Tag: Bluefish

Beautiful Fish: Bluefish -By Al Bezanson

Posted on by Kimsmithdesigns

Bluefish; Snapper (young)
It is perhaps the most ferocious and bloodthirsty fish in the sea, leaving in its wake a trail of dead and mangled mackerel, menhaden, herring, alewives, and other species on which it preys. Goode[89] wrote long ago, the bluefish, “not content with what they eat, which is itself of enormous quantity, rush ravenously through the closely crowded schools, cutting and tearing the living fish as they go, and leaving in their wake the mangled fragments.” It is not only the schooling fish that fall prey to them, but scup, squeteague, hake, butterfish, cunners, and small fish of all kinds, besides squid. Baird, writing in the 1870’s, when bluefish were at the height of their abundance, estimated that they annually destroyed at least twelve hundred million millions of fish during the four summer months off southern New England; and while this calculation surely was wildly exaggerated it will help give the reader a graphic realization of the havoc that they wreak during their periods of plenty.

From Fishes of the Gulf of Maine by Bigelow and Schroeder (1953) online courtesy of MBL/WHOI http://www.gma.org/fogm/Pomatomus_saltatrix.htm

Playing with my food but not like Adam Bolonsky

Posted on by paultmorrison

Adam catches a bluefish and needs to make sure it is really really dead before he lays it between his legs in a kayak.

Waht better way than to rip the heart out with the gills and the blue is tastier after bleeding out.
What better way than to rip the heart out with the gills and the blue is tastier after bleeding out.

If I catch a big blue I need to scale and leave the skin on for the perfect Marcella Hazan “Bluefish with Crispy Potato” click for recipe.”  I was planning on making a post of gifts hanging on our kitchen wall from Fred Bodin’s Shop. But then I had a blue that I bled out when I caught it then scaled before filleting. But wait I needed a picture.

The small ceramic striper on the wall as well as an antique map of my neighborhood when our house was the only one both came from Fred's shop
The small ceramic striper on the wall as well as an antique map of my neighborhood when our house was the only one both came from Fred’s shop

Still bleeding out but I think I can make a new Zombie avatar before I fillet the fish.

Rock Lobster is playing in the background.
Rock Lobster is playing in the background.

Reading Marcella’s recipe she lists other fish you could use but I have tried them all and a fresh bluefish is the only way to make this dish. Half a fillet will rest on the crispy potatoes while remainder of the fish marinates overnight to become smoked bluefish tomorrow. Ryan & Wood wood chunks from the distillery whiskey casks for the smoke. Perfection. Then smoked bluefish paté sealed with a dog kiss from Stella makes Joey’s favorite snack on a Ritz cracker.

Blue Bite From Bill O’Connor

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

Hi Joey,

Here’s a close look at the reason to keep your fingers away from a bluefish mouth. Those teeth are razor sharp and can bit right through a glove.

Enjoy!
~Bill O’Connor
North Shore Kid

Bluefish_Mouth

It’s #FISHFRIDAY

Posted on by paultmorrison

Besides GMG the one blog I have to check out on Friday is Skip Montello et. al. at the North Coast Angler website. As we work into the summer doldrums of striped bass and bluefish a good read is the North Coast Angler Friday fish report. Social Media is covered well here because right near the top you can click on Twitter @captskipnca and Facebook @North Coast Angler for up to the minute advice on how to keep your line wet and tight.

Click the fish. Hmm, come on, I want a new report. Any minute now.

Tyler From Yankee Fleet’s Gloucester MA Fishing Report Filed 6/28/12

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

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Tyler writes-

Good morning fisherman!!!
So here’s the latest scoop, the bluefish are in, the toothy blue assassins are flushing out the mackerel making them harder to find, which only makes the live mackerel more valuable for people trying to live line for stripers. 

There are plenty of squid around as we had a mate fill a bucket while sittin on one of our docked vessels two nights ago. Calamari for dinner!!  Live lining squid like stated last week can be a very effective striper method if done at the proper time ( which is later at night with a moving tide). 

It is absolutely the time to be slinging eels at night for stripers as the water temperature continues to rise, use a small live line hook, hooking the eel through the lower jaw and out an eye ball, it is important to get the eel in the water as quickly as possible as they will entangle themselves very quickly, it is also very important to hook through an eyeball that way the eel stays alive and presents a much better meal ( will present diagram below).

art_eel_rigs

Flounder fishing continues to be good, with good fishing off of Niles beach. If you are new to the saltwater fishing scene come down and sign up for a harbor adventure tour! they run Friday and Saturday’s from 4:30 – 8:00 pm. These trips focus on stripers, mackerel, flounder and other inshore species. Let us do the driving and fish finding! 

tyler striper

New Feature: Tyler From Yankee Fleet’s Gloucester MA Fishing Report

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

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Tyler writes-

Based on what I’ve heard and seen, there are COPIOUS amounts of squid around and many people are catching them for dinner while others are fishing them for big stripers at night. Use a yo-zuri squid jig and look for pilings with bright light once it gets dark as the light brings them in.

I have had many customers coming in buying seaworms saying that the flounder bite is still very hot. sandy bottoms per usual are the best places to find them. The dogbar was "loaded" with flounder I heard from two customers who quickly bought a dozen worms to head back out there. If you’re looking for stripers with this warm weather, the water temperature will be rising and as the summer progresses you will have to change your fishing times to early in the morning and later at night as they will be heading to deeper, cooler water during the day as the summer heats up, but for now there are still mackerel around the groaner.  Using sabiki’s is still catching striper candy.   If surf fishing from the rocks, fish the white water for the big linesider of the season.

