I've Got Those Gansett Bay Slammer Blues

No, I don't have the BLUES! I got those Narragansett Bay Slammer Blues.....

I got the FEVER....I'm stoked because its heading into the fall fishing season and those big 10 to 15 pound "Slammer Blues" will be entering and chasing bait in the Bay.

They usually intercept and feed on the annual migration of peanut bunker (Baby Menhaden) and Baby Herring, at the mouth of the Providence River and Barrington Beach. And....I Love-it.

Starting in June small Blues show up in the waters of Rhode Island Sound and Narragansett Bay.These predators can be caught as far north as the upper reaches of the Providence and Seekonk Rivers. Their average size is two to eight pounds with a good number of ten-pounders mixed.

When striper fishing the rivers in springtime and you have a fish on....You know right away it's a blue,  just by the type of strong and aggressive fight these awesome fish put up.

Most anglers don't keep bluefish for the dinner table, but we love to catch them for their powerful fighting ability.These fish can provide excellent excitement because of their incredible jumping ability.

Adult bluefish are strong and aggressive, and live in schools. They are fast swimmers which prey on schools of forage fish, and continue attacking them in feeding frenzies even after they appear to have eaten their fill.

These guys are NASTY CRITTERS! 

Bluefish sometimes chase bait through the surf, attacking schools in very shallow water, churning the water like a washing machine. This behavior is sometimes referred to as a "bluefish blitz".They are cannibalistic and sometimes feed on their own young.

In nature there is always balance. In turn, bluefish are preyed upon by larger predators at all stages of their life cycle. As juveniles, they fall victim to a wide variety of oceanic predators, including striped bass, larger bluefish, fluke (summer flounder), weakfish, tuna, sharks, rays, and dolphins. As adults, bluefish are taken by tuna, sharks, billfish, seals, sea lions, dolphins, porpoises, and many other species.

Blues reproduce during spring and summer, and can live for up to 9 years. Bluefish fry are zooplankton, and are largely at the mercy of currents. Bluefish commonly range in size from seven-inch "snappers" to much larger, sometimes weighing as much as 40 pounds, though fish heavier than 20 pounds are exceptional and considered a trophy.

As with most marine fish, bluefish spawning habits are not well known. In the western side of the North Atlantic, at least two populations occur, separated by Cape Hatteras in North Carolina.

The Gulf Stream can carry fry spawned to the south of Cape Hatteras to the north, and eddies can spin off, carrying them into populations found off the coast of the mid-Atlantic, and the New England states.

It is a marine pelagic fish found around the world in temperate and sub-tropical waters.

Ok lets go fishing

A good indication that a school of Blues is feeding below are fish boiling water at the surface and diving birds (gulls). If blues are chasing bait it's a good time to work with surface lures.

When the feeding blitz is on, break out your poppers and cast to the edge of the boiling water and "pop" it back toward you at a moderate speed.

Bluefish are voracious feeders with wounded fish breaking out from the tightly packed school of baitfish, everywhere. By using poppers you are trying to imitate one of these wounded or frantic baitfish and trying to attract the attention of an opportunistic Bluefish. 

Other lures which are widely used for blues are "Castmasters" or any shiny metal lures and jigs that swim a little deeper can also work great in these situations.

Just about any lure works when they are competitively feeding.

Always remember to use a pair of long needle nose pliers to remove hooks from their mouths because these fish have powerful jaws and very sharp teeth capable of slicing off monofilament and cutting fingers.

Bluefish have razor sharp teeth so steel leaders are mandatory! It's wise to use at least twelve inches of steel leader in front of your plug, livelined or chunk baits.

Using Chunked Bait on the bottom (fresh is best, frozen works but not as good) is also another way to catch Blues, especially when the presence of bait and fish are not obvious. Because of the smell of bait on the bottom it can attract Bluefish from quite a distance.

Try a "fish finder" rig (sliding sinker on main line - when fish takes bait, can't feel weight of sinker). Hooks in size 5/0 to 7/0 work well when bait fishing for Bluefish and  Stripers.

