To start things off I am sure most of my southern readers would like to know just what in the heck a Tautog is. To tell you the truth I am not sure I remember completely myself, but I will give you all the best explanation I possibly can. Here goes a Tautog is the name for I believe either a Striper or maybe even the Scientific name for a Sea Bass found in the northern states. Yeah I think that is what it is. Now that you know what one is I can tell you it is actually the screen name for a well known Florida Sportsman Forum member from up in Jersey named Kirk. Here is his report.

      Tautog had told me of all the different kinds of fish he has caught being a mate on the offshore charter boats. He told me about huge Yellow and Blue Fin Tuna as well as many other species that put him to the test. His trip with me was booked the day before he was supposed to go on a hundred mile offshore trip with Tommy Butler on his 38 foot custom open fisherman. Tautog told me of the many different trips he has taken with top notch captains all over the state. He wanted me to know that he was only interested in big Snook that would give him a challenge. I hoped I could live up to his expectations with big fish. I knew I would give it my best shot. 

     I picked Tautog up at 7am that morning. The first thing we did was head to the flat for Lady's. I had been catching the well the previous days and was confident we would do well again. To my dismay they were extremely hard to catch first thing in the morning. I guess the tide was not high enough for them to school up in big numbers. We fished for 45 minutes and managed 3 or 4 nice Lady's in the well. Time to hit the Mogan Mansion next. I baited Tautog up with a nice Lady and gave him the fish catching instructions. Tautog had warned me that he mainly on used circle hooks and that is what he was used to. I knew right then and there that I had to break him of that habit and quickly or he would not be able to land any of the monster Snook. Wouldn't you know it that first Lady that we dropped drown was inhaled quite quickly and Tautog did everything wrong in order to hook up with the big fish. However, he landed this huge sixteen and a half pounder on that first big Lady. After he caught he I told him he was lucky to get her in by just reeling and not setting the hook. Nevertheless I was still very happy for him landing such a nice Snook.

    I baited the Cape Fear Man O' War up with another 20 inch Lady and tossed it into the corner where I knew there would be a big Snook. I handed Tautog the rod and said, "make sure you set the hook." I tell you it wasn't 30 seconds before a huge Snook came out and ate the 20 inch Lady. Tautog reeled as fast as he could and the Snook pulled and he pulled and the big Snook came with in eyesight. She was humongus, I know she has to be 20 plus. When Tautog got her out into the open she simply opened her mouth and the big Lady just fell right out. What a trophy fish. She just swam right back to her hole. Oh well lesson learned the hard way. Tautog was bound and determined to land one of those monsters but it just was meant to happen on our first four bait. The other three Lady's were eaten with out even one fish being landed. Off we went to catch some more Lady's. This time the bite was much better and between Tautog and myself we put a good 10 Ladies in the well.

     Back at last and ready to do battle one more time. We were loaded up with baits and ready for some major action. I tossed another big Lady up to the structure and it was eaten just like the rest. Tautog hooked Snook after Snook for another 2 hours or so. They were so hungry that day. Eventually Tautog got the hand of the  hook setting technique that I was coaching him to use. He was able to land this beautiful 16 pound Snook the right way. I am sure was glad he was able to come down and give my type of fishing a shot while the bite was hot. I have yet to find out how his offshore trip went but I was a little worried for him as it was blowing nearly 20 mph all day for the next 2 days. Thanks for coming down Kirk and I hope everything went well with the bar.