May 18, 2016 — I was standing in my driveway one recent morning when my neighbor approached me with a dazed look of shock on his face, that reminded of something from the movie “Tremors.”
“There’s some crazy stuff going on in the river,” he said, referring to the Navesink, which runs near our homes. “I’ve never seen anything like it in my life.”
He proceeded to tell me of the incredible amount of giant bluefish he and a group of locals had caught the previous night. Menhaden, the baitfish the blues were chasing, were beaching themselves to avoid their jaws, he said.
He showed me metal wire leader that a chopper blue had bitten clear off someone’s line. Evidence of the sheer viciousness of these yellow-eyed choppers.