[Joey Herring]

WHat type of bottom and how deep do these fish hang out? Any info will be greatly appreciated!! BAit..ect..

[gus]

WHat type of bottom and how deep do these fish hang out? Any info will be greatly appreciated!! BAit..ect..

are we being raided by nc jiggers? generally we try to keep inside the boat in VA - haha nice save man. pueblo bottom, 250-800 feet for blueline/grey tiles

[Blowtoad]

WHat type of bottom and how deep do these fish hang out? Any info will be greatly appreciated!! BAit..ect..

We are neophytes but understand that the bluelines are found around 50 fathoms ,goldens -deeper. Ours were caught on False albacore, but other cut bait and squid apparently are fine. I think it may be more a matter of locating them than what you feed them.Ours was in 350 ft rapidly sloping bottom along the edge of the northern mouth of the the Norfolk Canyon.The grouper was on the same drift, but 100 ft deeper. May all have been beginner's luck. Bottom felt hard> nothing remarkable on sounder,except fr the depth change. Didn't catch a mess of 'em. Bob

[Joey Herring]

are we being raided by nc jiggers? generally we try to keep inside the boat in VA - haha nice save man. pueblo bottom, 250-800 feet for blueline/grey tiles

Ha!! Very funny !! Don't worry..I'm not coming to VA to catch all your fish!! We are fishing out of Morehead on Sunday. I caught one that was about 8 lbs along with a snowy on the SAME jig at the same time 3 months ago..all by accident. We were in 450ft of water and stopped the boat to recover from a 3 hour blue marlin battle on a 50 wide and I made a quick drop to the bottom.

[Joey Herring]

DANG!!! Is that ALL the help that I'm going to get??!! Well..maybe I should come up to Va and catch all yall's fish!!

Really..thanks guys for the replies..we are going on an exploritory trip this sunday..lets see what happens!!

[skinnys-kid]

Don't forget about the VBSF Knowledge Center...good info in there on Tile fishing and Grouper, plus a whole lot more.... Good Luck Sunday!!

http://www.vbsf.net/How_To_Index.htm

[kapoc]

http://pswsfa.com/deepdropping.htm

http://pswsfa.com/grouper_tip.htm

http://pswsfa.com/wreckem_up.htm

The hardest part is simply finding them in a giant ocean out there. They are structure oriented fish and just because you are on structure, doesn't mean there are fish there, or at least the target fish you are looking for. Don't expect too many folks to just give you numbers as deep drop anglers hold their numbers very close. One thing I did was buy an electric reel. We use the electric when hunting in new spots to drop to see what's there. Most of the bottom fish do mark well on your FF but best to zoom in on the bottom to see them better. Once we know something is there, then we mostly use torium 30 with 65 or 80 lb braid. Use the smallest amount of weight to hold bottom and this can vary greatly depending on drift speed and current. Always best to bring a variety of bait from squid to any cut bait, fresh is better but frozen works too. The blueline tile and seabass dropping, a piece of squid on a double dropper hook works well. If grouper or golden tile hunting, significantly upsize the bait, hook and leader size.

Tilefish, at least blueline tilefish is like croaker fishing at 300 feet. They are along the 50 fathom curve on a rocky bottom north and south of the norfolk canyon. You can see them on your fishfinder and are often mixed with seabass. Double bottom rig with squid or meat, sharp 5.0 to 7.0 hook, 16-32 ounces of weight depending on drift speed. Braid will get down with less weight. A reel with a faster retrieve ratio like a torium is better for getting up faster. Couple of ways to hunt them.

1. While trolling, keep an eye on fishfinder and when you see good marks on the bottom, drop a waypoint and come back later and drop on it.

2. If you see other boats dropping do as the romans do.

3. Use radar to locate boats dropping.

Golden tiles are better eating, live in deeper water but I have not boated one yet so I cannot speak on the subject (yet). Groupers are out there too but I'm a virgin there too.

