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Fishing Reports Now Feature Article
Old Time Togging
By Mark Marquez II
Posted 12/28/07

Bandit Charters

Capt. Brian Rice

Bandit Charters, sailing from Belmar, N.J., from spring through fall, fishes for tautog from Indian River, Delaware, from December through March.

On Fridays through Sundays trips sail that are limited to 19 passengers. No walk-ons are accepted, and reservations are required. Tog charters head out the rest of the week.

A discount is available for Bandit’s anglers at a local hotel. Much of the Indian River area closes down during winter, but all amenities are on hand, including plenty of restaurants.

The trip from Jersey to Indian River takes about 3 hours.

Patrons can shoot down the Garden State Parkway and take the Cape May-Lewes Ferry from Jersey to Delaware, a 1-hour 15-minute trip across Delaware Bay. Or they can travel down the New Jersey Turnpike and take the Delaware Memorial Bridge. Indian River is 90 miles from the bridge.

The bridge is quicker, but the ferry is relaxing and fun. Ferry trips must be taken the night before sailing on the Bandit, because the ferry’s schedule in the morning starts too late to make the Bandit’s trips that day.

Call: 732-692-9521

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Pick up a book about the origins of saltwater sport fishing, and you might be surprised to discover that the earliest anglers worked some of the same grounds fished off New Jersey today.

Works like George Reiger's Profiles in Saltwater Angling talk about steam ships running paid passengers to the banks off Sandy Hook to bottom fish for sea bass and porgies 160 years ago.

Sounds like party boat fishing last fall.

Saltwater angling largely began in the New York Harbor area, quickly spread to waters off Sandy Hook in New Jersey and eventually trickled north and south.

Not surprising, considering the population surrounding New York City.

So anglers have fished New Jersey’s grounds practically as long as the sport has existed.

This includes its tog fishing grounds.

But things are different only one state to the south, in Delaware.

“Delaware has tog fishing equivalent to New Jersey 20 years ago,” said Capt. Scotty Gold from Bandit Charters.

Bandit Charters, sailing most of the year from Belmar, New Jersey, fishes for tautog through the winter from Indian River, Delaware.

“There’s no commercial or recreational pressure,” he said. “A lot of things are well preserved.”

The Bandit fishes for the tog in 45- to
130-foot depths in the ocean from 8 to
35 miles from Indian River Inlet. During most of its trips no other recreational boats are seen.

Occasionally a party boat from Delaware Bay might appear, or so might a charter boat from Ocean City, Maryland.

But ships and tug boats are usually the only other vessels.

The average size of the blackfish can be considerably larger than in New Jersey and New York, Scotty said. And limits of the fish are not uncommon.

The water can range 6 to 8 degrees higher than in New Jersey, and air temps can reach 6 to 10 degrees warmer, he said.

Frozen precipitation is rare, a different weather pattern than slightly north.

This all means that when Jersey’s tog inevitably begin to stop biting at some point during winter, when cold water causes them to fall into a dormant state, Delaware’s tog keep feeding.

What’s more, when Jersey’s tog bag limit drops to four fish on January 1, Delaware’s limit remains 10 fish through March. Fourteen inches is the minimum length in both states during that period.

Tog fishers are one of the more obsessed anglers, and they’ll travel to pursue the sport. These finicky fish are somewhat challenging to catch, are hard fighters and can grow to 18 pounds. They’re also tasty.

Delaware’s tog fishing is somewhat different than Jersey’s, because of strong currents that flow from Delaware Bay. While Jersey blackfish anglers traditionally keep the line taut, fishing in the Delaware currents is best with a touch of slack.

The currents also require anglers to fish with heavier weights than in the generally slower currents off the Garden State. But the rigs used are the same as in New Jersey.

Anchoring is also trickier in the currents.

The location of the grounds off Delaware also protect them somewhat from northeast and east winds that wreak more havoc on seas off New Jersey.

The proof of this fishing might be in the pudding, and the Bandit’s been attracting plenty of anglers on its trips.

If you’re a tog fisher, check out Delaware in winter.