# Monster Bluefish Stories



## RaleighKing (Mar 25, 2008)

Hey guys, in the spirit of blue season (well almost...) I wanted to start a thread on your monster chopper blue stories. Whats the biggest blue you've caught or seen caught? What was the fight like, what did he hit? Gearin up for my may trip and hope to get into some choppers!! If you have pics, show em!opcorn:


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## GreenFord (Apr 11, 2009)

Best one was only 16lbs. But it was the weekend I'll never forget! We all headed out to Hatteras for our long weekend trip. Day one we had a small and short run of good sized Blues. I lost everyone I hooked (3) up with due to them cutting the line. I lost my only 3 hopkins spoons I had. We found some cheap copies of the at a local bait shop and loaded up. Hit the beach the next day and got into the good sized blues as they ran up and down the beach chasing bait. I only lost one cheap spoon and landed 4 blues all about the same size. I allmost died running up and down the beach chasing them but it's a day I'll never forget!


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## donancy (May 24, 2005)

*not so big,but very exciting*

MY most fun experience with the choppers is when we were plugging for & catching "regular" (1to 3 lb) size blues and didn't know choppers were around. All of a sudden this huge head pops up and chops my blue off at the gills, well of course that's an adrenaline rush in itself, but I left the remains stay there for a second and the big bruiser comes back(of course!) and chomps down on the head of the little blue, hooking himself on the gotcha! He was probably only 7lbs or so. That's just fun and that's all you can say and you don't get used to it,even though I've seen them several times, the first glimpse of the big cannibal head is a rush when not expecting it!


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## RaleighKing (Mar 25, 2008)

great stories guys! My biggest so far is 6lbs but hope to change that this year. 16lbs is no joke green!


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## RuddeDogg (Mar 20, 2004)

Well up here in Yankee land, monster blue fishin was insane years ago. Most were caught from party boats. The trip that I remember most was a trip me and a buddy of mine took. we normally don't goon the week ends but we were glad we did this time. The boat was packed with about 35 people. It was a 8hr trip. We got into a big school and it didn't matter what you were using. Bait, metal, plugs. They were in such a blitz as soon as your line hit water it was fish on. We had burlap bags tacked up on deck. Most of the fish caugt were in the 10-20lb range. The biggest caught was around 25lbs. Biggest blue I ever saw. When we got back to the dock, we were told that we all looked like derranged serial killers becuase there was so much blood. When I got home I didn't even bother washing my clothes. It was easier to throw them away.


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## doubleb (May 19, 2009)

two years ago[last week in april]..fishing the inlet off the bch..at the north end of carolina bch....caught several over 10 lbs....tide was goin out ,,and a big bar was in between us and the fish...all of a sudden , the water blew up..fish flying out of the red water.. a school of porpoise[dolphins] came in and was eating the blues.....kinda ironic, considering the blues are usally eating the bait....now they were being eatin....lasted two or three minutes... then as soon as it was done i caught another one with teeth marks on both sides.. he had escaped the jaws of death.....i caught over ten big blues that day.. the biggest was over 12 lbs....


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## Ryan Y (Dec 1, 2005)

*Funny*

I've never gotten into them before. But I here of all the stories and see the pictures of years before in Hatty when they hit the beach. You didn't ever here about that down this way. However for the last three to four years they have been caught here in the surf in good numbers starting in April. The big headed ones with skinny bodies. 
I've even seen some big ones back in the creeks around here and up in the cape fear.

Ive gotten into the 5 pounders pretty good too up on the North End in the fall. It's getting to be a regular occurence down here now.


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## Bobmac (Oct 11, 2008)

My best was a 10 pounder off the beach in Myrtle. They are a rush!

The joy of fishing the salt is you just never know for sure what you're going to pull in.


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## Loner (Sep 9, 2009)

The last fall blitz of choppers hit Wrightsville bch. in December of 1982....I had been laid off and was just sitting around the house..phone rang...U hear about those Hatteras Blues??
I grab a spinning reel and a bunch of Hopkins and headed to the Crystal Pier...(now just a resturant and half a pier)..
BIRDS EVERYWHERE and the end of the pier looked like a spanish blitz..pier end loaded with pluggers...
Choppers from 10-18 lbs stacked up everywhere and there were several hooked up. I fished til dark and landed em up to 12 lb......
Gotcha's...topwaters...hopkins and conner lures...didn't matter!!!
Came back the next morning and landed the only one hooked...another 12 lber....the wind had changed and they moved offshore..boats wore em out for another 2 days...just find the birds...
The sad thing was that the pier had been on fire for 3 days...it had started with the choppers running all the trout out on the beach the 1st day...and the surf trouters are the ones who discovered them...folks went to picking up speckled trout and then went bluefishing....
They put it on the local news 1 day too late...

