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Bluefish
OpenPomatomus saltatrix
The NC rulebook, translated for the Banks.
The Short Version
North Carolina sets the keep floor at 12" — measure carefully, short fish go back. The daily creel is 3 per person per day (3 over 12"), and the fishery is open through the whole calendar year.
Keep Size
12"
Size fish must clear to be kept
Run the tape from the snout to the far edge of the tail pressed flat together — a pinched tail adds the half inch that decides a citation.
Daily Creel
3 per person per day (3 over 12")
What one angler may take per day
Counts are per person unless the rule says "per boat," and they aggregate across everywhere you fished that day — sound, surf, and ocean all land in the same tally.
Season Window
Year-round
When harvest is legal
Open through the year unless an emergency closure posts.
Where It Stands
Open
Harvest is legal; emergency in-season shutdowns are rare but do happen — glance at the DMF proclamations page anyway.
Choppers in the Fall Surf
Bluefish run the entire 100 miles of OBX beach, but the fish people remember are the fall choppers — 8 to 15 pounds of teeth that hit a mullet rig on a finger mullet and take the whole thing. October into December, the Avalon Pier rail and the Nags Head surf at first light are where it happens.
Local practice: steel leaders or heavy fluoro, and keep your thumb off the spool. The limit structure rewards keeping the smaller tailor blues for the grill and releasing the big breeders.
The Fine Print
- •12" total length minimum.
- •Three fish over 12" per angler per day; no limit on blues under 12".
- •Bluefish school the whole NC coast and are the backbone of the fall pier and surf bite on the Banks.
- •Rig with wire or 60-lb fluoro — their teeth will strip a bare leader in one run.