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

[AbuMasgouf]

Chex,

Nice Sea Bass entree indeed! Yes, please describe it.... are you slowly beginning to consume cooked fish?

[chex]

While I was waiting for my turn to have my fish fileted, Moc told me about his whole-fish sea bass recipe... It sounded so good that I took 2 fish out of the filet bucket and put them back in my cooler so I could try. I hope he doesn't mind me sharing this variation of his recipe. Basically, I cleaned and scaled the fish and cut off the fins. I cut deep slits in the sides, into which I wedged lemon slices. I placed a whole bunch of fresh thyme, rosemary, an onion and lime leaves in the belly of the fish. I doused the fish with olive oil, garlic salt and some dried lemongrass. In the oven under foil at 375 for 25 minutes, then broiled for a few more with the foil removed.

Last night I made it for my girlfriend and she loved it. I also prepared the other fish (biggest one I caught) and let it sit in the fridge overnight. Brought it to my parent's house tonight and cooked it there. Everybody LOVED it. Thanks Moc! I tasted a little and thought it was "ok". I do eat cooked fish, but I'm just not a huge fan. Glad I know several people who are though.

I just realized how lame my photos are. Tiny and, huh, yeah, that boat is upside down.

Electric reel: hmmm.... I wouldn't mind playing around with one, because I love testing out equipment, but unless I'm out there just to get pounds of fish, I prefer to battle. To me it's 85% about the fight, and only 15% about bringing meat home. So I'll stick with an undersized rod/reel for now, and earn it. Some of those electrics seemed very high tech. Other were low tech. Interesting stuff....

[moc]

I am glad you liked the recipe Mike. I still have to post my experience of the trip and some more photos....maybe by tonight or tomorrow..

[tufnik]

While I was waiting for my turn to have my fish fileted, Moc told me about his whole-fish sea bass recipe... It sounded so good that I took 2 fish out of the filet bucket and put them back in my cooler so I could try. I hope he doesn't mind me sharing this variation of his recipe. Basically, I cleaned and scaled the fish and cut off the fins. I cut deep slits in the sides, into which I wedged lemon slices. I placed a whole bunch of fresh thyme, rosemary, an onion and lime leaves in the belly of the fish. I doused the fish with olive oil, garlic salt and some dried lemongrass. In the oven under foil at 375 for 25 minutes, then broiled for a few more with the foil removed.

Last night I made it for my girlfriend and she loved it. I also prepared the other fish (biggest one I caught) and let it sit in the fridge overnight. Brought it to my parent's house tonight and cooked it there. Everybody LOVED it. Thanks Moc! I tasted a little and thought it was "ok". I do eat cooked fish, but I'm just not a huge fan. Glad I know several people who are though.

I just realized how lame my photos are. Tiny and, huh, yeah, that boat is upside down.

Electric reel: hmmm.... I wouldn't mind playing around with one, because I love testing out equipment, but unless I'm out there just to get pounds of fish, I prefer to battle. To me it's 85% about the fight, and only 15% about bringing meat home. So I'll stick with an undersized rod/reel for now, and earn it. Some of those electrics seemed very high tech. Other were low tech. Interesting stuff....

I need to try that recipe, but dang, all my fish have been filleted. Since I need a whole fish, that means I need to do another Deep Drop real soon

[moc]

This was the trip that my brother-in-law, Harry, and I go on every year around this same time. The boat was the Rudee Angler out of Virginia Beach. You can read their report and see their pictures here: http://www.rudeeinletcharters.com/fi...ports-the-blog

