f #^&#^&#^&#^&#^& thanks a lot ><>

Great ledge is on fire. 3 18" fish in first 20 mins.
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Our best bite was in ten feet of water just outside Westport river on two mile ledge, still shallow me thinks
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We crushed em. Tried to raise you guys, got Ray earlier in the day. We got 11 keepers and about 35 shorts at great ledge in about 15'. Moved out to the high point of Wilks and replaced most of our keepers with 20" + fish. I'll post some pics later. I hope others had it as good! Best day of togging in years. Probably gaught 30 fish over 16" and 50-60 just under.
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I had a great time with Ray and Bernie. The fish were not as cooperative where we were as our short to keeper ratio was about 25 to 1.... Just one keeper. But chased some albies and one was brought in the boat. Learned a lot. Unreal how subtle those little thieves can be. Enjoyed a great day on the water with good company! (I clearly won the smallest fish of the day pool. One of them might post a pic....) We were in shouting distance of Wayne's boat with Clammer and Dennis onboard.

awesome day & weather ...........Great guys ,we had 8 keepers , bunch of shorts, sea bass , a big buffer , wayne got a real nice albie & ended by watching them catch small & large blues & a bunch of schoolies

All but one of our 11 keepers came from water under 15 feet I wish we had a temp gauge, I’m beeping the water was still warm
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I heard you on the radio but when I called back i noticed my radio was displaying LOW BATT when ever I tried Transmit .. sometimes cell phones are easier.. we saw one guy at the ramp with Monster Togs but he was also Minus a prop and skeg he hit something coming in

Had a great day weather the company and the fish participated.. the stars were aligned.. And a shout out to Ray for being the point person thanks

Disappointed with the numbers I showed the crew but had a great day...
Pic of the fish of the day to follow... :-)

I wish the BSB season wasn't closed, because I'd have brought home three slobs, that had me believing I had a big fat tog on the line. The 11 keepers is low for 4 guys pounding it all day, but I suspect if the fall temps had been colder it would have been far better, but we caught a mess of shorts to make it a fun day anyway.

Who's the man?
 

Looked like a fun day day out there. Congrats to Ross on the new PB , well done sir.

what a difference a day makes >>>>>>>>>>not just the fog ><<>
:fishin:

I know no Bret or cell phone to pick on.

LIKE HE,s gonna give it up :faga:

I just wanted to say that even though we didn't get a boat load of keepers I had a boat load of fun.....and most importantly, I learned a lot. Found a new nice launch site and area to fish. Still have to learn the area to set up some waypoints but that's half the fun.

Ray and Ross were great company and look forward to fishing with them down the road.

A big thank you to Ray for his hospitality.

First trip I've missed in years. I'll be back with DadBomba next year.

Meant to post sooner. Based on the earlier season reports from Cool Beans and others that were finding keeper sized fish very shallow, and my early season of fishing deep with nothing but shorts, my plan was to get as close as possible to the top of the bumps and apparently, that was the key. We were the second boat at Great Ledge at about 7:05. The first boat was on the NE corner of the ledge, probably in 25-35'. By 7:30, we had 3 18" fish in the live well. By 8:00 there were about 15 boats there, somewhat spread out. Most fished for about an hour and then moved on. By the end of the tide, around 10:00 or so, we had 11 keepers but I didn't see many other boats putting fish in the box. As the tide slowed, so did the bite, so we moved out to Wilks Ledge looking for bigger fish. Did the same thing, got right on top of the bump and had the same result but with bigger fish. My temp gauge has been stuck at 32 since the second season so I don't know what the temp was or if there was a difference between Great and Wilks. Seemed a bit colder at Wilks, based on live well water.

I thought it was worth sharing because everything I've read and watched on togging says that early, deeper is better for the bigger fish, likely due to colder water. A couple of weeks before, we started off by Cleavlands and the water was hot and it was all very small fish. We moved to The Bow Bells off of Marion and found colder water and bigger fish. It was a grey, foggy, rainy, cold day but the fishing was very slow. Then we have a bright sunny, flat calm, hot day and the fish are as shallow as they can find and the bite is on fire. Goes against everything I thought I knew about tog fishing. Was this just a fluke (pun intended) day? My pics didn't post for some reason. I'll put them up later.

