This morning we took two boats with 11 My Fishing Cape Cod members tautog fishing for the first time this season. The weather was beyond wonderful and I'm happy to report that the action was pretty terrific too!
At 6am it was a chilly 32 degrees and captain Cullen's brand new 33' Conch had a thin coat of ice on her deck. Captain Tyler already had his 28' Whitewater center console in the water when I arrived, and we were all excited to get underway.
This was the first My Fishing Cape Cod group trip onboard captain Cullen's brand new 33' Conch!
Captain Tyler had his boat in the water and was ready to go before anyone had even arrived!
Back in February when I posted the first round of MFCC group trips, these togging adventures both sold out in a matter of hours!
I knew we had a great chance of success, but I was a little nervous because water temps were still only in the upper 40's. Would we be able to find keeper-size tautog? Only time would tell...
Onboard captain Cullen's boat were MFCC members:
I hopped onboard captain Tyler's boat along with MFCC members:
By 6:20am everyone was ready and both boats departed together from the marina shown below.
To our astonishment, on the way out of the marina we spotted a striped bass feeding on the surface! It was certainly a small fish and likely a holdover that had spent the winter tucked up inside a nearby estuary, but it was still cool to see and I took it as a good omen.
Conditions were flat calm with absolutely no wind. We cruised at a steady speed out to the tautog grounds and did our best to stay warm!
We arrived at the first spot of the day just as my hands were beginning to feel the cold. Tyler and Cullen used their side scan sonars to position the boats amongst rocks over a hard bottom terrain. I had plenty of confidence in Tyler and Cullen, but I couldn't help but feel a sense of nervous excitement.
Tyler baited everyone up and gave each member of our crew a rod and reel. They dropped their rigs to the bottom and we all waited with baited-breath.
Would the tautog be here? Would they bite?
If they did bite, would they be large enough to keep? All these thoughts swirled through my mind as they often do during the first MFCC group fishing trip of the season.
Just then I caught glimpse of movement out of the corner of my eye. One of the guys had just set the hook. Fish on! The tautog were here!
