17-hr Deep Drop (out of Rudee Inlet) Sat 12-28-13

[tufnik]

17-hr Deep Drop out of Rudee Inlet 12-28-13, Sat

We departed about 2:40 am Saturday on the Rudee Angler with over 35-40 anglers onboard for this 17-hour trip, which actually took over 18 hours. Two boats went out, and we were on the larger 90' boat. I was a bit concerned (about lots of tangles and elbow-to-elbow room) with so many anglers, the most I've seen. Anyway, it turned out to be a beautiful day. Mostly sunny with winds 5-10 knots. Seas were maybe two feet, so fishing conditions were excellent. The fishing worked out fine, even though we had so many anglers.

We rode over 4 hours to get to our first fishing spot. The standard bait was squid, and so we dropped our double and triple hook rigs in about 200 feet of water with 16 ounce sinkers. We fished several spots ending up fishing at 300 feet (our deepest) with 24 ounce sinkers near the end of the trip. I caught lots black sea bass and tiles. I'll let the others tell you what they caught. All kinds of fish were caught: black sea bass, blueline tiles, big eels, trigger, blues, and starfish. Many citation sea bass. Everyone had full coolers. My 70 quart cooler had lots of black sea bass and blueline tiles.

At least three anglers caught huge eels. It was funny watching the mate try to knock out an eel on the head with his knife butt. He kept missing with the wiggling eel. I think some guy later took the eels home.

It was a great wx day, the best I've fished on deep drops. It was also fun meeting and fishing with toyomo, moc and his brother-in-law, MetroMan, Shady, Shawn L and his son, and Chexone. Gotta do it again!

[tufnik]

More pics. Moc's first tile, Metro's sleeping head and my fish cooler. Some guys waited to have their fish cleaned....I decided to do it myself at home for the "full fishing experience"...lol

[MetroMan]

It was a blast out there. To be honest, I was a little bit PISSED at the beginning of the trip because of the chaotic boarding. I expected it to be a lot more orderly, but it was a bunch of people clogging the entrance to the boat...all with 575qt coolers...pushing...hogging seats unnecessarily. I was kinda taken back by the overall rude demeanor. But once we got underway things calmed down a bit.

The fishing was great. My first keepers came by way of a triple header of black sea bass all on squid. Throughout the day, I caught fish on squid, green crab, and mole crab (sand fleas). The green & mole crab were leftover from kayak fishing the CBBT the day before, where I caught my final keeper striper of the year.

The catching was constant as the captain made a few moves throughout the day to keep us on the fish. I decided to have some fun with bait options, so I threw a piece of salami on the bottom hook of my triple dropper rig.

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Seconds after hitting the bottom, I pulled up a nice keeper sea bass from the salami. Funny.

My biggest fish of the day was the blue fish that Tufnik posted above. I didn't get a length measurement, but it weighed just under 9lbs. At the end of the day, my cooler was filled with sea bass and 2 tile fish. The grade of sea bass was good...good to the point where most of us threw back over a dozen keepers to save room for bigger offerings. We all brought home several over 20"

It was a fun trip. I am very thankful for the cooperation on mother nature's behalf.

[Shady]

It was an amazing trip. Couldn't have asked for better weather and the fishing was very good as well. At our first stop I had big black sea bass chomping on my baits before it even reached the bottom and the bites were pretty consistent throughout the day. This was my first deep drop trip and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I brought a bunch of leftover baits from Tog fishing including bluecrab, shrimp, and green crab. I used a triple dropper rig throughout the day with squid, shrimp, and bluecrab and it seemed the seabass went for the blue crab and shrimp more than the squid, especially the bigger ones. My catches for the day included: seabass, conger eel, dogfish, a shark egg casing, and blueline tile. I had one triple header of bass, and several doubles. My biggest seabass and tile were both 22"
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[tufnik]

Salami?!?! You may want to try pepperoni next time, Metro.....lol...

Ryan,
Is that your left thumb in the sea bass pic? ...lol... Also, did you get the citation for the bass? What's a shark egg casing?

[Shady]

Haha no thats my boot holding the cooler open. I had 2 or 3 right around 4.5 lbs but just shy of citation weight. It looks like you caught some shark eggs with your starfish.

[tufnik]

Haha no thats my boot holding the cooler open. I had 2 or 3 right around 4.5 lbs but just shy of citation weight. It looks like you caught some shark eggs with your starfish.

Cool. Didn't know they were shark eggs/pods.

I meant the pic in the first post....you holding the two fish....looks like your swollen left thumb is sticking out of the fish...lol..

