Bob & Mag

I've not seen that. Any pictures of it?

__________________
Smoke free 9+ Months!

Special K

scup,
i fish the fishers sound for blacks & found them spotty and scattered so far this season. however, some good trips.
last saturday, after a slow pick @ ellis reef i headed toward red reef but i stopped @ white rock for a quick set.....one short for me but my wife pulled up a 10+ lber tide runner. but that was it!.
monday at DL was a good bite.(sort of) 11 keepers for three anglers in 3hrs. approx. 15 returns up to 14". ( we kept 16" & up with three about 6lbs.)
yesterday after a skunking at sugar reef for the bass we set at DL to try repeating the togs.....same place same tide... difficult pick with smaller fish.....8 keepers in 2.5 hrs W/many very small returns.
also found a few at the clumps but no "hot spots" yet.
my opinion is the weather....too warm
should turn on after a cold snap.
as far as the black lines in the flesh....ALWAYS bleed the togs...
no bloody fillets & no black lines
this makes for fine fillets but makes for difficult culling

cheers & keep toggin'.............cap'n mick

ChuckA From "Land of the Lost"

Bob I dont have any pics but I've seen it a few times I'll try to get a pic soon. You can actually cut these lines out .I was wondering if was some type of worm?

Bob & Mag

Do you bleed your fish? I'm wondering if that might be coagulated blood.......
as mentioned above always bleed the fish....filets will be much nicer.

__________________
Smoke free 9+ Months!

Special K

my opinion of the lines in the tog flesh is that they are blood vessels still retaining the blood.
definitely don't resemble any type of parasite i've ever seen.
just got done de-boning 12lbs of tog fillets this morning and i came upon one fillet from a fish we missed bleeding. it had a bloody side and it also had the thin black lines.
just my observation........................mk

JLH

I have caught a few like that, I think its most likely scar tissue probably got attacked by something when the were smaller.

I haven't targeted blacks yet this fall - I think the water is still a little warm but it should really pick up in the upcoming weeks. I'll be out for them next week so I guess I'll see first hand.

JimA

maybe you should just give these to me, I would not want you to get sick!!! :>)

JackC

My perspective - I grew up fishing the New Haven walls and then latter on moved down to Clinton for better overall fishing. New Haven always started earlier in the fall than Clinton (during the fall bite).

I spent a few hours togging this fall with terrible results - but I have never seen the water this warm in October. I have not been out since last Saturday but it was between 68 and 70 degrees. My gut reaction is that water temps and fishing are a month "behind". Interesting part of the the "weird year" - I'm a big time diamond jigger at six mile reef - normally by mid-september you can visit six mile on a good strong incoming tide and litterally catch over 100 bluefish a tide on diamond jiggs - with a few keeper bass mixed in. Great fun for people that have never really caught many or big fish (I take many work friends out that fish only a few times a year.) Diamond jigging at six mile has not "turned on" yet either. On my way back in I drove through huge schools of peanut bunker hiding in the river - typically the little bait would have been pushed out to the deeper water by now by falling water temps. I was there last week and caught nothing on diamonds - trolling with the wire and a parachutte put fish in the boat put this is crazy for this late date. But I have never seen water temps at 70 during this time of year either.
My gut reaction is the colder weather will change things.

Is the climate changing and changing our fishing patterns? (I think it is.)

Interesting tog facts - they grow faster in warmer water (within reason). They also have home ranges for the summer months and I agree with the idea that they are still shallow and hard to locate. When we have a good bite going on they are in "feeding aggregations" and moving to the deeper water (left their shallow home ranges).

I have seen a decline in big fish, - in the 70s, 80s you could put fish over 10 pounds in the boat all the time. I have not caught a 10 pounder in many years. When I fished new haven, we used to fish the oyster stakes in the spring (outside the walls not inside) and we used to catch fish pushing 15 pounds "all the time" - unfortunately this was not good for the health of the fishery but it was wild (these were spawning fish). When I started fishing Clinton (outer SW) we used to catch double headers of fish around 8 pounds and always had 12 pounders during the course of the season. The explosion of boats tog fishing has taken its toll.

In LIS we seem to have numbers of fish but they get harvested as they grow and a really big fish is hard to come by. Do we need more restrictive regulations - it depends on your perspective but my vote is YES.

Bob & Mag

Whether we do or not, we are getting them. Drastic changes to open season and a possible reduction in bag limit depending which option DEP goes with.
I can't find it right now, but I saw a growth chart for tautog and was surprised at how slowly they grow.

__________________
Smoke free 9+ Months!

ChuckA From "Land of the Lost"

I have'nt bled up to now .Thats going to change next trip out .One guy told me to fill a 5 gallon pail with salt water and put the fish in head first after cutting the gill plates.
I'm going to try it .