# blue blitz



## big brother (May 15, 2002)

21 years ago today the wife and I were on vacation at South Nags Head when she looked out at the beach and said "what's that?".
Damnest blue blitz I've ever seen, after catching a few, all my leaders were cut off, so we just picked up BIG specs, greys and sea mullet and saw fish on the beach I could not identify. Only remember the date because our oldest nephew was born that day. Happy Birthday Jeremy.
Ah, to be a kid of 45 again.
charlie


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## surffshr (Dec 8, 2003)

I didn't get into steady surf fishing until the late 80's. Would like to have seen a blitz like that. Heard alot of cool stories about the blitzs though.


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## GreenFord (Apr 11, 2009)

I want to say it was November 19th 1984. There was a bunch of us down there and got into blitz of large blues. My fat butt just about died casting, reeling in then running up the beach to keep up with them. We had a blast but were so tired after it was all over. Bait fish were washing up all over the beach.


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## drumchaser (Jan 14, 2003)

Why hasn't it happened since I wonder? Or at least when somebody was out there?


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## gilly21 (Feb 15, 2006)

Happens every year. Unfortunately lots of times it is at beaches you cannot access easily anymore. I think it was three years ago Pea Island was on fire from around Thanksgiving until the new year. almost every day from what the locals said. Just had to be there. Could catch blues every cast and some days pick up your limit of trout from the wash when you were ready to leave.


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## tjbjornsen (Oct 31, 2009)

I think the one he is talking about was 1990, right around Jeanettes Pier, behind the Sea Oatel Hotel.
That was my first trip down there to surf fish, we had completly by accident settled on the Sea Oatel for the night, and walked out to the beach in the morning to see a cloud of birds that looked like it was miles long coming down the beach from the north.
Within minutes it seemed like the beach filled up with fishermen pouring over the dunes, and the blues were so thick that standing in the surf they were banging off our legs and chasing trout right between our feet. The blues we caught in that blitz were all between 13-16 lbs, and they were fat and solid!
I remember guys standing there reaching down and just picking trout up and tossing them in piles up behind them, while they were fighting blues. 
The water and foam of the waves were literally red from all the blood in the water, and it seemed like it took 45 minutes for the entire school to pass us by.
I remember walking off the beach that morning thinking, "Man! This surf fishing thing is a piece of cake! You just go out there and a school of fish a mile long comes right down the beach, right in front of you!"
Of course I can only remember being lucky enough to be down there for one more blitz like that a couple of years later... And in the last 21 years I have realized that what I DON'T know about surf fishing is a lot more than what I DO know!
Ah to be a kid of 31 again!


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## fishhead (Oct 18, 2004)

Thanksgiving weekend ... not sure what year, but between 1990 and and 1993 I believe ... staying at some small cabins on the beach in Nags Head I believe ... a guy yells blitz is coming and we grab our stuff from the the cabin and we were just in time for many line cutoffs, beach littered with peanuts flopping around, and manage 11 blues all over 30" with some up to 36" ... it was all over in 20 minutes, but I chased them down the beach and the school broke up at the pier. If the fish hadn't been up against the beach we'd still have caught them, but having them thrashing right in front of us was very cool.


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## originalhooker (Nov 26, 2009)

being there, participating in a Blitz is truly one of natures (God's) greatest spectacles....the first blitz I can recall, I was 5/6 some where on the OBX,,,bluefish by dad & uncle & a faint memory of his green jeep & squeezing it thru some wooden poles to get on the beach, folding in the mirrors & such. My job was to keep them flopping fish by the truck... can recall wet jeans & sticky sand, & the weight of a hooded sweatshirt. I got to hold a short pole out of their way after the frenzy, a white glass rod with red wrap(something "TEMPER"), wooden handle,penn 209 level wind, green line,,,, dragged up my first flounder,huge to me probably 24 -28", I kept yelling I got a fish, but could barely hold the rod as the whitewash kept pulling, i think my uncle finally helped me hold the rod,,, can still see that big brown speckled fish in the shelly sand. remember the fish & sand just laying in the back of the jeep, then laid out at home on a piece of plywood for the polaroid.


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## KB Spot Chaser (Nov 19, 2009)

'08 '09 Dad was there for that blitz, bailing them on PI, the previous state record striper was caught out of a boat that day. He was there the week of New Years that's why I say '08 '09


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## cobia_slayer (Jan 9, 2008)

I feel so out of the loop, being only 21 myself I guess i missed all the good fishing. Every year I hear stories from the older guys telling me about how the fishing was back in the 70's to early 80's and how it all went down hill from there, it makes me wonder if I'll ever have a chance to take part in this "phenomenal" fishing that once was a yearly occurrence..


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## Drumdum (Jan 6, 2003)

cobia_slayer said:


> I feel so out of the loop, being only 21 myself I guess i missed all the good fishing. Every year I hear stories from the older guys telling me about how the fishing was back in the 70's to early 80's and how it all went down hill from there, it makes me wonder if I'll ever have a chance to take part in this "phenomenal" fishing that once was a yearly occurrence..


