Haha yeah bro, they eat them in Europe. They call them rock salmon. My Greek neighbors always wanted them when I was a kid. Apparently if you don't bleed them right away they end up tasting like piss. I'll agree and let someone else eat them, no thanks. I'm definitely looking forward to tog fishing. You might want to call the Dauntless and see if they'll be selling white leggers on board, if not, grab some from Gates or Alex's down the road a bit. If you fish out deep the whites will outfish the greens almost every time, because greenies don't actually live out that far, but the white leggers do. And if you can score marine (not the pet store land type) hermit crabs, oh man. It's like tog crack. Not easy to find though.
Thanks again man. You've been really helpful! I'll be checking on the crabs starting this Sunday. Figure on 2 last trips and then Tog until it gets too damn cold to go. I already got a real nice stash of SeaBass/Ling and Cod so I'm good thru the winter.
Stinky, I'm just now starting to correlate the moon and fishing results. Thanks to these links, I'll be paying a lot more attention to the moon phase and I will take their suggestions as to good fishing days. Not going until Sunday which hopefully, will let the dogfish disperse just a bit. Thanks for yet another tool to put in my tacklebox!
Ha, it's just a general guide, but has some merit. I have noticed it has the most effect on pelagic fish (trolling), then bottom fish, then inshore (although here tides are biggest factor for those) I don't use it as gospel, but I have noticed times listed as "Major" (moon up / moon down) do have more activity. Kind of like people..... we're gonna eat when we're hungry and when food's available, but we all have semi-regular eating times (breakfast, lunch, dinner) Those links you just quoted are week out sea / surf forecasts. That site is pretty reliable for predicting surf, although they do tend to get a bit excited over big storms. I believe it's based off the GFS & NOAA WaveWatch III btw, what the hell is a dog fish? is it those little mini tigersharks you see in aquariums? oh, and if it swims, someone will eat it. Especially Asians
They're Sand Sharks Stinky. They look like mini-makos. They don't get all that big though and have skin like sandpaper. Biggest one I've seen so far has been roughly 4'. They're annoying as hell. Even more annoying than Begalls. When they hit, they "spin" on the way up and tie up rigs like nobody's business. They are bad news unless you like to eat them. After spending a year in Asia in the Army, I agree 100% with you...
Ha ok, I remember those....... I guess it's better than big blacktips and Cudas eating nice size red snapper. but WTH is a Begall? Leave Snoopy alone!
Begalls look like little perch. They like to hit your bait like machineguns until its gone. Too small for hooking although every now and then you'll foul hook one. In the end, they make good bait for Sea Bass so they do have some value unlike dogfish.
I hadn't been offshore in quite some time though......... Last week I thought I SCORED a sweet deal on a nicely modified 17' mako. Had plans to drive down to SW FL to see / give a deposit but then at at 11:30 pm the night before I get a text saying it was sold...... rt after I just watched the Mets lose game 2 insult to injury, I saw the guy who bought it post it up on a classic mako website.
Had something very similar like that happen to me. Saw a boat I really liked in the consignment yard. I took wifey over to look at it but of course, she vetoed the purchase. This was all before I got the boat I have now. So, I go back to look at it again and its gone. Oh well.. One lovely Sunday afternoon we're fishing for Crappie and wouldn't ya know it, here comes a boat past us that looked EXACTLY like the boat I had seen. I asked the guy where he got it and you guessed it, it WAS the boat! I was burnt and gave wifey perhaps the deadliest staredown I ever gave anyone. It was a VERY quiet fishing trip the rest of the day.
Redon closed transom with engine bracket.... the seat is a big livewell with cushion seat trim tabs, electronics, alum. trailer, etc VERY good price too
That's a real shame man.. That's a nice Center Console and looks to be in damn good shape. Well, just keep that change ready for the next boat that comes your way.
Tog talk! You might know a lot of this, but who knows. This is all stuff regulars, mates and captains on boats have been telling me since I was a kid. If you don't already have them, get a bunch of flat bank sinkers. The regular banks tend to roll a bit if you move them and somehow always find a hole to fall into. I always go heavier than I need to. If an 8 will do it, I have a 10 on. Once you find bottom, don't bounce your sinker around. You're going to be fishing on rock piles and other hard structure and it seems like the constant clicking drives them away from your bait. You mentioned braid. Make sure you fish with some belly in your line, because you have no stretch and you don't want to move the crab and sinker all around. Gotta rock with the waves. Because the crabs you use (unless you're a blue claw baller) don't have swim fins, there's no reason for them to be floating above the structure. Don't be afraid to change your presentation if nothing's going on. Tog are incredibly picky. One day they could only want half a greenie with the legs and shell on , and the next day they'll only hit one with the legs off. Same with the white leggers. Small whole crabs are good too, just smash the shell with a sinker to let the good stuff flow out. If you're trophy/pool hunting, whole big white leggers on a snafu rig take tons of pools. Current record tog 28.8 was taken on a whole legger down in VA. I'm sure some other stuff will come to me between now and then.
In addition: 10 Sea Bass, 1 Cod.. Got this beast on my Sea Bass rig. Not quite as heavy as my usual Bluefish rig so I had to set that drag loose and just let this big boy play itself out, then crank his ass in. Gotta say it pardner, fighting that Blue got the juices flowing! He only walked me maybe 10 ft and I didn't really tangle anyone. Got a trip planned for this upcoming weekend but I just might get on the Miss Belmar and finish the summer season going after these Gorilla Blues. Not sure just yet. Great day overall.. Oh yeah, went by the baitshop in Belmar and picked up 15 flat 8oz leads for Toggin. Might get some 10's too.
Hey, nice bluefish! You gotta love when they show up while you have the light tackle out , they really break up the drop and reel bottom fishing. Hell, I even just like watching people fight them on the light stuff haha. Sounds like you had an all around good trip. If your freezer's full up, hell yeah jump on a bluefish boat. The fishing is really good right now from what I'm hearing and you might even end up with a striper mixed in. Yeah, if you can, grab some 10s and maybe even a couple 12s.I'm really thinking about buying the molds and pouring them myself at this point, it gets expensive fast if I go a lot. I'm pretty quick to cut off and retie if the action is good, the hell with wiggling the sinker out for 5 minutes.
Well Stinky to his credit, he did walk me 10ft down the boat until I got the drag loose enough to play him. Just finished pulling the fillets out of the salt brine and trimmed all the dark meat.
