Bill Goodman came all the way from California to catch bluefish (and stripers) off New Jersey. Do you think he had a good time? Photo by Gary Caputi

Last year we were blessed, or if you don't like them, you could say plagued, by an abundance of yellow-eyed, toothy critters with bad attitudes roaming the waters off central and northern New Jersey. There were loads of medium-sized bluefish on inshore lumps all season long, which were joined on and off by even bigger bluefish.

Bluefish provide a great treat for party boat patrons and private boat fishermen with craft large enough to get a few miles off the beach. There were bluefish of every conceivable size at one time or another along the beaches from May through November, which made them readily available to fishermen in even the smallest boats, including kayakers. Surf-fishermen got into the bluefish-catching fray as well.

It didn't seem to matter whether you fished on any of the numerous party and charter boats out of ports from the middle of the state north to the New York Bight, or if you fished from your own boat or if your feet were planted firmly on sand, bluefish were available in numbers not seen in a long time!

Now if you're not familiar with this ubiquitous brawler of the sea -- and I can hardly imagine anyone who has fished in the salt who is not --bluefish have been, if not the primary, one of the top two or three species sought by Jersey anglers going back to the turn of the 20th century. Back before the modern era of fishing, bluefish were caught by the garbage cans full with little regard to preserving their eating quality. Tossed in burlap bags or open buckets to bake in the sun until the boats returned to port, blues were considered poor table fare and, unfortunately, many were simply wasted.

Fortunately, those days are gone and anglers are releasing the overwhelming number of bluefish they catch. Many anglers have found that if they take care of the bluefish they catch, they are surprisingly good to eat. Interestingly enough, we have released such a high percentage of the recreationally caught bluefish in recent years that the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) and the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council (MAFMC) have seen fit to hinder our conservation ethic by transferring some of the "unused" recreational quota to the commercial quota, so netters can keep their catches high. It has become a bone of contention when you consider that their own stock assessment scientists still consider bluefish to be overfished!

After spending nine long years on the MAFMC as a representative from New Jersey, I am convinced that fishery managers know less about bluefish than probably any other fishery they manage. They are open-ocean travelers that go wherever the conditions are best and where forage is available. Ocean currents, seasonal water temperatures and other factors that we simply do not understand dictate their wanderings.

Some years back, biologists and managers were claiming the biomass was so low the stock might collapse. They based these assumptions on the fact they weren't seeing the typical numbers in their surveys here in the Northeast; but in fact, bluefish were being caught in good numbers in places farther south or offshore than was typical. They had simply strayed from their typical migrational patterns at that time. The past few years, the Northeastern states have again seen a general increase in the abundance of bluefish and that means one thing for us -- great fishing!

UP SANDY HOOK WAY
Captain Ron Santee, skipper of the 72-foot party boat Fisherman (732-872-1925) out of Atlantic Highlands Municipal Marina, was thrilled with the bluefish action and fishing in general out of his port in 2004.