Mid-Week Deepdropping - Sept 16-17, 2008

[Uncle Buck]

Location: Boynton Beach, FL & Boca Raton, FL

Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2008 - f/v Uncle Buck
Left Boynton Beach inlet at 8:30am and headed south. The plan was to run down to Ft. Lauderdale for some deep-dropping. Came across some surface action a few miles south of the inlet. Tossed out the trusty trolling feather and quickly picked up a spanish mack. Cool. Knocked the skunk off in the first 10 minutes, and added some fresh bait to the cooler. Kept running SSE, and eventually started finding thick weed patches. Lots of little jacks under 'em, but no predators. Stopped at probably a dozen large patches and sent down the speed jig. No takers.



An hour and a half later, I reached the first deep-drop spot I wanted to try, a few miles north of Port Everglades and about 9.5 miles offshore. Minutes after I send my rig down, another boat shows up and starts dropping nearby. No bites after 15 minutes, so I pulled up and moved south a bit to a different spot. Send my rig down and that same boat showed up again, much closer, and started dropping. (You can read the full story about that incident here --> Ladyfish) After a little while, I was drifting too close to the other boat, so I reeled up and made another move... This time I went several miles northeast to get away from the other boat, who actually started running towards me before heading offshore.

This new area was far more productive. The Blackbelly Rosefish starting coming up 2 at a time. I even pulled up this little Cuban Dogfish (Squalus cubensis), which I have never before caught around here. Released him after a few photos. Looked to be swimming okay, but hope the little feller survived the trip back down to 900ft.



If you ever catch one, BEWARE! Check out the spikes in the two dorsal fins!


I did several drops through my Barrelfish zone, but all I could get were the rosies. I was hoping to locate the barrels first with the electric reel, and then switch to my IGFA-legal setup to attempt catching a record. But nobody was home.

Kept moving around in a generally northern direction, picking up rosies just about everywhere I dropped. I was down to my last couple squid, and decided to lump a slab of the spanish mack onto one of the hooks. That did the trick... and up came a very feisty Golden Tilefish. Scaled at 18lbs... my largest, so far. It was still very much alive when I held it up for the photo, and I didn't want to stick my fingers in its toothy mouth to push the stomach back in. hahaha I gotta tell ya... golden tiles really are one of the prettiest fish to catch, and they don't lose their color on ice like most other fish do.



Since I got my limit of ONE golden tile, I was basically done deep-dropping for the day. Final tally of rosies was 18, with several rather large ones in the mix. A great tasting haul!






Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2008 - f/v EmiJess
Headed out Boca Raton inlet around 9:30am with my good buddy TJ and his neighbor Mark. Headed offshore and banged the weed patches looking for mahi. Combination of run-n-gun with live pilchards, and some trolling. Nothing in the box by the 20-mile mark. Ran south to do some daytime sword drops. 3 attempts without a bite... so we started heading back towards Boca, still searching and trolling for mahi. Finally found a frigate working a weed patch in 500ft, and pulled several schoolies and a chicken bull off it.

I took the opportunity to do some tests, and take photos, of a new product I invented and will soon start marketing. (patent pending!) And no, there was no photoshopping involved! Looks cool, huh? Website and details coming soon. If you're interested in the product, send an e-mail to sales@fishclings.com

[SeaBiscuit]

Your reports are cool Uncle Buck! Nice photos too! Congrats on the fine golden. Plenty to the north and some to the south, but never hear much about them here in NC. I'm hoping to find them some day.
Keep the reports coming!
SeaBiscuit

[HOLWACHAGOT]

Those are some real nice Rosies! I also enjoy reading your reports. Very neat stuff. Better luck next time at the Barrel hole. Please continue to fill us in on your adventures.

By the way, is your invention "clinging" to the side of that Mahi? I could see charter boats names pasted on their tunas and billfish swimming off tagged in a whole new way.

Holwachagot

[merry marlin]

Cool Report Uncle Buck, I sure wouldn't mind coming across weed patches and Tiles like those!
Our waters in NC get infested by dogfish in winter and they are a real pain when they find your boat...
Pretty neat idea your advertising on a fish!
MM

[Uncle Buck]

Thanks for the compliments guys.

HOL... The logos are wet-cling type. There's no adhesive, and they are 100% reusable. My initial idea was for use at tournament weigh-ins, allowing the title sponsor's logo to be ON the fish when photos are taken. Crisp and clean... not just a wet piece of paper. But more ideas are coming to mind daily... for charters/guides to advertise their boat, fishing-related products, release tournament photo "proof", etc. It's also good for non-fish applications like tournament boat numbers, temporary sponsorships... any situation a name or company logo would be useful to display, but not be permanently attached. All it needs is a wet fish or a smooth surface to adhere to.

The product is brand new, and I'm attempting to get more samples out to folks to get more pictures for the website, which is under construction. For more information, send an e-mail to sales@fishclings.com

[brandon558]

pretty work man..nice pics too! Would love to get ahold of some tiles that size.

Thanks for sharing

Brandon