Chunking For Choppers

PROS SHARE THEIR CUT-BAIT TECHNIQUES FOR LONG ISLAND SOUND’S BIG BLUEFISH. BY TOM MIGDALSKI

Autumn is my favorite season in Connecticut. Maple leaves burst into flaming colors, apples and pumpkins adorn roadside farm stands, crickets chirp long into the night and crisp northwest winds break the stifling humidity. But autumn is also my favorite season because it’s slammer blue time.

Bluefish are voracious, cannibalistic predators, which are unique for being the only member of the family Pomatomidae. Blues are nicknamed “choppers” because of their sharp teeth and vicious, snapping jaws. But a bluefish earns the title “slammer blue” when it grows to fat, double-digit proportions during fall feeding frenzies. Slammers make long, rod-bending runs punctuated by thrashing, hook-throwing leaps. So I was understandably excited when I received a cell call from longtime fishing friend and bluefish expert Rich Haigh.

“Hey!” said Haigh. “The slammers are in pretty thick off Milford.Want to join me tomorrow for the morning bite?” “Sure!” I said. “That would be great. What type of gear should I bring?” “We’re banging ‘em on bunker chunks.” Later that evening, I wolfed down dinner and then disappeared into the basement to construct toothy critter rigs. I slept fitfully that night.

Natural baits attract hordes of chopper bluefish each fall in New England.

SLAMMER BLUE BAITS

Slammer blues aren’t fussy and eagerly gobble any type of big baitfish. But one of their favorite prey is menhaden or “bunker” due to its oily, nutrient-rich flesh. Menhaden are plentiful in western Long Island Sound and are easy to catch with a large, weighted treble hook or “bunker snag” as they feed on plankton in dense, amoeba-like schools.

Once we had snagged almost a bucketful of bunker from the lower Housatonic River, Haigh said we had enough for bait and chum. After rinsing the blood off the baitfish he placed them in plastic grocery bags and iced them in his large cooler.

“Keeping the bunker in good shape is important,” he said as he latched the cooler lid. “They stay fresh and firm by chilling them right away. Never leave them in the sun or put them in a bucket of water like a lot of guys do—they go soft fast.”

PICKING A HOTSPOT

We ran from the river mouth onto Long Island Sound where we turned southeast for the 20-minute ride to his favorite grounds off New Haven Harbor. Upon arriving at his GPS coordinates, Haigh set the anchor in about 55 feet of water on a flat mud bottom. He had planned our arrival perfectly for the peak three hours of current flow, which is when the bite is best.

There’s no secret hotspot for bluefish chunking, but certain areas draw slammers year after year. One highway the fish follow is several miles off the Connecticut shore in water ranging from 50 to 60 feet deep. A 20-mile-long stretch from Guilford to Stratford is a regular migration lane each fall. But other pros prefer to work shoals, channels or reefs for autumn’s biggest blues.

“Deep rips are my number-one target zone,” says Capt. Chris Elser, who has fished Long Island Sound for over 30 years. “I set my anchor well ahead of the peak of the structure or shoal and then drift back. For example, if the water shallows from 100 feet ahead of the rip line to 30 feet on top of the rip I drop anchor in approximately 60 feet of water or as close to the middle of the reef as possible allowing my stern to swing in toward the rip line.

“Other productive spots are river mouths— bluefish often forage near harbor entrances at first light.Watch your depth finder for bait, and if you spot activity drift chunks along the channel edges or near break walls. When bunker schools are being marauded by bluefish and busting on top, I position my boat about 50 feet from the action and cast a chunk near the edge of the school without any weight. Allow the chunk to sink freely, and then hang on!”

BOTTOMS-UP CHUMMING

Fishing on the Sound’s broad mud bottom is made more successful by chumming because these blues are roaming and not as concentrated as they are in rips or rivers. Once Haigh is at anchor he starts chumming with small bunker pieces by spreading a few handfuls overboard. “I chum heavily initially to saturate a new area,” he said, “and then I slow it to a couple of pieces every few minutes while we fish. I can prove it works because almost every bluefish I clean has my fresh chum pieces in its stomach.”

