Bluefish Fishing Guide
Saltwater · Water temp 55–82°F (ideal 70°F)
Quick Facts
- Teeth
- Will cut monofilament without noticing. Wire or heavy fluorocarbon is not optional
- Schooling
- School by size, in areas that can cover tens of square miles
- Migration
- Summer Maine to Cape Hatteras, winter offshore Hatteras to Florida
- Size
- Up to 39 inches and 31 lb, and up to 12 years old
- Wind
- A rough day beats a flat one. Tied with striped bass for the most wind tolerated here
- The blitz
- Bait cornered against a beach, birds working, fish hitting anything thrown
- Tackle
- 9-11 ft surf rod, 30-50 lb braid, single hooks for easier release
Overview
Bluefish are the most single-minded predator on the Atlantic coast and the reason surfcasters keep a spool of wire in the bag. They school by size across areas that can run to tens of square miles, hunt bait relentlessly, and when a school corners a body of bunker or sand eels against a beach the result is the blitz: acres of broken water, birds working, and fish that will hit almost anything thrown into it. They are also entirely willing to bite through a leader, which is why anglers who catch a lot of them lose a lot of lures.
Bluefish hold from about 55 to 82 degrees Fahrenheit with an ideal near 70. The preferred temperature across their range averages 21.1 degrees Celsius, which is 70 Fahrenheit almost exactly, and they spawn between 20 and 26 degrees.
The important thing about temperature for this species is that it is telling you something different than it does for most fish on this site. Bluefish are strongly migratory. They summer from Maine to Cape Hatteras and winter offshore between Hatteras and Florida, and both movements are cued by water temperature: fish start moving north as surface water climbs into the low 50s. So when the water temperature score is poor for bluefish, it is usually not saying the fish are uncomfortable. It is saying they are several hundred miles away. That happens to be the most useful thing a forecast can tell you about a migratory species, and unlike the salmon and steelhead on this site it needs no caveat, because the trigger for their migration is exactly the variable being measured.
Optimal Conditions
| water Temp | 55-82°F, ideal 70°F |
| air Temp | 50-90°F |
| wind | 5-20 mph ideal, tolerate up to 30 mph, matching striped bass as the most wind-tolerant here |
| pressure | Moderate sensitivity, and rarely the limiting factor |
| light | Medium. Strongly bimodal, with the evening ahead of the morning |
| best Seasons | The autumn run (September-November), then the spring arrival (April-May) |
Seasonal Patterns
spring
The run north. Fish arrive behind the bait as inshore water climbs through the 50s and 60s, working up the coast over several weeks so the timing shifts with latitude: Virginia in April, New Jersey in May, Cape Cod by late May or June. Early-season fish are hungry and often large, and the first blitz of the year usually catches everyone slightly unprepared.
summer
Fish are present throughout the range but spread out, working offshore rips, shoals and structure rather than the beach. August is the genuine mid-summer lull, when the beach bite slows and the fishery becomes a boat proposition around inlets and rips. Water is at its warmest and the fish are at their least concentrated.
fall
The autumn run south is much the bigger of the two seasonal lifts we apply to bluefish, and it is the season the whole Northeast plans around. Cooling water pushes bait out of the estuaries and along the beaches, bluefish follow, and the blitzes that result are the reason people own surf rods. September through November, moving south with the cold as it goes.
winter
There is no inshore fishery. Bluefish have left, wintering offshore between Cape Hatteras and Florida, and the cold-water grade for this species reflects absence rather than lethargy. Some fishing persists off the southeast coast and in Florida through the winter, where the water never drops out of their range.
Best Times to Fish
dawn
Excellent, and the classic surf window. Bait moves at first light and bluefish are on it, often right in the wash. The only reason this is not the peak is that the evening is marginally better.
midday
The weakest stretch, and this is a genuinely bimodal fish. Blitzes do happen at noon, because a bluefish school that finds bait does not check the time, but the odds are meaningfully worse and the fishing becomes a matter of finding fish rather than waiting for them.
dusk
The peak. The last hours of light concentrate bait against the beach and bring the biggest and most reliable blitzes of the day. If you fish one window for bluefish, fish this one, and stay past sunset rather than packing up at it.
night
Real but modest. Bluefish are caught from the surf after dark, particularly around lit structure and inlet mouths on a moving tide, and the fish tend to be larger. Nothing like the daylight fishery in volume.
solunar
Moderate solunar sensitivity, well behind tide and bait presence. A major period on a strong moving tide at dusk is the best combination this species offers, but bluefish fishing is decided by whether bait is there, and no amount of lunar timing conjures it.
Weather Response
The temperature effect matters over a season and the pressure effect barely at all. A hard autumn front that drops inshore water accelerates the southward run, which can be excellent locally for a few days and then leave the area empty. Follow the cold down the coast rather than waiting for it to pass.
Useful in spring, when warming inshore water is precisely what triggers the northward arrival. A warm spell in April or May can bring the first fish of the season into an area days ahead of the usual date.
Settled weather makes for pleasant fishing and slightly flatter conditions than bluefish prefer. Long calm spells clean the water and reduce the white water that surf blitzes happen in, which is one of the few situations where good weather is a mild negative.
Neutral to positive. Rain does not bother bluefish and the wind that usually accompanies it helps, by roughening the surf and disorienting bait. The one caution is a heavy freshwater push into an estuary, which will move both bait and fish toward the inlet and the open beach.
