captmike28
Well-Known Angler
Although I had hoped to extend my Tog season just beyond Thanksgiving, the winds and weatherman had different ideas. So, I ran my last charter of the season with the Frank party yesterday under milder but somewhat breezy conditions.
With the powerful new moon tides and WNW wind I elected to start off in the 55’ depths on my favorite reef off CT. Lines down and within 5 minutes 2 keepers in the 16.5-18” range were in the box. I thought to myself this is too easy, and it was. The short parade started soon after and continued until the strong ebb tide blew us off the piece. Next sailed east to Fishers to try another mid-range drop at a similar depth before the ebb tide began to really cook here. Still a lot of shorts but 4 more keepers of similar size on the Tog found the box, plus 2 Sea Bass including one in the 4# class for Pete. The moon ebb tide takes hold again so we made our way over to my favorite jig spot in 33’ of water and quickly set up on just the right piece.
Here we enjoyed a steady bite for the last 2 hours of the day and managed to fill out the boat limit of fat keepers to 5#. Frank almost pulled off his late season heroics again tying into a very significant Tog on his spinning rod, only to have it break free halfway through the battle. I try not to get too preachy about this and certainly anglers on my boat are free to use whatever tackle they like. However, I still believe that no matter how light you go with the spinning gear and jigs you should use nothing less than a 40# leader to the jig if you want a reasonable chance at boating those real bruisers. I can’t even count how many large Tog we lose each season as folks try to get by with 20-30# leaders only to experience the disappointment of losing another quality fish to line that is so thin that any prior chafing will cause it to break at a critical moment. Anyway, those exciting moments are what keep us all coming back for another try at the big “White Chins”!
So Happy Thanksgiving to all and a very special thanks to all my loyal customers and newcomers who joined me for another record season aboard the Captain’s Table.
Tight lines and Happy Holidays.
Capt. Mike Bady
516-317-5423
PS: For all the Tog enthusiasts out there, it is never too soon to be looking at potential dates for next year. I already have 8 trips on the books for Blackfish 2023 so if you have some coveted dates in mind now is the time to act.
With the powerful new moon tides and WNW wind I elected to start off in the 55’ depths on my favorite reef off CT. Lines down and within 5 minutes 2 keepers in the 16.5-18” range were in the box. I thought to myself this is too easy, and it was. The short parade started soon after and continued until the strong ebb tide blew us off the piece. Next sailed east to Fishers to try another mid-range drop at a similar depth before the ebb tide began to really cook here. Still a lot of shorts but 4 more keepers of similar size on the Tog found the box, plus 2 Sea Bass including one in the 4# class for Pete. The moon ebb tide takes hold again so we made our way over to my favorite jig spot in 33’ of water and quickly set up on just the right piece.
Here we enjoyed a steady bite for the last 2 hours of the day and managed to fill out the boat limit of fat keepers to 5#. Frank almost pulled off his late season heroics again tying into a very significant Tog on his spinning rod, only to have it break free halfway through the battle. I try not to get too preachy about this and certainly anglers on my boat are free to use whatever tackle they like. However, I still believe that no matter how light you go with the spinning gear and jigs you should use nothing less than a 40# leader to the jig if you want a reasonable chance at boating those real bruisers. I can’t even count how many large Tog we lose each season as folks try to get by with 20-30# leaders only to experience the disappointment of losing another quality fish to line that is so thin that any prior chafing will cause it to break at a critical moment. Anyway, those exciting moments are what keep us all coming back for another try at the big “White Chins”!
So Happy Thanksgiving to all and a very special thanks to all my loyal customers and newcomers who joined me for another record season aboard the Captain’s Table.
Tight lines and Happy Holidays.
Capt. Mike Bady
516-317-5423
PS: For all the Tog enthusiasts out there, it is never too soon to be looking at potential dates for next year. I already have 8 trips on the books for Blackfish 2023 so if you have some coveted dates in mind now is the time to act.
