Tough bite saturday... - NJFishing.com Your Best Online Source for Fishing Information in New Jersey

Chrisper4694 · #1 12-06-2021, 12:39 PM

headed out for tog, expecting a decent amount of fish to have moved out to the typical spots. as we came around the hook towards the highlands bridge we saw more birds and blitzing fish than we've seen so far any other time! Unfortunately, most of the fish were very small (under 24") with a few in the 24-25" range for anyone with tags and we only found one just over 28".

they would rotate through what they would hit and ignore everything else at times. They were all over the popper for a bit, then wouldn't touch it. switched to the go-to shad lure, caught a few, then wouldn't touch it. finally, we noticed the only bait available at most areas were very tiny rainfish... so i downsized to a the smallest paddle tail i had and finally had a fish almost every cast... but like i said all small, so we wrapped it up after a bit and headed off to tog land.

the day, catching wise, didn't get any better from there haha. we started off picking at some tog and building life. everything seemed to be going on track. We picked up two keepers and then it just shut off.

Looking around we noticed some boats were catching fish still at a good pace while most were not. It seemed like the tog just suddenly concentrated on very specific spots and refused to move anywhere else. we moved a round a bit trying different areas to very little avail.

Only at the end of our day did we settle on a large plateaued rock pile that seemed perfect.... too bad it was baren! but the boat next to us was plucking tog consistently and judging off the map, it seems like they were super tight to the edge of the rock pile i'm guessing and just didn't want to feed anywhere else. At this point we were out of time, took too long to figure them out...
no biggie, I just went freshwater fishing the next day and caught bigger bass than the tog we caught hahaha

JMo1986 · #2 12-06-2021, 01:42 PM

Glad it wasn't tough for only me! I sucked on Saturday and the bite was not great. Missed a few opportunities in the am and then it died out as the anchoring conditions got worse.

I had a few buddies who were on the edge of a structure too and got their 3 man limit on the edge. When they drifted on top, bite stopped.

Another consideration is if you anchor too close to boats that were creating a crab slick over time, fish will concentrate to the boat that has a pile of crab under it. On bigger pieces it doesn't seem to be as big an issue and frankly I thought it was BS at first, but I am starting to see more evidence it could be happening..... Tog are mysterious creatures for sure.

Foul Hook · #3 12-06-2021, 06:10 PM

Toggin was tough Saturday. As stated you'd get some bites going and they would go away, or one hit and that's it. We managed some keepers 13 for 5 of us but certainly lackluster. Yesterday was much better.

Gerry Zagorski · #4 12-08-2021, 11:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JMo1986

Tog are mysterious creatures for sure.

Ain't that the truth.... I've also heard a lot people recently saying it's been a "sectional bite" meaning one side or corner of the boat. I've seen that happen too, even on smaller boats like mine and even after moving or resetting the anchor. That same corner or side gets all the bites and others are like grave yards.

Every day is different and that's what makes Tog fishing so challenging yet rewarding. You get that one day where it all comes together and that's what keeps you going.

Chrisper4694 · #5 12-08-2021, 12:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gerry Zagorski

Ain't that the truth.... I've also heard a lot people recently saying it's been a "sectional bite" meaning one side or corner of the boat. I've seen that happen too, even on smaller boats like mine and even after moving or resetting the anchor. That same corner or side gets all the bites and others are like grave yards.

Every day is different and that's what makes Tog fishing so challenging yet rewarding. You get that one day where it all comes together and that's what keeps you going.

so true, but damn it's annoying when you just run out of time as you're about to figure it out! haha

Gerry Zagorski · #6 12-08-2021, 01:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chrisper4694

so true, but damn it's annoying when you just run out of time as you're about to figure it out! haha

For sure and so annoying when you move to a new spot, as soon as you drop down you get one or two fish and think you have something going and then nothing.... Move again, same thing.... I'd love to know what's going on down there...

Chrisper4694 · #7 12-08-2021, 07:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gerry Zagorski

For sure and so annoying when you move to a new spot, as soon as you drop down you get one or two fish and think you have something going and then nothing.... Move again, same thing.... I'd love to know what's going on down there...

Im fairly certain they’re circle jerking on my crabs and laughing at me