Bottom Bouncing: Springtime Rock Rhinos - The Fisherman

Bottom Bouncing: Springtime Rock Rhinos

big-tog
When you set yourself up over prime structure some big tog can be caught during the spring season in Rhode Island.

The Rhody spring blackfish season is overlooked, but it shouldn’t be.

It’s April in New England, and all any of us can think about is dusting off rods, hitting the tackle shop, grabbing some crabs and going toggin!. Wait, what? Yes, I said toggin’! You know, tautoga onitus, White chinners. I like to call them ‘rock rhinos’ in recognition of their bulldozer mentality and brute strength. Most fishermen and women are targeting returning striped bass at this time, but I’m all about the tog and I think you should join me.

We’ve all heard the old saying, ‘when the dandelion’s show it’s time to fish for tautog.’ Is there any truth to that statement? I really don’t know for sure, but after hearing it so often when I was a kid, I can’t help but get a little excited when the first ones pop up in the yard. And, if my experience is typical, there definitely seems to be some truth behind it, you might say blackfish and dandelions go together like peanut butter and jelly. If you want to be more scientific about it, water temps between 48 and 54 degrees will usually produce good catches.

Moving In

Anyone who has their boat in the water will be glad to know that they won’t have to travel far. You won’t have to make runs to 150 or even 75 feet of water like you did to close out the fall season, you’re typically going to find them in 50 feet or less, sometimes as shallow as 10. With the fish moving in so shallow, it’s easy to see why the springtime is such a great time of year to target them from shore.

While everyone is dunking crabs in the fall, springtime toggers utilize a broad selection of ‘soft baits’ in addition to crabs. When I say ‘soft baits’ I mean things like squid, clams, bloodworms, sandworms, and mussels (mussels can be hard to keep on the hook). If you find that your soft baits are getting ‘stripped’ too easily, or if you’re not getting the bites you’re looking for, try stacking a few Asian crabs on the hook. If you have green crabs, try to stick to the smaller ones and crack their shells to let the juices seep out.

Inserting the point of the hook into a leg socket and out another leg socket provides a solid connection to your crab making it harder for tog to strip your hook, even with a savage strike. Be sure to check your bait often because blackfish are notorious for stealing baits without the angler noticing. A trick I use is to add a trailer hook to my tog jig. I’ll use Dacron line to avoid the trailer hook breaking off on structure. I’ll run it back about 5 inches and smell a 3/0 Gamakatsu live bait hook and trail a crab behind the jig, this helps with finicky fish and stolen crabs. It also keeps the fish there longer and provides a better hookup ratio.

It’s also crucial that you have fresh bait on every drop. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been around guys on the boat or from shore that will be getting non-stop action and then, boom, the action stops…because they didn’t realize there bait was gone.

jig
The author prefers jigs to rigs, especially when the fish are in shallow water.

Timing The Tap

Where there’s one blackfish there are more- they tend to stack up on prime structure. When you are on a good spot and you’re getting those ‘initial “taps” or what feels almost like “scratches” be patient. Don’t set the hook right away, wait through it, but don’t wait too long, you want to wait for that moment when they crush it. This can be tricky to time, blackfishing can make you want to pull your hair out. Sensitivity is key, this is why I rarely throw anything but a jig in the springtime. Whether you drop rigs or jigs, you want to wait for that big crunch and then swing away and don’t stop reeling! Blackfish are powerful and stubborn and if you give them any chance to turn back, the big ones will burn you.

Locate & Dominate

I look to locate spring blackfish up in the shallow bays an coves since these fish are moving in I like to target shallower ledges, boulder fields, wrecks, (big blackfish love wrecks), jetties, bridge pilings, wooden docks, holes, humps, broken bridges, ragged bottom and mussel beds. These fish are not hard to find, I like to say, ‘you find a rock you find a tog’. But to be honest fishing for blackfish is all about your boat positioning and setting up correctly on your ‘piece’. What I mean by a piece is any type of structure you’re trying to set up on to fish.