During the week, we were eyeing the weather, since the last few deep drop trips were cancelled due to bad weather. Several of the Snaggedline Kayakers also signed up, nine in all. Here was our crew: MOC (Martin), Harmat (Harry), Chexone (Mike), ShawnL and his son, Shady (Ryan), Tufnik (Efrin), Metroman (Langston), and Toyomo (Muhammad). Well all got the call on Thursday that the trip was on. There was a good weather window that would allow our trip to proceed. The weather on Thursday was windy and the weather for called for winds of 35 mph and rain. For our Saturday trip, we would be blessed with clear skies, 5 to 15 mph winds, 60 degree temperatures as a high, and seas of 2 to 3 feet. We could not ask for anything more. Harry and I took Friday off of work so we could take our time and drive down to Virginia Beach and be well rested for the trip. We stayed at the Best Western for $45 a night, ocean front with a balcony over looking the beach and the board walk, or should I say concrete walk. We left my house around 12:40pm. Traffic was terrible on I95 heading south, so we took Route 301 in MD down to 295 in Virginia to Route 64 south. We made a stop into the Bass Pro in Norfolk, and then headed to check into our hotel. The hotel was clean and was highly recommended for fisherman. We were on the 3rd floor, and they provided a free buffet breakfast every morning.

We got to the Rudee Angler at 1:30am. There were already many anglers crowding the entrance to the boat. Two boats were heading out. The Rudee Angler and the Rudee Mariner. The Mariner was the smaller boat, by 12 feet. The boats were scheduled to depart at 3am, but if they boarded everyone early, then they would leave early. They called your name one at a time, and then handed you a number. A raffle was then held, and as your number was called, then you would board the boat. My brother-in-law was called 3rd, so he was able to board the boat earlier than me and get us a seat. My number was called mid way through the raffle, but I could not get on until closer to the end since a group of guys were clogging the entrance to the boat. Once everyone boarded, the boat pulled out at 2:40am. The next time that I go, I will get there just before 1am so I can at least move all of my coolers near the front of the boat to reduce the fight to board boat. Harry had a table for us, with our gear on the table. Another angler from the same group blocking the entrance to the boat, placed their gear in the seat when my brother-in-law went out to check his rods. Each table can accommodate 4 anglers. This guy took one side of our table and claimed that he had an elderly friend who was going sitting there. Well, the elderly guy never showed up and this guy during the 4.5 hour ride, just out laid off on the bench on one side of the table as if it was his private bed. This was a very selfish guy. We wanted Muhammad and Metro to side there, but Metro was able to find a seat somewhere else and he gave Muhammad his folding chair to use. Harry admitted that he should have placed our bags on each of the seats as opposed to the top of the table.

Despite running into a group of rude anglers, the trip was still great and all of the other anglers were nice, and the crew of the Rudee Angler were great. So this was just a small blemish on an otherwise, fantastic day of fishing. We got to the fishing grounds around 6:30am. I could not fish next to Harry since another angler placed 6 rods in holders around Harry as if he was saving the spots for another angler. Those rods were never used. So it was a pain when I caught a fish, that I had to walk it down to my brother-in-law and put it into the cooler and walk back. I ended up trying to get a bucket but, again, some selfish anglers took not one, but three buckets, of which they were only using two. I asked for the unused bucket politely, but they said that he said that he was using it, which was bull. I told the first mate that I could use one bucket for my fish, so that I would not have to walk back and forth to the cooler down at the end of the boat. I informed the mate about the "spare" buckets by the other anglers. Within 5 minutes, I had my bucket

We started out fishing some wrecks in 200 feet of water with 16 ounce weights. They used two hooks tipped with squid. Some anglers who made their own rig had 3 to 4 hooks per line. I brought extra squid and other MKF members brought some blue crabs, sand fleas and shrimp. All of them caught sea bass and other fish. Many black sea bass were pulled up from the depths. The captain was not afraid to move his boat around to put us on fish. We made it all the way to 300 feet of water near the Norfolk Canyons were we began to pull up tile fish using 24 ounce weights. I landed an 8 pound tilefish, just two pounds short of a citation. I did catch a citation 6.5 pound black sea bass and Harry caught a 5.5 pound citation sea bass. We also caught bluefish. Harry landed a 28 inch blue during a bluefish frenzy when multiple hookups of large bluefish were being caught. We also ran into a mess of 36 inch or longer catches of large eels. Harry also caught a 8 to 9 pound Hake fish. It is considered a white fish in the same category as a cod. By 9:30am, our 100 quart cooler was almost full and we still had hours of fishing to go! Many interesting fish were caught during the day. My Harry and I went home with 47 black sea bass, 3 blue line tile fish, a bluefish and one hake. Other fish caught were eels, dog sharks, a Tufnik starfish, and a trigger fish. We even had dolphins jumping in the wake of the boat when were were moving from spot to spot.

