Tomcod Tomfoolery

Tomcod (Microgadus tomcod), also called winter cod or frostfish, are native to the North American Atlantic coast from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to Virginia. Their tolerance of cold water and indeed their preference of it now means they are extremely diminished in abundance in many places. CT is one of those places. A combination of warming water temperatures as a result of climate change, diminished tidal marsh habitat, and pollution are keeping tomcod from making the sort of comeback many of us wold like to see. In the Hudson River though a population of tomcod persists due to a freakishly fast incidence of evolution. The Hudson River tomcod have evolved an immunity to PCB's that would otherwise have killed them. This National Geographic article goes in depth and is worth a read. Ironically, the same genes found in the Hudson River tomcod have been found in tomcod caught by CT DEEP in the Niantic River. In recent years tomcod have made a very minor resurgence in CT waters and are around in small numbers in the winter. So Leo, Noah and I went to try to find some.

The waters we intended to fish had been confirmed in recent years to have tomcod, however we had no real way of knowing if they would be there while we were, if we cold actually effectively get to them, or if they were going to be in an eating mood. The first location had tomcod last winter as confirmed by DEEP, but it was very much in question whether we would be able to reach them. In hindsight I'm not sure we would have caught any whether they were in that river at the time or not, and I'm not sure they were. This has been a very warm winter. That day was cold, but on the whole things have been extremely mild. Tomcod aren't big fans of that sort of thing. Leo did kill the skunk though, coaxing a number of tiny banded killifish out of the rocks.

The second location we tried has reliable reports of hook and line catches, and on paper seemed very promising. Choose the wrong tide though and it doesn't matter. We chose a bad tide. Our lines collected trash, the felt soles on my Korkers collected snow, but we collected no tomcod. 

If a fish like tomcod can evolve rapidly to survive human pollutants, it gives me hope. What a remarkable little fish. But it still is one I'm not sure I'll ever catch on the fly. If I do, it is more than likely going to have to be through a hole in the ice.  

Until next time.

Fish for the love of fish.

Fish for the love of places fish live.

Fish for you.

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A New Old Hunt

There were fisheries here in New England not all that long ago that have practically been forgotten. Well up there is winter surf fishing. Hardly anybody is out there doing it anymore. I can understand why, it is brutal out there from mid November till March, and there aren't many fish left. The giant pollock fishery that used to exist at Montauk is almost non-existent. The surf cod fishery is pretty bleak. Tomcod are no longer the staple they used to be. Winter flounder are in decline. Of course, we have nobody to blame but ourselves. Years of commercial and recreational abuse did these fisheries in. Climate change has been no help either. Some of the Old Guard will recall tails of 30lb Pollock in November, night fishing for cod on Rhode Island and Massachusetts beaches, and catching copious amounts of tomcod in the bays of Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey. But the last few generations of anglers have little knowledge of these things. The number of angler days in the surf between NYC and Bar Harbor from December till the end of February is undoubtedly minute. But there are some fish out there. So, today, Noah and I embarked on the start of a quest to catch something new from the clear, cold inshore waters of southern New England in late winter. This will be a tedious quest. The chance is there that we catch nothing at all. We are starting from basically no knowledge. I have no doubt that we will learn a lot in this quest, and hopefully it will lead us to one or two or maybe even more new species.

Noah almost became a Florida resident this winter. It's a funny thing. Within a week he has gone from fishing for spanish mackerel in 80 degree weather to targeting tomcod and skates in 35 to 43 degree weather. That's contrast.

Today we were basically scouting. We've got a tiny remaining window for the tommycod before they leave the inshore waters of the sound, so that was our initial focus. The first spot was dead, excepting weird orange jellyfish we had never seen before. In the second spot I actually got one definite fish take. What it was I will never know for sure. Perhaps I should add, we were both bait fishing. I fully intend to target these species with the fly, but coming from such an uninformed position, I needed to collect as much data as possible before attempting to catch these species in probably the hardest way possible. Squid was our bait today. Clams and worms will likely be employed as well in the near future. Without any confirmation of the presence of tomcod, we switched gears and went to an area where I thought skate might be possible, though we'd still be in possible tomcod habitat. We set rods out on the jetty and watched from the van to stay out of the wind. We had no signs of interest in our bait at all, but the cove was far from lifeless. There were hundreds of gulls and water fowl of a few different species.

The fourth and final spot we fished was a place I had seen a skate two winters ago, and Noah and I both seen a number of strange fish we couldn't identify there in the winter. Alas, in contrast to many of the times I have fished there, it was dead. Tired of fighting the rocks and loosing gear, we called it a day. This is just the beginning. Noah and I will be haunting the surf zones in CT and RI for the rest of the year, and the next 40 days hold promise for some of the more unusual fish of the year. We just have to put our time in, especially since we're starting late in the season. It's something anglers did a lot up until about 30 years ago. It's not a new pursuit. But it is for Noah and I.

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