OC Toging report

[Steve F]

Well guys I will try and make this as short as possible.

I just built myself a tog rod and I could not wait to try it out on this trip….

Tuesday, Rob and I arrive in OC about 1:30 and before we even put the boat in the water I meet a guy I have seen 2 years in a row. Andy told me that he got word that there are gannets working just below Little Gull Bank and a guy just came in with his limit. Rob and I got the boat on the water and stopped at Akes to pick up some green crabs but they were out of them until Wednesday mid morning. Well we had some frozen sand fleas so off to our togging grounds. When we got there it was a sight to see, about 12 boats all gather up in 1 spot so we looked at each other and said what the hell lets go for it so off to the blue water we went. We hit Little Gull Bank and found all the gannets you wanted to see but none of them were working on anything. We travel about 5 miles South of Little Gull and found NOTHING. We then headed back into the Inlet and there were still about 10 boats setting on the togging hole so we loaded up the boat and headed to the house.

Wednesday, I called Jack the night before and he was still sick as hell but said he would try and make it on Thursday. Rob and I got on the water at o dark thirty and set up on our spot, well we fished for about 3 hours with nothing to show but a few shot tog (Tide was really ripping) so we headed back out in the ocean to a wreck that my buddy Travis told me about. I have never anchored up on a wreck but Rob has done many times with Travis. After about a 20 mile run I found the wreck and we marked it with a buoy. We then circled around a few times and set out the anchor. Rob knew what he was doing other then I did not think the water was that deep on the outside of the wreck and the buoy I set out was just barely sticking out of the water to show us which way the tide was running. We stayed there for about 2 hours leaving line out pulling line in and only had 2 short tog and one dog fish to show for it. We then said lets try our hole again and buy the time we got there, there were about 8 boats setting all around it but we found a spot and set up camp. We arrived there about 1:30 and for the next 2 ½ hours we bailed the tog and putting 5 in the box with me catching the biggest at 17”. We could have had out limit but I will not keep one unless it’s 15” and we caught about 50 tog total.

Thursday, My buddy Mike showed up Wednesday night to fish with Rob and I the rest of the week so again we were on the water at o dark thirty and we try another spot. We caught fish for about 2 hours until the tide started ripping again and they stopped biting but not before I put 4 keepers in the box with the biggest at 18”. We then try to make it out of the inlet but by this time the inlet was really getting rough and foggy so we decided to just go back to our spot and set up for the rest of the day. We ended up catching our limit of 12 nice tog and out of the 12 I caught 8 of them. At about 3:30 we decided to call it a day because it was raining and foggy the whole day. We caught about 75 to 85 tog for the day and I guess being the Capt I caught most of them, Jack did not show up and was coming down now on Friday with his crew.

Friday, they were calling for the wind to blow it’s ass off and it did so when we got up and checked the water we decided to just bag the whole day and head home. Jack was still sick and did not make it down with us.

All in all we had a great time and we caught a lot of tog in 2 days. Mike, Rob and I have some tog to eat and have some good stories to tell. We will be back next year to put a hurting on them again but I really want a 20”. By the way for anyone that has never fish for tog your missing out, these are the hardest fighting fish out there even the little ones will put a strain on you. By the way, the rod I built was GREAT and I broke it in just fine.

[Blakesdad]

Sounds like fun, you big lug

[Spot77]

Sounds like a great time!!

Is there anything unique or special about the rod you built that makes it a Tog rod?

What kind of line were you using with them? I know I can get away with 14# braid on Rockfish up to about 26 or 28 inches before I get real nervous, but if Tog fight that much harder I might have to give them a try on the medium action rod and my beloved 14# braid.

[Steve F]

Scott, The rod is the new vertical jigging rod that is 6’ M/H action with a fast tip. They make them for tuna and you really need to see these rods. This rod is very light weight but has the ass to pull those tog off the bottom. I built the rod in a spiral wrap and did a little marbling on it as well. This is one sharp looking rod if I say so myself. It’s rated for 20-40lb test but I use 30# mono and have not had any problems other then the line gets frayed after it hits the rocks a bunch of times. Tog pull 10 times harder than any striper for there size and are better eating too.

Now for stripers I just use 12lb braid with 20 or 25 mono leader. Don’t get nervous just pull those big boys in.