Rough surf days are perfect for shore togging.
Last year I was signed up to fish in the boat division of the RI Tog Classic, an Ocean State tog tournament that draws a big crowd every year. As the date drew near, it became quite apparent that the seas were not going to be friendly and we were going to have to steam from Massachusetts waters to catch eligible fish, in this Rhode-Island-only event. Our captain pulled the plug on the trip a few days before the tourney and I made a call to the tournament director, asking to be switched into the shore division.
The forecast was accurate, and it would have been a miserable day on the boat, for sure. Checking the weather, I made the decision to get the wind behind me and to situate myself below a high bank for added protection. I also picked a spot inside a narrower, sheltered cove where, I hoped, the surf wouldn’t be too huge. I wasn’t worried so much about the fishing; blackfish have a well-documented love for rough water, but I wanted to be safe and I wanted to be able to land fish.
I heard the voice of my good friend and fellow writer Capt. John Lee echoing in my head, talking about how fired up the blackfish would get on his shoreline dive trips under stormy sea conditions. My mind then switched to a calmer day in the very spot where I was headed. I was casting from the rocks and he was out in his dive gear telling me what was going on under the surface. Skimming on his belly in less than 3 feet of water, his head popped up and he pointed, “There are two 8-pounders 10 feet in front of me!” Pointing to a spot barely out of his reach he continued, “literally, right there!”
I didn’t catch either of those two fish, but it cemented a notion in my head that erased another in the same moment. My old assumption was that a big blackfish would not venture into water shallower than, let’s say, 10 feet. But when John excitedly pointed to a pair of 8’s in water I could easily stand in, my whole belief system went sideways. But as I thought about it more and considered some of John’s other underwater observations, I realized that staying out of the shallows would require these fish to ignore a phenomenon that would seem to produce a windfall of edibles. Of course they love rough water, it pounds out every little critter and crustacean that hides safely in the rocks on a calm day!
The image of a feeding frenzy of competitive tog was racing through my subconscious when I rounded the rocky point and set myself up to fish. A heavy swell pounded the rocks, forcing me to put some serious thought into where I could safely ‘headquarter’ my gear. After about 10 minutes of watching the surf, I picked a spot that seemed to be staying dry.
I prefer to fish jigs, and I like a medium action, parabolic rod for this game. I use a Tsunami Carbon Shield rod paired with a Shimano Saragossa 5000 reel. The reel is spooled with 40-pound Power Pro Maxcuatro, and a 40-pound fluoro leader is connected via a uni-to-uni; I tie my jigs direct. I carry a box with jigs ranging from half-ounce to 2-1/2 ounces, if you need more weight than that, switch to a snafu rig.
I watched the waves pounding this big rock, and saw how they, sort of, collapsed into this washing machine area, a deeper hole, I thought. It seemed like the perfect spot… the waves pounding the protruding ledge and the residual energy sweeping whatever was dislodged into this boiling, fizzing cauldron. I’ve seen this phenomenon play out off the tips of jetties too, with the right wave direction.
I baited a half-ounce jig with half a crab and pitched it into the spot, the crab was crushed and stolen within seconds; but I exacted my revenge on the next cast. In the following three hours I had near constant action, a mix of shorts and keepers, including a 6-pounder that would have landed on the leaderboard if a giant wave hadn’t come and swept it, along with my bucket of crabs away. I recovered the crabs, sadly, the fish was gone. I also hooked a lost a true freight train. A very good day of fishing when the ocean ‘out front’ was much too dangerous for any kind of shore fishing.
When things get super rough, I go togging and the results speak for themselves.
