The Best Bait for Tautog Fishing

Their season begins in early spring—the time of 12 months when a t-shirt is sort of an acceptable option to put on on the water. Summer time flounder aren’t in but, and the primary migratory stripers are simply displaying up; in the meantime, these “bulldogs” of the Labridae household might be transferring inshore and turn out to be extra energetic as water temperatures slowly rise into the 50’s. The household Labridae are generally known as wrasses, and our prized native wrasse is the blackfish. Going by many names comparable to tautog, tog, and white chin, this bruiser can develop to lengths of 36 inches and weights of 28 kilos. They’re long-lived, bottom-dwelling fish able to reaching ages of 35 to 40 years outdated, which begs the query: what do blackfish eat? Throughout the early spring and fall, when they’re in shallow water, anglers will discover success with a number of forms of bait for tautog.

Tautog Habits

Younger-of-year tautog search shelter amongst eelgrass meadows and patches of seaweed within the again bays. Throughout this time, their shade is extremely variable and may embrace shades of inexperienced, crimson, and brown, which permits them to higher camouflage with their surrounding atmosphere. As they mature, they depart the safety of the ocean grasses and get your hands on onerous construction like rocks, wrecks, and pilings.

Tautog are visible predators that stay energetic throughout daytime and shortly retreat to the shelter of construction because the solar begins to strategy the horizon. As soon as settled in, they are going to “sleep” till dawn the subsequent morning. It’s due to this habits that we don’t goal tautog at night time, as we do different species comparable to bluefish and striped bass.

Adults and juvenile tautog feed on an assortment of hard-shelled crustaceans and mollusks. They’ve massive tooth with highly effective jaws that may crush by means of the toughest defenses with ease. A small prey is usually swallowed complete, to be “chewed” with pharyngeal tooth positioned in its throat.

A tautog’s means to feed on these crunchy meals permits anglers to make use of non-standard (no less than within the Northeast) baits. Staple baits comparable to sliced clams and worms work to catch tautog, however they’re simply plucked from a hook by bait stealers. To decelerate these thieves, there are a lot of “onerous” baits an angler can choose.

Inexperienced Crab

Inexperienced crabs are the commonest species of crab used as bait for tautog. Extraordinarily considerable, inexperienced crabs are an invasive species that confirmed up from Europe within the mid- to late 1800s. It’s believed they had been hitchhikers on the underside of picket boats. As they unfold alongside the coast, they left a damaging path, feeding on many commercially necessary species comparable to scallops, soft-shell clams, and mussels.

“White-Legger” Crabs

Comparable in dimension and form is the Atlantic rock crab, also called the “white-legger.” It’s a native species that inhabits the identical atmosphere because the inexperienced crab and is also known as a white crab. Crabbers potting inexperienced crabs catch rock crabs as bycatch, they usually make wonderful tautog bait.

Hermit Crab

One other well-liked bait for tautog is the hermit crab. Regionally, now we have two species, the long-clawed and the flat-clawed hermit crab, with the latter being extra generally used as bait. A hermit crab is exclusive from different crabs as a result of it has a really delicate and susceptible physique. To guard itself from predation, it makes use of an empty snail shell as a cell house, carrying it all over the place it goes. On the first signal of hazard, a hermit crab can pull itself deep contained in the shell for cover. Because it grows, a hermit crab should discover a new, bigger house to maneuver into. If an empty shell shouldn’t be obtainable, the hermit crab will evict one other crab from its house, or kill a snail to acquire its shell to maneuver into.

Fiddler Crab

Not all tautog baits are totally aquatic crabs. The fiddler crab lives within the intertidal space of saltmarshes. A male fiddler crab can simply be distinguished from a feminine by its one, very massive claw. It is going to wave this outsized claw up and down in a fiddling movement to draw a feminine. This claw can be used aggressively to defend its burrow from different encroaching males. If this huge claw is misplaced, the male will develop a brand new one.

Asian Crab

Lately, a brand new crab has turn out to be the new bait for tautog, the Asian shore crab. With its introduction to the East Coast within the late Eighties, the Asian shore crab has now established itself from Maine to North Carolina. They are often generally discovered dwelling intertidally round onerous and rocky bottoms. I’ve been to areas the place turning over one small rock revealed fifty or extra crabs hiding beneath it at low tide. It’s nonetheless early to know what affect these crabs may have on our surroundings, however as with all invasive species, they will negatively have an effect on your complete meals chain.

Now that you’re armed with information of tautog and a few of their favourite meals gadgets, seize a hoodie, a heavier fishing rod, and put some tog within the boat.

In regards to the writer: With a level in marine biology from LIU/Southampton, Chris Paparo is the supervisor of Stony Brook College’s Marine Sciences Heart. Moreover, he’s a member of the Out of doors Writers Affiliation of America and the NYS Out of doors Writers Affiliation. You possibly can observe him on Fb, Instagram, Twitter @fishguyphotos 

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