With the 2010 Fluke season behind us, garden state anglers have been itching for a real fight. Bluefish are back and stronger than ever and for most a fight long overdue. This week the Raritan Bay produced blues from two to six pounds with plenty of bunker pods along the Staten Island side to keep things interesting.

Over the weekend bigger blues kept about a few hundred boats at the Mud buoy- 17 fathom mark busy fighting fish. Most boats anchored up and started a chum slick to get right down to some serious light tackle fishing.

If you plan on a trip to the mud buoy make sure you load up on plenty of wire leader hooks, Big blues will test your arms and your tackle. Ocean temperatures were around 68 to 70 degrees and the mud buoy will only get better as these fish will hang around for a while and start to fatten up before heading south. If you?re looking for a few fights to pick now is the time to do it and the night time bite at 17 fathoms is always a crazy good time. Take it from me, get a few friends together, pick a boat and give it a shot at the mud buoy for night blues. This is always a great outing and usually one you will not forget for a while.

The Mud buoy is a favorite fishing spot for charters because it is a very large area with plenty of elbow room for even a weekend blitz of 200 plus boats. The bottom has lots of high and low spots fort fish to patrol. With a large variety of bait fish, blues are extra aggressive and with depths ranging from 50 to 100 feet these bruisers have plenty of room to run. Anglers on light tackle spinners and bait runners will tell you there is nothing better than getting these gator size fish in your chum slick. Once you get these fish around the boat and feeding they will become relentless. For any angler young or old they were probably hooked on fishing the day they hooked their first Jersey blue.

Fish On!
Ron Nuzzolo