CHSP (Uno tog) Sat 10-31-15

[tufnik]

It was pretty cool in the morning as I fished the Inner Wall for togs with sand fleas, shrimp and green crab. Nothing, not even a nibble. There were a number of boats lined up along the north side of the wall, but I didn't see anyone pull up fish even though the water was a nice 59 deg.

Met Khoa there and he also fished for togs. He and I agreed: it seemed like all the boats came from the Outer Wall to fish the Inner Wall. Their presence told me that nothing was biting there since a lot of boats came to the Inner wall.

It was about noon, and nobody seemed to be catching togs. Since the water was smooth and the wind was low I decided to try the Outer Wall, even though a lot of boats came from there...lol.

As I approached the Outer Wall from a distance, I could see a lot of boats there. I counted 27 boats along the jetty from end-to-end. During the afternoon I saw a couple togs (maybe keepers?) pulled up by boaters. I caught several cunners and shorts plus a 15 1/2" keeper tog. Man , this place has the meanest rig-eating rocks; I lost seven rigs.

Talked to several boaters and yakers. Yes, it turned out to be a slow tog day, but it also turned out to be a nice fishing day. Mostly sunny, calm water and light winds.

[chimo]

I'm not sure I have ever caught anything along the walls on the nice days. Beautiful day anyways!

[HokieDJ]

The bite has been at the outer wall all these weeks. We'll get them next week.

[tufnik]

Joe caught a bunch at the Inner Wall many days ago. So, I don't think it's a wall thing. Like Chimo suggested, it's probably a day thing. So, we need to fish on a not-so-nice day...lol.

[AbuMasgouf]

Glad you at least got one keeper. Have you ever tried cunner? I'm curious as to how it tastes

[Romo]

Cunner is delicious! I keep the big ones I get fishing offshore for tog in the winter. These next few days looks ripe for outer wall togging

[AbuMasgouf]

Cunner is delicious! I keep the big ones I get fishing offshore for tog in the winter. These next few days looks ripe for outer wall togging

That's good to know... Always nice to have a good by catch option. What is your personal criteria for a big one?

[ComeOnFish]

Thanks. I will keep cunner next time.

Joe

[Romo]

A 12 incher is a trophy cunner but I like to prepare them Cantonese style like seabass/tog so the smaller fish will do just fine. If it looks big enough to eat (and togging is slow) its getting kept. I've seen guys on certain jetties in NJ fill buckets with 6 -8 inchers.

That's good to know... Always nice to have a good by catch option. What is your personal criteria for a big one?

[Slobber Bob]

Saw this posted on the Coastal Fisherman website for November 1st:

"The Lewes Harbour Marina Tautog Tournament ended and here are top 3:

1st - Charlie Breitenbach - 10.42 lbs. - caught on Asian crab at The Wall
2nd - Randy Jensen - 9.9 lbs. - Outer Wall
3rd - Robert Faries - 8.7 lbs. - The Wall"

Looks like somebody was catching some out there...

[HokieDJ]

I saw the pics. They are keeping some old big fishes.

[Romo]

30+ boats a day hitting that wall and keeping everything over 15 inches isn't good and surely there won't be much left soon except toads and cunners. A 20 inch tog could be 15 years old so it won't be easy to replace these fish. Some other species (redfish?) better start exploding because the tog can't take all this increased pressure due the already collapsed sea bass fishery and collapsing-in-front-of-our-eyes striped bass and flounder fisheries.

[tufnik]

I tried panko-fried cunner last year. It's good, but on the fishy side. Not to mention the small bones. I prefer tog.

On that Coastal magazine article. What's "Asian crab?"

Yeah, I often wonder how well the fishery can sustain the yield. With all those anglers, it will surely lessen the take-home. Reminds me of Kipto. Seems like everybody wants to fish an easy place to get tog. Chat about the last two years seemed like a lot of yakers were catching shorts, including myself. Nowadays, I'm not too keen on fishing Kipto for togs.

Largest tog I caught was 26" (estimated 30+ years old); from a boat. I'll tell you, big togs don't taste as good as legal smaller tog. Even when bled, big old tog is not all that good tasting.

[Redfish12]

In MA cunner get much bigger it seems. We caught some that were in the 14"-18" range and brought them home for dinner. They were similar to tog and made great fish tacos.

I worry about CHSP being able to sustain the fishing pressure on the tog. I suspect next year will be tough to find a fish over 14" and harsher limits.