Tomcod question..

[bulletbob]

Just wondering if these fish are still around this area in any numbers,, The Hudson river used to be loaded with them, but my brother fishes the Hudson a few times a year said he hasn't caught or seen one in years.. Used to be millions of them in the hudson.. You could catch them and eels by the dozen on any given day if you felt like it..
Just wondering if they are another once plentiful species thats now in the dumper.. Only thing is, we can't pin the blame on the netters as they were never targeted commercially, as far as i know.. Has anybody seen them, or caught them the past several years??. bob

[torchee]

Caught a few from Hoboken back in January along with white perch,
Spotted hake and plentiful short bass all on bloodworms.

I was just reading how scientists were studying the Tomcod immunity to all the
pcb that General Electric dumped in the Hudson for 20 years (before the epa stopped by them)

The life in the Hudson by NYC always impresses.
Read that the Hudson is their southernmost limit. They are more common north all the way to Nova Scotia
Maybe we see bigger populations during colder winters.

[teddysclaw]

I never seen any of them bigger than 10 inches, is there anything to eat on them? And I read that they're much more efficient at storing the PCBs in their fat, which is good for them, bad for people that eat tomcod.

[lingding]

I used to fish for Tommy's all the time.caught nearly100 some nights off Staten island north shore piers. They were great eating. Their numbers are way down and no one is sure just why. Some blame it on global warming and rising temperatures in the Hudson and others say the striped bass ate them all. I think its global warming. Like lots of fish, they are now found further north. Also note, they are no longer found in great numbers in Connecticut waterways either. I did catch 5 tommycod of the crab house pier near the george Washington bridge in march 2005 on small pieces of clam. If anyone fishes up that way, I would love an update.

PS_ back in the day, we used to catch the larger "sea run" Tommy's along w the ling and whiting off long branch pier. Some ran almost 2 lbs which is huge for a tommy cod. I miss those fish, and I miss the whiting.

[WhaleFart]

I caught a few as by catch last year going for strippers up by alpine... why would anyone eat one of them? Besides having little to no meat, they also are probably the smelliest fish out of the water, really rancid smelling slime.

[Blackfish Doug]

I have not caught one in over 30 years. When I lived in NY we used to fish the Quogue canal for early season Flounder it used to be loaded with Tommycod by bouy 7a I'm not even sure if anybody even fish's that canal anymore for Flounder but it was a fantastic early season spot for them.

[Billfish715]

For what it's worth.......this article came from a local Connecticut Patch from 2011

Not that this miniature look-alike of the much larger codfish ever left Long Island Sound but they seem available in fishable numbers for the first time since the 1970s or early 1980s. I am old enough to remember catching buckets of tomcod with rod and reel and spotlighting and spearing them with frog gigs along the shore after dark. Many anglers younger than I have never even seen, much less caught one.

Hints of the tomcod's return came in November. The fishing report issued by River's End Bait & Tackle in Old Saybrook noted that some of the fish had been caught near the mouth of the Connecticut River. About a week later, a waterman friend of mine caught a half-dozen tomcod in his eel trap, set in the Hammonasset River in Clinton. A few days ago, when I called to check out tomcod with Rod MacLeod, fisheries biologist at the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection's Marine Fisheries Division, he had more evidence. A mess of big tomcod, including egg-bearing females, had just turned up in a trap set at the division's Old Lyme headquarters.

Seldom more than a foot long and a pound in weight, the tomcod is an inshore species that enters estuaries to breed from late fall to late winter. The colder the water, the better for tomcod, as indicated by its other name, "frostfish." A warmup of the Sound during the 1980s has been suggested as a reason for the tomcod's decline. Predation by species such as the striped bass, much more abundant now than in the heyday of the tomcod, may also be responsible for the tomcod's decline, says MacLeod. He explains that the tomcod lives only three years so major losses to just one year's class can drastically diminish the population. Conversely, a highly successful reproductive year can substantially boost numbers.

Tomcod are as tasty as their larger relatives. However, a report in the journal Science earlier this year suggests caution before gorging on a plate of tomcod. Supported by the federal National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and Superfund Research program grants, scientists have documented what amounts to an invasion of tomcod mutants, unlike anything seen before in a living vertebrate.

Ninety-five percent of tomcod inhabiting New York's Hudson River have a single mutation in one gene that enables them to survive massive doses of polychlorinated biphenyls, poured into the river by two General Electric plants from 1947 to 1972. The mutation eliminates two amino acids from a protein produced by the gene for metabolizing the PCBs, which poisons and sickens the fish. The missing amino acids throw a monkey wrench into the process, so the the poison is locked up in fat, quarantined, so to speak.
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While the mutation saves the mutant tomcod, it bodes ill for creatures like striped bass — and humans — who eat them. The poison passes to them. For Long Island Sound anglers, however, there is a note of comfort in the report. Only about five percent of the fish tested in two small streams on Long Island and in Connecticut are poisonous mutants.

Essentially, the mutation is similar to development by insects of resistance to certain insecticides and of bacteria to antibiotics. "This is really the first demonstration of a mechanism of resistance in any vertebrate population," says Isaac Wirgin of New York University, who led the study. The mutation of tomcod is also remarkable because it represents a form of high-speed evolution never before observed in a vertebrate, taking a mere 50 years for what normally should occur over millennia.

Figuring that tomcod in the Sound remain a safe bet, I am going to fish for them. High tide is best, at depths of less than 30 feet. They can be had in tidal creeks only a few feet deep. Bait must be presented on the bottom, with a sinker large enough to resist current movement. Baits include sea worms, clams, mussels and cut fish. Nightcrawlers also work, as they do for winter flounder. No Connecticut regulations cover tomcod, so they can be taken without regard to size or number. "Take what you need," advises MacLeod, "but use common sense. Don't be greedy."

[lingding]

Great article and I am sure many appreciate the update. I hope the fellas reading will send updates if they see or catch any tommy cod. Tight lines!

[Reel Class]

I personally haven't seen a tommy cod since like 1985. I had no idea they were even still in the Hudson!

[SaltLife1980]

Every year when im in LBI i see a few come over the rail. All very small and few and far between.