Blackfish reports

[bulletbob]

Originally Posted by Gobigblue

So Bob are you saying the water Temperature in Rhode Island is warmer than in New Jersey because the states Tog Fishery is still really good, and has been for quite sometime.

There are a lot more tog up there, and a real lot less pressure..As stated, there are always some fish that will bite when the water gets cold, but tog are a lot more active in 60 degree water than in 40 degree water...

There is a reason boats in NJ fish a lot deeper in December than they do in October... The water is warmer...I fished winter tog for years along with everyone else... Trip after trip year after year always same result.. I'd get one or two keepers, once or twice I got 3 or a few ling along with the one or two tog.. the mates as usual, did better then anyone else, but every single trip, a lot of guys caught one or none.. Hated waiting half an hour for a bite, and when the bite came it was a bergall or a pup... Look there are some capts that have the winter thing down, and catch fish consistently for their clients and they have my respect... However, I stand by my assertion, that mid winter "blackfish weather" is probably the worst time to fish for them, too many have gone "moribund" as the water temp drops... If guys are going out in frigid January and February ice storms and mopping up big tog, they have all my respect... Historically, I always caught 10- 20 times as many tog in sept/oct than I did in Dec/Jan... When there were other fish to be caught no one fished tog into january as they do today... I might think differently if I still lived at the shore... These days, its not worth me spending $200 to freeze my rear end off and maybe come home with one or no fish..bob

[hammer4reel]

Originally Posted by bulletbob

There are a lot more tog up there, and a real lot less pressure..As stated, there are always some fish that will bite when the water gets cold, but tog are a lot more active in 60 degree water than in 40 degree water...

There is a reason boats in NJ fish a lot deeper in December than they do in October... The water is warmer...I fished winter tog for years along with everyone else... Trip after trip year after year always same result.. I'd get one or two keepers, once or twice I got 3 or a few ling along with the one or two tog.. the mates as usual, did better then anyone else, but every single trip, a lot of guys caught one or none.. Hated waiting half an hour for a bite, and when the bite came it was a bergall or a pup... Look there are some capts that have the winter thing down, and catch fish consistently for their clients and they have my respect... However, I stand by my assertion, that mid winter "blackfish weather" is probably the worst time to fish for them, too many have gone "moribund" as the water temp drops... If guys are going out in frigid January and February ice storms and mopping up big tog, they have all my respect... Historically, I always caught 10- 20 times as many tog in sept/oct than I did in Dec/Jan... When there were other fish to be caught no one fished tog into january as they do today... I might think differently if I still lived at the shore... These days, its not worth me spending $200 to freeze my rear end off and maybe come home with one or no fish..bob

Shallow water tog is best till 55 degrees on the bottom .

Deep water bite is very good from 55 down to 42.

Bite in deep water is usually more consistent because they have less structure to be on .
Inshore there are way more pieces .

Right now TOG are the new designer fish . They are getting tons of pressure . Spot lock has dramatically changed the game . Guys who couldn’t anchor on a football field can now lock into a spot as small as their boat .

.many guys are jig fishing with way too light tackle and light line .They break off big fish that get back on the piece pulling thirty feet of line with them . Not good for that fish .

3d charts have also taken all the secrets out of the bottom . One look at a 3d chart on a plotter . A person can learn spots that took decades to learn in a half hour .

It’s not water temps shutting down the bite now . It’s pressure .

.

[Togfather2530]

Got out fishing with three guys and one guy that was sick and didn’t fish all day. Managed to get 10 keepers in a few hours with three fishing in around 75 feet of water. Messed around with some stripers for a bit. Plenty of readings and bird life but the couple we caught were smaller fish.

[Togfather2530]

Originally Posted by hammer4reel

Shallow water tog is best till 55 degrees on the bottom .

Deep water bite is very good from 55 down to 42.

Bite in deep water is usually more consistent because they have less structure to be on .
Inshore there are way more pieces .

Right now TOG are the new designer fish . They are getting tons of pressure . Spot lock has dramatically changed the game . Guys who couldn’t anchor on a football field can now lock into a spot as small as their boat .

.many guys are jig fishing with way too light tackle and light line .They break off big fish that get back on the piece pulling thirty feet of line with them . Not good for that fish .

3d charts have also taken all the secrets out of the bottom . One look at a 3d chart on a plotter . A person can learn spots that took decades to learn in a half hour .

It’s not water temps shutting down the bite now . It’s pressure .

.

I totally agree with all this. I would like to see even tougher regs on blackfish.

[Tuna Tales]

On the Blackfish Regulations - my fishing friends are talking about self imposed regulations.

On our trips -- we release anything over 8 lbs regardless of how many we have in the boat already. We also try to release the larger females. (if the fish will not make then we will keep it).

NJ should at the very least do the SAME as RI. 5 fish pp @ 16" min. Only one from the 5 can be over 21".

Again, you will have a million opinions here but due to how slow these fish grow and the spot lock pressure -- NJ better wake up.


Joe T.

[hammer4reel]

Originally Posted by Togfather2530

I totally agree with all this. I would like to see even tougher regs on blackfish.

One regulation that also would help drastically is severe penalties for guys keeping small fish for the live catch market .

Those small fish are the future of the fishery .

.

[Togfather2530]

We throw the bigger fish all back too.

[FishnChips]

what about all those NEW YORK BOATS fishing in newjersey WATERS taking r fish . every day im out see all those partyboats from NEWYORK in ur waters n charterboats makes me sick stay in ur waters

[Togfather2530]

Well, if they get boarded going back to New York, they will have to conform to New York regs. Anyone black fishing is going where the structure is whether it’s in New York or in New Jersey. I don’t know what the party boats do as far as size limit that are New York boats that are fishing in the ocean. Some of them are more than 3 miles out. I’m not even sure of what the size limit is for New York because I don’t go back to New York to dock.

[Gerry Zagorski]

Releasing the big fish has become very popular and I've seen captains and crew go out of there way to revive them in holding tanks if they think they're not ready to go back. We throw back all the females and if we do decide to keep some males, we're not pigs about it. They're also a very hearty fish so I don't think the catch and release mortality is as much of an issue as it is with other species.

If you're not familiar with identifying males from females the picture attached here is a male as you'll see from the distinctive white spot.

I've read a lot of articles and these fish don't move north and south, they move east and west from shallow water to deeper waters depending on water temps. They're also very territorial and usually return to the same pieces every year. For this reason, if we want to keep them around our local wrecks and reefs in numbers, we have to consider being more selective about where and what we keep.