Proven Techniques
Poppers and Surface Plugs
The best way to fish a blitz and the most exciting way to catch anything on this site. A pencil popper or a large surface swimmer worked fast through broken water draws savage strikes. Single hooks rather than trebles make releasing a thrashing bluefish considerably safer for everyone involved.
Metal Lips and Diamond Jigs
Heavy metal casts far, cuts wind, and sinks below the smaller fish on top of a school to reach the bigger ones underneath. The standard when fish are working but out of reach of a plug, and the only realistic option in a 25 knot onshore wind.
Wire or Heavy Fluorocarbon Leader
Not a technique so much as a requirement. Bluefish teeth will part monofilament without the fish even noticing. A short length of single-strand wire or 60 to 80 pound fluorocarbon is the difference between landing fish and donating lures, and the trade-off in bites is smaller than most anglers fear.
Trolling Rips and Inlets
Pulling spoons, tube-and-worm or umbrella rigs through inlets, rips and around shoals where current concentrates bait. The productive summer approach when fish are scattered offshore and there is nothing showing on the surface to cast at.
Chunking and Live Bait
Anchored up-current of a rip with cut bunker going over the side builds a chum slick that pulls fish to the boat. Effective on larger fish, and the standard way to catch bluefish when they are present but not actively feeding on the surface.
Bluefish vs Striped Bass
The two fish of the Northeast surf, caught in the same places on the same tides and very often on the same cast. They reward almost opposite approaches.
| Bluefish | Striped Bass | |
|---|---|---|
| Temperament | Indiscriminate. Will hit almost anything moving | Selective, especially when large |
| Conditions | Wants wind and white water. Flat calm is a negative | Handles both, with a preference for moving water over rough |
| Leader | Wire or 60-80 lb fluorocarbon, or you lose the lure | Straight fluorocarbon, and lighter is often better |
| Winter | Gone. Offshore between Hatteras and Florida | Overwinters in estuaries and the Chesapeake |
| Where they hold | On top of the bait, visibly | Under and behind it, often unseen |
| Fresh water | Strictly saltwater | Runs far up rivers, and lives landlocked in reservoirs |
Chasing the other one? Read the striped bass guide.
Bluefish Fishing Questions
When do bluefish show up?
When the water tells them to, which is why the date moves every year. Bluefish begin working north as inshore surface water climbs into the low 50s, so the arrival rolls up the coast over several weeks: Virginia in April, New Jersey in May, southern New England by late May, the Gulf of Maine by June. A warm spring pulls all of those forward and a cold one pushes them back. This is the most useful thing a temperature-based forecast can tell you about bluefish, because for a migratory species the first question is not whether they will bite but whether they are there.
What water temperature is best for bluefish?
Around 70 degrees Fahrenheit, in a band from roughly 55 to 82. The preferred temperature averaged across their range comes out at 21.1 degrees Celsius, which is 70 Fahrenheit almost exactly, and they spawn between 20 and 26 degrees. Read a poor cold-water score for bluefish as absence rather than lethargy: below the mid 50s there are simply no bluefish inshore to catch, because they have gone south. That is a different mechanism from the cold-kill that affects snook and tarpon, but the practical result for an angler is identical.
What is a bluefish blitz?
A school of bluefish trapping a body of bait against a beach, a jetty or the surface and feeding through it, usually with terns and gulls working overhead and the water visibly broken. Blitzes can last minutes or hours and can cover a few yards of beach or a mile of it. Fish in a blitz will hit almost anything thrown into the melee, which makes it the most accessible good fishing on the Atlantic coast and the reason people own surf rods. Autumn is when they are most frequent, as the run south pushes bait ahead of it along the beaches.
Do I really need a wire leader for bluefish?
Wire or heavy fluorocarbon, yes. Bluefish have a set of teeth that will part monofilament cleanly and without the fish appearing to notice, and a school of them will separate an angler from a lot of expensive lures in a short time. A short trace of single-strand wire, or 60 to 80 pound fluorocarbon, solves it. The usual objection is that it costs bites, and against a fish this indiscriminate it costs far fewer than most people expect. Single hooks rather than trebles are also worth the swap, because unhooking a thrashing bluefish with three sets of trebles loose is genuinely hazardous.
Why is windy weather good for bluefish?
Because it is bad for the bait. Wind puts white water in the surf, stirs sediment, cuts visibility and pushes bait schools against the beach where they cannot escape, and bluefish are built to exploit exactly that. This profile carries as much wind tolerance as any species on the site for that reason, level with striped bass. A flat calm, gin-clear day is one of the few conditions that genuinely makes bluefish harder to catch, which is the opposite of the advice on most of these pages.
What is the best time of day for bluefish?
The last hours of light, with dawn a close second. Bluefish are a sharply bimodal fish: bait moves at both ends of the day and blues move with it, and the middle of the day is the weakest stretch by a clear margin. The evening edges the morning because bait tends to be pushed hardest against the beach as the light goes. Stay past sunset rather than packing up at it. Blitzes do happen at noon, since a school that finds bait does not consult a clock, but you are hunting rather than waiting.
Best Months for Bluefish
These are the months our scoring lifts bluefish activity for pre-spawn or autumn feeding. Open one for that month's calendar.
Related Species
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