Biggest blue I ever landed was 17 lb on the old Dolphin Pier at Topsail....saw a cobia swimming around which wouldn't hit a live bait..
Lobbed a full 2 lb dead blue on the bottom....watched the rod tip bounce and jacked up....and here come the biggest blue I had ever seen..
I would have made a mount but there were blues up to 22 lb. landed on the Island that year and there was a 19 lber landed on a king rig from the pier...
I figgered I'd just wait for a 20 lb before getting a mount...
I'm still waiting..


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## hamlet (Sep 4, 2007)

I boat fished for blues in the Chesapeake Bay in the late 70's to mid 80's.
Big schools of big blues were common where i fished (off the mouth of the Rappahanock). I remember days of sighting the working birds, running over to them, casting into the school from outside and having a blast. You could usually manage a few good hook ups before the inevitable clod would troll right through the school and break it up.

The ones we would find would run 12 lbs to 15. I would use a 9' beach spinning rod, wire leader (a lot of cut offs come from other fish in the school hitting the tight line when you get one on), and anything with hooks, though mostly i used home-made 6" latex tube eels. Even the big blues took a while to chew up the latex tube.

You would fish for hours and at some point, when you sighted the next school, everyone would say "no more... we have had enough, my arms can't take anymore."

I have been back in there many times in the past 15 years remembering and looking and they are just not there anymore, at least, I can't find them.

Some days I really miss being young.


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## doubleb (May 19, 2009)

i remember fishin the 301 bridge, trolling with surgical tubes....and wearin the fish and us out..we never weighed any back then but i remember the ones that were to big to fit in the cooler,, ahh the good ole days


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## uncdub13 (Aug 9, 2003)

i love to sight cast to them on light tackle in the backwaters. they almost always eat. caught them up to 14 lbs over the last several springs and early summers when they've showed up in good numbers.


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## RaleighKing (Mar 25, 2008)

awesome stories guys...sounds like in years past they were really something!


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## Salty Breezes (Feb 19, 2008)

*Next weekend, you can have your own story...*

RaleighKing, I can't figure out how to upload photos, but caught 28"-32" blues out of the surf on Masonboro past two years the week of April 20. They fight like a tarpon -- never caught a chopper that didn't jump at least once. 

They're not just a thing of the past; they'll be here this weekend, or next!


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## hbsurfbum (Apr 21, 2009)

*Damn near lost the tip of my thumb.*

Was'nt even my fish. I was on Bouge inlet pier, fishing cut blues on the bottom. OMG the wind was howling. Every other person on the pier was catching 10 pounders up to 15. I was getting Skunked! Dude next to me had his rod bent double trying to reel his chomper up from the water. Me being a good guy I had crank it up for him. Ok heres the supid part. I grab his fish in the gills with my right hand, pliers in my right rear pocket. I figure grab the hook real quick with my left hand. Quick snap of is jaws and my thumb nail is pierced twice and the other side looks like hambuger. Did'nt loose anything. It's all good now. Lesson well learned. We all have our moments.


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## dbigsby (Feb 16, 2004)

*Blue Blitz*

A buddy and I went on a quick fall trip to the OBX about 20 years ago and decided to fish the Boiler Wreck south of Oregon Inlet because he had caught them there the week before. We pulled in to the parking lot and walked over the dune to see what was happening. There was only one fisherman on the beach and he was pulling in a 15-20 lb blue. We ran back to the truck and threw on our waders and grabbed our rods and proceeded to wear them out. For about an hour, we hooked up on almost every cast. As soon as the spoon hit the water, it felt like someone hit the line with a hammer. The three of us had the beach to ourselves and after the bite cooled off, came the coolest part of the trip. As I'm carrying two of the blues back to the truck a group pulls up and sees the fish and for the only time in my life, I'm the one saying "You should have been here earlier. We killed them this morning, but the bite's over now."


