Archive for November, 2010

GoPogy – Tautogs and Tires?


November 8th, 2010  |  Published in Fishing Stories by allison

As the season was drawing to a close, Gopogy finally had some time to get back into the fishing game. Despite not being able to fish nearly a quarter as much as I did last year, I can say that I tried more things this year when it came to my fishing game. Last year I was all about fishing live pogies. Don’t get me wrong, live bait out-fishes all other methods of catching fish. But this year the theme for me was definitely “trying new things” in all aspects.
So rather than fish live pogies, I branched out and got into fishing wooden plugs, lighted lures, casting lures and trolling lures. It is so easy to get stuck on one method, especially if it is producing results. But becoming a better fisherman or fisherwoman, means expanding your knowledge and skills. Along with experimenting with different methods of fishing, each year I try to go fishing for a species I haven’t caught yet. Well, one of those fish on my list was Tautog. I’ve heard they are one of the most tasty fish swimming the waters in the Cape and are feisty fighters. While visiting one of the best fisherman in the business on Friday, we were showing him another product not used in New England that we think may do well, which led to hours of fish talk as usual. Next thing we know, we are planning a trip for Tautog fishing on Sunday. Forecast….not so good. Some people recognize me by my Grundens, so I pulled these rubber beauties out of the bin and packed about 5 layers of clothes for Sunday.
I felt like the kid from The Christmas Story. It was very difficult to put my arms down. But I was determined to fish for Tog and learn from one of the best. Our friend was telling us of a “honey hole” he had that produces a lot of tog and big ones to boot. The plan…hit the hole and get our limit, while weeding thru the togs for just the biggest fish….head home in two hours. Well as you all know, the best laid plans….well in Gopogy’s world our plans never go as planned.
We headed out to find the “honey hole”. The windows and door in the cabin were buttoned down so we could stay warm. We got to the vicinity of our spot and told our captain that our fish-finder doesn’t work. We got it fixed this year and it worked once before it didn’t work again. I told him if we ever decided to do charters, we could call it “By Sight” Charters. We have fished without a working device for 2 seasons now and although it is NOT COOL, we have adapted. He sighed and assured us he could find it by looking around. Well the shore had many of the same looking rock formations. It was blowing about 30 and the temps out on the water were in the 40’s. It started to rain.
We guessed and made about 30 drops of the anchor and fished the areas for 10 minutes each. Remember, if you start to chum and don’t catch within 15 minutes….MOVE! My husband was dropping and pulling anchors so much that I knew what I was in store for the next day. A lot of “My back is killing me”. Although we never found his honey hole, he did take us to a few spots where he has caught tog. And we caught. We caught the limit and average size was 18 inches. But no big Togs. Lesson anglers….although you have Waypoints marked in your GPS unit, don’t become so reliant on it that you don’t pay attention to where your hot spots actually are. Note the landmarks and make sure you can find it if your depth finder isn’t working.
So after 6 hours in the cold, windy, rainy weather, we headed in. We actually saw one large boat head out and was taking a pounding. After about 5 minutes, we saw him head back in. It was not nice out there. We got back to the boat ramp and pulled the boat out of the water. Well the boat was leaning. Flat tire on the trailer. It was literally sliced all the way on the outside. Great. A 2 hour ride back to Boston. I don’t think so. Now, this is the first time all year that we have trailered our boat to fish. Plan? What Plan? My husband stayed with our beloved baby while my friend and I headed out to look for a new tire…..on a Sunday….on the Cape. You guessed it, nothing was open. We must have made 30 stops, and ended up in Hyannis. Long story short….we got back to Boston at 8pm. Original plan: Back by 1pm.
We are now back in contact with the company that “fixed” our sounder to resolve that problem that messed up our plan. I must say anglers, watch out next year. I can’t imagine how much better we will be at fishing once we have a working fish-finder. Oh Yeah!! And I am busy looking for a Tautog recipe for tonight’s dinner. Bottom Line: fishing is always exciting to me and I always learn something. GoPogy can mark Tog off the list. It will definitely be a memorable species for me.

Nov 2010 Tautogs

Back to top ©2024 GoPogy