Tomcod

[goosefish]

I'm sure they would take a jig, Toonoc. I did a bit of reading about Tomcod. South of Cape Cod the Tomcod--know also as frostfish--move out into slightly deeper water, outside the estuaries, where the waters are cooler. Then in the fall they head back into the estuaries to spawn. Up in the Gulf region, North of Cape Cod, they never leave the bays and coves, and are rarely found in water more than a fathom or two deep.

Other local fish show an opposite migration. Fluke, seabass, scup, all head out into deeper water in the winter time. The waters offshore, say in fifty or sixty fathoms, are much more stable and warmer than water that is inshore. When I use to work on draggers we would target fluke and scup, all through the winter, in an area know as the mud patch--which is a huge area just inside of the shelf break, out maybe sixty miles. When the limits were set more strictly on draggers, and consequently, less fish were harvested, the inshore summer runs of these species really increased. I'd say the scup, seabass, and fluke have made a good little come-back the past few years. But who really is to say?