cast out, BUT if you shorten it up too much, the crabs will get to your mullet!!!
If you’ve had the rigs in your tackle box for a year, sometimes you will need to re-tie them with some new 40 lb. test leader material. If your leader line gets “squirrelly”, the mullet can twist around and foul itself on the mullet rig. This also happens if the “wire” gets bent. Always try to straighten them out if that happens. Sometimes you have to bite the bullet and spend $3.00 on a new one!!!
ALWAYS buy extra hooks when buying mullet rigs. The Mustad #7826 replacements hooks are inexpensive and usually available in sizes #1/0 through #4/0. This is another important thing to know about mullet rigs. When you buy one, it may have a #1/0 hook on it, or it might have a size #4/0 on it. If the blues are running small, like they usually do this time of year, you’ll catch a whole lot more with the smaller #1/0 or #2/0 size double hook. So eyeball the rig you are buying and have yourself an array of different size double hooks to match the size of the bluefish you are catching. If you are a newbie and have no idea, go with the smaller hooks!
Hooks get lost, fall off, get bent, get dull and get rusty. If you lose the hook, your mullet rig is useless, so always grab at least two extra hooks per rig.
Some people complain that the hooks just come off in the surf. I rarely lose a hook so I think it’s got to do with slack getting in the line, or allowing the blues or crabs to eat the bait off without realizing you’re having a bite. Well, that’s purely not paying attention! To seriously catch snapper blues, you need to either hold the rod or put the rod in a rod holder and watch the tip. As soon as you get a bite, set the hook and start reeling in.
Here’s my technique and I’m pretty good at catching snapper blues. I cast out with just enough sinker weight to barely hold the bottom. I use pyramid, storm or frog tongue sinkers. Frog tongue weights are quite aerodynamic and you can cast quite a bit farther, though I don’t think they hold as well. I also like to fish with a sensitive medium-weight graphite surf rod with a reel spooled with 20-pound test Power Pro braid. Power Pro has a thin diameter and cuts through the water quickly requiring less sinker weight to hold the bottom. (30# test has an 8-pound test diameter; 20# test has a 6-pound test diameter.) It is also more sensitive and you can feel the bites better. I cast my line out as far as I can. I wait for maybe 5 minutes. Then if I don’t get a bite, I start slowly bumping it in towards the shore. If the blues are there, I will get a bite somewhere. They become more aggressive if the bait is moving slightly and they grab it before it disappears. If they miss it the first time, blues will usually come back again and again until only the head of the finger mullet is left.
In fact, if the blues are biting off the tail or lower body of the finger mullet, I simply throw it back out there until they either take it, or only the head is left. I’ve had some days where I actually cut the mullet in half to get a bite! If the blues are small, just keep jerking your rod tip until you hook one. Once you hook one, reel it in and don’t let slack get in your line.
Sometimes blues run different sizes with the tides and weather. High tide equals bigger blues, low tide produces smaller blues. Weather is a factor. When it’s a calm day the blues can run smaller; when it’s a little rougher, the blues run larger. When the wind blows from the east, the blues run a little larger. When the wind blows from the west, they may tend to run a little smaller. Regardless, a 12 to 18-inch bluefish is a really good size to eat. They are much better than the larger ones. Trim out the dark meat and eat it fresh. Broiled, grilled or baked is generally the best.
Finding a hole on the beach is also another important factor. Look at the beach at low tide and find a hole, rip, slough or change of bottom. Any area near the rock jetty is usually good. A flat beach can be unproductive. If you’re not catching fish or getting any bites, move!
Catching blues in the surf is lots of fun. People ask, “How do you know if you have a bite?” Well, if the blues are biting, you’ll know you have a bite!
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.
