I have found when the blues get real aggressive it pays to have lures and flies set up or designed for the task. When it comes to flies its simple, just use all the lousy ones you have with big hooks. Lures are a bit different. I’ve found what works best are floating lures with a single barbless hook. As for lure choices we’ve all got lures that we don’t use. Many were bargain bin lures that didn’t work out. These are great for frenzied bluefish. Usually they have cheap treble hooks on them. That’s the first thing I do, take them off. Split ring pliers are best. Leave the ring on the rear part of the lure but remove any further up on the lure and save for other applications. If the hooks are still good I save them too. If not they get tossed.

My preferred hooks are Mustad O’Shaughnessy in stainless. The size depends on the lure and will run from 5/0 to 8/0 but I use 6/0 the most. I also use open ended siwash hooks like the ones that come with Krocodile spoons. The Mustads don’t have an open eye but it isn’t hard to remedy this. You just need a few tools; a punch, hammer and pliers or vise grip. To open the eye, place it on a board and hammer the punch into the eye. It will open up and allow you to place a barrel over it. Then use the pliers or vise grip to close the eye. The other end of the barrel gets placed on a split ring that’s attached to the rear of the hook.  Then with my Dremel Tool I grind the barbs off of my hooks. I find the fiberglass grinding discs to work best for this. When I grind off the barb I like to make a conical point. The round point makes a puncture and unlike a cutting edge won’t widen the hole. Cutting edges are needed when a hook has a large barb but since I’m removing the barb there isn’t any need for the hook to cut anymore. A conical point functions like a needle and makes a nice puncture and as long as you retain pressure the fish won’t come loose.

The o th er thing that’s nice is when you do release pressure a high percentage of time the fish will get off. Bluefish can be difficult to deal with so if I don’t have to I prefer not to. If the fish doesn’t get off on its own accord removing a barbless hook is very easy.