Electrics are not needed at 50 fathoms (my opinion). Besides, you cannot register a citation using an electric. Now fishing for goldens in 100 or better fathoms, an electric is nice. I don't own an electric but friends who have fished on my boat have them. They are nice to drop to see if there is anything there before the non-electrics drop.

Once you crank up a tile, drop you a waypoint and don't share the number. These fish do not migrate if you want there to be tiles there when you come back, keep the number to yourself. This is why folks don't like sharing their drop numbers. They are excellent eating and save the day when the troll bite is slow.

Good hunting.

Ok i'll bite where did you copy that from mike

as far as #3 Thats dirty pool

Rember if you are drop and not searching out new numers you are going to fish out your spot and make it barren in no time. make your drifts longer each time to find new pockets of fish.

[Joey Herring]

Thanks guys!! I use a spinning reel that holds 550 yards of 100 lb braid. We commonly drop to 800 ft for snoweys. The ONE blue line tile that I caught on a jig was a nice one..12lbs. This trip Sunday we are going exploring...fishing the front side and back side of the Big Rock.

[bobdu11]

That's funny right there.....you just getting home mike or are you heading out ? ...Bob

[kapoc]

Mike, I copied it from the Blue Dragon fishing tips webpage.

Do you really want me to pick it apart???????????

[kapoc]

Bob if your talking to me a little of both. I'm still running a decent amound of charters but am about to head back to the sandbox again late this year

[kapoc]

I did attempt to help him by giving some of the best advise CONTINUE LOOKING FOR NEW SPOTS AFTER FINDING THEM. otherwise you get what we had last year a fished out shoal. and second if your going to post then be truthfull or don't post look hard at it I know better. you have caught goldens, you do own an electric. i mean comon man, running up on people with radar thing that isn't right what happened to being respectful. I mean you talk about that then two lines later you talk about keeping all you #'s to yourself so that it doesn't get over fished, pick one you rather run up on someone elses hole an mark there fish then try and hord the numbers.

As far as the little minds comments whatever dude and bashing my busness have fun with it dude i'm done apparently when i mess with you back like on the other sites you get concerned no worries i'll leave you alone ....sorry i offended you

One thing on electrics they do make probing new areas a little less painfull

Joey if you need help with rigs or specific places to get decent discounts for bait for deep dropping gimme a call (757) 321-0693 Oh yah by the way the numbers can go bad like we figured out after a few draggers came and squished all the tile burrows in one of the areas.

SORRY TO EVERYONE HERE
MIKE

[Joey Herring]

Here are the results of our "exploritory" trip this past Sunday....we decided to put a high speed trolling lure out when we hit 100 ft of water..running 15 knots to our first stop..ten minutes later a 25 lb wahoo hits the deck...we find our mark and did some jigging..caught a few AJ's and moved on...put out the same trolling lure and proceeded to our next mark..ten minutes later a 15lb mahi goes in the box...we had a hard time finding the type of bottom that we were looking for so we pushed on to some deeper water 550ft in search of a wreck that we had #'s for...well then we get bit by a 50 wahoo on that same lure..a few quick pictures an a cold beer..we're off again...5 minutes later..another 25 lb wahoo!! Well by now we have more fish in the box after trolling ONE ROD for possibly no more than an hour..with a mahi colored skirt and NO ballyhoo's on it..than I've had fishing all day with a 6 rod spread and all the bells and whistles!!! WE weren't even trying hard and still put 100 lbs of good meat in the box!! We didn't get on the tiles or grouper..even though we fished a ledge that went from 280ft-350ft in a about a 200 yard stretch..

Guys..thanks for the info!!

One more thing....I am a firm believer that when the boat is in the water that there better be a hook behind it...even if you are running 20 knots...ever notice that flying fish can almost fly as fast as the boat when you are running out!

[Blowtoad]

That's a great day. I will take some wahoo over some tiles any day.

That's a great day! How about a bit more info-- General area and the lure you were pulling? Wire line? in line weight? Bob

[Blowtoad]

That's a great day. I will take some wahoo over some tiles any day.

That's a great day! How about a bit more info-- General area and the lure you were pulling? Wire line? in line weight? Bob