October is a great month to be a fisherman in Southern New England! Barring any major weather events like a hurricane or strong nor’easter, the weather is downright beautiful, and the fish are on the feed. From stripers to tuna and everything in between, the options are plentiful for 10th-month angling opportunities.
I’ll begin with my favorite fish of the fall, the blackfish (also referred to as tautog, tog, whitechins and scientifically as Tautoga onitis.) Last year I dedicated the entire October installment to this one species as I simply enjoy fishing for them enough to forgo most other species, but this time around I’ll just offer you a mere three paragraphs as you can refer to last year in the archives for greater detail. Blackfishing is as simple or as involved as you make it. In essence, all you need is a hook and enough weight to get your crab bait to the bottom while positioned over a rocky structure. And while at times it can really be that simple, on certain days it takes a great deal of skill, strategy, and even luck to find success.
Green crabs are the most common bait, but tautog aficionados employ a wide variety of baits including clams, squid, mussels, hermit crabs, Asian crabs, spider crabs, white leggers and just about anything and everything else that qualifies as bait in local waters. I have caught them on all of these and more, but year to year I rely heavily on green and Asian crabs for the ease of storage as well as local availability. Day to day the fish can show a preference for a specific bait, with things getting so particular on some outings that a preference for the crabs with orange guts develops over those with dark-colored guts! I have no idea if there is anything based in reality to these kinds of experiences, or if it’s all in our heads, but when I am on a blackfish boat the question will inevitably be posed if one angler finds success over the others as to the color of the crab guts being used.
When fishing in slower stages of the current as well as shallower water from a boat or kayak, a jig is tough to beat. A blackfish jig is little more than a stout hook mounted in a lead head, with preferred shape, color, and style varies from angler to angler. In deeper water and when the current increases, I switch over to a sinker and hook rig as it’s easier to keep pinned to the bottom where blackfish live. Knowing when to set the hook is undeniably the most difficult part of the fishery, and just when you think you have it all figured out you have a day where you struggle to hook even a few fish. For me, it’s as much about feel as anything, and knowing when to set the hook can change not only from day to day but hour to hour and even minute to minute.
Next up for October is the ever-popular striped bass. This can be a great time to be a striped bass fisherman as at the beginning of the month the fall run is in full swing with numbers of fish to be caught, and usually by month’s end the run begins to wane, the opportunity to land a trophy is great.
The easiest way to catch an October striper is to simply motor around, looking for signs of birds working over fish, and cast towards the action. Each location has preferred tides and winds that produce best, but in October there can be great blitzes that form seemingly without rhyme or reason aside from the clash of schools of bait and predator. Light tackle is my favorite way to target these fish, with medium to medium-heavy spinning rods of 7 feet being more than up to the task. A 4000-size reel like the Tsunami Evict is a perfect fit; spool it up with 20-pound braid and you’re good to go. For lures, I pack a selection of small spooks (Rebel Jumpin’ Minnow or Yo-Zuri Inshore Top Knock), some epoxies (Hogy or JoeBaggs) and some soft plastics (Tsunami Split Tail Minnow or Albie Snax.) With this selection, you can cover most average situations that will present themselves.
My light tackle striper lure selection serves double duty for when I run into a mixed school of bluefish and false albacore, and I can even drop the epoxies down deep to double-up on bottom fish. Black sea bass and porgies remain prevalent on the inshore striper grounds throughout the fall, although they generally move deeper as the season progresses. That said, when the right weight epoxy is employed it’s easy to grab some bonus fish in-between striper blitzes.
To specifically target bottom fish like black sea bass and porgies in the fall there is merit to opting for jigs, but it’s tough to beat a high-low rig with bait, usually squid or clams, for consistency of success. I will often set my son up with a bait rig while I work a jig as we drift over likely structures. Most days this approach lets my son fill the cooler, keeping his interest high, while I pick away at fewer fish but often the largest of the outing – a fine trade-off in my book! We had an outing like this two years ago when on each drift over a rocky Rhode Island point, I would connect with a single large sea bass on a small butterfly jig while my son would rack up back-to-back double-headers of sea bass and porgies. This went on for several hours as we culled through a giant pile of fish. We could have easily limited out on the day many times over long before calling it quits, but by just keeping enough fish to put together the makings of a couple of fresh fish meals we made memories to last far longer than the fillets would have survived in my freezer as he still talks about the trip when he out fished his dad to this day.
Much of October’s fishing is about opportunities and being prepared for them. When my game plan is to target stripers, I always keep plan B in mind for bottom fish. When bottom fishing is the order of the day, I still pack the striper gear as opportunities present themselves at a moment’s notice. Many days have produced not just two or three types of fish for me, but upwards of double-digit species! It’s almost like the fish gods take pity on us anglers in October by throwing it all at us at once, knowing that the end of the season is right around the corner.