Fish Report 4/5/06

Fish Report 4/5/06

A Tad Gusty...   

Tog Fishing April 8th to 10th.

 

Hi All,

Been toggin'. Most days have been pretty decent; last Friday was just so-so, but even then almost everyone had a limit. There have been scattered 10 pound fish - couple few north of 14 pounds too.

No such luck with the big fish today, although we did set two Morning Star records. Some fellows set up 3 trips with friends - charged a little extra and lightened up the rail even more - my kind of trip. Pretty dedicated tog fishers; maybe the most skill I've ever had on the rail at one time. Nice. One fellow stopped in this morning and bought a no-show. I though he'd end up looking like he'd brought a BB gun to a sniper squad competition - he enjoyed his day though.

Oh yes, the two records...

Most Tagged Tog: 136 in one day! Sweet!

Highest Wind Gust: 61 knots. OUCH!

Yeah, that got plenty saucy, real quick. Weather forecast was 15 to 20 West switching in the afternoon to NW and gusts to 30. OK - I'll stay within striking distance of the beach - be able to hide 'under the beach' - no worries. Very nice in the morning; a really calm day. Pickin' away at the tog when the front rolled in. Leading edge winds are usually the strongest; they were peaking at 45 knots. We picked up anchors and headed for the dunes. Velocities increased to a steady 45 - 50. One gust showed 72 knots on my anemometer; subtract the 11 knots we were making - 61 knots. Thankfully, the weather service had their compass points right. Wind needs room to build waves so if you can shorten the fetch - the distance over water the wind has to work - you can avoid catastrophic sea conditions. And we did. Spent the rest of the day tagging 12 to 22 inch togs in 20 to 30 knots and about 1 foot waves.

Enough of wind, going fishing. (nice, calm, pretty days please!) I'm opening the book from April 8th to the 10th and we're going togging. No, they aren't all jumbos and not every day is a memory maker, but some will be! Trips are 7 to 3ish - 16 people sells out the rail.

Some - many perhaps - want news of mackerel. Capt. Ricky (Fisherman's Wharf, Lewis) nicked and picked at 'em. Over a 4 day period high man had 30 - I'd look for that to improve.

In fact, I'm still hoping to get into 'em...

Artificial Reefs, The Magnuson Act Reauthorization, Philopatry (sticky one that, ain't in neither dictionary - it's the study of natal fidelity/spawning fidelity and the ability to 'home' ~ that fish return to the same place to spawn) Using philopatry and tagging to prove tautog stock expansion via artificial reef construction...

We get a windy day I've got some stuff to write about.

Regards,

Monty

 

Capt. Monty Hawkins
mhawkins@siteone.net
Party Boat "Morning Star"
Reservations 410 520 2076
www.morningstarfishing.com