AllyKat
Angler
Planned an early Sunday morning trip. My daughter Ally who worked all day Saturday had to choose between a Montauk trip that leaves the dock at 6, which means out the door by 3:30 or my trip that I wanted to leave at 6am. I thought she was nuts for skipping the Montauk trip.
With the forecasted SW wind to kick up mid morning, I chose to fish on the LI side do as not to get beat up on the eventual ride back across. We were drowning crabs by 6:45 and had instant life at 40 foot depths. A couple of shorts came up when Ally gets tight and let’s out a WHOA!!! WHAT THE!!!! I knew what that meant when I saw her rod doubled over and bouncing. I quick grab the net and get next to her watching her fight the fish, gain line, lose line, gain line, lose line. She said maybe her drag was too light…don’t touch it, it’s fine, let it work. I didn’t see the fish until it popped up from under the boat and scooped it up. There is that solid thud when a big fish hits the deck, as Ally let out an “OMG, that’s the biggest Tog I ever caught!, who needs Montauk when I can catch this right here!”
Fish taped out at 22“ and weighed about 6.5 lbs. She followed that up with another very nice 19 inch fish within the next fifteen minutes….she reiterated “those guys in Montauk are still motoring to their first drop”, and she wasn’t wrong.
We had a great morning with consistent action through the entire outgoing with a fair share of 8 keepers in the box for four of us. We did notice that some of the keepers did not fight as hard as some of the 14-15 inch fish. A few times we were surprised to see we had a keeper on the line when it didn’t feel like one. Water temperature was 58 degrees. Looking forward to the next chance.
With the forecasted SW wind to kick up mid morning, I chose to fish on the LI side do as not to get beat up on the eventual ride back across. We were drowning crabs by 6:45 and had instant life at 40 foot depths. A couple of shorts came up when Ally gets tight and let’s out a WHOA!!! WHAT THE!!!! I knew what that meant when I saw her rod doubled over and bouncing. I quick grab the net and get next to her watching her fight the fish, gain line, lose line, gain line, lose line. She said maybe her drag was too light…don’t touch it, it’s fine, let it work. I didn’t see the fish until it popped up from under the boat and scooped it up. There is that solid thud when a big fish hits the deck, as Ally let out an “OMG, that’s the biggest Tog I ever caught!, who needs Montauk when I can catch this right here!”
Fish taped out at 22“ and weighed about 6.5 lbs. She followed that up with another very nice 19 inch fish within the next fifteen minutes….she reiterated “those guys in Montauk are still motoring to their first drop”, and she wasn’t wrong.
We had a great morning with consistent action through the entire outgoing with a fair share of 8 keepers in the box for four of us. We did notice that some of the keepers did not fight as hard as some of the 14-15 inch fish. A few times we were surprised to see we had a keeper on the line when it didn’t feel like one. Water temperature was 58 degrees. Looking forward to the next chance.
