Finally some good weather with even a little taste of summer now has water temperatures rising and fish on the move. The first Flounders of the season have been landed hook and line, Stripers have been chasing the baitfish along the coast and up in the Bay and the Tog bite for us has been phenomenal fishing over the wrecks and the inshore reefs.

My days over the last couple weeks have been split between a little boat yard work and a little fishing, the latter of course has been much more fun. We only got out once over the Easter weekend with the windy weather but we managed to get away from the docks three of our last four scheduled days this past weekend and each and every trip we have made has met with a limit or near limit catch of nice fat Tog for the entire boat including the crew! Water temperatures have crept up past the mid forties and at times closer to fifty degrees on the surface and it seems to have been the magic key we needed to have some consistent and almost what I would call predictable Tautog fishing. They actually bit when you expected them to.

Last weekend was the first trip that we really nailed the fish in what I would call an inshore area; fishing within ten miles from the beach. Prior to that it seemed like I had to get a little further off the beach and in some deeper water to get the best bite. We fished pretty much inshore all weekend and at times it seemed like the fish were so aggressive in their feeding pattern that they were actually fighting over the baits that we dropped down to the structure we were fishing. We made it out on Thursday with just a light crowd saving me from the boatyard and from the moment the baits hit the bottom over our first wreck it was nonstop game on! We made a pretty quick and easy limit that day and practiced a whole lot of catch and release on the plump females that are now getting pretty heavy with roe for the pending spawn.

The rest of the weekend we saw similar action, they would pretty much bite whenever the current was running and would only slow up when the tides were changing. As with typical Tog fishing action, some lucky or skillful anglers (you know who you are) would excel right out of the gate making short work of an easy limit and throwing fish back while others were trying to figure out why their hooks always came up without the bait that they had just put on. The fish cooperated nicely though and pretty much allowed everyone to eventually figure out the bites and get in on the action as the day would progress. Saturday was the slowest start that we had, there was a steady pick of mostly keeper sized fish early on with the flood tide but later in the day after the current switched directions it was like the proverbial "light switch flick" and the fish just came on like gangbusters for us. When they were biting their best there was a lot of throwbacks in the mix, some anglers told me that they had landed over twenty or more fish throughout the day. Our biggest fish was just a little over ten pounds but the majority of what we kept would range in size from about three to five pounds. As for variety, it was pretty much Tautog however we did see quite a few Spiny Dogfish Sharks, and Sundays trip we landed a couple dozen fair sized Red Hake including one whopper that tipped the scales at just under five pounds. They were a nice bonus to a full limit catch of Tog for the entire boat!

There is no denying that our Tog fishing so far this year with our regular All-Day trips has been pretty good. I almost feel like we have been dodging a bullet with our continued success, Tautog fishing certainly isn't always as good as it has been for us so far this spring. I do believe however that we will continue to see more trips like we have encountered though until the season ultimately comes to a close on May 11th. Tautog always seem to feed most aggressively given water temperatures like we are experiencing right now up until the temperatures begin to reach the mid sixties when the fish will become less assertive in their feeding pattern. Our outlook is good for continued success and we won't have to run too far to be able to get in on the action, most of the time we will only have about an hours running time from the dock to the fishing grounds maximizing our fishing time.

The best set ups for Tog usually consist of a six to seven foot medium action rod and reel capable of fishing with up to ten or twelve ounces of lead and line of at least thirty pound test. I am a firm believer in the high tech braided Spectra lines such as Power pro or Spiderwire there is virtually no stretch in these lines like you will see using just the monofilament. The absolute deepest that we will fish now for these Tog will be in about 100 feet of water but for the most part its only going to be between forty to sixty feet deep. We provide the bait, we have been seeing good success with both the Crabs and the Clams. Some anglers have also been having success with Shrimp however we do not supply them so if you want them you will have to bring your own. Dress warm even though we have seen some beautiful days it's usually a little cooler out on the Ocean especially when we get a breeze blowing across the cooler water. You can always shed some layers when it heats up.

Starting this Thursday we will resume our seven day a week schedule with the regular All-Day trips. The odds of getting out every day will depend greatly on the weather. We know it's not likely that we will sail everyday but at least if it looks like the weather is going to be in our favor we won't be sitting at the dock wishing we were scheduled for fishing. We will run our first night trip for Drum Friday April 26th. Watch the weather, pick your days and remember to give us a call if you want before you travel so we can give you a good idea of what to expect on any given day. I will try to update the report every week now as the fishing season kicks off and also check us out on facebook from the home page and hit like for any daily updates or pictures that I may have posted there. This will be a good way to keep tabs on any changes between reports and I will also post all the pictures that we get while we are out.t

If you would like anymore information about trips sailing out of the Wharf or you would like to book a private charter or reserve space on a special trip please give us a call at (302) 645-TUNA.

 

Until Next Week Happy Fishing!

Capt. Rick Yakimowicz
Thelma Dale IV
catchfish@verizon.net