November 3rd Tog Fishing

Of the things I look forward to in the fall, topping the list are the fall striper run and the return, inshore, of the tautog. Tautog almost feels like a consolation for the departure of the striper - a meaty, delicious consolation.

The tautog trip I booked with MFCC came at the perfect time. After several fish-less shore fishing trips on my own for tog, I was looking forward to picking up some new techniques and actually catching some tautog. In theory tog should be easy to catch: find some rocks, throw some crabs and sauté with onions. In practice, they can be a challenging fish to locate and catch.

The morning of the trip started off with temperatures in the low 30s. I was very glad that I had to decided to pack some extra layers.

The winds were also blowing hard out of the north. I have done tog trips in Rhode Island and conditions like this can mean rough, choppy seas. I was hoping things would be better in Buzzard’s Bay; fortunately they were.

This trip was with MFCC charter captain Tyler Putney (@flatlinercharters). I had done two trips with Tyler earlier in the year and was looking forward to another outing with him. I’m primarily a surfcaster, pursuing striper and bluefish; striper fishing from shore was very tough this summer. The surf bite was very off this year. The previous trips that I took with Tyler took the sting out of a poor surfcasting season. In the two outings I went on with Tyler, he had proved his ability to locate the fish and provide the techniques to land them. I had confidence that the same would be true today.

We had a full boat of MFCC members and everyone was excited to fish. The early start was somewhat blunted by the start of daylight savings time so we were ready to go.

We set off out of Bourne a few hours before high tide in Tyler’s very comfortable fishing boat. I like the way this boat is laid out. There’s plenty of room for five guests so you never feel like anyone is in your way. The Cape sheltered us from the worst of the energetic north winds. Tyler took us to a spot which he reported had held fish earlier in the week, but the tog had clearly departed. The bites were mostly from bait stealers.

A second spot yielded the same result; some bait stealers but no keeper sized fish.

One of the things I’ve come to appreciate about Tyler is that he doesn’t get frustrated; or least he doesn’t show it. After the first sports didn’t turn up fish, we were on the move again. Tyler has been fishing these waters so long that he has a deep repertory of spots to fish. He always seems to be thinking ahead to a plan B, or C or D.

By the time we hit our next spot, the winds and seas had let up significantly. Tyler immediately started marking fish on the sonar so hopes were high. He told us that only the larger fish would show on sonar.

Everyone was ready to get onto good fish so the morning’s conversations gave way to people focused on fishing.

Sure enough, as soon as our crab loaded jigs hit the bottom we were onto fish.