In the following weeks, we went back to this location as well as other shallow areas in Narragansett Bay, and we continued to catch a mix of stripers and large blues on topwaters.

It made for fantastic topwater action with light gear and small plugs. That day delivered dozens of bluefish in the 10- to 18-pound range along with that monster fish. This Mother of All Bluefish measured out at 40 inches and I guessed it was in the mid-20-pound range, not far off the Rhode Island state record, a 39-inch 26-pounder. Steve inched the fish toward the boat until I was able to clamp the Boga Grip over its lower jaw. The Heddon Super Spook is a great topwater lure when the blues show up. That’s when we realized it wasn’t a striper-it was a huge bluefish. I was about to start the motor to go after the fish when it slowed and shot out of the water like a missile. We both had visions of his spool of 12-pound-test mono being emptied out. It was almost unstoppable, a far bigger fish than those we had already landed. It hit and then immediately peeled line out. Steve hooked into a fish that we initially thought was a large striper.

Don’t be surprised if you catch the biggest blue of your season (or even your life) this spring. We could see the wakes of big blues following the plug back to the boat on just about every retrieve-and they were all big, “‘gator” blues of 10 pounds and up. They were in such shallow water that I had to stand in the front of the boat to keep one eye out for rocks and the other on my spook as it danced back and forth on the surface. My brother Steve and I switched to surface plugs and had an afternoon of amazing fishing for big blues.

Gator bluefish