AllyKat
Angler
Mother Nature finally gave us a break on Sunday, but with plans for early Sunday afternoon, I knew the only chance I had was an early morning trip.
Hit up Cow Harbor for some green crabs on Saturday and chatted up Mark and Phil for a while, getting into the October swing of things. Always a pleasure to talk shop with them.
My neighbor and I broke the Inlet at 6:30 on his ride and found a decent 15 kt wind from the north. We gave the bass an hour of our time in 60 ft of water at basically low slack tide. All we managed was a massive gator blue and a couple of sand sharks.
With time not on our side, we decided to do some exploring and see where the fall favorites might be hiding. With the full moon low tide and North wind conditions we played it safe and didn’t get too close to the shoreline in fear of the occasional 3 foot wave forcing us onto a north shore boulder. We settled on a spot in 35 feet to see what was around, figuring we would get action with shorts and Black Sea bass and porgies.
I used a standard rig, neighbor went with the jig. I started the party with a short cbass, and right after Rich had a short tog on. It was some fairly fast fishing with the bait stealers present. A few more short cbass and tog came up, as well as a decent porgy that came home with us.
Just when we talked about moving, the familiar crunch thump tug made the rod tip bounce and I set the hook on a legit keeper size female tog. Feisty ornery fish that was quickly released. Rich got in on the action also with a hard fighting 17 inch male, and I quickly followed with another decent male.
Released the fish and rebaited looking at the clock, knowing we had a half hour left. As we were joking that luckily we didn’t move, a felt the slightest of pulls on my line. Gave it a few seconds waiting for more, but figured my crab was gone. I lifted up and thought I was snagged on the bottom…until the bottom started to swim away. A low “Oh Baby” came out of my mouth as I tried to get the fish off the bottom. Rich quickly reeled up when I asked him to get the net. I gained some line, and the fish took it back. For a few seconds as I thought oh, this is a striped bass, until it started to dig and dive like a black. Hmm..maybe it’s a foul hooked keeper I said, after the 4th run to bottom. The tog finally came into view, followed by Rich’s “Holy Shit!”….fish took another run when it saw the boat, and went halfway back down, but he was done. Slipped the net under and into the boat. We stood there for a few seconds just starting at the beast! Big lipped, buck toothed, grey and white male flopping on the deck. Tape measure showed a bit over 25 inches. Rich did a quick once around the boat but he did not have a scale on board.
So all we could do was snap a few pictures of it. Lifting the fish, I have no doubt it was over 10lbs. Took some photos and I was about to drop it back in until I thought about the fight and how old the fish was and last thing I wanted was to see it go belly up. So we placed the fish back in the net and swam him for five minutes. He was on his side for quite a while but once he showed life and wanted out of the net, I released him and watch the fish swim quickly to the bottom.
We did have once more keeper size tog come up as we finished up the morning and cruised back with the weather laying down.
I wish we had a weight, and maybe a couple of better pics of the fish, but I’m happy with the memory shared with Rich, who confessed that this was the biggest blackfish he has ever seen was glad I twisted his arm to come fishing and be a part of the experience.
Hit up Cow Harbor for some green crabs on Saturday and chatted up Mark and Phil for a while, getting into the October swing of things. Always a pleasure to talk shop with them.
My neighbor and I broke the Inlet at 6:30 on his ride and found a decent 15 kt wind from the north. We gave the bass an hour of our time in 60 ft of water at basically low slack tide. All we managed was a massive gator blue and a couple of sand sharks.
With time not on our side, we decided to do some exploring and see where the fall favorites might be hiding. With the full moon low tide and North wind conditions we played it safe and didn’t get too close to the shoreline in fear of the occasional 3 foot wave forcing us onto a north shore boulder. We settled on a spot in 35 feet to see what was around, figuring we would get action with shorts and Black Sea bass and porgies.
I used a standard rig, neighbor went with the jig. I started the party with a short cbass, and right after Rich had a short tog on. It was some fairly fast fishing with the bait stealers present. A few more short cbass and tog came up, as well as a decent porgy that came home with us.
Just when we talked about moving, the familiar crunch thump tug made the rod tip bounce and I set the hook on a legit keeper size female tog. Feisty ornery fish that was quickly released. Rich got in on the action also with a hard fighting 17 inch male, and I quickly followed with another decent male.
Released the fish and rebaited looking at the clock, knowing we had a half hour left. As we were joking that luckily we didn’t move, a felt the slightest of pulls on my line. Gave it a few seconds waiting for more, but figured my crab was gone. I lifted up and thought I was snagged on the bottom…until the bottom started to swim away. A low “Oh Baby” came out of my mouth as I tried to get the fish off the bottom. Rich quickly reeled up when I asked him to get the net. I gained some line, and the fish took it back. For a few seconds as I thought oh, this is a striped bass, until it started to dig and dive like a black. Hmm..maybe it’s a foul hooked keeper I said, after the 4th run to bottom. The tog finally came into view, followed by Rich’s “Holy Shit!”….fish took another run when it saw the boat, and went halfway back down, but he was done. Slipped the net under and into the boat. We stood there for a few seconds just starting at the beast! Big lipped, buck toothed, grey and white male flopping on the deck. Tape measure showed a bit over 25 inches. Rich did a quick once around the boat but he did not have a scale on board.
So all we could do was snap a few pictures of it. Lifting the fish, I have no doubt it was over 10lbs. Took some photos and I was about to drop it back in until I thought about the fight and how old the fish was and last thing I wanted was to see it go belly up. So we placed the fish back in the net and swam him for five minutes. He was on his side for quite a while but once he showed life and wanted out of the net, I released him and watch the fish swim quickly to the bottom.
We did have once more keeper size tog come up as we finished up the morning and cruised back with the weather laying down.
I wish we had a weight, and maybe a couple of better pics of the fish, but I’m happy with the memory shared with Rich, who confessed that this was the biggest blackfish he has ever seen was glad I twisted his arm to come fishing and be a part of the experience.
