If you have not fished for tautog before, now is the time to give it a try while the catching is good and the catch limit is about to be increased.
As of Oct. 15, the tautog limit in Massachusetts and Rhode Island will increase to five fish/person/day with a 10-fish boat limit that does not apply to party or charter boats. The limit is three fish prior to next Friday, with the minimum size being 16 inches before the season ends Dec. 31.
Tautog (or blackfish) is a great eating fish with nice tasting white/greyish meat. Anglers enjoy baking tautog, but some prefer to eat it raw as sushi which is delicious too.
“Adult tautog utilize rocky outcrops, boulders, jetties, and other similarly complex habitats for shelter,” notes the Massachusetts Division of Marine Affairs. “They select a home site, from which they may stray during the day to feed, returning at night to become dormant and possibly sleep.”
Many are advocating for large females to be released as they exponentially produce more eggs than smaller fish.
“While a 12-inch female weighing one pound can produce about 30,000 eggs per season, a 20-inch, five-pound female can produce six-times that,” the Massachusetts DMA said.
“This is the largest tautog I have ever caught.” said Jeremy Webster of Pawtucket as he lifted his rod high to prevent the fish from going back down into structure.
Jeremey’s fish was in the low 20-inch range. Tautog fishing experiences like that of Jeremy, his wife Tracie and son Blake, off Newport this week and that of other anglers this fall, have been pretty good.
Tautog fishing is great family fun. So get out there and catch some while the catching is good. Here are some top tautog fishing tips:
Find structure to find tautog: Tautog can be fished from shore or boat and in both cases they like structure (rocks, wrecks, bridge piers, dock pilings, mussel beds, ledges, holes and humps along the coast). So, no structure, no tautog.
Fish where the fish are: This is particularly true with tautog because they are a territorial species, you have to find the tautog. They are not going to find you. So if you get no bites move to another spot. When you find them, you find them and the bite is on.
Boat and angler placement is important: When in a boat, find structure, estimate wind/drift direction and anchor up current from where you want to fish and drift back to the spot as the anchor is setting. Once in position, fish all sides of the boat. You can even cast out a bit to cover as much area as you can. If still no bites let some anchor line out to change your position, if still no bites it may time to move the vessel. When on land, use the same strategy, fish on, or next, to underwater structure, change spots from where you a fishing from shore if no bites.
Tautog baits: Green crabs or Asian crabs are the baits of choice in the fall. When using green crabs make it easy for the tautog to bite and take the bait. I like to break off most of the legs and claws leaving one per side on the end, cut the crab in half and hook it through one leg socket and out another.
Tautog rigs should have as little hardware as possible to avoid bottom tie-ups: I am usually prepared to fish a number of different style rigs depending on structure and water flow conditions. The best time to fish for tautog is when the water is moving. Rig types I use include traditional tautog rigs; jigs of all types, weights and colors; and a special egg sinker rig I make that has reduced angler bottom tie-ups and lost rigs by about 75 percent.
Where’s the bite?
Striped bass, bluefish, false albacore and bonito: East End Eddie Doherty said, “Cape Cod Canal anglers were landing striped bass in the 20- and 30-pound class on Wednesday at Pip’s Rip in the east end with slots caught throughout the ditch as the menhaden buffet continues before their journey south.” Brendan Roden of Breachway Bait & Tackle, Charlestown, said, “We have some good-size striped bass being caught from the breachways and the beaches along the southern coastal shore. Striped bass to 43 inches have been caught at night. There is a mix of bass, bluefish, false abalone and small bonito being caught from boats. A lot of mullet, peanut bunker and snapper blues in the water as bait which is bringing in bigger fish.” John Littlefield of Archie’s Bait & Tackle, Riverside, said, “Some keeper bass are being caught off Barrington and Bristol with anglers trolling tube & worm with success. Bluefish are surfacing with birds signally there location with anglers rushing over to hook up and then they get spooked and are gone.” Dave Henault of Ocean State Tackle, Providence, said, “We have a great fall mix of bluefish, striped, bass bonito and false albacore. Angers are hooking up with epoxy, resin and bucktail jigs.”
Tautog fishing remains very strong and is getting better every day as the weather starts to cool the water. I fished with Blake, Tracie and Jeremy Webster of Pawtucket off Newport this weekend and they hooked up with a nice mix of black sea bass, scup and tautog to just over 20”. “Anglers are catching tautog keepers on just about every one of their favorite rock piles,” Roden said. Added Littlefield, “Customers are catching tautog at the Kettle Point dock, East Providence. Anglers are catching five sorts to every one keeper rather than the twenty to one ratio they were experiencing earlier.”
Scup fishing in the Bay and along the coast is good with large fish in the 13- to 15-inch range being caught by anglers when tautog fishing. “Scup fishing is still very good all over the Bay,” Littlefield said.
Freshwater fishing exploded this week in ponds and waterways stocked with trout by the states of Rhode Island and Massachusetts. “Only Pond at Lincoln Woods was producing for customers,” Henault said. “The largemouth bass and pickerel bite has been good too with Turner Reservoir producing for customers,” Henault said. Littlefield noted that, “One of my customers caught a 2 ½-pound trout at Willet Avenue Pond, Riverside, which was stocked this week.”
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MONTI: Now is the time to fish for tautog - The Sun Chronicle
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