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## N topsail fisher (Feb 13, 2005)

I was on Ocracoke a few years ago and was lucky enough to be involved in my first and only blue blitz to date. They weren't huge, but they were still fun. 

A couple of friends of mine were down for a week in Oct, I just made it down for the last weekend and the fish weren't cooperating until I arrived for a change. Saturday morning three of us hit the beach and after about an hour we saw birds diving up the beach so we headed that way. When we arrived the bait fish were covering the beach trying to avoid the blues. We grabed our pluging rods and followed them down the beach until they moved out. We ended up landing about 6 each between 3 and 5 pounds. They weren't the choppers, but it was still a sight to see.

My biggest to date was a 10 pounder I caught while king fishing on Seaview pier on Topsail. We were all sitting around on the end of the pier and my reel went off, I proceeded to fight the fish and he got wrapped up in the pillings. Well this fish wanted to get caught because he gave us time to splice the line back together from the bottom side of the tangle back to my reel and then he was quickly netted and eaten.


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## SquidStrip (Jan 15, 2008)

December, about 10 years ago, we were in a boat at the mouth of Oregon Inlet. It was about 35 degrees and rough but the sky was dark with birds and the water thick with huge blues. I can't remember how many we caught but they were all 15 to 18 lbs. and just destroying anything that hit the surface. We had four people on the boat and multiple four person hook ups. It was an every-man-for-himself situation landing and unhooking these fish. At one point I counted eight straight casts and hookups resulting in a live release and I’d have to say I caught at least 20+ fish myself. This lasted for about an hour and a half then we started chasing the fish up the beach for another hour until they went down about three miles north of the inlet. We all were so tired from fighting these fish we called it a day after only about three hours out. We almost didn’t fish the next day because our backs ached.


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## HStew (Jan 8, 2009)

Our regular party of four left Harkers is. on the old boat "Diamond City" in the fall ,late 70's. We set up our old,heavy, big canvas Army tent as close to the point as we thought safe and headed out to fish. Ray hit the first one on a 2 hook bottom rig with cut mullet in the early afternoon. He was using a 7' rod with a daiwa spinning reel. This fish was 16/18 lb. first one we had ever caught this size. The melee kept up for the duration of our stay of 6 days. As soon as the sun rose the blues up to mid 20's hit ,running everything up on the beach. We saw the last of these big schooling blues Dec. 24 th . that year on a trip Dale Lee, his son Will, and I made to Hatteras. Wills' first fish ever, a 18 lb. er'!! All on hopkins at ramp 9. We loaded a ford pick-up ,headed back to ral. and cut fish till way into the night!!! What a year for blues that was!!!


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## mealsonreels (Sep 20, 2009)

*blue story*

Love reading yalls story, i got one

fished all day, nothing happening but listening to the surf, seeing that sunset, enjoy a cold one, settled down for the nite at new river inlet (back when you could fish around the corner). fella wandered up and said, my friends all want to go back to the motel, you mind if i fish with you tonite, sure, pull up a chair, we talked, told lies, sipped a couple beers and slept in folding chairs for awhile

We both had 2 rods in the water and if woke up, would check them, change bait, chunk em back out and settle down, drop back off to sleep.

come about sunrise, the sun just starting to turn the tip of the water pink, both my poles went down, bammmmmm, I grabbed one and set the hook, and looked, my other pole was sliding across the sand, heading out to sea, so i just stepped on it with my foot, Im yelling like a fool for the other guy to come help me and i hear --- hey dude, i said , WHAT, he says, LOOK, i turned my head, he had a pole in each hand, both bent almost half into, says to me, you got any ideas of how im suppose to wind with my teeth or my pecker. 

We landed 18 blues, all about 5 to 6 lbs in just a short time, it was a blast. 

His friends showed up about a hour after the blitz, we were frying up blues and hushpuppies. Life is sometimes just so good

LYNN


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## saltwaterrunner (Sep 5, 2004)

*monster bluefish stories*

1983. Two of us in south nagshead. April 2nd, around 29-30 degrees. On the beach with a thermos of hot rum cider. About 3 pm it started snowing. We were laughing it up and trying to keep warm. Had the rods set out and here came santa claus by way of a fleet of birds coming down the beach. As they neared us the water went wild and we got the lines in, put on metal and banged away. We caugt 25-30 of them fellas. My largest was 19 pounds and change. My bud hooked a 21 Plus. I believe the smallest was 7-8lbs. The school was huge and lasted over 90 minutes. We then sat in the dark and drank the rest of the rum. The best thing was we were the only ones on the beach in that area of obx. We had about 6 runs like that over the years before it faded away. Damn what fun!


