Article by Sue Foster
Fishing for Tautog
Tautog… Tog… Blackfish… Tautoga onitis…
Whatever you want to call this hard fighting member of the wrasse family, it’s a really good eating fish. It has pure white meat with no bloodline.
These fish are found from Nova Scotia to Georgia where they live along the bottom where there are rocks, mussel beds, pilings, cement slabs, wrecks and artificial reefs. Tautog are one of those fish anglers either love or hate to fish for. If you’ve never been, it can be an experience you’ll always remember. Whether the experience is a good one or a bad one will depend on your luck or your frustration. Tautog can humble the best of fishermen. I have been humbled many times myself and occasionally I have felt triumphant. Regardless, we’ll go over all the ins and outs of tautog fishing. Experience is your best teacher and sometimes, as always when fishing, luck will prevail!
“Why is tautog fishing different than fishing for other species?”
Tautog protect themselves by hiding in structure. They live under rocks, inside pieces of shipwrecks and under ledges of man-made material. They will grab your bait and take it straight into a hole or beneath a rock. If you have ever gone grouper fishing, the experience is similar. When you pull the fish out of the structure, you can chafe your line, get your sinker hung-up in the bottom or both. You can even get snagged just trying to throw your hook and sinker in a place where you think the tautog are hiding! This is the frustration. To overcome this frustration you need to learn a few tricks.
First of all, you need a medium to medium-heavy rod that is strong enough to pull the tautog out of the rocks. Next, you need a strong geared reel with some “heavier than flounder fishing” line. Many anglers use a Spectra Line such as Power Pro or FireLine in the 50-pound range and tie on some 40-pound test monofilament leader. Going down to the bulkhead with your flounder rod with 12-pound test monofilament just isn’t going to cut it.
Because there are so many snags when fishing for tautog, you need to fish with a very simple rig with the minimum amount of hardware. Using 40-pound test monofilament leader make a simple rig by tying a dropper loop for the sinker. There is no need to use fluorocarbon leader for tog fishing. Go up three or four inches and make a 3-inch long dropper loop. Insert a #2/0 Octopus style black hook in the loop. Then give yourself a couple feet of 40-pound leader before tying on a barrel swivel. Some anglers will tie the 40-pound test to their Spectra Line with a double uni-knot so they don’t even need a barrel swivel. If you don’t know how to make a fancy dropper loop, an overhand Surgeon’s Knot works just fine.
Some anglers fishing from the shore like to use an egg sinker rig. Put the egg sinker on your line above a barrel swivel and attach a leadered tautog hook to the barrel swivel.
Another popular “quickie” rig is to buy a pack of leadered tautog hooks and some 3-way swivels with a duel lock snap attached and loop the leadered hook through one eye of the 3-way swivel and attach the sinker to the snap. With the latter two rigs, you need to make sure you have some abrasion resistant line on your reel.
When tautog fishing, anglers use flat or inline type sinkers so they don’t get hung-up on the bottom as easy. When the tide is running slower, you can get away with a 1½ to 2 ounce sinker. When the tide runs hard, you may need more. When anglers fish the Rt. 50 Bridge, where the tide runs very hard, sometimes anglers need to go to a 6-ounce sinker to stay right in front of the pilings. At the Indian River Inlet, anglers cast towards the pilings of the Bridge during slack tide. Nothing is more frustrating than to hook a big tautog and have your sinker get snagged between the rocks or other debris. I like to tie on my sinker with a rubber band while some anglers tie their sinker on with a lighter leader line. That way, if the fish is ON and the sinker is stuck, you can pull hard, lose the sinker but get the fish!
YOU GOT TO BE IN THE HOLE…. I have gone tautog fishing and fished 6 feet away from an angler that was pulling them in and I couldn’t get a bite. He was in the “hole” and I was not. Cast out and feel your sinker come back in along the bottom. If it falls into a hole, stop and wait. Larger tautog will be found in the deeper holes. Remember the spots where anglers are producing and maybe there’s no room in that hole today, but tomorrow…. get up early and fish there!
