Giant Sea Bass, Lewes DE 1-5-13

[tufnik]

Saturday, 18 hr Giant Sea Bass Trip

Wow, what a trip.....long ride.....heavy sinkers...electric reels.....huge coolers.....cold/breezy.......

Anyway, left the dock after midnight (Sat morning) with 30 anglers on-board the 110 foot Thelma Dale. Took us seven hours to get to the first fishing spot. With all that time, what did we do? Yep, sleep. I slept in the lower deck. With the noisy motor humming away and the boat rockin' and rollin' in the waves, it was a bit hard to sleep.

We finally got there, maybe 80 miles out. Dropped line with clams and squid on double hook rigs, and BAM, we got immediate hits. Lots of sea bass action. Depth was about 250 ft. It was cold and breezy, but the action helped me ignore the pain. Everyone was catching fish.

After a few hours, we went to another area and picked up a few more bass. After that, we went to a third spot for tile fish. The current was stronger there. Depth was about 600 ft, so I used a 32 oz sinker! After a short while of fishing there, we headed back in for the five hour ride. Reached the dock about 8:30 pm.

Nearly half the anglers limited out on giant sea bass (20 at 12.5" min). Several guys caught citation sea bass (over 3 lbs), and one bass weighed in over 6 lbs. I didn't limit out on sea bass, but caught a bunch of sea bass (largest 18") and tilefish. One guy caught a flounder. Several guys caught big blues (over 30").

They said they usually catch more fish and this trip was "just OK." It was my first 18 hour trip. A long trip, but I was happy with my cooler of fish. I would do it again.

Pics:
A blue got a tasty bite of bass
My cooler of fish
We use the whole squid for tilefish
Anglers holding up their big bass

[Rockchaser]

Nice catch, should make a great couple of meals.
Looks like a fun trip. I will have to go out on one some day.

[chex]

Sounds like fun. Did they provide the gear or did you have to bring your own?

[tufnik]

They had rentals, but I used my own gear. It looked like everyone brought their own gear. These guys are serious anglers - nice reels and rods.

Ever try to set the hook with a 32 oz sinker at the end? My rod was rated up to 4 oz and 50# line: way too flexible.

[surfdog]

Nice! those long range trips kill me. i like the 8 hour ones, more fish on the deep drop but 250-900' with 32oz sinker, whew!!

[HokieDJ]

How long does it take to reel up that much line?

[moc]

Good Job Tufnik, I am glad you that you got to go on one of those long trips, and you were successful from what I can see from the pictures. But wow, 8 hours to get to the fishing grounds? Did I read that right? Did the boat provide electric reels or did you bring your own? My arms could have used an electric reel on my trip.

[tufnik]

The boat provided only rod/reel rentals. No electrics. A few guys brought their own electric set-ups. You could hear the electric motors whining away.

At the 600 ft area, it took me a few minutes to wind up. Wind, pump, wind, pump, wind, pause, pump, wind, pump......sometimes I continuously did the winding depending on how tired my arm was. My conventional reel has a 6:1 ratio, which is considered high speed. The reels provided by the boat have lower ratios (maybe about 4-5), so you're winding a lot more. There really was hardly a fight. You could feel the head jerks, but basically you're winding up weight.

It wasn't a real problem, but for next time, I'm going to make sure I have more line on my reel and a stiffer boat rod.

I think maybe your trip may be better, moc. I can't say the Lewes trip won't produce really big sea bass. The Lewes trip doesn't produce golden tilefish like your Rudee trip, and the golden tile is larger than the blue line tilefish caught off Lewes.

Had sea bass for dinner. First time. Excellent!