Four members of the Gateway Striper Club experienced a bluefish blitz of epic proportions in the Atlantic Beach surf on Friday, November 6th that they are likely to remember the rest of their lives. The insane bite not only produced a pending New York State record bluefish of 25.25 pounds, but the four anglers also lost count of the number of giant blues they beached between 18 and the low 20-pound class.
All had a number of blues hitting the 20-pound mark, according to Frank Mackney, one of the four club members.
The record chopper was landed by Chris Vorhees on a Sebile Magic Swimmer. It was released after being weighed and photographed by Frank. Two other club members witnessed the weighing on a New York Surf Fishing Contest certified scale. %pullstart%To put things in perspective, many veteran surfcasters consider catching a 20-pound blue the equivalent of beaching a 50-pound striped bass.
%pullend%According to Frank, the beach was littered with peanut bunker frantic to escape the slaughter, which also took a huge toll on tackle. He figured he lost about a dozen plugs over the course of the blitz, and estimated that each angler caught and released between 25 and 30 of the giant blues.
The current New York state bluefish record is held by Peter Weber, Jr. who had a 25-pound bluefish weighed in at Montauk, NY on October 30, 1998.