Haigh and I used both spinning and conventional rods that day. If you prefer spinning rods, cast baited hooks astern and let the line fall from your bail as the rigs sink. This helps drop your hook into the chum zone. If you fish conventional outfits, lower your baits anywhere along the gunwale or off the stern—center consoles being particularly advantageous for this style of fishing— then leave the clicker, bait sensor or drag on with just enough tension to prevent the current from pulling off line. “Either hold your rod,” says Elser, “or watch it closely in a rod holder. Slammer blues hit baits very fast and make screaming runs down-tide. But they often swim toward the boat and only show a subtle movement in the rod tip or line direction. If your line suddenly goes slack, reel in until you feel tension and set the hook.

“When using circle hooks it’s very important to tighten down on the fish only by reeling and not use a strong hookset as with traditional J hooks. Using circle hooks properly will ensure that the bluefish is hooked in the corner of the mouth. If you choose to use a hook like the Octopus-style, make sure you set the hook immediately when you detect a strike to help prevent gut hooking.”

At times Haigh may use a 2/0 cutting-point Owner Stinger treble hook. Trebles are deadly effective, but they also promote deep hooking, so he only uses them when he plans to keep the catch for a big family cookout. But when the action is heavy, he’s fishing for fun or there are bass in the area, he always switches to singles. The key is to use enough hook for the chunk size.

BAITING UP

“I cut bunker or porgies into three or four sections,” said Elser. “I prefer the body parts for bluefish and the heads for bass. I pierce the hook through the top of the chunk leaving plenty of hook gap showing. Never embed the entire hook in the chunk because you’ll miss the bite. When chunking mackerel I recommend using pieces about 2 inches wide.”

Haigh and I changed baits about every 15 minutes. It’s a lot of extra work, but the blood and oil soon wash out of waterlogged chunks, so they should be replaced regularly. Another trick we used was to lift and lower our rod tips every few minutes. That raises the bait off the bottom and then lets it flutter down, thus drawing the attention of passing fish. It also creates an eye-catching mud puff when the sinker hits and helps keep pesky spider crabs away. Within five minutes of dropping our first bait overboard I had a run-off, and before my fish was to the boat Haigh’s drag was singing. For the next two hours we had trouble keeping all four lines in the water at once.

TOOTHY CRITTER RIGS

Given a slammer blue’s vise-like jaws and formidable dentistry, standard striped bass rigs consisting of 80-poundmono leaders won’t last long enough to bring a bluefish to boat side.

“When chunking for bluefish,” says Elser, “I use a 3-foot section of 60# Sevalon wire leader material as a tippet with an 8/0 Gamakatsu circle hook crimped to one end and a barrel swivel crimped to the other. I thread a black fish-finder rig onto the main line before tying it to the barrel swivel. I then attach a 2- to 8-oz. bank sinker to the fish-finder depending on depth and current speed.

That way the fish don’t feel the weight during the pick-up.” Elser’s tackle choice is a high-quality, 6’6” medium-action conventional rod like the Lamiglas 15-30# class. He loads his reels like a Penn International 975 or, his favorite, the Avet MX, with 25# Yozuri Hybrid line. “I like hybrid line,” he says, “because it stretches less than traditional mono and offers more control than braided lines when fighting big fish in tight situations.”

For spin fishermen, Elser recommends a rod like the Lamiglas 12-25# class 6’6” or 7’ model matched with a medium reel like the Shimano 4500 or Penn 4500 loaded with 20 lb. Yozuri Hybrid line.

As the tide waned on that crisp October day, Haigh and I decided to pull anchor and head for the barn. It had been a great morning: In the process of polishing my chunking skills we caught 15 bluefish between 8 and 14 pounds, plus one 37-inch striper. All were released except the two smallest fish, which were on ice and headed for the smoker. That’s why I like slammer blue time.

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