NYS DEC LI SOUND TOG SURVEY

[Chinacat]

I received this from NYS DEC by e-mail and would assume they have my info from the saltwater registry and many other peeps got this as well.
Personally, I don't fish in the sound for Tog often enough to provide any legitimate info.
I have no idea if this survey helps or hurts the recreational community but figured I'd pass it on to anybody that may want to participate.

DEC Delivers - Information to keep you connected and informed from the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation

​

Long Island Sound Tautog Fishing Study

Dear Recreational Angler, Anglers enjoy fishing for Tautog (also known as Blackfish) in Long Island Sound. Unfortunately, the Tautog population has declined, resulting in a shorter fishing season and a smaller daily limit. University of Connecticut researchers have developed a survey to explore different management options that could enhance your fishing experience and rebuild the Tautog population. Please join us in helping to improve fishing for Tautog! Go to our survey at https://tautog.research.uconn.edu/ny1/. This survey will take about 13 to 17 minutes for most people to complete. You don't need to finish it in one sitting - click the link again, you can go back to the survey and continue from wherever you leave it. You will be entered into a lottery to win one of ten $100 gift cards if you finish the survey and voluntarily provide your email address. Your privacy will be protected: all of your answers will be kept strictly confidential within the research team. We also have a limited number of paper surveys available. If you prefer one, email us at [email protected] or call us at (860) 486-4692, providing your email and your home state (NY), and we will mail you the hard copy! Thank you for participating in our study!

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation respects your right to privacy and welcomes your feedback | Update preferences or unsubscribe | Learn more about DEC Delivers.
Connect with DEC: http://links.govdelivery.com:80/tra...9&&&https://www.youtube.com/user/nysdecvideos
Basil Seggos, Commissioner​

 

[george]

Thanks for posting this. CT has some really good numbers on what's happening there. There is no directed pot fishery there. Some of their fisheries managers want to know what I've been asking for over 15-years - How many pots are in NY waters targeting tog.

 

[JoeBfishing]

Took the survey and made reference to the potters in the Western LIS NY. Crying shame to watch these potters go out sometimes 2-3 times a day,picking up and dropping pots. Unmarked as well strung along all the best pieces in the area.
Bring back the blackfish and place in holds at the dock. 25 a day or per trip I’m told. Going on 15 years of taking 14”min. Sure throw back the larger ones that lay the most eggs. Now that we can barely catch a 16”er anymore and they’re just short! Of course we “recreational” fisherman are going to keep it. I want to eat blackfish.?...
I can here it now...Papa Joe, What’s a Tautog??

 

[george]

Took the survey and made reference to the potters in the Western LIS NY. Crying shame to watch these potters go out sometimes 2-3 times a day,picking up and dropping pots. Unmarked as well strung along all the best pieces in the area.
Bring back the blackfish and place in holds at the dock. 25 a day or per trip I’m told. Going on 15 years of taking 14”min. Sure throw back the larger ones that lay the most eggs. Now that we can barely catch a 16”er anymore and they’re just short! Of course we “recreational” fisherman are going to keep it. I want to eat blackfish.?...
I can here it now...Papa Joe, What’s a Tautog??

This Admin and the CT admins get along fine and this Gov has been there for anglers in NY. It's just a matter of time before all potters have to register their pots just as it was done in the lobster fishery.

 

[BennyV]

I hate to be that guy but, the rape of the Western LIS has been going on for years basically unchecked. Will probably continue until there is any sort of real repercussions. Registered pots sound good on paper, but in reality it’s a bandaid on a broken arm.

Have registered pots, but start actually enforcing the laws already on the books.

 

[JoeBfishing]

This Admin and the CT admins get along fine and this Gov has been there for anglers in NY. It's just a matter of time before all potters have to register their pots just as it was done in the lobster fishery.

How much time, will there be any left? It’s really almost too late in my honest opinion. By the time they enforce it. The potters will have moved on with the NY issued potting or trapping permit for Porgy!?

 

[george]

I agree Benny, but getting an idea on the number of pots should help us get a lot of them out of the sound. I just can't see anyone justifying settion hundreds of pots when they have a 25 fish trip limit. Also, don't forget there's a new tag system in place this year for coms that will help.

I'm very optimistic that we can bring them back. Many are resident fish and we have no one to blame but ourselves if we don't. We have control over what we want that fishery to look like. It may take time, and it will probably never get back to where we were just 10-years ago. But I do think we can bring them just as we did striped bass.

 

[BennyV]

I agree Benny, but getting an idea on the number of pots should help us get a lot of them out of the sound. I just can't see anyone justifying settion hundreds of pots when they have a 25 fish trip limit. Also, don't forget there's a new tag system in place this year for coms that will help.

I'm very optimistic that we can bring them back. Many are resident fish and we have no one to blame but ourselves if we don't. We have control over what we want that fishery to look like. It may take time, and it will probably never get back to where we were just 10-years ago. But I do think we can bring them just as we did striped bass.

I’m with you George. I just think that certain individuals will either not comply or if they do they’ll complain that fishing is so bad they need a few hundred pots in order to get 25 per day.

In my area it was a select few individuals that broke the rules. Numerous complaints filed. Little or nothing done. I remember one guy in particular who had his license pulled. A few months later I find out his nephew had a license running the same boat and conducting business the same way.

The progress that was made with striped bass stocks was pretty amazing. The big difference is that blackfish for the most part don’t migrate like bass. They grow extremely slow as well.

I think if done right we can potentially turn the tide, but we need buy-in from all parties involved. Along with swift justice for offenders.