The captain kept us out fishing longer. What a captain. On the trip back, the satellite TV was playing some college football games. We made it back to the docks at night by 9:30pm. This made for a long day. Harry and I registered our citation sea bass and got our 4 buckets of fish cleaned. We were later able to consolidate them into 3 over flowing buckets. The average cost was $15 a bucket or less to clean your fish. The two guys cleaning the fish were fast and friendly. We had a lot of fish to clean and it was worth every penny. I kept 3 fish whole that I would clean myself, so I could roast them whole at a later date. Chexone was the last one to get his fish cleaned so Harry and I hung around with him until his fish were done. It was close to midnight and Harry and I was hungry so we grabbed a pizza on the way back to the hotel and had a good night sleep. We go up in the morning and enjoyed the free breakfast and was on the road heading home by 11:30am.

Despite a few negative points of the trip, as a whole this trip was great and I will be doing it again next December for anyone who is interested. Next time I will arrive to the dock earlier with my coolers. When claiming a table, I will put our bags on both seats of the table, so there will be no mistaking that someone is already sitting there. I will also bring multiple rags to stick in rod holders to claim a fishing spot. In the past, their use to be only 25 anglers per trip, then it went to 30 anglers per trip, but on this trip it was 35. Still it was fun.

[moc]

More pics

[moc]

More Pics

[ronaultmtd]

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.

Looks like the crowded boat may have caused the Captain to stick in shallower waters to prevent tangles. 200 and 300 feet is on the edge of Golden Tile water- they like deeper waters and so do the Grouper. Even in shallower waters looks like a real banner day of catching great table fare- Black Sea Bass, trigger fish, the one nice hake I saw, the Blueline Tiles...yummm!!!

I would pay the money and go out on the trip with Snaggedlines guys, although the big party boat elbow to elbow chaos is not my cup of tea...not much in the fish world tastes better than a steamed tile fish with drawn butter...if you like lobster, that is...

[tufnik]

Nice detailed report, moc. How does the hake compare with BSB on the table? I never had hake, but I heard it's good.

[ronaultmtd]

Tuf- Like most deep water bottom fish, Hake and Codfish are pretty tasty on the table

[AbuMasgouf]

Toyomo hooked me up with two of his BSB's so to keep with the tradition I Masgoufed one of them ... Posted it up on the main forum: http://www.snaggedline.com/showthrea...5507#post75507

I'm definitely game for the trip next year!

[moc]

I have never had a Hake fish before, but I heard that it was good, but I still believe that the Black Sea Bass is still the best tasting out of the lot. Dig this, a fellow MKF Angler just left me a voicemail that he was in the Giant grocery store, and he saw whole Black Sea Bass selling for $16.99 a pound! If I do the math, my brother in law and myself weighed our fillets at 50 pounds. At Giant's prices that would be $849.50 of black sea bass. I personally have seen it recently for $8.99 a pound, but that would still be $449.50 for the 50 pounds.

[toyomo]

If I do the math, my brother in law and myself weighed our fillets at 50 pounds. At Giant's prices that would be $849.50 of black sea bass. I personally have seen it recently for $8.99 a pound, but that would still be $449.50 for the 50 pounds.

Thats alot more than i thought. We were talking on the boat about whether there was a break even point for some of the guys who seem to come weekly with their electric reels etc. If the price is that high then i guess the $200 price for the trip is worth it.I have a feeling that alot of those guys are selling their fish even though i know its not allowed.

[Goody]

Looks like you guys had a blast even with the that large of a party. Congrats on the the catches.

[Foursteps24]

Tufnik clear your PMs