On 8/24/2011 7:01 PM, Wayne B wrote:
On Wed, 24 Aug 2011 17:55:16 -0400, John
wrote:

On Wed, 24 Aug 2011 17:34:15 -0400, Wayne wrote:

As some of you may remember, our trip north this year started out with
some fairy decent fishing. Coming up out of Florida we caught 4 Mahi
Mahis, 1 Tuna, and 1 Bonito. All decent fish, all good eating as
confirmed by our fillet, fry and release program. Then we hit a dry
spell and did not catch another fish until July when we caught a
decent sized blue fish in the islands south of Cape Cod. And then
another long dry spell even though quite a few serious attempts were
made in areas known for both blue fish and stripers, not even a
nibble.

Our luck changed today near Orient Point on the north eastern tip of
Long Island when we hooked up a 30 foot sailboat on two rods
simultaneously. The sailboat fought valiantly for several minutes
amidst some heated discourse by both boat owners but in the end he
broke off, taking about $30 worth of lures away with him.

It was some sort of omen of things to come however. Although
w discouraged by the breakoff I immediately rerigged both rods and
minutes later we had a strike from a very feisty bluefish just south
of Plum Gut. Unfortunately he was a bit on the small side resulting
in a donation to Davey Jones. Ten minutes later we had another
strong bite from a secong bluefish. This one got almost to the boat
but gave one last minute jump and flip which was successful in
throwing the hook. Close but no cigar.

It looks like we'll be eating out tonight.

You *are* using wire leaders for those blues, right? Would you have eaten them if you'd landed them?
How would you've fixed 'em?

============

My wife is a genius at cooking bluefish. I filet them, and then she
cuts away all of the dark meat (too oily), and then pan fries the rest
adding some breading, garlic, fresh onion and mint. It really turns
out very nicely.

Probably a good thing you weren't using braided line, it might have cut the damn sailboat in half.
I'm assuming you weren't, 'cause you didn't say you sunk the sailboat.

No braided line here, 120 lb clear mono on my large reel, 60 lb green
mono on the other, both with wire leaders. I thought for sure I'd
get spooled out but they both broke off eventually - probably got
caught on his prop or something.


I run 20 pound test mono in the surf rods, and 30-40 max on the boat
poles.. For leaders, we make our own but I run 40-100 pound coated wire
that buy whatever is cheap and in a roll... Buy a few assorted football
weights like 1, 2, and 3 oz. some hooks and make them up as the tides
change during the day...

As to cooking them, yep, we make poppers dipped in batter and deep fry
'em.. Only have one or two meals a year but the kids love 'em...