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Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahooooooooooooooooooo!
Caught a big one yesterday.
Mostly cloudy. High about 60 deg. Fairly calm water, but the current picked up late morning. Chops were about a foot in the afternoon. Light breeze. I would say the water temp was just below 50 deg. I was on the water at 0900 hrs. A couple boats were out.
I worked the pilings as I headed for the 1st island. After trying several pilings with blue crab on a 3 oz sinker, I finally got a hit at 1000 hrs.
I set the hook and reeled. Whoaa. This guy felt kind of big. I tightened the drag and reeled, but it didn’t come up right away. I tightened the drag more and reeled. It started up and fought hard. There was a lot of bend in my boat rod. About halfway up, the fish pulled hard again and took out some line. I tightened the drag again and worked it up. When the fish neared the surface, I saw the familiar light gray color. It was a tog, and it looked pretty big. The tog took another dive and pulled out more line. I played it a bit and finally got it in the yak.
I placed it on the trough (I though it would break the plastic hawg trough).
Twenty-four and a half inches!
Whoaaa … I was absolutely thrilled and on cloud nine. I couldn’t believe I got such a big tog. And wow, wow, wow …. this thing was a very good fighter!
I was still excited about the catch and continued to fish, but didn’t catch anything (or even get a nibble) after that tog. It was probably because I had a hard time keeping the bait down. The current had picked up and it was hard keeping yak position while keeping the bait straight down. I tried up to seven ounces and still couldn’t even get close to keeping it nearly straight down. Also, it was hard to feel the tap tap with the heavy sinker bouncing on the bottom and the yak going every which way from eddies around the pilings. For several hours, it was all about keeping up with the current, not about fishing. For hours I was continuously pedaling just to keep from drifting away from the pilings. I was warm and sweating under the splash top. My sunglasses fogged up.
The afternoon fog was rolling in, and so I was off the water at 3 pm.
I later went to Oceans East to see if the big one was a citation. If you C&R the fish, qualification for a citation is based on length. If you keep it, the citation is based on weight. Since I kept it, it had to be at least nine pounds to qualify.
It weighted 10 lbs 12 oz, so I got a citation.
(The guy was joking with me by making the scale needle approach 20 lbs...lol)
Oh, I tried my new Okuma Blue Diamond 6’ 6” boat rod and Daiwa Luna 253. First time it caught fish, and it did great. The fast action rod had good sensitivity and backbone, but it was kind of heavy. So I’ll be getting a lighter rod (Trevala S).
Caught a big one yesterday.
Mostly cloudy. High about 60 deg. Fairly calm water, but the current picked up late morning. Chops were about a foot in the afternoon. Light breeze. I would say the water temp was just below 50 deg. I was on the water at 0900 hrs. A couple boats were out.
I worked the pilings as I headed for the 1st island. After trying several pilings with blue crab on a 3 oz sinker, I finally got a hit at 1000 hrs.
I set the hook and reeled. Whoaa. This guy felt kind of big. I tightened the drag and reeled, but it didn’t come up right away. I tightened the drag more and reeled. It started up and fought hard. There was a lot of bend in my boat rod. About halfway up, the fish pulled hard again and took out some line. I tightened the drag again and worked it up. When the fish neared the surface, I saw the familiar light gray color. It was a tog, and it looked pretty big. The tog took another dive and pulled out more line. I played it a bit and finally got it in the yak.
I placed it on the trough (I though it would break the plastic hawg trough).
Twenty-four and a half inches!
Whoaaa … I was absolutely thrilled and on cloud nine. I couldn’t believe I got such a big tog. And wow, wow, wow …. this thing was a very good fighter!
I was still excited about the catch and continued to fish, but didn’t catch anything (or even get a nibble) after that tog. It was probably because I had a hard time keeping the bait down. The current had picked up and it was hard keeping yak position while keeping the bait straight down. I tried up to seven ounces and still couldn’t even get close to keeping it nearly straight down. Also, it was hard to feel the tap tap with the heavy sinker bouncing on the bottom and the yak going every which way from eddies around the pilings. For several hours, it was all about keeping up with the current, not about fishing. For hours I was continuously pedaling just to keep from drifting away from the pilings. I was warm and sweating under the splash top. My sunglasses fogged up.
The afternoon fog was rolling in, and so I was off the water at 3 pm.
I later went to Oceans East to see if the big one was a citation. If you C&R the fish, qualification for a citation is based on length. If you keep it, the citation is based on weight. Since I kept it, it had to be at least nine pounds to qualify.
It weighted 10 lbs 12 oz, so I got a citation.
(The guy was joking with me by making the scale needle approach 20 lbs...lol)
Oh, I tried my new Okuma Blue Diamond 6’ 6” boat rod and Daiwa Luna 253. First time it caught fish, and it did great. The fast action rod had good sensitivity and backbone, but it was kind of heavy. So I’ll be getting a lighter rod (Trevala S).
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