Fish Report 2/6/25
Offering Two Tog Trips..
Reef Report 2/6/25..
Two Tog Trips:
Saturday & Monday - 2/8 & 2/10/2025 - Toggin from 6:00 to 4:30 - 14 Sells Out - $225.00
As ever: if all are aboard we'll depart up to a half hour early. I will not have on time clients wait for late ones.
Anna will no longer be available for reservations. Life goes on - she's moving. I will be handling reservations by email VERY temporarily until I can get Marisa up and running on the same reservation line. mhawkins@morningstarfishing.com Put "Tog Saturday" or "Tog Monday" in the subject line.
Mate Joe has white crabs at a reasonable fee - green crabs are provided free and plentiful. Have caught good fish on greens - used to about sink the boat with tog using sooks in the 1980s (unregulated recreational overfishing was a hard lesson learned for me - but not by today's skippers. History repeats! But; this time we have size and bag limits plus a whole lot on new inshore habitat. It's going to work out fine..)
Rigs are provided if needed.
14 Anglers Sells Out so anglers can move to the bite. Boat has 20 well marked spots. If someone's in a spot? No mugging. If it's open? Have at it. If in between two good friends? Well… But they'd better be good friends!
I fish a three fish limit with one female (same as I had before tog had any regs..) Many clients these days put em all back. Some clients skunked every trip except one so far. Last two trips saw one strange bite with loads of bare hooks coming up - & one decent bite (for this era) where JoJo put on a clinic in DD tog.
It's a hard winter fishery. Even when it was great it was hard. Now it's much harder still.
Reservations For Tog Trips:
A bit awkward but Anna will no longer be my reservations Queen. I know her sweet voice will be missed by many but life carries on. Promise: Marisa's is quite welcoming also and she runs a tight ship!
Boat Regs: 3 Tog @ 16 Inches - only one can be a female. (Maryland is 4 of any sex @ 16in - we're fishing the boat rule.) Release of all sizes encouraged. Keep a few for dinner? Sure. Load the neighbors up? Not so good for the fishery's future. Very rare when opportunity for limits presents..
Funny too, 3 tog at 16 inches was my boat rule from 1992 to 2003..
Weather Cancellations Happen - I Make Every Attempt To Let Clients Sleep In If The Weather's Not Going Our Way.
Always try to leave a half hour early if all are aboard.
Pretty rare to be in on time..
Bait is provided on all trips: green crabs for tog. (Whites are available from crew for a reasonable cost.)
Our Tog Pool Is By Length: A Tog That's Been Released Counts The Same As One In The Boat.
No Live Tog Leave The Boat - Dead & Bled - Period. (I Believe The Live Tog Black Market Hurt This Fishery for years - not as much any more but no recreationally caught tog on ny boat will be seen swimming in a fish market tank. The worst thing for tog has been poor sea bass management. Rather than explosive exponential spawning production as seen in the 1990s, now sea bass spawning is throttled way down.. When anglers could catch beautiful doubles of sea bass - even before any bag limit(!) - pausing the action to wait patiently for tog to chew was rare. Even then with abundant sea bass in their cooler, tog caught back then were often released without a care.
Anyway! Agreed With Or Not, My Boat's Regulations Will Be qObserved – 3 Tog @ 16 Inches or better - only one can be a female.
Does the thought of not keeping a state legal limit gives you pain? Then you will not like tog fishing with me.. Shoot, I may have some clients skunked every trip all winter. Seriously.
Togging is a most unkind fishery - especially for the novice. Then, I've also seen beginners bowed-up steady while incredibly skilled anglers suffer in hubris.
But when it is kind?
As Tommy said, "The tug is the drug.. Bully Bob says, "They're Delmarva Grouper."
If fishing the stern area waterproof boots are advised in fall & especially winter!
Shoes & sneakers will ruin your day.
It'll be chilly in the AM too! Cabin is heated.
****
Reef Report 2/6/25
Greetings All!
I missed two perfectly fishable days this week because I was too focused on reef building duties to note a softening in wind forecasts.
Have several reef projects going including 2025 chart updates, bookkeeping, another barge we can deploy very soon, plus prepping for the annual Optimists' SeaSide Boat Show in OC on Valentine's weekend.
Pretty soon - perhaps Tuesday 2/11/25 - we'll be trailering loads of terracotta down to Norfolk to cable down on our barge. Have a trailer? Gladly pay fuel! The bargw will be towed to it's final position as soon as possible - we may have a narrow window indeed. The addition of terracotta or concrete substrate atop a barge's flat deck is huge - makes an incredibly more productive reef. Have a couple fellows already signed up. Some volunteers to help load on the OC side Sunday afternoon - or, better still, run down to the Norfolk area & help load the barge and cable the reef material down Tuesday would be awesome.
It's a professional maritime yard. Safety gear is a must. We have some work vests (life vests) and hard hats - need boots and work gloves too I'd reckon.
If you know a young buck (or doe!) with a strong back who'd like to make some pocket money - that's also a possibility.
It's high time we got back to work on the Navy dive boat in Cambridge. We'll soon have nicely rebuilt engines for her. Whole lotta work between a pair of engines in a truck bed and same made fast to propeller shafts though! Will likely need to rewire a good bit of her gauges and battery power. Still need to find out what crane/davit the Navy used on these. A few readers worked on them back in the day - we'll sort it out.
Then too we have the SeaSide Boat Show coming Valentine's weekend. Shelly and I will be working a shift or two every day unless the weathwr turns gorgeous.
Cheers,
Monty
