Post up up your 2019/2020/2021/2022 Blackfishing Pix/Reports/Adventures/Musings

[captmike28]

This was a great Tog season from many perspectives, Rob. The fishing was solid with plenty of keepers on every trip, Enough large fish to make things interesting and, very atypical, not a lot of blow outs. In fact I think I only lost 2 trips to weather this fall and had to shift one to a different date. Usually we lose about a third of our total bookings this time of year.
One more shot tomorrow before I put a wrap on it for the Captain's Table this season. I sure hope we can come close to your most recent achievement!. Maybe even see you on a Cod charter this winter. Happy Holidays!!

 

[Leprechaun]

Fishers Island Tog Season Finale

Switch up our weekend plans late last evening - Mike wanted to sail his boat 2day instead of Sunday, which turned out to be a terrific call. Near-perfect weather made the transit to his deep drops out there a piece of cake. Mike got right on his numbers and we went to work with 8 and 10oz sinkers. Fish after fish - I personally caught at least 20 - for a 2 hour boat total of 2 for the box, in the 3-4lb range. A lot of work for a not so great return. Had to be a better way

So we up-anchored and steamed to one of Mike's pet shallow "jigging drops." Turned out to be one-stop shopping, with us banging away with 1 & 1.5oz jigs in 25' for a boat limit of beauts to a 9lbs6oz brusier for Mike's friend Frank - which he decided to release. Great call! That fish was so ancient-looking and beat-up, we all felt it deserved to live on to make more baby toggies. Just take a look at the pix and I think you'll agree with Frank's decision. I also had my share of keepers, including a pair in the 6lb-class, which fought like tigers on my little Shimano Grappler Type-J spinner.

This was Mike's last trip of the season, his boat will be hauled next week, and I'm glad I was able to help him run the table on blackfish full boat limits this year - a perfect record. Thanks Mike for the trips on your home grounds, now its my turn to produce for you. Hope the open ocean conditions cooperate for a change!

 

[Togilator]

That's one nasty looking tog.Looks like it spent some time in a net or trap.Glad you and Mike had a great east end tog season.Nice to see that fish released.Not going to catch another that looks like that one,Whoever catches that tog again will be able to thank you guys!

 

[Snapprhead27]

Fishers Island Tog Season Finale

Switch up our weekend plans late last evening - Mike wanted to sail his boat 2day instead of Sunday, which turned out to be a terrific call. Near-perfect weather made the transit to his deep drops out there a piece of cake. Mike got right on his numbers and we went to work with 8 and 10oz sinkers. Fish after fish - I personally caught at least 20 - for a 2 hour boat total of 2 for the box, in the 3-4lb range. A lot of work for a not so great return. Had to be a better way

So we up-anchored and steamed to one of Mike's pet shallow "jigging drops." Turned out to be one-stop shopping, with us banging away with 1 & 1.5oz jigs in 25' for a boat limit of beauts to 9lbs6oz for Mike's friend Frank - which he decided to release. Great call! That fish was so ancient-looking and beat-up, we all felt it deserved to live on to make more baby toggies. Just take a look at the pix and I think you'll agree with Frank's decision. I also had my share of keepers, including a pair in the 6lb-class, which fought like tigers on my little Shimano Grappler Type-J spinner.

This was Mike's last trip of the season, his boat will be hauled next week, and I'm glad I was able to help him run the table on blackfish full boat limits this year - a perfect record. Thanks Mike for the trips on your home grounds, now its my turn to produce for you. Hope the open ocean conditions cooperate for a change!


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Awesome way to end the season Capt Mike and Pete! Glad you were able to finally put that grappler to work on some decent tog.

 

[captmike28]

No doubt that nasty Tog has led a tough life. I've seen some deformed fish in my time but none quite like this one.
Hopefully he has learned his lesson and will avoid "crabs with jigs attached" going forward. Playing off Rob Togilator's comment, if that fish is ever captured again it will certainly be recognizable!!

 

[Tigashrk]

I fished Friday and Saturday with my fishy fishing partner for our final trip on my boat.

We fished south of block on Friday with beautiful weather and a nice swell on.

We caught our limit to 9 lbs with most fish between 17-19 inches. Too many shorts to count and some keeper cbass.

Moved south after that and jigged up 10 cod and a few more cbass. A all around great trip with beautiful weather.

Saturday we decided to jig first and tog later. Hit the same spot early am and had a flurry of nothing far from spectacular fishing. Put 20 cod and 14 cbass in the boat in 2 hours. One drift alone filled my boat cooler.

