During the "One and Done" Blackfish Stretch, Think About Tossing
A Few of These Relatives of the Blackfish in the Cooler...

by Tom Vassallo

Many New Jersey anglers have been waiting anxiously for November 15th, when the daily limit for blackfish (tautog or "tog") rises to six fish per day. Those die hard "tog" addicts who have suffered through the "one and done" part of the season are ready to hit the rocks and wrecks to fill their limit with these tasty and much sought after fish.

However, if you are one of those jetty or wreck anglers, you have definitely suffered through and been frustrated by the presence of other "bait-stealers" who cruise those rocks and wrecks along with our beloved "tog". Undoubtedly many of you (myself included) land quite a few "bergalls" when dropping those lines in the holes or along the jetty edges. Until recently, I considered these fish nothing but a nuisance and always tossed them back...along with a few choice adjectives I won't repeat here.

Most anglers consider the Bergall or Cunner a worthless bait stealer. However, this close relative of the tautog eats the same diet and tastes delicious.

On a recent trip to the Barnegat south jetty, I was fishing for my "one and done" tog with a nice bucketful of fiddler crabs that I had picked up in the marsh after tossing some swimmers for school bass. It was barely two days since one of the big blows and the water was still quite gray. The grass had lightened up and it was not terrible conditions...but not great conditions either. I was accompanied by FishinJersey's Mike Melchionne and we were not doing much with the tog. As the tide slowed down a bit, we were able to locate some very small holes around the rocks where we were fishing and the action started to pick up. However, most of the early action centered around a lot of bergalls and not much in the way of blackfish.

If you are not familiar with "bergalls", you may be more familiar with the name "cunner". The cunner, also known as bergall, is related to the tautog and can be found from Chesapeake Bay to Newfoundland. The two species are similar in body shape, but the cunner is slimmer and has a pointed snout. Averaging about a quarter of a pound and 6 to 10 inches in length, cunners range in color from mottled reddish to bluish brown on top, fading to slightly paler hues along the sides. Their small mouth is lined with several rows of uneven cone-shaped teeth.

Now the bergalls we usually catch along the rocks are not much more than ½ to ¾ of a pound, so there isn't much of a fillet to them. That is probably the main reason so many of them get tossed back. But if you are lucky or fishing the wrecks, fish in the 1-2 pound class are not too uncommon. The original New Jersey and IGFA record was held by outdoor writer Capt. Al Ristori, but that fish was a lightweight compared to the current record fish. Al's fish was taken from an offshore wreck in 1993 and weighed 1 pound 10 ounces. In 2002,Kevin Mathiasen's state record cunner was taken 80 miles southeast of Brielle. The 1 pound, 14 ounce fish weighed 4 ounces more than the previous record. Mathiasen was bottom fishing from the Party/Charter Boat Jamaica when he caught the record cunner on 40-pound test using clams for bait. The fish measured 15 inches in length with an 11½-inch girth. Then in 2006, Nick Honachefsky of Mantoloking caught a 2 pound, 9 ounce cunner that weighed 11 ounces more than that previous record fish taken off Brielle in 2002. Finally in 2012, Raul De La Prida of Elizabeth caught the current New Jersey state record bergall (cunner) during a trip aboard Norma K III from Point Pleasant. That New Jersey record bergall weighed 3 pounds, 1/2-ounce. However, it still fell 7 ½ ounces short of the current world record cunner, which was landed off a jetty at Revere Beach, Massachusetts on May 24, 2009. Massachusetts angler Sam Mac Allister caught that 3 1/2-pound cunner/bergall which is the present IGFA world record.

Although most bergalls caught on the jetty are much smaller than blackfish, many bergalls caught on wrecks can range 1-2 pounds.

Well...back to the Barnegat jetty trip...we weren't catching any world record fish and I was handed one of the ½ pounders by Mike Melchionne. He told me to throw it in the cooler and I looked at him like he was crazy. He asked me if I had ever eaten one of the little buggers and I again looked at him like he was crazy! After he explained that they eat the same diet as a tog, he captured my interest. We started throwing the rest of them in the cooler. unfortunately both blackfish we caught were just undersized a bit at 14 inches. So, instead of a dinner of blackfish, it was going to be cunner!

The fillets were small, but they reminded me of the freshwater panfish fillets I used to enjoy. I have to tell you, as soon as they came out of the pan, my sons were eating them as fast as I could cook them. They are really delicious, not fishy and with a texture like a thick winter flounder. I will never throw another one back that is of decent eating size!

So after you catch your "one and done" tog or after the cooler is filled with those blackfish, you may consider throwing on a bit smaller hook and some smaller pieces of bait and tossing a few bergalls in there with the blackies. Once you try them, I bet you'll be converted too. The saying goes that "one man's trash is another man's treasure." As fishing goes, I'll take any bergall any angler doesn't want! Now get out there and FISH!