Rhode Island: Bluefish Blitzing At Our Feet

by | Salt Water

Bluefish Video

I had a wedding to attend in Newport, Rhode Island. The ceremony took place on the lawn of a sprawling mansion. The lawn overlooked a huge span of water. I was in tears as the bride and groom exchanged their vows and looked lovingly into each others eyes. I was in tears because as I stood there with my tuxedo on and surrounded by decadance, the water was exploding with bait and fish. Seriously, there was acres of birds dive bombing into the water and Bluefish were slaughtering baitfish for as far as my eyes could see. When the ceremony ended, I grabbed my cell phone and called some friends. “Dude, this is insanity you gotta get down here.” Fast forward to 5am the following morning. Jesse shows up and we were casting into the busting and blitzing Bluefish within minutes. We spent some time on shore and then we rented a kyak. We chased some pods of fish around and fly fished to them from the kyak, but we mostly used the kyak for transportation purposes. We would paddle out to various rock ledges a little ways offshore and cast our flies into huge schools of Bluefish. At one point towards the end of the day, the action seemed to fade out a bit. So, we got in the car and started scouting the shoreline. Jesse said, “Yo, I think I just saw a ton of birds in that little cove. Not sure if there was any fish under them.” I replied, “Well, lets go check it out.” We parked the car and walked over the bank into the cove and we could not believe our eyes. The Bluefish were so thick, they were litterally busting at our feet. I caught a bunch of fish until I snapped my rod in 2 places. Jesse polished off the evening casting into the massive pods of fish and hooking some great fighters and jumpers. The sun went down and we could still here the water boiling with fish as we walked off the beach. It was truly an epic day for Bluefishing on the Rhode Island coast. There is just something so cool about seeing such predatory fish tear through schools of helpless baitfish. I love casting my fly into the mix and watching the Bluefish fight for it. I have been fishing for Bluefish in the Rhode Island waters ever since I was a little kid. I would hate for a summer of my life to pass without at least one Rhode Island Bluefish experience. It was great fly fishing with you Jesse. I hope you appreciate Rhode Island and its fishery as much as I do. It is a great place and although its the smallest state in the USA, it certainly produces some big fish and lots of them.

7 Comments

  1. waterwhippa on November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    That blitz just brought a tear to my eye. That has to be one of the greatest things a fly angler can experience. Excellent!

  2. Jesse on November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    When Jeremy makes a phone call and the first thing he can utter out is….”dude!”….. you know something amazing is taking place. This day marked the beggining of something amazing, something I was able to experience because I made that first trip, and because someone else had already, Jeremy. Sometimes you just have to make the trip. This game is all about intensity and even personal sacrifices, for every day like this, there may be 50 where it is the complete opposite. But any true angler looks past those mediocre days where he or she finds themselves soaked in salt water, full of bruises, or without any breakin fish, and looks forward to what is to come. And if you keep driving on…it will come. What came you ask…. well today I landed my first Skipjack Tuna with two very close friends! Awesome!

  3. Ian on November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    unreal video man, looks awesome! ran into a very similar school of bonita out her in San Diego…real cool stuff…Jeremy,how did the rod snap??

  4. jeremy on November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    i am kinda hard on my equipment and my body … running around on slippery ledges and kelp coverd rocks at lightning speed while chasing the pods of fish … .. gets kinda sketchy … i fall allot .. snap and shatter allot of rods in the process … thankfully not bones …

    probably not the smartest method … but something comes over me when the fish are busting just out of range … and i tend to find myself running across slippery shorelines foaming at the mouth .. wide eyed and totally obsessed with getting my fly into the fish … it works for me … but again i smash my body, reels and rods frequently…….

    that was how i fished for them when i was like 10 years old … the difference now, is that my fishing tactics haven’t changed but my body has … falling 3 or 4 feet onto a barnacle covered rock seems to hurt a little more now than it did back than .. but … that’s the game .. and that’s how i fish .. for me to do anything else … would be …. well… not me.

  5. RickW on November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    One word: WOW

  6. NHtrouthunter on November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    WOW is right!

    When jeremy and jesse told me they were thick into blues they were not kidding!

    Once again great work on the video Jeremy !

  7. wrh on November 30, -0001 at 12:00 am

    That was great!! The blitz is unreal. I was wondering how you were going to release a bluefish in that kayak without loosing any fingers!!