Watch the good anglers and see what they do and where they are casting. I’ve seen good tautog anglers lean their rods against the railing and wait for the bite before touching the rod. If you are losing baits and not hooking the fish, try that! The old adage that says, “hook them before they bite” is just not true when it comes to tautog fishing. You need to let the tautog get the bait in his mouth and crush it first, then set the hook.
Bait is very important when tautog fishing. They don’t take cut bait like many other fish. They like crabs and sometimes clams. Inshore, they REALLY like some kind of crab. Sand crabs (mole crabs, sand fleas) are very popular. Green crab, cut and sectioned, is the most popular bait. Pull the back off of the crab and cut it in half (some people cut the legs off). Pierce the hook in the leg socket. Locals sometimes find marsh crabs under rocks. This is time consuming but fruitful. Anglers also like to use fiddler crabs, speckled crab, snails even shrimp. Any kind of crustacean will work and some days the tautog will bite one kind of crab over another.
“Where can I fish for tautog from the shore?”
•2nd through 4th Street Bulkhead
•At the end of 5th and 6th Streets
•Sometimes you catch some at 9th Street Pier
•The Route 50 Bridge near the draw and pilings
•Casting near the rocks at Homer Gudelsky Park
•The end and left hand side of the Oceanic Pier, casting towards the rocks
•The Ocean City Inlet along the cement wall
•The Indian River Inlet and Massey’s Landing (In Delaware)
“Where can I fish for tautog from a boat?”
•Anchor and cast around the South Jetty or around the rocks south of Gudelsky Park
•Venture to an offshore wreck.
Local charter and party boats will often target tautog, so I have asked a few to give me their sound advice:
Capt. Dan Stauffer of Fin Chaser Sport Fishing Charters said, “Don't be a lazy fisherman. Stand up while tog fishing. Compensate for the motion or rocking of the boat with your rod. Tog will not chase their prey around so it is very important to try and keep the bait as steady as possible.
Forget the Jimmy Houston 8 ft. hook sets. Wait for the second or third bite then slowly lift the rod. If you feel the fish, pop him. If he's not there, lower your bait back to the bottom. During nearly every trip with new tog fishermen, the ladies will outfish the men. Ladies aren't so fast to pull the trigger (set the hook) and when they do it's normally just a little pop of the rod which is perfect for tog. I also warn people that setting the hook this way goes out the window with tog over 10 lbs. Many of these fish just inhale the bait and it's game on.
Tog fishing is very similar to grouper fishing in Florida. It's all about the first ten feet. You must get him away from the rubble/wreck before he takes you back into the junk. That's another reason I suggest people "lift the rod" for the hook set. After the "lift", keep the rod high and fight the fish for the first ten feet from that position. You have already moved him 6 to 8 ft. by just lifting the rod and keeping it there.
If you're on good structure but are not getting bites, change your crab. I have seen plenty of days when fish just don't want a specific crab.”
Capt. Dan gives us his advice if you are going out on your own boat to anchor.
“Anchoring, well I have one word of advice. Whatever anchor size is recommended for you boat, go to the next size larger or even two sizes larger. If your boat calls for a #13 anchor, use a #18 or even larger instead. It's a good feeling to know your hook is going to hold and not slide back into the wreck.”
Capt. Monty on the “Morning Star” adds, “Use enough gun! Anywhere there are tog, you can find fish over 15 pounds, so you have to be ready. Heck, a spearfishing world-record was set around a Cape May, NJ jetty. We've caught many jumbo tautog within eyesight of Ocean City. Keep your mainline and leader in good condition and never less than 40 pound test. When you start to really enjoy the challenge of toggin’, support your local reef building. Virtually all our tautog live on manmade structure. I have even designed reef units especially for tautog so watch for "Tog Towns" being built in the near future.”
Yes, tautog fishing is fun and great sport. Take lots of tackle and plenty of sinkers, and enjoy…
Sue Foster is an outdoor writer and co-owner of Oyster Bay Tackle in Ocean City, MD and Fenwick Tackle in Fenwick, DE.
