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I tried one last time for tog in OC today before the season closes on the 27th. I brought out a handful of frozen green and Asian crabs I had leftover from my last trip and planned to flip rocks to gather more Asian crabs as I headed out of the launch to make sure I had enough bait for a full day of fishing. Well, by first light the tide was already too high and covering the good crab rocks to flip. I eventually found some crabs and a half dozen small clams, but it wasn't going to be enough. I decided to just go fish with what I had and planned to paddle over to one of the bait shops on the water whenever I ran out of bait. This would come back to bite me later.
Fishing was fast from the start! Tog were hitting as fast as you could unhook them, rebait, and send it back down. But sadly they were small. Real small. And I blew through my bait in no time. No sweat, I'll pull anchor and paddle across the inlet to Oceanic Pier for more bait. Wrong. All sold out of tog bait. In fact every bait shop in town was sold out! Crap! The tide was too high at this point to flip rocks for crabs, but I tried anyway and got a few tiny ones, a couple mussels, and I even picked up a few of those big roach looking things that scurry over the rocks. I figured why the heck not? It still wasn't going to be enough bait though, so next stop I crossed over to the Assateague surf to maybe get lucky and still find some sandfleas this time of year? Sorta; got like 10 after digging forever as a big surf break rushed up the beach.
Back out to my spot after spending over an hour trying to scrounge up some bait. Same story though. Small tog as fast as you could get your bait to them. Although now they were slightly larger but the biggest was still too short at 15.75". Out of bait again, I headed in early.
Overall, I caught more tog than I could count whenever I found the right hole, but no keepers. I think if I had had enough bait with me, and it was good bait, I would have eventually got into some keepers. I caught tog today on frozen green crab, frozen Asian crab, live Asian crab, live sand flea, clam, mussel, and those roach looking bugs you see on jetty rocks - tog ate them all. I wasn't expecting every bait shop in town to be sold out of tog bait, so next time I'll have to start carrying frozen shrimp just in case. Or buy bait the night before if I'm planning to launch before shops open.
Fishing was fast from the start! Tog were hitting as fast as you could unhook them, rebait, and send it back down. But sadly they were small. Real small. And I blew through my bait in no time. No sweat, I'll pull anchor and paddle across the inlet to Oceanic Pier for more bait. Wrong. All sold out of tog bait. In fact every bait shop in town was sold out! Crap! The tide was too high at this point to flip rocks for crabs, but I tried anyway and got a few tiny ones, a couple mussels, and I even picked up a few of those big roach looking things that scurry over the rocks. I figured why the heck not? It still wasn't going to be enough bait though, so next stop I crossed over to the Assateague surf to maybe get lucky and still find some sandfleas this time of year? Sorta; got like 10 after digging forever as a big surf break rushed up the beach.
Back out to my spot after spending over an hour trying to scrounge up some bait. Same story though. Small tog as fast as you could get your bait to them. Although now they were slightly larger but the biggest was still too short at 15.75". Out of bait again, I headed in early.
Overall, I caught more tog than I could count whenever I found the right hole, but no keepers. I think if I had had enough bait with me, and it was good bait, I would have eventually got into some keepers. I caught tog today on frozen green crab, frozen Asian crab, live Asian crab, live sand flea, clam, mussel, and those roach looking bugs you see on jetty rocks - tog ate them all. I wasn't expecting every bait shop in town to be sold out of tog bait, so next time I'll have to start carrying frozen shrimp just in case. Or buy bait the night before if I'm planning to launch before shops open.
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