Thought I would post this helpful article again.
Togging Tips Written by Capt. Mathew List.
As the fall weather patterns settle in over the Jersey coastline the beaches clear out, the jet skis and fun boats get put away for the season, the night time comes a little quicker and lasts a little longer taking the battering 90 degree temperatures along with it and the Blackfish fishing or Togging gets red hot! Toggers across the region are tying dropper rigs, stocking up on crab, booking trips with their salt of choice and getting the gear ready for tog of wars. When it comes to these fish, New Jersey is the center of the fishing universe.
The name Tautog originates from the Narragansett Indian Tribe and was introduced to the English language back in 1643 by the co founder of Rhode Island Roger Williams. Its distribution territory ranges from Georgia to Nova Scotia with the heaviest concentration of fish from Cape Cod to the Chesapeake Bay. The world record for this fish is 25 pounds caught right here in New Jersey! The fish can be found on inshore hard bottom habitats including wrecks, reefs, rocks, mussel beds, sod banks, as well as bridge and dock pilings. Its diet includes almost all mollusks, mussels and crustations that live within the fish’s habitat. In other words these fish love to eat crab, mussels, clam and any kind of shrimp they can chew on. The most fascinating fact about these fish is that they feed during the peak hours of daylight and will find a nice protected crevasse at nightfall and go into a hibernate sleep like state until the sun rises the next day.
Ok, enough nerdy facts. Lets talk about catching these fish. Tog are a very visual predator that loves a little color in your rigs presentation. Painted jigs and led weights, rubber color coated hooks, and colored beads have helped produce many one hundred plus fish days for my crew and myself, but more important than any visual attractant is the bait you are using. These fish can be both voracious and picky at the same time depending on what kind of seasonal crab are present in the habitat. The right bait will make the difference between one or two fish and an arm stretching day.
The presentation of your bait is equally important. When using crab we take a few extra steps to ensure the catch. First is declaw your crab, more times than not a tog will peck around a crab with a claw on testing it’s vulnerability causing the anxious angler to swing away and come up empty. Not saying one can’t catch with the claws on, but taking them off will give the angler a better chance of bringing fish over the rail, nobody likes to get pinched, not even a tog. Second take off the legs and shell. We call this “the meatball method” We will drop down whole green crab or whiteleggers deshelled with no legs or claws and let the fish chew when we arrive to a hard bottom area. After numerous taps we will then set the hook often pulling up the largest fish of the day. This accomplishes two goals; the crab juice and particles flying around the structure create a chum slick of crab parts under your boat, and that taps into the competitive nature of this curious fish. The smell of food and vibrations of feeding activity will bring the larger tog from their holes to get in on the feast. The often cautious, larger, older , more savvy tog will throw it to the wind when you tap into their competitive appetite with the crab that’s in season and ready to eat.
How you put your baits on the hook is often very overlooked. Always make sure your hook point is hidden inside the crab weather using a jig or rig. Tog will bite, tear and pull at your bait, and the stabbing of a hook point will cause the fish to stop biting all together spooking them out. Insert your hook inside the leg socket that you pulled off in preparing your crab and hide it well inside the underbelly, this will allow the tog to chew away and give the angler notice to set the hook at the right time.
The right equipment is also important, a strong well made conventional reel and a soft tipped rod with lots of backbone will handle any tog that comes along. Just be sure to bring these fish up slow if using a high speed reel, if the angler brings the fish up too fast the change in pressure will cause its swim bladder to expand too rapidly and will not allow the fish to descend back down after its release. No Tog deserves to be Sea Gull food. I use a G Loomis Bucara Stick rod combo with an Atlas Legend 200 reel for all of my tog fishing. I like the light weight of the combo for swinging at fish all day as well as the soft tip of the Bucara stick for detecting when the fish is present. I’ve playfully named this combo my “wreck saber” The Atlas reel is strung with 30lb braided line but we use long 5-10 ft 40-50lb fluorocarbon leaders to add some stretch to the line and to hide the line from the Tog’s excellent vision. Both Octopus style and Virginia style hooks work well in making your dropper rigs for tog, size 2-4 octopus hooks will cover any big fish you will extract from a wreck.
Aside from these helpful little pointers, an excellent, experienced wreck fishing captain or backwater guide is crucial. This will go a long way in ensuring a safe and fun day of fishing. Lucky for us many of the best tog fishing captains in the world can be found in our state! Anchoring on a wreck is both difficult and dangerous, it is best to learn from an expert before trying without prior experience. Remember that no fish is worth docking on a jetty for the day. Have a wonderful Fall fishing season to all and Tight lines!