So let’s talk about the anchor situation; I highly recommend the spot lock advantage of a trolling motor; it’s an absolute game changer! You don’t have that ‘boat sway’ as you would with traditional anchor when the wind kicks up, you can fish more thoroughly and cover more structure even in stubborn currents and uneasy weather it just keeps you right on the money! If you don’t have a Minn Kota trolling motor or if spot lock is not an option for you I recommend double anchoring, simply because double anchoring keeps the boat stationary and steady witch is extremely important. It might take you a few tries to get the anchors to hold just right but, just like anything else, practice makes perfect.

Tog Time

When I’m on a piece, set up and ready to get toggin’, I will, almost always, start with a jig. I like to fish right in the gnarly stuff, I’ll drop it right into their wheelhouse; I want that jig to land right in front of their faces! There are times though, that I will fish just off the structure too, if I’m losing a lot of jigs or if the bite is red hot and I don’t feel like I need to be right on the structure. I also have great success fishing jigs over stretches of mussel beds, I think the key is to be willing to try everything until you find what’s working; let the fish tell you how they want it.

If I get no ‘taps’ In the first 30 seconds or so I’m pulling up and I will take a minute to put together a chum bag and establish a chum line and that is so crucial when you fish for these fish! Basically, I’ll cut or crush up a couple handfuls of crabs or clams toss them into a mesh bag and hang it over the side on a rope. Once that chum line starts to seep out into the surrounding area, it usually fires up a bite pretty quickly. It’s often necessary to build a blackfish bite slowly—these fish are very curious and they really want to know where that chum is coming from. Once they start chewing the action will go from zero to 100 pretty fast. But, if you’re not getting any action after 20 to 45 minutes or so, it’s time to hit a new spot and repeat the process.

closeup
There’s no better way to enjoy a spring day than putting some beautiful blackfish on the deck.

Rhino Ready

My setups don’t change much between spring and fall blackfishing. The only change I make is downsizing my line and leader. I run two setups: one casting and one spinning. The conventional rig I run is a 6-foot, 6-inch Tsunami platinum series spiral wrap medium heavy casting rod, paired with a Daiwa Lexa TW400-HLP. This rod is a beast that has a long butt that allows me to really drive that hook home and provides optimal leverage on the fish. With a good tog rod you want a little give with backbone to get them up and out of that structure. The Lexa provides more than enough cranking power and speed, with its 7.1.1 gear ratio, allowing me to stay on top of the biggest tog and it’s smooth and comfortable to use. It only takes a few cranks of the handle to pull, even the heaviest fish, up and away from the rocks.

I spool that rig with 40-pound PowerPro and Daiwa J fluorocarbon for my leader, if you haven’t used this J Fluoro, it’s the real deal ultra-abrasion resistant and easy to work with. For my spinning setup I run a 7-foot Tsunami platinum series medium heavy paired with a Daiwa BG 3500. I run 30-pound high-vis Power Pro with an 8-foot, 30-pound J-Fluoro leader. I use high-vis braid for two reasons, it’s easy to see in all conditions, knowing where your line is, is critical especially when fishing a jig. The second reason is detecting small subtle bites or “taps”. Sometimes the line “jumping” will be the only indication of a bite, the high-vis line makes those subtle takes a 1000 times easier to see.

Harvest With Care

SPRING SEASONS
Massachusetts: April 1 to May 31, 3 fish at 16 inches or greater
Rhode Island: April 1 to May 31, 3 fish at 16 inches or greater
Connecticut: April 1 to April 30, 2 fish at 16 inches or greater

I was born and raised in Newport, Rhode Island and I feel like I can confidently say, the blackfish is truly Rhode Island’s fish. The tog fishery we have here is really something special and people travel from all over to experience it. The downside is that blackfish grow very slowly, it takes them 8 years to reach 19 inches and they can live at least 25 years. The slow growth rate makes them susceptible to overfishing and with how popular tog fishing has become over the last five or six years. It’s more important than ever that we all do our part to protect these amazing fish by letting most of those big female breeders go we will ensure that these beautiful hard-biting, stubborn-fighting and fantastic eating fish are available in our New England waters for generations to come. I’m looking forward to seeing you out there on the water this spring. Happy toggin’!

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