The morning sun was already burning bright on the eastern horizon as I drifted the ebb at the back-end of Fire Island Inlet. Bored with catching short fluke, I decided to spice things up with a few casts for cocktail blues. Although I had a small tin lure hanging from a rod holder on the port side that would just about guarantee a wallop, I opted to dig through my tackle box in search of a tiny popper. Finding a small Rebel-Pop R, I tied it onto an eight-pound-test spinning outfit and was into a three-pound bluefish half-way through my first retrieve.
A SMACKING GOOD TIME
Itâs no secret cocktail blues, those two- to four-pounders that seem to love cruising inlets and harbor mouths while terrorizing schools of spearing, sand eels and rain bait, are easily interested by just about any flashy lure that moves. What many anglers miss, however, is that they smack surface poppers just as readily as their bigger, nastier brethren. Scale down your tackle and you can have a blast battling these willing and feisty teenage choppers, especially on the waters of Great South Bay during May and June.
At this point, the young choppers not only set up along the bars inside of Fire Island Inlet, they also spread out into the entire stretch from immediately west of Robert Moses Bridge and begin wandering into back-bay waters as well. Theyâll cut across the Babylon flats and up into Massapequa Cove, push east to the Heckscher flats and the mouth of the Connetquot River, and patrol well back into the bay off Patchogue and around the mouth of Carmans River. Find an early morning falling tide just starting to swing out, add in a little cloud cover, and youâll even come across them in the main east/west channel at mid-bay.
Cocktails are best enticed with smaller poppers and medium-weight spinning gear that can handle lines in the eight to 12-pound class. My favorite setup is a 6-1/2-foot, medium-light action rod matched to a spinning reel filled with 10-pound test monofilament line. This outfit allows small blues to battle at full capacity while testing my fish-fighting skills. If you really want to tilt the odds in the fishâs favor, opt for a 4- to 6-pound class outfit, choose miniscule poppers, and hang on for dear life. Want even more of challenge? Then use a 6- or 7-weight fly rod and a small white popper preceded by a 12- to 15-pound test leader.
THESE RULES RULE
There are a few guidelines to keep in mind when poppinâ bay blues on light tackle. First, always preset and test your drag before starting out. Give it a quick test after each fish, too, just to ensure that it remains properly set. Failure to do so will eventually result in a sharp, disheartening, cracking sound usually signifying the parting of ways between you, your lure and the quarry.
The second rule is to never race your vessel into the middle of a surfacing school of fish. Remember, these blues are roaming up inside the bay and, in such a shallow environment, tend to be more skittish than their ocean counterparts. Instead of roaring up at full throttle, slowly cruise at least 100 feet wide and up-tide of any surfacing school and allow the wind and/or current to bring your vessel quietly within casting distance. If several boats are working the same pods of fish, get in line and wait your turn. Itâs amazing how long the blues will stay on top when courtesy guides the skippers. As soon as things break down into an every-man-for-himself pattern, the cocktails seem to sound.
Yet another point to keep in mind when chasing small blues is that using light tackle often requires use of a net to end the game. If you choose to use light lines, youâll need to dip the twine with each fish that pushes the three-pound mark as trying to lift a shimmying blue aboard can result in a broken line or â far more scary â a thrown hook. A word to the wise on this subject should be sufficient. Crushing down the barbs makes for an easier release.
EARLY AND LATE
Look for Great South Bay cocktail blues to show in the early morning and late evening in serious rips found off sharp, sloping shore points, and around bridge abutments and narrow pinch points where current flow increases as the tide ebbs and floods. Generally speaking, cocktails are fond of outgoing water but rising tides can be productive along the edge of any serious flat. With a little bit of cloud cover overhead, cocktails will sometimes bite right through an entire tide even during mid-day heat. The same general pattern should hold for any of the South Shore bays and inlets.
While a variety of patterns will work when small blues start busting on top, I like to choose lures that can draw surface strikes even when the fish are not visibly feeding. To that end, my favorite enticers include a small Yo-Zuri Mag Popper in red/white or blue, a three-quarter-ounce Stillwater Smack It, Jr., in mirror blue or gold, or a three-and-a-half-inch long Gags Grabber in bunker finish. Any of these can be worked quickly across the surface with a chugging action occasionally mixed with a light skip or two across the surface. If a fish strikes and misses, continue the retrieve without stopping and the chances are high that it will return for a second or even a third smack â small blues donât seem to zero in quite as well as gorilla blues but they will find the target if given enough chances.
While Iâm not much of a fan when it comes to eating gorilla bluefish, I do find the smaller cocktail version to be quite tasty. They are delicious smoked, grilled or even baked. One of my favorite ways of preparing them is to wrap two fillets in aluminum foil with liberal quantities of butter, chopped celery, onion, garlic, mushrooms and just a touch of cHarissa seasoning. Place the packet on a hot grill or barbecue and allow it to cook for roughly eight minutes or until the flesh flakes easily with a fork. After removing the fillets from the heat, sprinkle them with lemon and then salt and pepper to taste. Serve this up with a fresh tomato salad and an ice-cold brew and you may begin to target the smaller blues even when you know bigger are just a short ride away. Cheers!