Pete, you bring back fond memories of fishing the New Jersey salt. I am not surprised that you caught bluefish on a Big Hammer. Years ago I found an old predecessor of the modern swimbait, the French-made rubber Viv-vif lure. It was a strange no-hatch-match red and white color, but trolling it along the beach off Belmar NJ it caught bluefish.

By the way, were those "flounder" that the Jerseyites were talking about really fluke? At this time of year the prime flatfish there is fluke (aka "summer flounder").

Fluke are more comparable in size, habitat, and angling method to our halibut than flounder are, which leads me to a question for you, a question that also relates to your skirtless buzzbait-plus-swimbait technique. We used to do well drifting for fluke using small single or double in-line blades just ahead of the bait. Do you think that small in-line blades just ahead of a Big Hammer would be effective for casting for halibut (or other local species for that matter) or would they dampen the action?

Bob