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Interesting paper on tautog movements
All the tog reports reminded me that a guy that got his master's degree while I was there studied the movement patterns of tautog. It's a pretty cool study, and he did a really good job with it. It might be worth playing around with the timing of your trip to see if you can improve your catch rate. Here's a link to his paper:
http://www.mediafire.com/?39uaxv99qflwvwn
It might be more technical than you're interested in, but the discussion is in plain English. The paper generally reaffirmed what experience tog fishermen already knew. Briefly, peak activity occurred in November-December and in April-June. Togs are primarily active during the day, particularly in the morning and evening. The morning and evening activity is most pronounced in the spring and least pronounced in the fall. Activity was greatest during the morning slack tide or evening slack tide, but not both. Periods of activity and inactivity alternate approximately every six hours (so if your not having any luck, try 6hrs later or multiple thereof). Togs were generally detected daily except at the coldest temperatures (less than 50*), but they remained in the Bay during the winter. Lastly, a rapid change in surface water temps (~5*) shut down activity.
http://www.mediafire.com/?39uaxv99qflwvwn
It might be more technical than you're interested in, but the discussion is in plain English. The paper generally reaffirmed what experience tog fishermen already knew. Briefly, peak activity occurred in November-December and in April-June. Togs are primarily active during the day, particularly in the morning and evening. The morning and evening activity is most pronounced in the spring and least pronounced in the fall. Activity was greatest during the morning slack tide or evening slack tide, but not both. Periods of activity and inactivity alternate approximately every six hours (so if your not having any luck, try 6hrs later or multiple thereof). Togs were generally detected daily except at the coldest temperatures (less than 50*), but they remained in the Bay during the winter. Lastly, a rapid change in surface water temps (~5*) shut down activity.
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