 Many times I have told my son and many other young bucks what the livebaiting was like back then and they look at me like I was from Mars.. 

I disagree with some of your older friends though on some of the fishing.. As far as cobia and spainish,it has improved,notably cobia,with drum about the same.... As far as the rest,like kings,big sharks,spots and many other foodfish and such,sorry to say I have to agree.. jmho


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## surffshr (Dec 8, 2003)

cobia_slayer said:


> I feel so out of the loop, being only 21 myself I guess i missed all the good fishing. Every year I hear stories from the older guys telling me about how the fishing was back in the 70's to early 80's and how it all went down hill from there, it makes me wonder if I'll ever have a chance to take part in this "phenomenal" fishing that once was a yearly occurrence..[/QUOTE
> 
> If they let the inshore menhaden alone so large schools of bait retun it will happen again. one day back in the early 90's I counted 8 trawlers south of the point and 7 north of the point. probably less than a mile out. I doubt they were all on menhaden but it was somewhat typical of the time.
> Spotter planes on the schools of fish and trawlers moving in was also typical.


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## Smittroc (May 1, 2009)

yeah i did it too back in 1924. all the big fish u wanted to see


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## Cdog (Mar 18, 2002)

KB Spot Chaser said:


> '08 '09 Dad was there for that blitz, bailing them on PI, the previous state record striper was caught out of a boat that day. He was there the week of New Years that's why I say '08 '09


I was there for that, first and only blue blitz I have seen.


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## sand flea (Oct 24, 1999)

Cdog said:


> I was there for that, first and only blue blitz I have seen.


I was there too, thanks to you giving me a call. I was messing around up around Carova when you called me, yelling "Get your butt down here! The blues are blitzing at Pea Island!" Several of us from the site out there, as I recall.

It was the first blitz I'd seen since 1990 when I was a high school senior driving a busted-up Jeep CJ-7. I showed up just as the blitz was ending in Nags Head. Didn't know I end up waiting 15 years to see another one...

Looking back at my pictures, it was Dec. 31, 2005. Here's a shot of the gannets going berzerk just past the bar on all the menhaden the blues had pinned against the beach.


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## Cdog (Mar 18, 2002)

sand flea said:


> I was there too, thanks to you giving me a call. I was messing around up around Carova when you called me, yelling "Get your butt down here! The blues are blitzing at Pea Island!" Several of us from the site out there, as I recall.
> 
> It was the first blitz I'd seen since 1990 when I was a high school senior driving a busted-up Jeep CJ-7. I showed up just as the blitz was ending in Nags Head. Didn't know I end up waiting 15 years to see another one...
> 
> ...


Dang you are right, it was 05/06. Doesn't seem like it was 5 years ago..


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## KB Spot Chaser (Nov 19, 2009)

Yeah, it didn't seem like it was that long ago when i got the phone call saying they were on the beach, there were several more along the beaches from Avon to just north of the Pt. around 43 back around 96-98 can't remember exactly, stripers in the mix. I was asleep in the chair the day after Thanksgiving at 43 when Dad woke me up saying get ready here they come. Caught a few and then they moved off and back to the north, where they pinned some bait and trout up in between the jetties. That night at 43 we had a good solid bite on the stripers at 43, but nothing like the blitzes of 2000-2001 at the point the week of New Years. Hope they show on the beaches this year, just waiting and hoping.


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## ole-crabby (Aug 18, 2009)

About 84-85 in November, we got in to them that was mostly from 12 to biggest 19lb! North side of oregon inlet to the old coast guard station. They were eating trout about 12-14 inches. My friend George caught the big one, when he got it in it threw up two trout,that would have made it at least 21lbs Will never forget that week, got into them 3 times that week! You would have to seen it to believe.


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## jay b (Dec 1, 2002)

Can't remember how many I've been into down there but I think the best was the year after the trawler went aground on the north side of OI. We were fishing right beside it in knee deep water pulling in 12-16 lb. Blues as fast as you could throw out a Krokodile spoon or Hopkins. That was after filling our coolers with all the Yellow-Bellies we wanted for dinner that night that the Blues had chased into the wash. 

It's been way too long since I've had that pleasure but hopefully that cycle will return soon.


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## chest2head&glassy (Jul 2, 2002)

My memory of a blitz in the 80s was when I visited my 'yuppie/redneckish' brother in VA Beach and we hit PI cruising RT 12 in his BMW 325 with rods hanging out of the side windows and pulling over at one of the 2 or 3 pull off areas. Needless to say, after walking miles on the beach carrying back cooler full of choppers, he traded in the BMW for a 4x4.


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## phillyguy (Aug 9, 2010)

https://picasaweb.google.com/103550...key=Gv1sRgCNC3qs7xooTVkgE#5678053279674808194

Pic from my trip in October. About 400yds north of the obx pier.


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## drumchaser (Jan 14, 2003)

Hate it when their just out of reach!!


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