Going to just smush two trip reports together here...Late report from Thanksgiving morning, we headed out for Blackfish and the bite was pretty tough on the reef for us again 40-50ft. Didn't get a lot of bites on either the jig or bait rig, but the I had a good jig keeper ratio at 3/5 haha.
John with the bait rig ended up with a couple of more fish (8) but no keepers...til the buzzer beater! The sub-par bite we had was pretty much over and then John's rod doubles over and he slowly starts bringing up a very nice big fat tog! Shaking, bulldogging and tugging out drag the whole time up it was a great reward after a tough morning.
On the way in already going to be a little late for thanksgiving dinner we see the birds diving all over outside the hook
... well great now I'm going to be VERY late for thanksgiving dinner! They were hot on topwater finally (haven't had a good bite on anything other than swimbaits so far this fall) and they seemed to highly prefer a walk-the-dog action. 16 stripers 25-30" came to the boat during the frenzy and thankfully my aunt kept the leftovers warm for me 4 hours late
Sunday no stripers around the hook (bait was there but no fish on them, pods further out had some fish but they were up and down too quick...might've been able to troll them but screw that, we had tog to tangle with!) anyway, we finally got the hot tog bite we've been working at the last two trips! We fished the sh reef again in 45-50' water and the jig absolutely dominated the day! I had one jig tied on all day and hauled in 19 tog with 7 keepers (I think i'm starting to get the hang of the tog jig
)
Yimmy's wife finally let him come fishing and he wanted to try the jig too. he didn't have the best set up for it, but started pulling them in going 2 keepers and 12 tog. John went with the bait rig and caught 9, but no keepers...till he decided to strap on a jig and bang 2 keepers almost immediately
Love this tog jig technique! I'm never looking back! I won't use bait rigs anymore unless its physically impossible to fish the jig or bait rigs are out fishing the crap out of me right next to me!
Fish of the day came after the winds picked up and started swinging the boat back and forth....honestly i think it was an advantage. we covered more ground and I could walk the jig around all the structure nitpicking the nooks and crannies as we swung slowly. On one swing the jig went under the boat a bit and i felt snagged but quickly realized i just plunged the hook into a hog tog at a pretty steep angle under the boat. Leaned out over the edge to keep the line off the boat and just kept the pressure on it until it started inching up, rod bent in a 'U' the whole time. as it came into view John plunged the net further than i thought he could even reach and pulled my PB by a long shot into the boat, 21.5 inches
Can't get over how strong these fish are...really enjoying this fishery, just a damn shame we can only get a few trips in each season before the boat gets pulled. Hoping for one more trip and a 10 pounder!
PS the trip back in absolutely sucked and we pounded the whole way in from the rip back to keyport, but at least John kept the boat true and the fishing was worth it!
