Current Waters: August Blues

For some people, August starts to feel like a slow burn toward school and the end of vacation – the August Blues. But summer is still in full swing – at the peak. Here on Nantucket, and on the water, we celebrate the August Blues the way we know best – by fishing!

The second annual August Blues fishing tournament just started yesterday (August 1) and there are already plenty of anglers on the board. Of course, there is a lot of fishing left in August and plenty of time to go out and wet your line and add your name to the leaderboard.

For this week’s fishing report, I am happy to say that the bluefish have significantly improved – and just in time!

Another flush of stripers has also arrived. The striped bass fishing has been outstanding this week.

Bonito numbers are increasing. Any day now someone will get the first False Albacore (or albies). Pretty soon we’ll start having the excitement of that unexpected surprising albie bite. People have told me they’ve seen them around, but I don’t know of any being caught yet.

Remember, the August Blues tournament has prizes for the first bonito and first albie. Early reports say that the prize for the first bonito will be taken very quickly in 2024!

While out on a sail this past Thursday, my wife had an up close and personal view of an osprey diving into the ocean just off the west jetty and coming up with a fish. As the bird flew closer to the boat full of birders and naturalists from the Linda Loring Nature Foundation, they saw that the osprey had landed a small albie. Too bad he couldn’t enter it in the tournament. They are the best anglers.

_________________________________________________________________________

You’ve heard me talk in previous years about the “dog days of summer” as we head into August. When the stripers slow down, the bluefish come in to take their place as the target sport fish. The blues are often accommodating when stripers are not. This year, however, it’s the stripers that have stayed hot while we waited for the bluefish to come in.

Bluefish were, and still are, one of the stalwarts of our saltwater fishing community. And the fishery is still relatively healthy, albeit spotty, from one season to the next. Bluefish are one of our highly migratory species along the United States Atlantic coast and move seasonally. As a migratory species, the bluefish fishery is managed by the state and federally by NOAA Fisheries, the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council, and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission.

In the past, people sometimes would say that bluefish just get in the way of catching other sportfish such as bass, flounder, tuna, or other more “desirable” species. We’ve become spoiled over the last few decades with the availability of bluefish. Too often they have become a consolation catch. I think their availability and abundance spoiled us.

Pound-for-pound, bluefish are one of the most exciting fish to fight. They love topwater and will go for surface lures so we can see them hunt and chase – responding to the presentation we’re giving them. It makes for a great fishing experience.

Pelagic, fearless, cannibalistic, gluttonous, toothsome, and even dangerous to those who don’t know better. While blues of any size are worthy fighters, the bigger they are, the badder they are, making them a fan favorite on the line. Be careful when taking a hook out! Bluefish populations are in good numbers right now, but we still need to be aware of good conservation and release skills.

Bluefish are voracious predators and can be seen feeding at the surface on schools of bait fish. Have you ever experienced a bluefish blitz? Bluefish are also extremely aggressive, and will often chase bait through the close-to-shore surf zone, herding them toward the beach. This behavior is known as a “bluefish blitz,” as thousands of big blues will attack schools of smaller baitfish in mere inches of water.

If you’ve read my previous articles over this past summer, or maybe you’ve seen for yourself, that the bluefish took their sweet time coming into the rips around Nantucket. They seemed later than usual. It could just be chalked up to a “weird year." According to the American Saltwater Guiding Association (ASGA), the bluefish spawning stock biomass has declined over the past decade. However, there isn’t a lot of good data on bluefish to be sure. Bluefish are jointly managed by multiple agencies at the state and federal levels and are very data-poor. Without good data, it’s difficult to manage for the species.

In an effort to add to the data available for bluefish, ASGA has launched a campaign to improve recreational data collection using the GotOne app to develop more robust stock assessments for the species in the future. So, on Nantucket where we celebrate and love our local blues, we can also help the future of this fishery by downloading the GotOne App and logging our bluefish catches. Apparently, the app is intuitive and unobtrusive. And if you’re already entering your bluefish into the tournament, it’s an easy addition and can provide lots of good data to help the fishery. Follow the link below to learn more about ASGA’s efforts and to download the app. It’s a perfect compliment to the August Blues tournament!

If you do use the app, you can also enter your catch from last year. 2023 info on bluefish still adds to the dataset. ASGA encourages you to backlog your catches from last season.

Even though the August Blues tournament is catch-and-release, I have to mention how delicious bluefish can be if treated and cooked properly. Anyone who questions the eating quality of our blues is doing something wrong. Bleed them when caught, get them in the cooler, fillet them, and be sure to remove every bit of red meat (should be minimal if you have bled them), and cook them up fresh the same day. Fried, grilled, smoked, even ceviche – anything (almost) is delicious when it’s fresh from the ocean!