Current Waters: Tautog Fishing And The Season's First Striper
Capt. Carl Bois, Topspin Fishing •
We’re back for 2025 and we are looking forward to a great summer season.
Like many boaters, this winter was a time for upgrading and making improvements. Topspin is in the water and she’s looking good for the season. Head down to the docks this weekend and you’ll see boats just getting in and people sprucing things up after the long winter. I know we’ve made a few upgrades and had winter projects that gave us something do as we looked forward to the upcoming season.
What else went on over the winter? Well, there have been some changes to various fishing regulations for certain species. We’ll use a future article to go over some of them, but just keep it in mind and make sure you check what the seasons and limits are before heading out. “Know before you go.”
We’ve been in the water for a few weeks, but the first real start of the season is this weekend with the opening of Black Seabass (opens Saturday the 17th) – marking the unofficial start of the charter fishing season. We’ll report more on that next week, but things look good so far.
Before we have seabass, though, we had to go for some tautog. For those who don’t know, tautog (sometimes called blackfish) are a bottom-feeding fish of the early season that like crevasses and structure to hide in. Tautog are a stout fish with a blunt nose and thick lips. They have one long dorsal fin, which has little sharp spines that you should watch out for when taking them off a hook. Another notable feature of tautogs is their weird teeth. They may look like human baby teeth, but they are specifically designed to crush hard-shelled prey like crabs, mussels, and other shellfish – their primary diet.
When I took my wife fishing recently, we loaded up with green crabs for bait. Using green crabs is a win/win since the crabs are an invasive species in our region. Taking a load of green crabs out of the population helps the native species while serving as pretty great tautog bait. Collecting green cabs can be a fun activity for kids as well.
Tautog are great, not only because they are the first eating fish available, they are actually pretty delicious. But we want to keep this fishery, so only take what you can eat and be mindful of the limit for each angler (three fish per angler until May 31).
Massachusetts also has a slot limit for tautog, requiring anglers to only keep fish between 16 and 21 inches in length. However, one fish per angler per day may be retained if it exceeds 21 inches (trophy fish).
Tautog make inshore/offshore migrations triggered by water temperature. In spring, as the water temperature approaches 48°F, adult tautog migrate closer to shore to spawn, where they remain through the summer until water temperatures drop below 52°F in the fall. They are slow growing and efforts to protect this fishery are aimed at ensuring that the females can reproduce. If you go for tautog, remember that it’s common practice to let the females go so that we can keep this fun recreational fishery going for the future. The State of Maryland does a decent job of explaining male from females and you can find more images for comparison online.
Another season for tautog fishing occurs in the fall months, so don’t worry if you miss the spring go-around.
Fishing report:
The water temperatures are in the sweet spot right now. We’ve seen lots of small baitfish by the docks. With those small fish come the mackerel. The mackerel are all the way up in the harbor and people have started getting some by the docks.
It’s hard to tell until we get a few days of fishing, but it looks like it will be a stronger start to seabass season than last year. We’ll let you know how it goes in the next few weeks.
For striped bass, we only just had our first striper caught (see below), but we’ve already had our first shark feeding (aka attack) on its favorite meal at Smith’s Point in Madaket (I personally like that they help reduce the seal population). Must be summer! It was confirmed by the New England Aquarium to be the first great white shark feeding for the year in Massachusetts. And they’re right on cue for the 50th anniversary year of Jaws!
The stripers are coming…or are they already here?
Spring Sea Run Opener is Nantucket’s only catch-and-release striped bass tournament celebrating the start of the striper season. This charity tournament is all about getting back outside after a long winter and enjoying the best of what Nantucket has to offer while raising money for a local nonprofit organization. The entry fee is only $25 and kids fish free. There are lots of great prizes for the first, the largest, and even the smallest fish. Check out all the info on the tournament website and there is still time to join in, even if the first one has already been caught. Keep an eye on the leader board for all the latest: https://www.springsearunopener.com/leader-board
The first striper of the season was just caught today (Thursday) by @mattyvette1450. So here we go! It’s on…and the 2025 fishing season is just getting started.
