Breaching Bluefish

[therockfishchef]

I was fishing yesterday in the Merrimac river in Newburyport Ma. We were in the mouth of the river at high tide and I saw a bluefish breach right out of the water about 2 feet. Really cool to see. Has anyone else seen this happen. The reason I ask is that in the 20+ years I've been fishing, diving and boating in this area I've seen blues swirling around feeding on baitfish and quite often I'll see the bait come right out of the water but I've never seen a blue do it. At first I was sure it was zoning in in it's prey and missed sending it hurling in the air but then i though maybe he was the prey. There was about four seals in the area all day do they feed on blues? I don't know but figured some of you guys might know. anyway it was pritty awesome............

[captcal]

Had both happen a few times. A earlier summer morning a few weeks back
I was in the mac when a striper about 25lb or so, jump about 2 feet out of the water with my eel in his mouth trying to swallow it down as I was reeling.
Maybe 10-15 feet away from my boat...

Real close could see it as it was about to hit... Just awesome

[RICKSKI]

Had a Striper hit my eel so hard last weekend that it caught air. The eel just hit the water and must of hit that fish on the head. That was a first.

[oddfish]

Question: Did you catch any of these fish, in short can you positively ID them as blue fish?

The reason that I ask is that football BFT's act like this and do regulary jump out the the water. Last year at this time there were several small pods of these critters roaming from Ipswich Bay - Hampton Beach. At a distance they are somewhat hard to distinguish in the nanosecond your eyes fix on them.

If they are blues I have not seen this activity (not to say it doesnt happen) It might very well be that seals were hunting them. However, the seals seem to have a lot of other bait around this year.

I'm sure this will not be the last post on this, let us see what the elders have to say, but I think you were witness to a BFT phenomenon.

Cold Waters............Awating your opinion on this


If you catch a few I will be glad to taste test them and determine their species in that manner. Oddfish

[therockfishchef]

I did catch blue fish that day but not that particular one. It was about 15 feet from the bow of the boat as i was driving forward. I have a small center console so my vantage point was very good and I had on polarized sunglasses. I'm positive it was not a striper. As for a football maybe. It was a sliver blue color with a bullet shaped head so blue was the first thing I thought (specially since I had caught oneabout an hour prior) but I guess it could have been a tuna. At any rate it one of the coolest things i've witnessed out there yet.

[therockfishchef]

BTW oddfish your post about those dogfish was an absolute riot. I've been laughing about that all day today Its so true....

[oddfish]

Originally Posted by therockfishchef

I did catch blue fish that day but not that particular one. It was about 15 feet from the bow of the boat as i was driving forward. I have a small center console so my vantage point was very good and I had on polarized sunglasses. I'm positive it was not a striper. As for a football maybe. It was a sliver blue color with a bullet shaped head so blue was the first thing I thought (specially since I had caught oneabout an hour prior) but I guess it could have been a tuna. At any rate it one of the coolest things i've witnessed out there yet.

Just putting a bluefish in the boat would be the coolest thing that has happened to me in fishing this year (I have been where they are not all summer. If you see me coming move the bluefish won't be there.

But seriously jumping fish like that are always cool. It tends to happen much more in the late summer early fall, at least as far as I have noticed.

Some people were reporting BFT as close as Hampon Shoals ledge last weekend and there is a lot of small fish marking going on just off shore right now, I don't know what you saw but if you see it again try to focus on the tail it will be the give away.

Oddfish

[blackducks]

I saw a whole pod/school of Blue's jump 2'+ out of the water like bunker being slayed near there a couple years back. These were the bigger Blue's as well( ie; 10lbs+ ). I had fished the mouth of the Mack all day with not even a bump after the previous day's trip there resulted in savage "Yellow Eye" attacks all day. Seemed they had vanished over night which of course was not true as it was just August and they had just arrived. I literally went through every lure and real bait I had and not even a hit. Not Blue's and no Striper's. No one else was catching anything either.

Trolled down towards Breaking Rock but no good there either. We were sitting in the boat kind of talking about what next when 20' away Blue's started coming out of the water going every which way. I managed to get a WTH out and then I saw a bunch of Blue's streak in under the boat as a HUGE Tuna rolled right next to us( think the boat spooked it ). Saw the Blue's come out one more time as another big Tuna smashed them hard a few minutes later. Never seen such a big Tuna so close to shore but that most definitely was what it was.

It is very possible you were seeing the Blue's being chased by something.

[cold waters]

here is the short of it.... i have seen bluefish clear the surface of the water many times.....just happens depending on what they are feeding on i think. although BFT have started to make an appearance in the area it hasnt been strong.. i dont think you would have confused a small bft with a blue fish the shape is just very different. all of the small BFT sighting in this area have put the fish over 60#. this one was around 30# and i have heard any mention of fish this small so you decide