Hit the tog spot at 10:30 and couldn’t buy a keeper! Not one! Head back to montauk at 12:30 to clean our catch and wash the boat. Marina is down to one hose and wanted to make sure I got it before all the boats got back.

Didn’t take a lot of pictures because I just don’t take a lot of pictures to begin with. After my fishy friend and I split the catch I weighed my take, walked away with 26lbs of meat. Times 2 we did pretty good.

I still have acess to a boat in the water throughout the winter. Hopefully get some more trips in if weather stays nice. 2020 sucked but the fishing was good.

 

[cany]

I fished Friday and Saturday with my fishy fishing partner for our final trip on my boat.

We fished south of block on Friday with beautiful weather and a nice swell on.

We caught our limit to 9 lbs with most fish between 17-19 inches. Too many shorts to count and some keeper cbass.

Moved south after that and jigged up 10 cod and a few more cbass. A all around great trip with beautiful weather.

Saturday we decided to jig first and tog later. Hit the same spot early am and had a flurry of nothing far from spectacular fishing. Put 20 cod and 14 cbass in the boat in 2 hours. One drift alone filled my boat cooler.

Hit the tog spot at 10:30 and couldn’t buy a keeper! Not one! Head back to montauk at 12:30 to clean our catch and wash the boat. Marina is down to one hose and wanted to make sure I got it before all the boats got back.

Didn’t take a lot of pictures because I just don’t take a lot of pictures to begin with. After my fishy friend and I split the catch I weighed my take, walked away with 26lbs of meat. Times 2 we did pretty good.

I still have acess to a boat in the water throughout the winter. Hopefully get some more trips in if weather stays nice. 2020 sucked but the fishing was good. View attachment 27568View attachment 27569

Awesome

 

[Leprechaun]

From this:

To this:

To this:

 

[Occh639]

From this to this. Btw...it’s Mojo’s Tog chowder recipe with an addition of celery and sweet corn

 

[movetheboat]

That's one nasty looking tog.Looks like it spent some time in a net or trap.Glad you and Mike had a great east end tog season.Nice to see that fish released.Not going to catch another that looks like that one,Whoever catches that tog again will be able to thank you guys!

When you get a chance can you post about that 16lb you just caught....thanks! and nice going well AGAIN!!! LOL!

 

[Togilator]

Thank you Gene,Here you go.This one was 16.1 lbs caught south of Ocean city Maryland and released.

This was a new personal best and beat a 15 lber I caught about 12 years ago locally on Long Island.Made me feel good releasing that big girl.I Fish with a lot of Talented anglers and it was nice to climb another notch on the ladder closer to them.Other then the transmission taking a dump 120 miles from home it was a incredible day.People that don't do this have no idea of the struggles and cost we go through to catch these tog.

 

[Flukinit]

Congrats Rob well deserved you certainly put your time and money into these trips. Even better job releasing that beautiful fish

 

[Flukinit]

What set up did you use for that beauty?

 

[Togilator]

What set up did you use for that beauty?

It was caught with a United Composites Atlantic rod 701 blank that Capt.Richie sold me and my good friend James Diconio built.Had it paired with a Accurate Tern 300 low gear and 65 lb Berkley X-9 braid.Tog hit a large whole white crab on a samfoo rig that Sam 843 came up with years ago.She was 28.5 inches long and as you can see has not missed a meal in sometime.

 

[movetheboat]

It was caught with a United Composites Atlantic rod 701 blank that Capt.Richie sold me and my good friend James Diconio built.Had it paired with a Accurate Tern 300 low gear and 65 lb Berkley X-9 braid.Tog hit a large whole white crab on a samfoo rig that Sam 843 came up with years ago.She was 28.5 inches long and as you can see has not missed a meal in sometime.

Thanks for the report.....Sam a real tog hunter...thought he would get the record one day...outstanding fish Rob!!

 

[Snapprhead27]

From this to this. Btw...it’s Mojo’s Tog chowder recipe with an addition of celery and sweet corn

@MOJOE can you share that recipe please?

 

[MOJOE]

@MOJOE can you share that recipe please?

snapprhead here you go,, enjoy,, ,,,,,,,,,,,, ><))):>

 

[movetheboat]

I cooked up some tog that I froze using my new food saver......it was awesome and I usually hate it when it's frozen

 

[Leprechaun]

Whelp, that's most certainly a wrap for this season, for sure!

