Togging tips from a veteran North Fork charter boat captain.
The weather could have been a bit nicer to us, but that wasn’t about to stop a gang of veteran and resolute sinker bouncers from joining Capt. Rich Jensen and deck hands Christina Tormey and Capt. Derek Grattan for a day of togging aboard the Orient based charter boat the Nancy Ann IV last season on Sunday October 29th. The wind was blowing southeast at 15 to 20 knots with the threat of rain that finally became reality at about 11 a.m. The plan that morning was to fish by Fishers Island where Capt. Rich had been doing well with boat limits of tog to 8 pounds for the past few days. Despite the moon tides and unfavorable weather conditions for any fair weather fisherman, the 12 anglers in our group led by our fearless leader Sal Amendolia welcomed the elements by putting a boat limit of tasty tog in the box to 6 pounds releasing many others along with some nice sea bass to 3 pounds. By 1 p.m. it was quitting time and also time to square away the pool which was once again taken by my good friend and Sal’s son Dominick Amendolia with a chunky 6-plus pound tog.
For the past 27 years Sal has been chartering a blackfish trip aboard the Nancy Ann IV either the last weekend of October or the first weekend of November. After being on a waiting list, I got my invitation to join the elite group of anglers 12 years ago. Since that first trip 12 years ago, I’ve witnessed Dominick taking pool honors 8 times. Indeed both Sal and Dominick have the magical touch when it comes to fishing. And that stands particularly true with blackfish, as it takes a certain knack of learning the behavioral patterns of the tautoga onitis. With that said and while I was aboard the trip that day, I reached out to veteran Capt. Rich Jensen for some secrets of the trade to share with readers of The Fisherman Magazine.
64 Years And Going Strong
Since the 1960’s the Jensen family has been taking anglers fishing on open and charter boats from the Peconic Bays to south of Montauk. It first began with Capt. Rich’s grandfather William Jensen running the 65 foot open boat, the Wilhelric. The name of the boat was derived by using the first three letters of granddad’s family names which are William (grandfather), Helen (grandmother) and Richard (Capt. Rich’s dad). In 1972 at the age of 18 Capt. Rich with his bride Nancy Ann by his side, Capt. Rich took over the reins of the Wilhelric and never looked back. The boat took turns sailing from Greenport and Sag Harbor. As the years rolled on Capt. Rich kept with family tradition by naming each charter boat he owned and operated using the name of the love of his life starting with the first Nancy Ann to the current Nancy Ann IV which Rich and Nancy Ann has owned and been berthed at Orient by the Sea in Orient Point for the past 23 years.
The Nancy Ann IV is a 45-foot walk around Burpee Hull Custom that is pushed along by a pair of 200 hp John Deere diesels. The boat is licensed for 32 passengers, however, when it comes to blackfish, Capt. Rich limits the charter to 12 anglers which allows for much room around the rails and comfort while at rest as the boat is on the move. By the way, as for Nancy Ann Jensen herself, she would give the sharpies a run for the money out fishing most men blindfolded in the most challenging conditions. Nowadays however, Nancy only fishes when the sun is shining and only if hubby guarantees the fish will be chewing hard and heavy. Now that is what I call a smart girl.
Times Have Changed
Capt. Rich and the Nancy Ann IV has seen a significant drop in clients primarily due to old age as many of the older clients have either passed away or require assisted living. Capt. Rich has no intentions of retiring anytime soon, and when he does, he plans to hand over the reins to his son Capt. Rick Jensen who is an exceptional fisherman which rubbed off from his dad. Rick runs the deck on most trips and pilots the boat to the bass grounds on the night trips. Capt. Rick had the day off on the day we were out but Christina and Capt. Derek were there and did a great job of running the deck. As for the decline in booking throughout the season, the Nancy Ann is still one of the only boats that sails nearly every day, especially in the spring and fall. For some strange reason, July and especially August, most of the charter boat captains of the North Fork Association find it difficult to book trips. It boggles me as not only do you have sunny warm and breezy conditions most days, but the fishing remains exceptional with loads of striped bass including boat limits of slot fish, bluefish from good eating size to monsters moving in in August and jumbo sea bass and scup filling the box with some fine fare for the dinner table. I may be wrong but my feeling is the kids born around the Millennium truly have little if any interest in fishing with all the Artificial Intelligence catching their attention. During the 70’s when we were growing into ourselves, there was school, playing sports, work and a whole lot of fishing and that was life.
Still On The Comeback Trail
Capt. Rich would be one of the first to tell you that the days of putting a box load of bulldogs in the 8 to 12 pound class is history. “Sure there are some big fish around, but nothing like the giant white chins of 30 years ago,” says the good captain. Commercial fish traps, poaching, pin hooking, ghost lobster pots abandoned from the 1999 lobster die-off did one heck of a job trapping fish, especially structure reliant blackfish which in time die of starvation. In fact, for a time during the early 2000’s fishing for tog was a hard grind. Not long after the dilemma of poor fisheries and pollution, Congress passed the L-TRAP project which is a collaborative conservation effort between The Maritime Aquarium, Save the Sound, Project Oceanology, Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County, Remote Ecologist and local fishermen to improve the ecosystem. Thus far the project has recovered over 1200 abandoned lobster and fish pots. Regardless of the effort applied, it is impossible to corral the thousands of ghost traps that continue senseless killing of fish and shellfish.