.....burp.......just had fish tacos for dinner.....yes, it was with sea bass.

[camelbird]

Looks like a blast, nice work gentlemen

[AbuMasgouf]

Sweet! Looks like I will have to join next time! Glad everything came together for a memorable experience

[toyomo]

Its been a long couple days for me and im just now getting a chance to sit down and write up a report. I drove for around 4 hours for this trip and didnt really know what to expect besides Tufniks tips since this was my first deep sea outing. I got there a little before midnight thinking i might get a power nap in before we head out but the excitement kept me up. I Think we all were a little ticked off when boarding that it got so chaotic. Im so used to friendly fisherman and fellow kayakers that i was a little taken aback by several moves by rude people. Everyone was so crowded around the entrance that when my number was called i couldnt get through with all my gear, so the purpose of the number raffle system was kind of defeated in my eyes. Then getting on and trying to reserve tables and having people move stuff and just sitting down...it wasnt what i expected.The best was the guy at Mocs table who insisted he was holding a seat for someone and thats why he had a bench to himself...then when questioned he said yea hes coming hes out talking to someone.Needless to say there was no other person he was just being selfish while some people had no seating. I ended up sitting in a lawn chair that Metroman brought luckily and somehow managed to doze in and out till 6.

Now on to the fishing. It was amazing. I spent the past week or so trying to read up and give myself an edge like i do with alot of fishing trips. Should i use teasers or glow beads etc etc. Well it turns out sea bass pretty much eat anything and everything and when the captain took us to a spot you pretty much dropped your line and got a bite on impact. I think the whole boat was probably hooked up at some points. I realized that the action was kinda spoiling me because if 2 minutes went by and i didnt get a bite i was thinking we should move. On my kayak i might fish hours with no bites. I had very few tangles considering the number of anglers. The only bad thing that happened to me is that someone on the other side of the boat reeled in my line and immediately cut it with no real warning.Some more reasonable people would say hey i got someones line and they would work together to get it free and the mates were very good at it.

All said and done i brought home 30 fish and threw back probably 2 dozen or more with most of those keepers too. I made the decision to clean them myself. It was a combo of reasons and i just didnt feel like waiting in line or paying to have them cleaned. Needless to say it took a while. It was my first deep drop and also my first time eating sea bass. I just finished up some fish tacos and it was amazing, maybe my tastiest fish to date. In addition to sea bass i also caught triggerfish and tilefish with only a single dogfish thankfully. My arms are a little sore today from several good fights i had winching up triple header good size sea bass plus 24 oz from the deep. All in all even with the few annoyances i would do another deep drop trip in a heartbeat. Maybe one day we can get a whole boat with just snagged liners.

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[Shady]

We really should check into reserving a whole boat and how much it would cost and how many people we would need to make it a go. Btw nice touch with the jalapeño on the fish tacos, gotta add th at to mine next time.

[toyomo]

Yea that would be sweet. It says on their website available year round for private charters and company events. Im sure we could make it happen with enough interest. Either from rudee or from ocean city. The fish tacos were absolutely amazing, my wife did a nice job.

[tufnik]

That was the first time I experienced chaos on those trips. Other times were much more tame. Sorry, for your first trip, you guys had to tolerate that kind of behavior. One guy had all his belongings on the bench, and he was sleeping on the floor. I politely asked him if I could remove his stuff so I could sleep on the bench. He emphatically said no. So, I (pardon my rudeness too) just pushed the stuff on the side and slept on it. He didn't say anything. (Hmmmm...does rudeness counter rudeness?)

Anyway, as you may have heard. The guys on the previous week's trip that was canceled were rescheduled on our trip. That's why it was so crowded. I was really surprised with all the anglers. You know, elbow to elbow fishing. Fortunately, the wind and current cooperated, we mostly got to fish straight down, and there weren't that many tangles. And of course, we all got full coolers. All in all, and I think you'll agree, a good day of fishing.

toyomo,
You sure put that big 120 qt cooler to use...almost full!

[chex]

That was fun. I'm ready to go back after the blister on my hand heals and my sore shoulder recovers. So much reeling... the 2-speed reel came in handy. My heaviest catch of the day was a big eel snagged in the tail. I put up a good fight and I thought it was something BIG! too bad... I raised lots of sea bass and 3 tiles from the depths.

[tufnik]

Ahhh...so what's with this upside down boat?

Interesting sea bass entree. You must describe it.

BTW, do I sense you're smelling an electric now? And we only did 300' at the deepest.