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## tjbjornsen (Oct 31, 2009)

December '90 or '91, First trip ever to the OBX to surf fish, we picked the Sea Oatel, right by Jeanette's Pier to stay, probably because it was the onlyplace open when we go there late Friday night.
Saturday morning we head out the door and onto the beach, not really know what we are doing, except we knew enough to have picked up some hopkins and gator spoons. 
I'm using a 10' Cabelas Salmon Steelhead rod that I had built a couple years prior because it is the only thing I have that I can throw 2oz with.
We are out there for maybe 30 minutes, and a cloud of birds start coming down the beach. There were maybe 3 or 4 other guys on the beach.
We start casting into the birds and it is fish on every time the hopkins hit the water. 15-18 lbs blues. We are going out of our minds! 
Remember, this is the first time I have ever laid foot on the sand on the Outer Banks! 
Before long I look up, "_Where the heck did all these people come from???"_ There were people fishing as far south as I could see. People were piling over the dunes like an army, and everyone as far as the eye could see was hooked up. First the school would pack the trout and bait up against the pilings of the pier on the north side, then they would move to the south side. Then back to the north side, then back again to the south side. It seemed like it lasted for hours, but it was probably only an hour. 
We were standing in the surf, I'm wearing hip waders that have long ago filled with water, but I could care less. The cold didn't even register. Big blues are literally banging into my legs, and chasing trout right up on the beach. People were just reaching down and picking up trout and tossing them into a pile behind them on the beach with all the blues.
First trip ever. Crazy.
I've had one more blitz like that, just a couple of years later, but have never seen it like that since.
Hopefully one day soon!


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## SaltSlinger (Aug 14, 2006)

Late April, 2008. A buddy and I had hit the beach at sunrise, and had a pretty good morning of catching whiting, black drum, and pompano. A little before 2pm, we started getting packed up to leave. I had left one rod in the water until the very last minute just out of habit. It was rigged up with a fishfinder rig, nylon coated wire leader, and a 5/0 circle hook with a chunk of mullet. 

As I'm up in the bed of my truck packing up our coolers, chairs, rods, tackle, and such, my buddy starts yelling "big fish big fish!" I looked over and saw the rod I had left out doubled over and line peeling off the spool of my Shimano Baitrunner. I literally vaulted over the side of the truck bed and was running before my feet hit the sand. 

As I got into the battle I knew the fish was good. We had caught some small rays earlier in the morning, and I was hoping it wasn't just a bigger ray. The fish was doing some head-shaking, which was an encouraging sign vs. the straight constant pull of a ray. As I eventually worked the fish close to the beach, he jumped straight out of the water, and we got our first glimpse at what is the biggest bluefish I've caught. It is not a monster compared to the 15-20 pounders being discussed in the above posts caught during the 70s and 80s, but it is a chopper in my mind.

We didn't have a scale but I measured the fish at 33". The body was skinny in relation to the head, I'm guessing he was between 8 and 10 pounds. I'd be interested in anybody else's guess on weight of this fish. For what it's worth, I'm 5'7" and 165 pounds in the picture.


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## Fishin-Belews (Sep 7, 2007)

There was lots of trips and lots of big blues in the 80's, we would take the tribles of the lures and put on single hook, to unhook faster and catch more fish. I remember one week in 1989, it was the week after Thanksgiving, I was up at Pea Inland looking for some Blue fish. I remember it because it was like no other day I had ever had before and to think of it never again have I had a day like that. I could see the birds over the fish but wait theres no one here but me,so what do I do, I grt my rod and walk over to the fish. They were 15 to 18# fish not the biggest school I've seen but it's only me on the beach. After what must have been 2 or 3 miles of fish after fish 2 other men joined me and we 3 walked maybe anther mile or catching fish after fish. By now you could see the Rodanthe peir and lots of people coming our way, but that O.K. because with every cast I would say to may self, I'm not casting anymore after this fish But like a true fisherman I would cast again. Just as we got to the people the fish turned out to sea, just like that they were gone. Now I may be pushing all the miles I've talked about but two things I remember is the fishing and the walk back to my truck. Chris