Be that as it may, the light at the end of the tunnel became evident in 2020 with blackfish making a significant resurgence. Granted many of the blackfish situated along the North Fork is just under the 16-1/2 inch size regulation for New York State, however most of the charter and open boats along the North and frequent visits to the grounds by the Montauk boats have little difficulty putting a boat limit of 2 to 4-pound blackfish with spurts of 6 to 8-pound pool winners and quite a few double digits throughout the season. Of course there are periods or days the bite will be off, however that is usually the doing of Mother Nature at work. Other contributing factors to the resurgence are the stringent regulations of a 2 fish bag limit and with the spring season limited to the month of April. Surely this State law continues to save countless female tog filled with roe that allows spawning which builds back the population of this incredibly sought after species during the fall season up and down the Northeast coast.
Blackfish are a slow growing species and it will be years before we again see scores of large fish consistently over the 10-pound mark. In the meantime if we leave good enough alone, there is no reason why fishermen of tomorrow can’t enjoy catching some true bulldogs. As for the dinner table, I’ll take 2 to 4-pounders any day over any double digit tog.
Fishing For Suggestions
I’m certain every angler who fished with Capt. Rich and the Nancy Ann boats throughout the years will agree that he is one of the worthiest tog fishermen in the Northeast. After all, he has been professionally pursuing tog in the same East End waters for more than 53 years. With that being a fact, I thought it would be a good idea to catch the veteran captain’s ear and squeeze out some particulars that can benefit Fisherman readers on their blackfish endeavor’s for the upcoming tog season and hopefully for years to come.
| ORIENT
Nancy Ann IV Capt. Rich Jensen (631) 477-2337 Fishy Business Capt. Phil Kess (516) 316-6967 |
| GREENPORT
The Peconic Star Fleet Capt. Paul Ripperger (631) 522-2002 Capt. Speedy Hubert (516) 551-4548 |
| SOUTHOLD
Gratitude Charters Capt. Derek Gratton (631) 875-5612 |
First off, “leave those large heavy weighted tog jigs at home.” These jigs come in assorted shapes, color and sizes and according to Capt. Rich, these jigs attract fishermen rather than blackfish. I’ll admit, I am guilty of the issue at hand. The captain explained that shallow water and slow moving current on the west end of Long Island Sound makes using half to 1-ounce lima bean shape tog jigs ideal versus deep water and currents that can run at 3 or 4 knots, which is impossible to hold bottom or jig with the exception of slack tide. Rich said a double shock leader of 40 or 60-pound mono with a loop for the sinker and a 3/0-octopus hook snelled to an 8-inch leader of 60 to 80-pound mono or fluorocarbon placed on a Dropper Loop 6 inches above the sinker gets the job done.
All the open and charter boats supply green crabs and do very well with it. However those fishermen who bring white crabs and present them correctly, especially in mid-November when togging is at its peak, often catch the pool winning fish. However that is not always the case, says Capt. Rich as plenty of bully tog chow down the greenies. As for hermit crabs, usually a porgy, sea bass or bergal clean off the hook before a blackfish can get to it, particularly during October and into early November. If you can get the hermits to the tog, they too will catch large fish but so will the greenies. Do yourself a favor and spend the money on Christmas presents rather than wasting the dough on hermits.
Capt. Rich also said for years the textbook would say when dropping the rig into the blackfish lair, be sure to hold the rig still as to move the rig would spook and scare off the blackfish. Nothing can be furthest from the truth explained the captain as he feels short and continuous bouncing of the rig no more than 2 or 3 inches from the bottom is the way to go. Continue to do so until you feel either a slight peck or a slam as hard as a jack hammer. Most people’s instinct is to swing as if you want to hit the ball out of the park. Instead, a simple slow uplift until you feel the extra weight on the line then rear back firmly keeping the rod tip high in order to keep the blackfish from diving back into its cubby hole. Should it win the tug of war, the captain suggests putting slack in the line and hope he will come out of the obstruction. Many times they will but you have to be quick retrieving the line or the tog will make another lunge to the bottom. If you still are getting nowhere, tighten any slack in the line and strum it as if you were strumming a guitar. The vibration in the line will drive the tog in a panic and more often than not, providing the sinker is not caught, it will try swimming away to get away from the vibration which does drive them insane. If you still have gotten nowhere, time to cut or break the line and re-rig. Lastly, be sure to use only one hook rigs as it would be a shame to hook a quality tog and the additional hook snags.
As usual, the day ended with plenty of cheery smiles and a dozen bags of tasty fillet equally divided to remind each of us of another memorable day of tog fishing with Nancy Ann. By the way, the Nancy Ann is booked for the entire blackfish season of 2024. I suggest calling real soon if you want to book a trip for 2025. Should the available dates not work out for you, you can always give Capt. Phil Kess of the Fishy Business which is docked right next to the Nancy Ann IV, a shout. Phil and Rich have worked together for many years and will put you right on the meat. You can also give deckhand Capt. Derek Gratton a call. Derek has been a fulltime fisherman for close to 20 years. He owns and runs Gratitude Charters, a 31-foot JC for up to 6 passengers. The boat is docked in Southold. All three captains are experts at their game and will give you the absolute best of service and an enjoyable day on the water.
