Hey Hall of Fame fam, it's been a while!
Much apologies for the lengthy delay since our last Tackle Room blog post! I've been on a couple trips, a two week work travel stint, and I've just had a lot of life stuff happening. I've been doing my best to get a decent amount of fishing in, though! I've got some stories for you guys, and you can look forward to more regular blog posts again in the coming weeks.
In this week's blog post, I wanted to recap the fishing adventure I had in Newport, Rhode Island in early May. My wife were on a much needed vacation to the Ocean State, and we ended up having an amazing time! We had lots of good food, did a ton of exploring, and I had the opportunity to go charter fishing with Tall Tailz Fishing and captain Connor MacLeod. Unfortunately, my wife wasn't feeling well come the day of fishing, so I ended up going on solo. I wanted to target striped bass with the guide, as I've only ever caught one. It was actually from the bank in Newport a couple years ago, not far from where the boat was picking me up! That was a different time of year, but I hoped they'd still be biting. Unfortunately, the guide said the stripers were still about 2 hours offshore, and they hadn't gotten into Narragansett Bay quite yet. He suggested we target tautog, a dark gray, sturdy fish with a large tail and broad shoulders. They're native to the western Atlantic, but most abundant in the saltwater of the northeast US. I'd never heard of tautog before, and I don't get to fish saltwater often. Captain Connor assured me of their fight, and said we wouldn't have to travel nearly as far to find them. He even used to have the Rhode Island state record tautog, albeit a short time, as that was broken last year. I agreed, hoping it would be a fun new species to target.
I was picked up at the designated spot the wharf at 7 am on a clear, brisk Thursday morning in Rhode Island. He also brought his cool dog, Tugger. The first spot we fished was a point off a rock wall about a mile up the bay. We were using live crab for bait, green and snow crabs to be exact, on jigging rods. The approximate setup was something like a 6000 size spinning reel, 10 ft. medium heavy rod, 80 lb. braid with 80 lb. monofilament leader, and a 3 oz. jig. The guide showed me the bottom composition on his scope, mostly large grass patches and boulders, and told me to cast off the back of the boat. My first cast got hung-up in seaweed, but on the second drop down, my green crab was slammed. I set the hook, and the fight was on! I could feel the fish barreling down towards deeper water, and I was trying to keep him out of the boulder field. When it got within sight closer to the boat, I was surprised at it's size. The way it fought, I was expecting that fish to be much larger! We got it in the net, and it was probably 2 or 3 lbs. My first tautog, another species added to the list! Tugger and I were stoked. Captain Connor asked if I wanted him to clean it for me, but I didn't want to cook it. Apparently they're really good eating. I was cool throwing them back; I just wanted to fish.
After thoroughly fishing that point and rock wall, Connor and I ended up catching a few more, most of them on the smaller green crab. Nothing huge, but they were so fun, even on heavy line and a jigging rod! We then bounced to another spot, a similar rock point not too far from the first one. We only stayed for around 10 minutes, as we didn't have any bites and Connor didn't see anything on his electronics. Off to the next spot, a small rock outcropping about 200 feet off the shore. I caught my 3rd or 4th tautog here on my first cast, this time on snow crab. Connor soon caught another after me, but those were the only two fish from that spot. Our next spot was closer to shore, another boulder pile. I think we only caught another one or two fish here, too. By then, it was bluebird skies, around 70 degrees, and high tide. We'd been fishing for around four hours, and fishing was slow. I think I'd only caught four roughly average tautog. I was a little disappointed, not going to lie.
My guide said there were three more spots he wanted to spend some time at before heading in. The first being a shipwreck near the iconic Pell Bridge. This turned out to be a good call! When we pulled up, Connor warned me about keeping the fish up and out of the wreck, as that spot is easy to snag and lose them. It wasn't long before we were on more fish! Connor caught three off that shipwreck, and I caught four more. Interestingly, the fish seemed to prefer the snow crab over the green crab there. My 8th tautog of the day was hands down the largest, weighing in at 8 or 9 lbs. Man that fish was fun! I had to fight it similarly to the 350 lb bull shark in Mexico, pulling up on the rod as hard as possible, while reeling down on the fish. It took a few minutes to get in, and I was praying I wouldn't lose it in the snags below. That shipwreck was easily the best of the day.
The next two spots were yet another boulder field and a singular huge rock sticking out of the water. Sadly, we ended up not catching any more fish after leaving the wreck, and the trip was running out of time. Kudos to Captian Connor and Tall Tailz, he didn't want to quit fishing. We stayed out for over an hour past when my trip was supposed to end, and he didn't charge me for it. (He might've mentioned that I was the easiest client he's ever taken out.) Ultimately, the guides can't control if the fishing is slow or if weather isn't ideal. However, a good guide can make a huge difference on both good and slow days. Connor worked hard, did his best to put me on fish, and it was fun to fish with him. I've had good and bad experiences with guides before, but this one was definitely one of the better ones! I'd recommend checking out Tall Tailz and Captain Connor if you are ever looking to get on some tautog in Newport, Rhode Island! Even though the fishing was slow in the middle of the day, I had a great time. Thanks for reading!
Tight lines,
Erik Hoffman, Hall of Fame Outdoors