Delaware's Record Bluefish Hooked Itself

The bluefish on Delaware’s record list never took an angler’s lure. It grabbed a fish the angler had already hooked, and hooked itself.

The story

On Monday, November 16, 2015, Dr. Luis Mispireta of Stevensville, Maryland, was fishing the Del-Jersey-Land Inshore Reef at Site 13. He had a black sea bass on the line and was reeling it in when a bluefish struck the sea bass and hooked itself. What followed was a fight to match the fish’s size. He landed a bluefish 43 inches long.

DNREC’s release gave the weight as 24.8 pounds. The agency’s 2026 records table lists 24 pounds 13 ounces, which is the same fish. It beat the previous Delaware bluefish record by almost three pounds.

Where the sources disagree

A photo caption in DNREC’s release says 28.4 pounds. The text of the release and the records table both point to 24.8, so we treat the caption as an error and use the record table’s figure.

Why it’s remarkable

DNREC’s reef guide describes bluefish as a fish that does not rely on structure but still shows up around reefs. This one found its meal on the end of an angler’s line, over a reef that holds sea bass and tog, which gamefish hunt around.

The reef behind the record

The Del-Jersey-Land Inshore Reef is the centerpiece of Delaware’s reef program, with sunken vessels as part of its structure. DNREC lists 14 permitted artificial reef sites in Delaware Bay and the Atlantic, 12 of them with deployed material. The reef fish are tautog, black sea bass, scup, spadefish and triggerfish, and gamefish such as bluefish, striped bass and weakfish hunt baitfish around them.

DNREC advises anglers to use GPS and a fathometer to find the structure. Expect to lose rigs on hard bottom. Current rules include a 12.5-inch minimum and 15-fish limit for sea bass, a 16-inch minimum and 4-fish limit for tautog with a closure from May 16 to June 30, and a 17.5-inch minimum for flounder starting June 1.

A record on a hooked fish

Mispireta was reeling in a black sea bass, the kind of fish the reef is known for, when the record bluefish struck. That makes the catch a reminder that structure fishing can produce more than the target species. A bluefish that already hunts around a reef is in the right place when a hooked fish struggles on the line.

Fishing the water

The Delaware artificial reefs guide covers where the reefs are, the rules and the tackle. A catch like this one is rare, so treat it as a story and not a plan.

For the full records list and the other stories, see the Delaware Dock Tales index.