Limited Out on Tog (Technically) by Ed Valitutto

Posted on October 13, 2021 by VHFC

With the waves too big for seabass fishing, Dave Spendiff joined me for a quick trip south to the sod banks near the Rutgers Research Center. On the way down before the middle grounds, we saw working birds and several boils on the surface. We were sure these were striped bass but they could have been bluefish. Since there were no takers for the lures and poppers we threw at them, we’ll never know for sure.

We arrived and anchored using my trolling motor around 9:30 as the outgoing tide was coming to an end. Within minutes Dave had a keeper tog and despite my ‘encouragement’ to dehook his fish inside the boat, the loud splash meant it would live to swim another day. After several shorts, I finally hooked my 16 1/2″ keeper on a jig. We caught several more shorts until the hard incoming tide brought a lot of seaweed that made holding bottom impossible even with 5 oz. Overall, a very nice morning!

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Fishing Facts

Of the fifty United States, thirty-eight have a striped-bass record. New Jersey has the largest striped-bass record—a 78-pound 8·ounce whopper that was caught in 1982. The state with the smallest striped-bass record is Iowa. That landlocked striper weighed only 9 pounds 4 ounces and was caught in 1983.

There’s something fishy about beer these days. Fish Tail Ale is popular as ever, and New Jersey’s Flying Fish Brewery is one of the state’s largest specialty breweries. There’s also Washington’s Wild Salmon Organic Pale Ale, Florida’s Land Shark beer, Delaware’s Dogfish Head beer, and two versions of Stingray beer—a lighter version from the Cayman Islands and a dark beer from Canada.

The triangle fly is probably the most unusual of saltwater flies. It’s one of the few, if not only, flies tied to a treble hook. It’s also barely a fly at all, because hardly any material is used. It is complete after tying the two straw pearl twinkle flashes and the tiny tuft of natural squirrel, leaving an entire hook fully exposed. Incredibly this barebacked treble fly is a knockout when it comes to sea trout.