Inshore · 60 ft · beaches, bays, inlets and rips

Tautog

Tautoga onitis. Prime water reaches Penobscot Bay in New England right now (57°F on the bottom). Fish it 13–71 ft down — that is where 55–55°F water sits off Penobscot Bay.

LaneInshore · 10 fa (60 ft)

Depth it holds13–82 ft

Prime water45–64°F (workable 45–72°F)

Holds in the column13–82 ft down (on the bottom)

Judged onseabed temperature (RTOFS at depth)

Structurerequires

The water column off Penobscot Bay

The strip is the water itself, coloured by temperature from the surface down to the 71 ft surveyed bottom at that spot — one band per RTOFS model level. The outlined stretch is where Tautog's temperature band (45–72°F) and the depth it holds actually overlap. That thickness is the number that matters: it is how much water you can work, not just whether the spot is warm enough somewhere. One model cycle, not a weekly archive — this holds still while the surface map scrubs.

In 3D

Drag to rotate, pinch or scroll to zoom. 3D model traced from a Charles Bradford Hudson / Smithsonian Institution, NMNH Division of Fishes; published by NYSDEC, Public domain historical artwork (published1907); original embedded JPEG from NYSDEC PDF reference — source.

How it's fished

Green crabs tight to rocks, mussel beds and wreck rubble; light tide.

Region by region — right now

Region	Season	Prime water	Temp	Fish it at	Months
New England	in season	reaches Penobscot Bay	57°F	13–71 ft	J F M A M J
Mid-Atlantic	in season	reaches Montauk	65°F	13–60 ft	J F M A M J

"Fish it at" is where this species' temperature band and its holding depth overlap in the water column, from the RTOFS profile (13 levels, 0–300 m) — the depth to actually put a bait, not just the place. "Prime water" is the furthest sampled station on the 10-fathom lane whose seabed temperature sits inside this species' band. It is water, not a sighting report.

Charted grounds on the 10-fathom lane

Cape Cod Canal (East End)

The Mud Hole

Chesapeake Light Tower