Hogy Fan Report: New Jersey Spring Bluefish on Epoxy jigs

Posted by Capt. Michael Hogan on

My buddy Ace & I had been patiently reading and following up on the fishing reports these last few weeks until we decided to make a run at it this past Friday (5/12). With a baby soon to arrive, we knew this might be our last time taking a run at some fish for a while. Baby Brinkmann is due at the end of this month.

We loaded up our St Croix’s and Van Staal’s and ended up at Island Beach State Park around 2 pm. With some sling packs loaded up with a plethora of Hogy sand eel metals and my personal favorite epoxy jigs, we started launching into the blue abyss. It didn’t take long for us to find out if the fish were there and almost immediately after positioning ourselves onto one of the many sandbars we were both doubled up. For the better part of 2 hours we absolutely hammered the blues, all ranging from 5-18 pounds. Most fish were in the 8-10 pound class, with about a half dozen of the absolute gator gorillas in the 15 plus category. I wish I could give you a single lure and color, but to be honest, we were catching them on all varieties. I’m not one that likes to throw steel leaders so I aptly donated about $100 worth of epoxy jigs to the yellow eyed demons. Every time I lost one, I’d grab the next variety and fire away. All with the same result, an absolute forearm shattering smash and battle. Most of the fish came on the 1-1/4 ounce epoxy, but we needed to up our distance game to the 2-ounce version once it became apparent that we needed to swim off the sandbar.

We had an audience of bait soakers and lure chuckers that were watching in amazement at the beat down we were putting on, and everyone scrambled to find something similar. It didn’t seem to work. In total, we landed and release about 30 blues, and ultimately had to leave earlier than expected due to some forearm and lower back stiffness. The fish just don’t give up….


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  • There’s no doubt that big blues put up a heck of a fight! One of my favorite catches is a gator blue that makes screaming runs, and gets to the kayak chomping those razor sharp teeth!

    Derek Williams on

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