Along the back bays and channels of the eastern seaboard exists an extremely odd-looking species of fish that, despite its willingness to bite and the tastiness of its flesh, has largely escaped the attention of today’s fishermen.

The northern puffer is known to most as the blowfish due to its distinctive defense mechanism. When threatened, the fish expands to three times its body size by drawing in water or air through its mouth. This is the best way for the blowfish, which grows to only about 14 inches, to avoid certain doom from much larger predatory fish. When an angler brings a blowfish out of the comfort of its underwater surroundings, it almost immediately “blows up” by sucking air in through its mouth and closing its throat to hold the air in, much to the delight of any young anglers present.

The blowfish has a mix of olive and orange coloration on its back and sides with a pure white underbelly. They have a very rough outer skin with bristles or small spines all over their bodies, making them rough to the touch, like sandpaper. The skin is loose so the fish can expand when threatened. Some anglers consider the blowfish to be a hideous little creature, while others see it as an underwater wonder; no matter what you think of the puffer’s appearance, you will find them to be one of best-eating fish available to us here in the Northeast.

Older fishermen who have been catching and eating blowfish for many years have told me that the Northern puffer population is highly cyclical, with the fish entering the bays and inlets in great abundance every 7 to 9 years. Every year blowfish are caught in some numbers, but these numbers fluctuate greatly on a yearly basis. The old-timers call blowfish the “chicken of the sea” and relish the thought of filling their freezers when the blowfish arrive in early summer, saving as many as they can for a delightful mid-winter treat after the fish are long gone.

Blowfish feed almost entirely on crustaceans, much like triggerfish, tautog and sheepshead. When crabs move into the back bays and tributaries, the blowfish take full advantage of the full-moon sheds that typically happen every August, September and October. The puffers travel in large schools, blanketing the bottom and foraging on the easily caught soft-shell and shedder crabs. Blowfish aren’t choosy; they will eat blue crabs, green crabs and even spider crabs. Blowfish feed very aggressively with their shell-crushing, beak-like mouths, which resemble the inside beak of a squid. Putting your finger near a puffer’s beak is not recommended, as they can give you a painful bite.

The Good Ol’ Days

Back when I was a youngster fishing Barnegat Bay, I remember thousands of blowfish filing into the bay to stay for the summer. Back in those days, fishermen used a number of methods to harvest the puffers in large numbers. Some anglers would bait a crab trap with bunker or squid and hold onto the line until they could feel the puffers banging around in the trap. Once they felt some puffers in the trap, they would retrieve it very quickly and catch three or four fish at once. Other fishermen used small frog “gigs” fashioned onto the end of a broomstick handle to spear the fish by drifting over shallow water. Most of the kids that I fished for blowfish with would grind the head off of a large galvanized nail, hammer it into a broomstick handle, re-sharpen it, and walk along the shallow shoreline, puncturing any puffer fish they spotted to make them blow up and immediately float to the surface. These methods were used to take hundreds of blowfish a day, and some folks even grew tired of eating them. Back then, however, there was one piece of equipment that was rarely, if ever, considered for catching blowfish – a fishing rod.

Blowfish numbers have declined substantially from what they were in the 1970s, and as the fish became less numerous and more spread out, a rod and reel became the best method for catching the species. In keeping with the old-timers’ theory that these fish are highly cyclical, 2009 showed a great resurgence of the Northern puffer along the Jersey Shore. The numbers were such that it reminded me of the massive runs of blowfish I witnessed decades ago. Hopefully, this trend will continue for a few more years.

Finding Puffers

Anglers have fine-tuned a few techniques for catching large numbers of puffers on a rod and reel over the past few years while the fish were not as abundant. To start, finding a good concentration of the fish is the most important part of bringing home a bucketful of these tasty morsels.

Blowfish are rarely caught by simply spotting them in shallow water, as was common in the past, and now your best bet is pursuing them in deeper water. Look for 8- to 10-foot depths and clean, clear water between 68 and 75 degrees. If there is cloudy water, you will still be able to pick away at the fish, but overall, the cleaner the water, the better.

In 2009, it was my experience that an incoming tide produced twice the amount of blowfish as the outgoing, but the best tides can vary from year to year and location to location. If you’re unsure which tide is best for your area, fish both and the puffers will let you know which tide they prefer. Usually, a slack tide turns the fish off and does not disperse the chum as well as a running tide, so moving water is a must for bringing the fish close to the boat.

