Shrimp VS Blue Crab in Togging

[ComeOnFish]

Hi!
I've been working/will work every weekend. I've been working buttoff.
Yesterday I took off and fished for Tog at the Concrete Ships with two Koreans.

I’ve been told by many Koreans that they use fresh shrimp (Frozen shrimp in the 4-5 lb box is better) for tog (surf fishing/boat fishing). Fresh shrimp are actually from the frozen shrimp from the box.

I tested cooked blue crab, live blue crab, and fresh shrimp. I used a half of fresh shrimp and a quartile of blue crab.

The fresh shrimp was the smallest ones on the fresh shrimp sections in the Asian Markets. The shrimp was the spiced shrimp at regular sea food restaurants. Now you know the size of the shrimp. The frozen box is usually from Belize. Anyway a half of the shrimp was put on the 4/0 hook (by me and the two koreans.

They were catching with only shrimp. And I put a half of a shrimp and a quartile of aBlue crab on a tandem rig
The baits were 2”- 5” above the top of sinker to be fair.

The result:

Fresh Shrimp won. I caught 9 undersized Tog. Dang! No keepers. Tog preferred shrimp by 6 to 3
The Koreans caught several 13”- 20” tog, all on shrimp.

BTW, using Cooked Blue Crab is a bad idea.

Koreans have been using shrimp for decades. It was only a one day test for me. But if shrimp works, all I need is enough bottles of ice in my cooler to keep them fresh. No more cutting crab and keeping a bulky bag of crab. I thought one time that my kayak was smelly and messy because of the blue crab.

The two Koreans suggested me that I should visit some Korean Fishing Forums. According to them, Korean fishing forums have better info about fishing rigging/baits. Dang! Now I have to re-learn how to type Korean Alphabets,

We had fun. They also talked about Kayak Kevin’s videos and other useful fishing forums.

Dang! Am I missing something here, a half of the world? Do I have to re-learn how to type the Korean Alphaets?

Joe

[moc]

Good intel on the shrimp.

[HokieDJ]

Did they use the whole shrimp with shell and head intact? I would think it would be more life like.

[ComeOnFish]

Did they use the whole shrimp with shell and head intact? I would think it would be more life like.

Dave,
Where you live, you can get shrimp from Lotte in Chantilly. You can keept the head and tail intact. But When spliting the shrimp into twoo pieces. Head and tail don't count, Just body.

Also they use the "slip bobber technique" for an an extra rod on a kayak. Which I will describe later.

Bottom Line
My gut feeling is that Shrimp will work for Tog, better than blue crab. I think good blue crab is better than fiddler crab. I just need one more test for me to confirm that good fresh shrimp is better than blue crab

We caught a lot in the second ship from the north. the one with the biggest entrance on the sceond ship was the one he landed 20 incher.

I wasted a lot of time going through all holes on all ships for research, while they are fishing in the Second and third ship from the north.



p.s. I got the blue crab (from other states) from the Main Ave in DC. They were alive but almost dead.
H mart in fairfax had a couble of bushells of small female blue crab starting on Wednesday. The market started carrying MD/VA blue crab this week.
Joe

[Shady]

I don't know how "fresh" the shrimp is at Lotte as I was told that the shrimp there is really just frozen shrimp that they just thaw when they put out each day, but whatever works! Next time I tog fish I may try shrimp...

[john from md]

I buy the medium frozen shrimp from Food Lion at the beginning of the season and break it down into bags of 15 and throw back in the freezer. I take a bag whenever I go fishing. I have caught perch and croaker on shrimp just as much as I catch on bloodworm and the shrimp is much cheaper.

Shrimp is also good for flounder if you get down the ocean.

Regards,

John

[ComeOnFish]

I don't know how "fresh" the shrimp is at Lotte as I was told that the shrimp there is really just frozen shrimp that they just thaw when they put out each day, but whatever works! Next time I tog fish I may try shrimp...

All fresh shrimp were once frozen for shipping, I heard. Restaurants also buy frozen shrimp. I buy a 4lb box of frozen shrimp at Lotte or H mart if I can find it.

Please test shrimp for Tog. Next Time, I am only using shrimp.

joe

[ComeOnFish]

I buy the medium frozen shrimp from Food Lion at the beginning of the season and break it down into bags of 15 and throw back in the freezer. I take a bag whenever I go fishing. I have caught perch and croaker on shrimp just as much as I catch on bloodworm and the shrimp is much cheaper.

Shrimp is also good for flounder if you get down the ocean.

Regards,

John

It is good to know Food Lion also sells boxes of frozen shrimp (medium). I think I will stop Food Lion for that. Recently I didn't see the boxes at the Asian stores.

For croaker, cooked salad shrimp is the best. Trust me on this. Cooked shrimp outperforms the fresh shrimp in croaker fishing. Though I never tried cooked salad shrikmp for spot and WP

joe

[john from md]

Does cooked salad shrimp have seasoning on them? The reason I ask is that a friend told me that he soaks shrimp in Kosher salt and garlic powder and supposedly tears up the croaker.

I tried it once and left it in the fridge - almost wound up in divorce court. Although I'm not 100% sure it was the shrimp. It may have been the bait SQUID that I accidentally put in the same bag.

As for Tog, it my younger days, we used to buy a tin of 100 fresh water hooks and keep used spark plugs and make rigs out of them for Tog. Tog don't much care what kind of rig you have as long as it has a nice wiggling crab on the end of it.


John

[tufnik]

Joe,
In addition to blue crab, shrimp and fiddler crab, I also heard sand fleas and clams are good for togs.

I tried frozen sand fleas and clams once before and have not caught any togs yet. I'm not saying they don't work. I'm just saying I didn't catch any togs.

You may want to test frozen clams and sand fleas too to see if that's preferred. Both are readily available at Oceans East.

All in all, shrimp is probably the most convenient bait.

[Pinch]

clam works

[jkrahl]

If you can ever get hermit crabs they will outfish anything for tog, but they can't be found down here. I am going to tog tomorrow in OC, I will try some shrimp and crab and let you guys know how it goes. Thanks for the advice fellas.

[tufnik]

Keep in mind. If you use blue crab, you can also catch stripers. I know Grilled Sardines caught a thirty-something inch striper while going for togs last year.

[Shady]

Has anyone tried the gulp alive crabs for tog? I bought some before the last time I went and never used them because I was getting a lot of bites on bluecrab. I would think if they worked good, it would be easier to hook the tog with them...

[MDFishin]

Has anyone tried the gulp alive crabs for tog? .

Im hitting OC east channel today, I have the peeler crab, sand flea and shrinp versions. I plan on trying all of them. I also plan to try frozen shrimp from Food Lion. I usually use Sand Fleas, last week I tried green crab(very popular and favored bait in OC) with no luck. I have high hopes for today!