Captains Table Season Finale

With the Holiday weekend upon us, a poor long-range forecast, and what appeared to be a small weather window yesterday, my West end Buddy Pete, local Togger Paul, and I decided to make the last Tog trip of the season aboard the Captain’s Table.
The first challenge was the fact that we are right on the New Moon phase and tides in the Sound are extremely swift with these conditions. The Fishers I. area was the only one that made sense today with the tide and wind forecast. We made the first drop in a normally reliable 40’ hole. Although the tide was reasonable with about 3 hours of flood remaining the fish were just not biting at all here.

So, as we approached the slack water period we moved out to the 60-70’ spots that have been very strong for us all season. On my first drop of the anchor we got right on one of my coveted pieces, Pete immediately lands a fat 3.5# keeper so things seemed to be looking up. Unfortunately, the anchor slipped and we moved off the prime piece requiring a second try. After getting situated on another decent piece of bottom, a steady bite developed and kept going for the next 90 minutes. Sadly 95% of the fish here were shorts with only 2 more smallish keepers finding our fish box.

Once the screaming ebb tide blew us out of the deep drops, we headed back inside towards a different shallow spot looking for refuge from the tide. After a couple of attempts at anchoring over the right piece we did find the hard bottom we were looking for, but once again no bites. We were just about to throw in the towel when I said to Pete I have one more spot that might be worth a try just a little north of Fishers I.

I have not fished this spot for at least 3 years but I recall it does have great structure so off we go and quickly drop the hook on a seriously beautiful piece of bottom in 38’ of water. Not only is this bottom very sticky but it is also sheltered from the hardest running tides that surround the island. We were able to drop down to 6 oz of lead, a welcome relief from the 12’s being used most of the day. Almost as soon as Pete’s crab hits the bottom he gets a solid hit and minutes later a nice 4# fish hits the deck. I drop my bait down and sure enough I match his effort almost immediately. Paul follows suit and we are off to the races.

Then Pete notices just how light the tide is in this area so he breaks out his jigging rod. In classic fashion he goes to work on the now excellent Tog bite we discovered here and he lands a 6# fish quickly followed by a 5# beauty. Soon after I land another 4.5# Tog and in less than 45 minutes we turned what looked like a tough day into a limit catch with some very healthy specimens in the box. Not wanting to end the season so fast we played C&R for about another 30 minutes, throwing back a few more keepers to almost 5# in size.

With a 90-minute ride back to port awaiting us we headed home at flank speed and just managed to finish cleaning the catch and the boat just as the sun dipped below the horizon. Considering what a terrific season we enjoyed with Blackfish on the North Fork this year I would say this was a very satisfying conclusion.

Wishing all of my valued customers and friends a very Happy Thanksgiving and wonderful Holiday Season. Let’s hope the winter goes by swiftly so we can take up the hunt again come next May!
Capt. Mike


[ATTACH type="full"]13287[/ATTACH][ATTACH type="full"]13288[/ATTACH][ATTACH type="full"]13289[/ATTACH]