Date: 10/13/18 TOG BLAST
Location: Newport, RI
Viz: 2-8’
Temp: 63
Temp: 63
Report Contributor: Dave Gleeson
Conditions were tough for TriState’s annual Tog Blast
tournament, but a handful of divers out of the 23-man field weighed in some
respectable fish, including a beastly 12# Tog from Eric Faust!
Mike Meyer and myself headed out mid morning. Strong winds
from the NW and the heavy rain from the day prior left me with low expectations
in terms of visibility. Sure enough, our first stop out front was tough, with a
strong ground swell churning up the bottom enough to reduce viz to less than 5
feet. Past a depth of 40 feet, it turned impossible to see anything. I ended up
shooting my personal best black seabass, a 3.8lb specimen who holed up and took
nearly 30 minutes of effort to extract from the rocks. Without Mike, I would
have had to cut the line and call it a loss- just another reason a good buddy
is important to have while diving.
Over an hour into our day, and we still hadn’t seen a tog
big enough for a chance at the tournament podium, let alone had a shot at one.
We pulled our anchor and shot up inside the bay, straight into the wind and chop
in my small zodiac. We had better luck here, with about 8ft viz in some spots.
I took one healthy male tog, weighing in at 7.8lbs, just enough to earn 3rd
place in the tog blast. Mike took a nice male as well.
The fish are certainly in, and in decent numbers. As long as
the swell and wind continues, the
toughest part in the coming weeks is going to be finding clear enough
water to hunt them.
Thanks again to Mike Meyer and Mike Landau for putting on
another awesome tournament, and congratulations to Eric on an awesome fish to
win it.
Results, top 3 fish.
Eric Faust - 12.0 lbs
Eric Cadorette - 9.7 lbs
Dave Gleeson - 7.8 lbs
Results, top 3 fish.
Eric Faust - 12.0 lbs
Eric Cadorette - 9.7 lbs
Dave Gleeson - 7.8 lbs
Dive Safe
Dave
