World record tautog
Oh…..and Happy April Fool’s Day!!
By Scott Lenox
Posted on April 1st, 2021
Yet another world record tautog has been caught out of Ocean City, Maryland and this time the circumstances are truly unbelievable….no really, unbelievable!
David Wells of DW Mowing was fishing Ocean City’s south jetty for blowfish today when he was surprised by the mighty pull of a gigantic tautog, otherwise acknowledged as blackfish. David was using live eels for bait fishing in two feet of fluid when the big “tog” jumped on. After a battle of a little over 3 1/2 hours, David got the huge fish boat side and place her in the net. The big fish weighed in at a whopping 37.25 pounds and if certified will break the current world record held by a fish that was also caught in Ocean City, Maryland back in January of 2015. The current world record of 28.5 pounds was caught on board the Fish Bound captained by Kane Bounds, who once beat David Wells in a staring competition in the 7th grade.
Congratulations to David on his unreal catch!
Here is a photo of David with his fishing partners from today’s trip. Congratulations crew!
No fish were harmed in the making of
Men’s Speargun World Record Tautog
Story By Brendan Dyer
Men’s Speargun Earth Record
Tautog – 25.1 lbs/31.75 inches
Brendan Dyer – 8/18/19
Fish Shot approx. 2:45pm
I had been looking forward to this weekend for some time, due to the full moon coinciding with a Friday and the subsequent weekend waning. Year after year I had consistently seen and shot my largest fish during the 36 hours before and after the July and August complete moons. The forecast for Saturday called for overcast skies, with light wind; this could not have been more inaccurate. The morning brought torrential rain and seasonably cool temps. The intense nature of this squall, joint with the outgoing tide, caused horrific visibility for the remainder of Saturday. The runoff from the Thames river was entity pulled to sea all afternoon with the outgoing tide, essentially rendering eastern Long Island Sound undiveable. I decided to preserve my energy and wait for Sunday, recognizing that visibility would likely still be poor.
Sunday morning came and the visibility had recovered slightly but was by no means ideal. There was a slight wind swell in the water with waves in the 1-2ft range. I got into the water a
New RI state tautog record
By CAPT. DAVE MONTI
Last week Vinney Simms, Jr’s huge tautog made a total of four runs back down to the bottom. He managed to keep the fish off the bottom and got it into the boat, it was a record breaking 22 pound 5.28 ounce, 31-inch tautog. By Wednesday of last week the State of Rhode Island had it verified and posted it as the state’s top tautog.
Simms, a resident of Hamilton, New Jersey, landed the huge tautog while fishing with Capt. Rob Taylor of Newport Sportfishing Charters, one of the State’s premiere tautog and bluefin tuna charter captains.
“Vinney did a good job, but you also need a lot of luck to land a big fish like this. With big fish I tell anglers to just keep reeling, even if the fish is talking drag you are slowing it down (Simms’s drag was set at a very heavy 18 pounds),” said Capt. Taylor. “The aim is to prevent the fish from returning to where it came from, meaning the rock cluster it lives in. We had a lot of current and strong tides Monday so this fish fortunately may have gotten disoriented a bit coming up and down four times.”
The fish was landed aboard the Reel E-Z, Capt. Ta
A new women’s world record for tautog was caught out of Ocean City Maryland on Jan. 11. According to Daily Angle, the daily report from the website Fish in OC, Connecticut angler Jennifer Zuppe landed a 23.4-pound tautog, also known as blackfish, while fishing aboard Fish Bound with Capt. Kane Bounds.
The Fish Bound already holds the IGFA all-tackle world record for tautog. In fact, Kenneth Westerfield, who caught the 28-pound, 13-ounce world record in 2015, was on board when Zuppe landed her fish, the Daily Angle reported.
Zuppe’s fish was weighed on IGFA scales, according to the Fish Bound Facebook page, and it will likely set a new women’s 30- or 50-pound line class record, as both of those categories are vacant in the IGFA record books.
Tautog, widely known as blackfish in the Mid-Atlantic, are bottom feeders that are popular sportfish of the Northeastern United States. They inhabit a depth range from 10 to 150 feet and are prized as table fare, like most species that own a diet of shellfish.
For more photos and to read the report, see https://fishinoc.com/
This happened in 2015 in January. Haven’t seen anything this end this year hit the scales.
When Ken Westerfeld from Queens Fresh York, went on his annual taugtog fishing trip in Maryland today I am sure he hoped for a great day of fishing, even dreamed of catching a monster fish, but rarely does one get to encounter catching a world record fish on a yearly trip. Making this a fishing trip of a lifetime for Ken and his crew. They left out of Ocean City on the Fish Bound with Captain Kain Bounds and mate Kevin Twilly. Caught on white crabs. The fish was weighed in today at Sunset Marina at 28 pounds 13 ounces, and 35 inches.
They were wreck fishing in the Atlantic Ocean. This beats the current world record by almost 4 pounds, which is held by Anthony Monica out of Ocean City NJ at 25 pounds on January 20, 1988. This tautog will also defeat the Maryland state record which is currently 23 pounds on January 11, 2012 by Charles Donohue. We will possess more details when we speak with Ken tomorrow about this adventure.
Fish On!!
Rich King
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