I think it was Cohen Fishin that was talking about catching tog on jigs in a couple of feet of water when large swell washes over rock piles. Almost as if the tog are feeding on crabs getting swept out of the rocks. Maybe the crabs (like blue crabs) like to sun themselves and they are the ones searching out the highest possible point on the rock piles and the tog are just there for that reason. Maybe they wouldn't have been there like that had it ben an overcast foggy day?

The other thing I noticed was that the fish came in very different colors. Some were very dark rusty red and some looked bleached out. I know that when the bass show in the spring, they have dark green backs and black stripes and sea lice. You can tell the difference between the ones that have been here for a while because they're not as vibrant. I wonder if that is the same with tog and can we learn or predict anything from that.

It was a great day. I think next year, we should get it planned out earlier and all launch from the same place and have a weigh in time or something. Maybe do a biggest fish pool. I don't often get to attend the couple of social events through the season but the few that i have were a good time. Thanks to Ray for keeping this alive.

Hit RI early today and I'm glad we did, because the 5-10 and 2 footers predicted, turned into a steady 10-15 and 4-5 footers by the time we pulled the last hook. We easily got our boat limit of 10 tog, with several pushing 23-24 inches and the double degit mark, along with a half dozen sea bass. I should have brought a bigger cooler, I could fit my 5 tog and a couple sea bass in there with the frozen bottles and then after, could barely put the cover on the largest baking dish I had to bring the filets in the house to start vacuum sealing some. I love big tog, man they are just such bull dogs, my buddy had a big one on, that he couldn't move and finally had to break off.

Glad he took my advice after the last trip and put together a grapnel anchor made out of rebar, easier to pull free and re-bend if neeed and it held pretty good considering the conditions.

Impressive catch !!!!
Lots of good eating there....

I don't vacuum pack, instead I fill the ziplock bag with filtered water, lay it flat and it freezes the filet in a "block of ice".... wonder if one way is better than the other.

Do the same except with salt water. I fill an Arizona ice tea jug out where it's "clean". Garandmother taught me that one. Didn't this time though.
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Anyone togging Sunday? Aside from the cold, looks decent.

looking for one guy to tog fish .must be able to take the cold & wet weather .........going any day I can get outside .............. no time limit . I have the bait & gas / all legal fish caught go to the boat ..........hoping for tomorrow ..........if interested..401-487-0029<<< Joe Fig call [anchor]

I will be out this weekend in my old boat from the base. most likely solo unless I find someone to drag out in the cold...LOL
I work tomorrow and Friday will be too damn cold. I will go out one of these days this weekend for sure though maybe Sat or Sun

Had planned on today, backs out and not sure if I can make it

Ya, Sunday looking good

Gonna get your ten fish Mike?

Mike ,10 legal or 100 short &&&&&&&& 5" sea bass ><>lol

Well, I sucked it up and went...
Popped a couple Advil, loaded a box of tissues, I also have a cold...
Back pain eased up a little figured I was good to go...
With two pills and a cold my brain cells where more inept than usual...
Gets to my spot , goes to setup. Oops, forgot the chum/fillet table.. So now I'm bending over all day to the height of a 5 gal bucket baiting hooks....
First drift missed the pile by yrds, no problem I'll set er again....NOT
Anchor is hung, pulled from all point of the compass and thought the stern cleat was going to pop..
Let's out scope, puts the boat in reverse gear and holds pretty close to the rock pile,,, reverse gear all freaken day.... Grrrrr
Culled out three nice ones out of a bunch of legalls

Figured I'd be cutting the anchor line,but one last try.....
this time I notice I'm doing 1 Knt pulling the line... WTF
My guess is I broke loose the orphan trap I didn't know I caught , got all the anchor line back except from the gunwall to the bottom... Couldn't pull with my back so's I walk the line cross the deck couple til I see chain...
With the help of some wave action I got it in the boat...
Now sitting in my chair at home and can't get out of it.... This evenings plan is lots of Scotch.... :-)

Sounds like you had plenty of action. Winter is coming but today was great to be on the water. I fished for tautog for the first time in a long time. Plenty of groceries to make a chowder!
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