Bluefish
Description
The bluefish has a long, stout and compressed body with a broad, forked tail. The spiny first dorsal fin is normally folded back in a groove, as are the pectoral fins. Coloration on the back is a grayish blue-green, fading to white on the lower sides and belly. The bluefish’s mouth is large and filled with knife-edged teeth. They should be handled with care due to their powerful jaws and teeth. Bluefish are extremely aggressive, and will often chase bait through the surf zone onto the beach. It’s not unusual for thousands of big bluefish to attack schools of baitfish in mere inches of water, churning the surf like a washing machine. This behavior is referred to as a "bluefish blitz" and is a sight that every angler should witness at least once.
Bluefish in the midst of a feeding frenzy or blitz will often bite at anything shiny, including bracelets and earrings. In 1993, a woman swimming in Seaside Park, New Jersey had both of her ears bitten off by bluefish that attacked her earrings. Bluefish tend to school with like-sized fish. Some scientists theorize that such schooling behavior puts a natural curb on the bluefish’s cannibalistic tendencies, while others say that such schools occur to allow fish of similar size to swim at the same rate, thus expending the same energy when traveling and feeding. In terms of angling, bluefish are avidly pursued in the northeast by fly fishers who often find themselves in a “feast or famine” situation, with bluefish thick during one angling season and almost entirely absent the next. Bluefish availability is also affected by their peripatetic nature—at times, they hold far offshore and at others they venture right into the surf.
Average Length
Average Weight
Temperature Range
Habitat
Bluefish are generally found in bays and sandy bottomed near-shore waters. Migrating fish may be encountered in as much as 200 feet of water. Depending on conditions, such as water temperature and atmospheric pressure, bluefish may be found nearly anywhere in the water column, from just above the bottom to just below the surface.
Range
Bluefish are migratory marine fish and are found worldwide in tropical and temperate seas, except for the eastern shores of the Pacific. In the eastern Atlantic, they’re found from Portugal southward along the African coast to South Africa and thrive in the Mediterranean and Black Seas. In the western Atlantic, bluefish range from Nova Scotia to Bermuda and south to Argentina, although they’re a rare sight from southern Florida through northern South America.
