Blackfish reports

[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 .

.