Ok now get out there and get the BLUES! Gansett Bay Slammer Blues that is.....

Lets Save Menhaden: Our Bays and Estuaries Depend On It

Gulf Menhaden

In the 1950s when populations were healthy, pogies (menhaden) were capable of meeting the prey demand of striped bass, bluefish and supporting other fisheries.

The 1950's catch records show 8yr. old fish were fairly common 10yr. old fish were also in the spawning stock.

Year 5+ fish are the most important of the spawning stock. Five year fish or older produce up to 10 times more eggs than first-spawn Yr. 2 females.

Atlantic Menhaden usually do not become sexually mature until the end of their second year, after which they reproduce until death. A young, sexually mature female can produce roughly 38,000 eggs, while a fully mature female can produce upwards of 362,000.

The eggs hatch in the open ocean and the larvae drift to sheltered estuaries via ocean currents. The young spend a year developing in these estuaries before returning to the open ocean. At this early stage, they are commonly known as "peanut bunker". 

Eggs are buoyant and hatch within 2 to 3 days depending on the temperature. The larvae will spend 1 to 3 months in waters over the continental shelf. Larval fish will enter the Bay in late winter and early summer. The larval fish will move into lower salinity waters in estuarine tributaries while juvenile and immature fish remain in the Bay until the fall.

From 1988 to 1993 the oldest fish in the spawning population, were decimated on their summer feeding grounds, in the gulf of Maine, leading to a collapse in their northern regions.

The Soviet Union and a Maine company contracted to supply menhaden to Russian factory ships to be processed. Geee....I  wonder who that was!!!! 

The collapse reflected in menhaden bait landings, which were down 98% in the New England region during the early 1990s.

The NMFS created an index, in the 80's to estimate egg production, that indicated older menhaden from the New England region had the potential to contribute 39 percent of the overall menhaden egg production for the fishery.

The massive factory ship operations in the Gulf of Maine severely reduced egg production.The commercial fishery largely depends on age 2 menhaden.

In 2005 approximately 72 percent of the commercial landings by number were sub-adult menhaden (ages 0-2).

The removal of menhaden, mostly age 2 fish, raises concern that the menhaden are being caught before they even reach spawning age.

Menhaden Clean our Waters 

Also known as mossbunker, bunker, and pogy, menhaden are omnivorous filter feeders, feeding by straining food particles from water. 

They travel in large, slow-moving, and tightly packed schools with open mouths. Filter feeders typically take into their open mouths "materials in the same proportions as they occur in ambient waters". Menhaden primarily eat phytoplankton (microscopic plants); although, since they are omnivorous, they take in a small portion of zooplankton (microscopic animals).

Even though most other related fish (in the family Clupeidae) eat zooplankton, "Menhaden primarily consume phytoplankton, that is, algae and other drifting bits of decaying vegetable matter.

The ecological significance of this difference can hardly be overstated."

In 2005, commercial landings fell to 146,860 mt, the lowest level since the NMFS began keeping records in 1940.

In 1991 the NMFS published a marine fisheries review titled: "Assessment and Management of Atlantic and Gulf Menhaden Stocks." The summary cautioned: "

The expansion of fishing on the spawning stock in New England waters concurrently with increasing fishing pressure on pre-spawning menhaden off Virginia and North Carolina in the fall prompts concern for maintenance of the Atlantic menhaden resource".

With the increase of striped bass, caution is needed because the data can significantly overestimate spawning stock if the natural mortality rates (predation) are not taken into account.

The NMFS  continues to estimate menhaden spawning stock levels that are supposed to guarantee good recruitment, even though the data indicates a healthy spawning stock doesn't exist and menhaden recruitment has continued to remain low for more than a decade.

The menhaden population is in big trouble, with the high percentage of spawning stock being harvested and the low levels of recruitment. It's not good to fool with "mother nature."

If this subject interests you, please comment, especially the Providence River fishermen that fish the rivers.

Together we stand , divided we fall!!!! Thanks for reading.