 

[JoeBfishing]

Yup, know it well and watched them raping the this end for the last decade and half from when I put it in April to when I yank in November... Used to be early December but I’m to old for that. Brrrr..
I don’t think George can see that activity from where he comes out of? Don’t care! But it was nothing but heart wrenching that we have to sit back and watch this because there is such an appetite for our tasty togs abroad!!$$$
I guess they ate all of theirs??

 

[BennyV]

Yup, know it well and watched them raping the this end for the last decade and half from when I put it in April to when I yank in November... Used to be early December but I’m to old for that. Brrrr..
I don’t think George can see that activity from where he comes out of? Don’t care! But it was nothing but heart wrenching that we have to sit back and watch this because there is such an appetite for our tasty togs abroad!!$$$
I guess they ate all of theirs??

Yep I hear ya.

I remember togging on the airplane wreck in December on the Riptide III. Freezing my nuts off. Good old days.

 

[Capt13]

How much time, will there be any left? It’s really almost too late in my honest opinion. By the time they enforce it. The potters will have moved on with the NY issued potting or trapping permit for Porgy!?

Blackfish are very prolific ....... I don't think it will ever be too late. The money needs to be taken out of the fish for it to turn around. Maybe a 5 year no sale of blackfish. Recreational anglers have been selling blackfish as well as comms, all the way back to the eary 80's. (my personal knowledge only). During the late seventies I remember the lobster guys complaining about having to throw back, at times, 1000 lbs a trip. They were only worth ten cents a pound back then ...... not worth keeping to sell.

 

[JoeBfishing]

Wow, sounds like they were a nuisance back then. I wasn’t fishing in the area until 88...I remember catching more bergals than keeper blackfish. I remember catching plenty of lobsters in my 5 traps with my resident non-commercial permit. Ate good back then.
All changed with the lobster larva kill off in the western Sound. I hope your right Captain and I agree with you about a no sale of blackfish.??

 

[fishdawg]

Blackfish and fluke are in the same boat in the western sound. Waaayyyyyyy too much pressure on them from all angles. ..... And with so so water quality. Any body ever fish at 11b on a nice day for blacks in November? Probably a thousand hooks in the water and a keeper black has zero chance. Fish potters? Really? I dont know. Maybe they are to blame. Let's face it. Loads of pressure on too few fishing spots that everybody knows about.

 

[Mbg75]

Pots are a problem in the central sound too. Some spots like the pipeline are covered.

 

[BennyV]

Blackfish and fluke are in the same boat in the western sound. Waaayyyyyyy too much pressure on them from all angles. ..... And with so so water quality. Any body ever fish at 11b on a nice day for blacks in November? Probably a thousand hooks in the water and a keeper black has zero chance. Fish potters? Really? I dont know. Maybe they are to blame. Let's face it. Loads of pressure on too few fishing spots that everybody knows about.

Blackfish and fluke are in the same boat in the western sound. Waaayyyyyyy too much pressure on them from all angles. ..... And with so so water quality. Any body ever fish at 11b on a nice day for blacks in November? Probably a thousand hooks in the water and a keeper black has zero chance. Fish potters? Really? I dont know. Maybe they are to blame. Let's face it. Loads of pressure on too few fishing spots that everybody knows about.

Fish pots and all the ghost traps have done far more damage to the stocks than hook and line.

 

[george]

Pots are a problem in the central sound too. Some spots like the pipeline are covered.

Blackfish and fluke are in the same boat in the western sound. Waaayyyyyyy too much pressure on them from all angles. ..... And with so so water quality. Any body ever fish at 11b on a nice day for blacks in November? Probably a thousand hooks in the water and a keeper black has zero chance. Fish potters? Really? I dont know. Maybe they are to blame. Let's face it. Loads of pressure on too few fishing spots that everybody knows about.

Recs fished there for decades with no minimum size, full year of fishing, and a ten fish bag limit and the socks supported a very exciting fishery. Now recs are down to 3 or 4 fish, and a very short season. In the meantime pots catch year round and at $25 per pound live in the illegal marketbeveryone wants in. Many charter and party boat owners have had no choice but to get in on it now. So instead of taking recs fishing, which is their first preference, they've been forced into the pot fishery.

I'm hoping the above study will lead us to regulation of the pot fishery in New York.

 

[fishdawg]

Does anyone know the number of blackfish a commercial fish potter can take in a day and what is the size limit?

 

[george]

Does anyone know the number of blackfish a commercial fish potter can take in a day and what is the size limit?

They're allowed 25 fish per trip at 15-inches one trip daily.

 

[flounderjoe]

George your correct I started fishing the sound in the mid to late 70s there was no size limit on blackfish and hardly anybody fished for them and they werent worth a a cent as a market fish .There was plenty of fish then spring summer and fall.Met my to be wife in 79 and her father was the first true blue blackfisherman I met .Between him and a handfull of his buddies the blackfish from about Northport to wading river they were the only pressure those fish had to deal with from a recreational fishing and of coarse the lobster pots .I remember snorkeling the jetties to port jeff harbor and the lighthouse at the middle grounds were covered with blackfish of all sizes in august.Then not sure when it happened in the last 15 or so years everybody became a blackfish sharpie .With modern fishfinding and GPS it became a piece of cake finding and staying on the fish .A slow growing fish like them can only take so much pressure from from all types of fishing recreational and commercial.And trust me in the name of conservation calling a certain sized fish "A KEEPER" gets them thrown in the fish box or bucket i remember the first size limit on tog was 7inchs forgot what year but we never would of kept a 7inch fish back then and most other people too but now they were measuring them and Yep its a keeper ! I took the survey its geared more to conn. The one comment i made was NY and Conn have to be in line with the same regs what ever they become its the same body of water !

 

[Roccus7]

Don't forget that small togs were THE live bait for stripers in the late 70s too. I'm sure the Orient and Montauk boys put a big hurt on the little ones back them...