What are blueys

Can you tell me what blueys are. I have seen them mentioned for Pike fishing and sea fishing and I would like to know what they really are.

I have spent many hours looking for the answer for this on the web, as it is a question I have been pondering for a while. I have now searched hundreds of web pages and found lots of results from around the world.

The term bluey seems to be used to describe a lot of different fish from around the world, and a few crabs as well. Ruling out a crab pre-packed as a fish (you never know these days) and working on the average size of the bluey in its vacuum pack, I would suggest its not the black spot tusk fish!!

I think it is the Blue Mackerel - Scomber australasicus. Have a look at the references at the bottom of this post, what do you think? Although the size in length, looks a bit large Wikipedia states they are one of the smallest members of the tuna/mackerel family, making it equal to our Mackerel possibly? Consider joey mackerel compared to channel racers.

Blue mackerel are used as commercial Tuna bait. This is surely a lead into the commercial fishing for these fish and the development into the UK market as a frozen fishing bait.

Considering the fact they are meant to give of a great oil trail, that would fall in line with the Tuna/Mackerel species. I also quote from Pelco NZ ltd

“It’s high oil content is well suited for a commercial bait and smoked for human consumption”

So my opinion is that Blueys are blue mackerel, not likely to be caught from our shores, yet a well regarded bait from around the world.

I would love you to comment on this post regarding whether you agree with these findings about blueys.

Referances:

http://www.pelco-nz.com/species.htm

http://www.fishbase.org/Summary/SpeciesSummary.php?id=116

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_mackerel