Home Forums Fishing Saltwater Best Atlantic Coast Offshore State

Curious to hear what the saltwater crowd thinks. If you could pick one state to do all of your offshore fishing from on the eastern US coast, which state would you pick and why?

Not as experienced as some but NC or Florida would be on the short list

Sure like the New England states, chase bluefin just a few miles from shore.

don't know about now but 35 years a go you could catch all you wanted to of blue fish up to 35 lbs in long Iland sound off the bronks in NY city

I’ve heard bluefish aren’t great for the table. Any truth that to that?

STX, I went on a day trip with a couple buddies out of Ocean City, NJ last month and we came home with 7 yellowfin. The weather sure beat the hell out of this summer we’ve been having.

I always heard the same thing. Pretty good fried in beer batter . Don't freeze well though. Mostly small ones around now. 25 years ago you could surf fish or out on the Chesapeake and catch 10 -15 pound bluefish until you got tired of it.

Ocean City Md and Cape May NJ seem to be popular.

https://whitemarlinopen.com/

https://themidatlantic.com/#top

Anything above the Chesapeake bay is off the list for me simply because I can’t stand the arrogant, big mouth yankee atmosphere. OBX would be my first choice simply due to the fact that it’s a close drive and one of the closest steams out to the Gulf Stream . After that, Islamorada Florida.

Fish cakes makes good use of bluefish.

blue fish will smoke better than mullet . and smoked mullet is in my blood. but it don't make a good dip like mullet or kingfish to much oil in it . but as smoked fish to just eat smoked fish it is hard to beat. the smoked salmon fellows will bust my balls on this but I don't have none to work with here

Saltwater fishing doesn't get any better than MA. If you like to fish offshore you need to go to the canyons fishing.

I've had wonderful fishing in New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Florida. Friends of mine who are avid tuna fisherman have had great success in the Carolinas. Too hard to pick just one, but if I had to it would be Florida. The sailfish capital of the world.

I grew up in RI, on the mouth of "Little Narragansett Bay" so I'd say RI & CT.

We fished for blues, but sold they to the fish market, the only stuff we ate was stripers, blackfish and flats. In the spring we'd fish for "snapper blues" off my yard, and they were good then.

I also grew up at the mouth of Little Narragansett Bay on the Connecticut side.

If I were picking an offshore fishing state I'd pick Massachusetts.

Stonington, Mystic, Pawcatuck?

I'm originally from Avondale, between Westerly & Watch Hill.

I try to get back every couple years to hunt Black Ducks and Brant.

Stonington

Grew up fishing the Watch Hill Reefs, Napatree, and Fishers Island. It was a great place back then.

Great memories! Been to the "blessing of the fleet" a few times!

The smaller ones (1-2 lbs) are decent if you fry them the day they are caught (fresh!). Else, you may as well use them to fertilize the garden in my opinion.

If you want to fish offshore anywhere on SC's or Georgia's coast, you really have to love it because you've got to run 65-70 nautical to get to migrating dolphin, wahoo, blackfin tuna, and bill-fish if that's your goal. I'm jealous as hell of those who live in the Outer Banks region of NC. Being the most prominent landmass point on the east coast not only places it in closer proximinity to gulf stream, it also acts like an extreme narrow bend in a river, which also concentrates and confines migatory fish to a much smaller area. In some instances boats only have a short 15-mile trip to get to the fish which makes for less time and cost than anywhere else in the US for offshore trolling with the exception of FL (more on that). As you see on TV, there's seasonal bluefin and yellowfin there, but also phenomenal almost year-round fishing for wahoo, blackfin, dolphin, and some type of billfish. On winter-weather days you can fish close in for stripers, kings, or fly-fish for little-tuny and false-Albecore within sight of the beach. Fifty years ago, with the exception of BFT, I would have said the same about Florida's south coast but now due to overcrowding, it's overfished to the point of over-regulation.

I never believed it was possible to deplete the fish stocks using a hook and line. I've now seen it happen in Florida and with recreational fishing only for some species.

I think Fisher's has changed some:

https://www.wsj.com/real-estate/luxury-homes/fishers-island-new-york-e1888959

I've seen this as well. When fleets of for-hire vessels anchor over productive reefs and rock piles every day of the year it can and does affect the viability of certain species. While everyone complains about government regulations, restrictions on size and creel limits do have a positive affect.

Bluefish are best described as an acquired taste. Meat is dark and oily. I’ve had it coated with Hellman’s mayo and baked, baked with cognac and smoked and made into a pate. I liked the pate spread the best.
Smaller the blue, likely a little better tasting. We caught several a the RACE which is off Fishers Island and exit’s to the Atlantic and Montauk. The fish were all over 14 pounds, caught jigging.

Jigging monster blues at the Race (especially years ago when it was guaranteed success) is one of life's great pleasures. Bluefish of any size are great fighters. I like to eat them but they need to be eaten fresh. Bleeding them helps as does cutting away the dark meat when preparing.

Bluefish is one of those fish people either hate or like. They are pretty oily so you have to cut out the dark streak along the back. Because they are so oily they smoke up nicely. People who don’t like fish that taste fishy won’t like them. Meat pretty soft and they don’t keep so eat same day or smoke. Some folks fillet then let the fillets set in milk overnight to get a milder taste. Personally I love catching them and like the flavor but then I like mackerel too

Rick

Every Blue I ever tasted was nasty.

Until I was surf fishing with a friend.
He fired up a charcoal hibachi, wrapped the fish in foil with some
spice concoction. It went water to plate in less than an hour.
Maybe it was the oceanside atmosphere, or not.
That blue was darn good!

North Carloina got some good fishing most of the year and the gulf stream is about 40 miles offshore.

We called them snappers and they were the best ...night fishing on a chum line we would catch up to 15-18 lbrs. Smaller ones got filleted the big ones produced beautiful tomatoes.

most of the over fishing in FLA is shrimp boat by catch killing so many small game fish

If you're catching blues, I humbly suggest John Hersey's book Blues. Every chapter ends with a recipe.

https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/blues_john-hersey/406360/#edition=2148737&idiq=2074170

I've done Maine and Massachusetts the last couple years. Have had a blast out of Boston. lost several monster tuna, caught a ton of strippers and sharks. I'm defiantly going back.