Tautog Hunting or Swept away!!!

Man oh Man I love Mother Nature and the way she toys with man. The Blackfish season is open again here in Rhode Island. I love hunting for Black Fish. They are actually called Tautog but their common name is Black Fish. Whatever you call them, they’re delicious. Nice thick fillets, tender mild flesh, no matter how ya slice em, they’re good for everything from Fish and Chip’s (my favorite), to some good old fashioned Fish Chowder. We love to hunt them in one of their favorite haunts in this area. Sure you can find them at Fort Wetherill, along the cliff walls that drop down to 50 feet or so and are littered with boulders everywhere, But The breakers at Point Judith are tops.

That long strip heading southeast, is about a mile long, made of boulders, and all of them are covered in Tautog food. Mussels, Lobsters, Crabs, heck you name it, it lives in the boulders here. We start at the beach you can see in the picture above, on the eastern side of this wall. We swim all the way out to almost the tip of these breakers. At high tide it’s about 25’ – 35’ deep, and loaded with fresh food for everyone. We tend to descend about 25 – 50 feet from the tip, due to the fact that the current at the tip can be some of the worst Rhode Island has to offer. To explain this area better, to the east is another breaker, not much chance of being able to miss them if you tried, to the west is Europe.


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