Was scheduled to have Chris/HippyChick haul me home from Freeport on Sunday. But his office general, Suzanne, called Tuesday afternoon and asked if I wanted to bring the Lep home a little early, due to the coming storm.

Yeah, um, does Dolly Pardon sleep on her back? Of course I want her home ASAP!

So she worked me into Chris's REALLY busy schedule for a Freeport Public ramp meet-up late afternoon yesterday. Turns out we beat the snow home, literally by 20 minutes. Thank the Lord!

Last ride down the canal for the season. Really dreary, with a strong ENE blowing. I could just feel the coming storm in my bones:

And home she came - all blocked up, with the four supporting stands properly placed. Engine oil changed, cooling system winterized, all pumps drained, a bit of non-tox RV anti-freeze poured into the bilge, a few 100W light bulbs installed down in there as well, so to keep the worst of the cold away. Once she's shrink-wrapped, my trusty GE dehumidifier will run 24/7 to kill any chance of mold formation. Took a while to come up with this solution, but I gotta tell ya, its really a key to keeping the boat minty-fresh during the worst of Winter's efforts to hurt the interior's surfaces.

Couldn't do my usual pressure washing of the hull, but that will have to wait 'til this messy weather backs off. Squiggy will come by to shrink wrap her on the 30th. Wish it were sooner, but that's the best they could do. The days are long past that I would do my own shrink wrap job, just too much drama for one "now-older" person to handle solo. Anyways, I'm just grateful the fine folks at HippyChick came thru for me. Once again. They are the very best!

Edit: As of 10:00 this morning, the snow was not as bad as they forecast, but still a mess. The wind however was and is every bit of the forecasted speed - plenty strong. I'll get out there shortly and clean the cockpit out. But first a hearty, fortifying, home-cooked Thursday morning breakfast with Mrs. Lep.

And so now begins the miserable off-season, without any certainty of the always much-anticipated Spring Fishing Expos to dull the pain. . . Ugggh. Winter sux for a coastal fisherman here in NY.

 

[Togilator]

Whelp, that's most certainly a wrap for this season, for sure!

Was scheduled to have Chris/HippyChick haul me home from Freeport on Sunday. But his office general, Suzanne, called Tuesday afternoon and asked if I wanted to bring the Lep home a little early, due to the coming storm.

Yeah, um, does Dolly Pardon sleep on her back? Of course I want her home ASAP!

So she worked me into Chris's REALLY busy schedule for a Freeport Public ramp meet-up late afternoon yesterday. Turns out we beat the snow home, literally by a 20 minutes. Thank the Lord!

Last ride down the canal for the season. Really dreary, with a strong ENE blowing. I could just feel the coming storm in my bones:



And home she came - all blocked up, with the four supporting stands properly placed. Engine oil changed, cooling system winterized, all pumps drained, a bit of non-tox RV anti-freeze poured into the bilge, a few 100W light bulbs installed down in there as well, so to keep the worst of the cold away. Once she's shrink-wrapped, my trusty GE dehumidifier will run 24/7 to kill any chance of mold formation. Took a while to come up with this solution, but I gotta tell ya, its really a key to keeping the boat minty-fresh during the worst of Winter's efforts to hurt the interior's surfaces.



Couldn't do my usual pressure washing of the hull, but that will have to wait 'til this messy weather backs off. Squiggy will come by to shrink wrap her on the 30th. Wish it were sooner, but that's the best they could do. The days are long past that I would do my own shrink wrap job, just too much drama for one "now-older" person to handle solo. Anyways, I'm just grateful the fine folks at HippyChick came thru for me. Once again. They are the very best!

Edit: As of 10:00 this morning, the snow was not as bad as they forecast, but still a mess. The wind however was and is every bit of the forecasted speed - plenty strong. I'll get out there shortly and clean the cockpit out. But first a hearty, fortifying, home-cooked Thursday morning breakfast with Mrs. Lep.



And so now begins the miserable off-season, without any certainty of the always much-anticipated Spring Fishing Expos to dull the pain. . . Ugggh. Winter sux for a coastal fisherman here in NY.

You have that boat set up really nice,Surprised you have not put a hard top on after all these years,Regardless that's a sweet ride.Now my real question.

Since there's a code and permit for everything in Suffolk/Nassau counties these days.Are you still allowed to put your boat up on blocks on your own property without some sort of nonsense and fee???
I know if on a a trailer is ok but was honestly curious about putting her up on blocks.I know my neighbor would have a chit fit but they get upset if the sprinkler gets an ounce of water on there fence,