No word on bluefish, but with the water temps heating up its only a matter of time. Come down to the tackle shop at 121 east main street to get all the tackle and information you need, and if we don’t have what you are looking for we are more than happy to order it for you!

Feel free to leave a question for my in the comment section directly under this post and I will do my best to answer it for you.

tyler striper

www.yankeefleet.com and our telephone number is 1 855 546 3474 ( 1 855 5GO FISH )

121 east main street gloucester ma
hours of operation weekends 5 am.
weekdays 530
thursday 4 am
open till 6
adventures@yankeefleet.com

Sugar Magnolias Knocks it out of Park with Fresh

Posted on by paultmorrison

Just getting back from a successful fishing trip to the other Cape, Sue and I were walking down Main Street Gloucester on a rainy Saturday, hungry. Since I had a cooler of striped bass, bluefish, and fluke, we were not interested in fish since that was all we would be eating this weekend. So when we looked at the Sugar Magnolia’s menu we skipped over the haddock and fries and the crab cakes and other tasty seafood which would have been our first choices. Instead we decided to split the Crispy Buffalo Chicken Wrap and the Mediterranean Steak Tips with hummus and tabouli served in lavash with side orders of cous cous and quinoa.

So how do you make a crispy buffalo chicken wrap amazing? Everything was fresh down to the lettuce but especially the homade buffalo sauce. This was not a shot of Frank’s Hot Sauce but a fresh made mystery that was tangy and with the crispy of the chicken was over the top. Same goes for everything else. It’s obvious that Sugar Mags makes all their food fresh. How can you get wild about hummus and cous cous? When it’s fresh that’s when. I don’t get out much so I had to ask Sue what quinoa was. Some type of grain but when mixed up with some other stuff it is wicked pissah. Get that side. Oh, and whatever they did to that lavash is sinful. It had to have been on a grill with a little butter and it made the steak tips with whatever the secret sauce just sing.

Sorry, no photos as I was too hungry and by the time I thought of it I had trashed both plates. So I’ll stick in a photo of what happened to the fluke. An 18 inch fish pulled out of the fast moving rip off Martha’s Vineyard.  Sue did a flour dredge, then egg, then panko, then into hot oil. The tortillas got the same hot oil treatment then some fresh salsa and some hot sauce for some tasty fish tacos.

The bluefish is already in a soy, sugar, salt, bay leaf, brining away, and will make it into the smoker then into the Cuisinart for the ever popular Rubber Duck Smoked Bluefish paté in time for next Sunday’s GMG Mug-Up.

Like they say, be sure to bleed those bluefish…Adam Bolonsky reports

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

Well, it was a good day yesterday for kayak fishing east of the south tower at Thachers Island west of Londoner reef and the big iron pole. Water temps were in the low 70’s, sun was out, few boats were on the water.

Schoolie bass were rounding up on the surface, indifferent to all baits and lures but stippling the water then thrashing did the midwater column when the kayaks spooked them.

As any angler will tell you, bleed blues. Be sure to rip out….err, remove their gills.

Good eating!

Photos by Mike Hirsch, commercial airline pilot who works about one day a week, still doesn’t  know how to body surf, but sure loves visiting Cape Ann.

twitter.com/seakayak

bolonsky1

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I see our boy Paul Morrison in the background!

Sunrise Yesterday

Posted on by paultmorrison

Today’s sunrise was even prettier but I needed to get a full smoker of bluefish so I was busy catching the last one today. Possible secret ingredient to my deviled eggs.

Just moments after the photo was taken I was wrestling a bluefish amongst the barnicles. Bag Balm is a lovely ointment.

Fun Fact: Halifax, Nova Scotia is directly lined up with sunrise today.

Adam Bolonsky Likes Bluefish

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

Adam Writes-

Time for a throwdown!
Who says bluefish are oily? Not me! Gut and bleed blues in the boat and you’ve got the best-tasting fillets ever.
Check out the red and pink dots and lateral line in this one-day old catch ready for the grill

bluefishfillets

I don’t know about the best tasting fillets ever.  I can name about 5 fish fillets off the top of my head I’d rather eat.

My top 5-

  1. Whiting
  2. Grey Sole
  3. Haddock
  4. Yellowtail Flounder
  5. Ocean Catfish

Is the water 50 F yet?

Posted on by paultmorrison

Bluefish don’t like cold cold water. They like 50 degrees Fahrenheit or above. The buoy just south of Cape Ann in Massachusetts Bay almost got there this weekend:

04-24 4:00 PM 49.3 , 49.1
04-24 4:30 PM 49.4
04-24 5:00 PM 49.0 , 49.0

First number is the surface, second is two meters down. That means that blues coming up from the south will be arriving soon. Smoked bluefish pate, fresh bluefish on the grill, pan fried bluefish in panko. I love a fresh bluefish. Catching one on a popper off the point makes the bluefish tastier. I’m one of those weird people who prefer fresh bluefish over a striped bass. Although I will not push myself from the table if there was a keeper striper bake stuffed with scallops and clams on a big plate on the table.

Three days after buying the house I walked down to the point and caught a blue on a surface popper. About six the wife comes down for coffee and I told her to look in the fridge. As she opened the door the blue jumped off the plate. A fresh fish is priceless as was her reaction.

That one was grilled with scallions and a little Teriyaki.

ps. It’s official GoMOOS A at 2PM today officially hit 50F

Toby Burnham Checks This Bluefish’s Guts To See What It’s Been Eating

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

Toby Burnham Checks This Bluefish’s Guts To See What It’s Been Eating, originally uploaded by captjoe06.

Bluefish Caught By Captain Dave Jewell Aboard The Lady J

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

Dave stopped by the dock to pick up his check on his way back from a charter with some bluefish he had caught in his lobster tank.