To attract as many blowfish as possible to the boat, chumming is essential. Most anglers use a chum pot with heavy weights attached to it to keep it in one spot. A typical blowfish trip will require 8 to 10 blocks of clam chum, depending on the water temperature. Warmer water will disperse the chum faster. A boat with four or five guys fishing should consider using two chum pots, one on each side of the boat, so that everyone is fishing in the slick. Without the use of chum, your chances of loading the boat with fish are minimal. Also, you shouldn’t let the pot run low on chum, or you will notice the fish will start to disperse.

For bait, I like to use fresh sea clams in the shell. I remove the “lip skin” and foot of the clam and use those for bait because they stay on the hook much longer than the soft bellies. I dice-up the bellies of the clam and toss them over the side to enhance my chum slick. Tiny chunks of squid are also an effective blowfish bait. Remember that the blowfish has a tiny mouth, so tiny chunks of bait work the best.

To ensure your boat stays directly over your chum slick, double anchoring is best. To do this, drop the front anchor and let out 30 to 40 yards of line (or more depending on wind conditions), then drop the rear anchor and pull back, taking in your front anchor line until the rear anchor is secure. Be very careful of your propeller when doing this so you don’t make a mess of things; this is almost always a two-man operation. This will ensure that your boat stays directly over your chum slick, which should keep your baited hooks right in front of the fish. The concentrated schools of blowfish tend to hang tight to the dispersing chum. Keep in mind that puffers travel in schools, so if you don’t catch fish within an hour or so, you may want to make a move a few hundred yards to the north or south in order to find schools of fish. In terms of chumming and finding fish, looking for blowfish is similar to fishing for winter flounder.

Rigging for Blowfish

The rod you use to catch puffers should be a sensitive, 5- to 6-foot light-action rod. Puffer fish feed with light pecks that can be difficult to feel, so light line and the light, sensitive rod should help you detect hits.

Due to the fact that puffers have an extremely tiny mouth, very small hooks must be used to hook them. The blowfish is a masterful bait thief, second only to the tautog, the king of all bait-stealers. I like to go down to a size 8 or 10 Gamakatsu red hook, or a size 8 Mustad baitholder hook. I like to use the bait holder hook for two reasons: one, the blowfish has a harder time ripping off the bait, and two, when the hook is in the fish’s mouth, they have a harder time spitting it, as the bait holder barbs will catch on the skin of the fish, giving you an extra bit of time to set the hook before the puffer makes off with your bait.

A high-low rig with a bottom hook that hangs even with the sinker, just touching the bottom, and the other hook 8 inches above that, is best. Although most of the blowfish will be caught on the bottom hook, the top hook acts as an “attractor bait,” bringing attention to both baits. A very light weight, sometimes as small as a ½ ounce, is essential when fishing for puffers. The less weight you use, the easier it is to detect a strike from the light-biting puffers.

Double-headers are not uncommon when the frenzied feeding starts, and because blowfish are heavy for their size, all bigger fish and double headers should be netted to avoid having the fish break the light line or rip the hook out and flop back into the water.

There is one more small tip that will improve your success rates when fishing for blowfish. Puffers rarely tap hard or run away with your bait like other fish. The hit has more of a scratching feel. This is the puffers’ two large teeth, or the “beak” of the blowfish, as it tries to clean your hook without being detected. If you lift the rod tip slowly, the weight of fish will be enough to set the hook for you. Violently setting the hook will almost always result in a missed fish.

Once you have found fish, gotten the touch for hooking them and started putting fish on the boat, 80 to 100 eating-size puffers on a 4- to 6-hour trip is not uncommon. Since there are no size or possession limits on puffers here in the Northeast, you can catch and keep puffers until your boat sinks, but try to use fair judgment on how many you are going to actually clean and eat, which can be a bit of a chore. As you are loading up on puffers, ask yourself several times: am I going to clean all these fish? This should serve as a good gauge of when you have had your fill of puffers.

If you have the opportunity to get out and catch a boatload of blowfish this summer, by all means go! You will join an elite group of anglers that have been enjoying puffers for many years, and you will be able to enjoy one of, if not the, finest-eating fish our local waters have to offer.