Tautog

The boat was full of snow and the forecast did not sound promising. Hunter Southall got some nice bait and he shoveled out the boat so we had to give it a try. The sea conditions were surprisingly nice: sunny and calm early, breezing up a bit in the afternoon.

 

We had Willy Goldsmith with us. He is a graduate student at VIMS who earned his undergraduate degree at Harvard. He is a New England native with a lot of togging experience up there. This was his first Virginia tog trip. I had told him that this might not be the trip to go on (cold, wet, rough) and that we were going just because we do stuff like that. He just laughed and said it sounds like home.

 

We caught 21 tautog. Our day ended when we lost our wreck anchor. Our largest tog weighed 9.25 pounds. We got fin samples from all of the fish for DNA research. Some tautog carcasses are also on their way to VIMS for something to do with that same project. Tautog skin is being sent to Harvard. I have no idea why. We kept the filets.

 

We used both clam and “white leggers” for bait. The clam got the most bites. The largest tog was caught on crab.

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