Posted on March 27th, 2021
Atlantic Tackle in West Ocean City is now carrying inflatables…check out the vid for more info!
It was a tale of two weathers on the bay today with conditions changing in a major way in just a matter of hours. This morning it was flat calm beautiful with little to no wind, sunny skies and temps in the mid 60s that felt warmer than that. This afternoon it was cloudy, blowing stiff out of the south and though temps were still in the 60s it felt more like 45. The ocean was very nice this morning and Captain Monty Hawkins of the Morning Star was out there learning folks that tog fishing can be good and tog fishing can be tough.
Sun broke clean this cloudless, windless March morning. Though glassed-out calm; a confused swell, (waves from several directions) left no doubt we were on big water.
Guest reef builders,
Christina Pilley of Laurel DE & Nadine Townsend of Ocean View DE – both first time tog anglers – pushed 20 heavy blocks over at Capt. Bob Gowar’s Memorial Reef. We paddled onward.
First drop found a bit of SW current; enough apparently as tog were chewing well. Our first timers caught several. They must have wondered, “Why does anyone think this is a tricky fishery?” Nadine boxed one, Christina then limited with my boat’s “2 fish/only one female” limit.
If they did wonder why, the fish soon showed them. Current slowed as it gradually shifted from SW up to NNW and finally NE. The bite got tougher all the while. Caught some nice ones, but no beasts. Abe Ziti of Sheepshead Bay NY took everyone’s pool money.
At days end the least bit of wind picked up from the south—just barely enough to ripple the surface. That tiny bit was enough to push my rig up her anchor lines and off the piece.
That’s real tog fishin..
Cheers
Monty
My buddy Mike Johnston was out the other day with Jimmy doing some tog fishing and the guys had a great trip. Jimmy landed two double digit fish with the largest one tipping out at over 15 pounds.
Garrett Wingate was fishing north of the route 90 bridge having some fun with the throwback rockfish in this mornings awesome conditions. This fish and some others fell for jigs with swim shads.