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## Drumdum (Jan 6, 2003)

*A ton of ole bluefish blitz stories..*

One that comes to mind was on Avon Pier back in early 80's.. A freind and I went out there with speckle tackle.. We had plenty of gotchas,and were equipt with 7' spinning rods and 10lb line.. We saw folks bowing up on the end all the way from the pierhouse.. When we saw what they were catching (bluefish from 10-15lbs) we got some wire out of the truck and made up some gotchas.. Ran back out to the end.. I swear it looked like carpet under the pier!! They were shoulder to shoulder as far as you could see.. We started hooking up,it was a h*ll of a fight on speckle tackle,you really had to put some heat on em and work around the other rods out there.. My freind had one on and was really buckling his rod like an "uglystick commercial".. Well there was a lady that had a strong New York accent watching.. All of a sudden my freind's fish came unbuttoned.. That gotcha came flyin back at breakneck speed!! My bud kinda jumped off the ground a little trying to avoid gettin hit.... Well,the gotcha went right inbetween the rails and caught him right tween the legs,the gotcha was dangling off his britches while he screamed in pain.. You remember the lady with the heavy New York accent?? Well,she exclaimed,at the top of her lungs, "It GOTEM IN DA BAWLS"!!  My freind ate a big slice a humble pie that day...  Still,even with all that,a fun day on the planks...


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## Rob S (Feb 7, 2008)

11.5 lbs, 36" 

Atlantic Beach

Go end of April every year for this reason



Uploaded with ImageShack.us


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## CrappieKid (Jan 21, 2008)

Late 80"s early 90"s fishing in Duck the week of Thanksgiving or the week after alot of blue fish from 15-18lbs. Either on big floater rigs or throwing big spoons in the surf. Remember seeing my first blitz and no clue what the hell it was until I saw the trout washing up on the beach. Dad would get mad cause I would grab the trout instead of cathcing the blue fish.


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## bluefish1928 (Jun 9, 2007)

CrappieKid said:


> Late 80"s early 90"s fishing in Duck the week of Thanksgiving or the week after alot of blue fish from 15-18lbs. Either on big floater rigs or throwing big spoons in the surf. Remember seeing my first blitz and no clue what the hell it was until I saw the trout washing up on the beach. Dad would get mad cause I would grab the trout instead of cathcing the blue fish.


well trout does taste better but bluefish are more fun to catch


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## Suds (Apr 17, 2010)

Big blues used to run in the surf every spring up in Norfolk, Virginia where I grew up. Back in 1978 or 1979 my buddy Mark and I had heard of some caught off of Harrison's Pier in Ocean View and we made plans to meet there the next morning. (This pier was destroyed by Hurricane Isabel a few years ago). We made it to the pier and got into some nice 12 to 15 lb blues. A photographer from the Virginian Pilot came by and snapped our picture holding up a couple nice ones. It was in the paper the next day. The issue was, in 1978 I was 15 years old and it was a school day. The only punishment I ever recieved was some verbal abuse at the hands of my teachers.


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## seaBreeze (Oct 4, 2006)

Two good stories come to mind....early 80's early Nov Rodanthe Pier 17-19lbs
blues hit just at sunset on the incoming tide;.it was broken overcast with a lite ne wind and the blues had chased menhaden up under the pier....blues wouldn't hit any artificials and while trying various gear, snagged a menhaden on a dble butterbean jig.....had my other rod set up with a cut bait bottom rig and put the menhaden head on it and cast out....POW! the rod jumped back ino my hands just as soon as i had set it down and after about 15-20 minutes we bought the blue up, he went 17 lbs...but he didn't taste like his younger brothers even tho we beld him out right away....

The next one was mid eighties while stationed in the navy at Nwest va...got a call from a co worker who left work early that day to bluefish at the Kitty Hawk pier....he told us the blitz was on...so being an hour away we made it down to the pier and stacked up 8-12 lb blues until we were exhausted and could not even lift a rod....kept two nice ones out of the 40-50 fish we caught between six of us...the rest we released back to the ocean...BTW I was also at the Kitty Hawk during the famous August King mackerel fest when 27 kings were decked ....two before sunrise!


ah...the good ole days!:fishing:
chris


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