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Bluefishes
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The bluefish is a species of very wide distribution. It occurs in both the Atlantic and Indian oceans, and occasionally enters the Mediterranean Sea. It occurs in the Malay Archipelago, Australia, at the Cape of Good Hope, at Natal, and about Madagascar. It has never been seen on the Atlantic Coast of Europe, nor about Bermuda. On our coast it ranges from central Brazil and the Guianas through the Gulf of Mexico, and north to Nova Scotia, though never seen in the Bay of Fundy. From Cape Florida to Penobscot Bay, bluefish are abundant at all seasons when the temperature of the water is propitious, which probably is above 40 degree. The menhaden seems to be their principal food and their abundance is largely dependent upon the presence of that species. The bluefish is a pelagic or wandering fish, very capricious in its movements, varying in numbers at particular localities in different years, and sometimes disappearing from certain regions for many years at a time.
The bluefish is a carnivorous animal of the most pronounced type. As Professor Baird has well said, there is no parallel to the bluefish in point of destructiveness to the marine species on our coast. It has been likened to an animated chopping-machine the business of which is to cut to pieces and otherwise destroy as many fish as possible in a given space of time. Going in large schools, in pursuit of fish not much inferior to themselves in size, they move along like a pack of hungry wolves, destroying everything before them. Their trail is marked by fragments of fish and by the stain of blood in the sea, as, when the fish is too large to be swallowed entire, the hinder portion will be bitten off and the anterior part allowed to float or sink. It has been even maintained that such is the gluttony of this fish, that when the stomach becomes full the contents are disgorged and then again filled! It is certain that it kills more fish than it needs or can use. The amount of food they consume or destroy is incredibly great. It has been estimated at twice the weight of the fish in a day, and one observer says that a bluefish will destroy daily a thousand other fish. It has been estimated that there are annually on our coast from New Jersey to Mononomy a thousand million bluefish averaging 5 or 6 pounds each in weight, and that these eat or destroy at the lowest estimate 10 fish each every day, or a total of ten thousand millions of fish destroyed every day. And as the bluefish remain on this coast at least 120 days, the total destruction amounts in round numbers to twelve hundred million millions of fish destroyed in a single season by this species. These would weigh at least three hundred thousand million pounds. And it must be remembered that in this estimate no account has been taken of those destroyed by bluefish under 3 pounds in weight, vastly more numerous and all engaged simultaneously in the same butchery.
The average size of the bluefish caught on the Florida coast in 3 to 5 pounds and the maximum about 15 pounds. The sizes on the North Atlantic Coast run about the same. The largest bluefish of which we have any record weighed 22 pounds, and had a length of 3 feet.
The bluefish is one of the best of food-fishes, ranking in public estimation next to the pompano and Spanish mackerel. It is a standard fish in all the large markets of our eastern states. The flesh is very sweet and savoury but does not keep well. In some places the bluefish is not yet held in high esteem but is rapidly growing in popular favour.
The bluefish is one of the most active and unyielding fishes that swim. "It can jump higher and come down quicker, dive deeper, and stay under longer" than any other salt-water fish of its size, says Nimrod Wildfire. "Look at his clean build, and it is accounted for; his narrow waist and depth of hull, falling off sharply as it approaches the keel, enabling him to keep well to windward, as if he had his centre-board always down. See his immense propeller behind! No fish of his size is more wicked or wild when hooked. I have sometimes struck a 3-pound blue-fish, and thought I had a 6-pound weakfish, until he commenced jumping, and after giving him considerable play, have at last drawn him in by sheer force, with his pluck not the least abated." Thaddeus Norris describes the method of "squidding for bluefish," which he says is the usual way of taking this fish. The squid is generally a white bone with a hook at the end, or a piece of pewter. The line is of strong hemp or cotton. With a good breeze when crossing a school of these fish, the sport is highly exciting, and great numbers are sometimes taken. We have taken the bluefish in Indian River by trolling with a large Skinner fluted spoon, and found the sport the most exciting we have ever had with any of the fishes of that river.