Inshore · 60 ft · beaches, bays, inlets and rips

Bluefish

Pomatomus saltatrix. Prime water reaches Gloucester in New England right now (64°F at the surface). Fish it around 10 ft down — that is where 67°F water sits off Gloucester.

Bluefish identification illustration
LaneInshore · 10 fa (60 ft)
Depth it holds7–98 ft
Prime water64–75°F (workable 64–82°F)
Holds in the column0–66 ft down below the surface, over 7–98 ft of water
Judged onsurface temperature (NASA MUR satellite)
Structurenone

The water column off Gloucester

0 ft31 ft62 ft10 ft of workable water0–10 ft · 67–65°F

The strip is the water itself, coloured by temperature from the surface down to the 62 ft surveyed bottom at that spot — one band per RTOFS model level. The outlined stretch is where Bluefish's temperature band (64–82°F) and the depth it holds actually overlap. That thickness is the number that matters: it is how much water you can work, not just whether the spot is warm enough somewhere. One model cycle, not a weekly archive — this holds still while the surface map scrubs.

How it's fished

Metal lures or poppers through bait schools and birds; wire leader.

Region by region — right now

RegionSeasonPrime waterTempFish it atMonths
New England in season reaches Gloucester 64°F ~10 ft
J
F
M
A
M
Mid-Atlantic in season reaches Montauk 69°F 0–60 ft
J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
Southeast Atlantic off-season reaches Cape Hatteras 82°F 16–60 ft
J
F
M
A
M
J
"Fish it at" is where this species' temperature band and its holding depth overlap in the water column, from the RTOFS profile (13 levels, 0–300 m) — the depth to actually put a bait, not just the place. "Prime water" is the furthest sampled station on the 10-fathom lane whose surface temperature sits inside this species' band. It is water, not a sighting report.
Charted grounds on the 10-fathom lane
Cape Cod Canal (East End)
The Mud Hole
Chesapeake Light Tower
Frying Pan Shoals
The Point — Cape Hatteras