Posted on January 29th, 2023
Captain Monty Hawkins of the Morning Star has seen some pretty good fishing the past few days and today he saw some of the best tog fishing he’s seen in the past few years.
Tautog 1/29/23 An Old Timey Bite..
Underway pitch black; Dr Gary dropped blocks just as a hint of color rose to our east. We pressed on.
My first stop had two pieces near each other. Both have treated my clients fine over the years.
Today?
Yeah.. Not so much.
Not at all, actually.
Some sea bass.
Not one tog off either piece. Had no current either. I know they live there. Will try it another day.
Curiously we had little auks (dovekie) flying past in droves. I’m used to seeing a few in a day this time of year. My borders go nuts for em sometimes. Today? Large flocks every few minutes. I’ve never seen more of any kind of bird: none of the gulls, ducks, even geese and starlings – flocks of dovekie went past all day.
I’m just looking at a tiny piece of ocean. Weather up north must have sent em packing.
Saw some common dolphin today too..
Ahh well, tough fishery. Brutal sometimes. Getting no bites happens.
On to try another spot.
There we found a touch of SE current and, though any bite would have been better, instead we found a mad dog bite. Just fabulous – an old time bite like I used to see a couple times a week.
For these days? It was the best bite in a few years I think..
Lots of double digit fish with one pushing 20 (pushing – not across!)
..the bite my winter clients dream of.
Also had a nice tag return. This one with a fluke rig from last summer, it lucked out and was released again sans hook.
Great action for a while.. and still one of my very best anglers – a man I’d wager on to limit first with fluke, mahi, goldens, or sea bass – one nameless fellow goose egged.
Ouch!
Used to be we could have that bite 5 or 10 miles out. Even 3! After nearly 15 years of most everyone who was reef fishing targeting sea bass and fluke and putting back tog – they got thick.
Of course, the reason I laid off tog back then was I’d seen first hand – as a front row participant – the total wipeout of every piece we knew about in the early mid-1980s. Coolers full, party boats fishing side by side, no regulation at all – I even saw a 7 or 8 inch tog get boxed. When we finally went back to red hake (ling) & cbass fishing it was because we couldn’t get bit anymore by tog. (Thankfully there were pieces we didn’t know of — brood stock preserves it would turn out.)
Didn’t target what we couldn’t catch. When they did begin to come back from that early 1980s whoopin, my boat’s self regulation/boat regulation from 1992 to 2003 was 3 tog at 16 inches. No one was encouraged to target them.
In the late 1990s most states began federally mandated regulation at 14inches with MD at 5 fish and DE at 10.. Delaware actually had state regs long before anyone else. Old timers like Capt Dale Parsons knew what was coming when they saw sea trout collapse.
And they were right.
By the mid late 2000s good ink and social media had boats going gangbusters on tog trips.
Capt. John Nedelka’s quiet winter fishery no more; I fought to lower the heat & increase spawning production by raising the limit to 16 inches.
There are guys today who swear “their tog” don’t grow that big – past 16 inches – because they’re all a hair under.
Nawww.. C’mon Mate!
They’ll grow if you let them!
It’s just pressure. When a lot of people are fishing an area with a size limited fish, they’ll get culled to that limit – especially a fish with no discernible migration. While a handful of inshore fellows did have regular keepers at 14 inches because not many boats were targeting tog back then — when we had an “Emergency Flounder Closure” in 2008 it taught an awful lot of folks about another fishery – tautog. With many new participants it wouldn’t make any difference what the size limit was – after a season most tog would be under and culled as they grow into legal size.
In 2009 another ‘emergency’ occurred. This time with sea bass. Where the summer flounder closure put intense heat on bay tautog, this time it was the inshore ocean stock of tog.
Boy did inshore tog get pounded ..and all because of recreational catch estimates that aren’t fit to line a bird cage.
What a mess. MRFSS & then MRIP recreational catch estimates have gutted fishery science & management’s common sense. US Fisheries professionals have to use whatever the computer says we caught, whether 170,000lbs of sea bass from Maryland Shore in Sept/Oct 2016 that averaged 1.4lb apiece, or almost 800,000lbs of tautog from NJ Shore in Mar/Apr 2010 — that’s NOAA’s estimate and, by (current interpretation of the) law, it must be used as-is to determine regulations.
Bunch of hooey. I’ve fought bad rec catch data for 25 years. Am within a month of absolute proof the data is garbage. But until several years of video showing boats going out of OC’s inlet are counted? Logical argument would have to suffice. We already know logic and fishermen’s observations don’t count.
At all.
In fact, with not a soul anywhere in management or fisheries science expressing confidence in NOAA’s rec catch data, we’re going to have a several week/month long sea bass closure next year in Maryland – maybe in summer – because VA’s Private Boats are said to have caught the impossible……
Oh blazes.
Anyway, if I made tautog regs we’d have two zones – ocean & bay. Instead of closed, sea bass would always be open at 11 inches & 5 fish – then become much more liberal in season. It’s so much easier to throw a nice tog back when you have a delicious dinner’s worth of sea bass in the cooler already.
I’d let the boys in the bays slug it out amongst themselves. If they want to contract their stock to a 12.5 inch fish (a size limit of 13 inches would result in ‘all’ 12.5/12.75 inch fish within a year) and minimize spawning? So be it.
Out front, however, I’d raise the size limit a half inch every other year. I’d also make the same 3 fish limit I enforced in 1992 standard. I’d further strengthen it by encouraging but one female.. (One female would never be an enforceable regulation. Too much variation.)
In 2031 we’d have an 18 inch size limit and MAD spawning production.. Participants then could decide whether to carry on or not..
With lots of habitat and a twenty inch size limit? Shewww.. Bet there’d be some amazing fishing.
That’s important – build some reef too.
Every reef we build gets colonized by tog within three years.
Some in one year!
Tog Nation!
If you want to help with habitat see ocreefs.org ..
A simple idea – I’ve begun marketing my own salt free spice. Have it online soon – it’s only available at Crabs to Go and aboard now.
Have lived low salt for decades. This is the best way I’ve found to dress meats and fish – many veggies – try it!
Proceeds will build reef!
Cheers
Monty
Check out our YouTube for a 23.4 pound tog caught a few weeks ago!
