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This is not a kayak fishing, but I thought that you may be interested in it.
My Brother-in-law and I planned on going on the deep drop trip for the second time out of Virginia Beach. The first time we went we filled a cooler, and we planned to do the same on this trip. We were scheduled to go the last weekend in December, but the weather became unfavorable at the last second, so the Captain called us the morning we were heading down. I was packed and my brother-in-law, Harry, was already getting in his car to come and pick me up. You know we were disappointed for the last minute change of our weekend plans. Fortunately, we were able to reschedule for the following weekend of January 5th. The December trip was a 16 hour trip for $200, and the January trip was a 17 hour trip for the same price. So we gained a hour more on our trip by going in January.
So on Friday January 4th, Harry met me at my house and we headed down to Virginia Beach, stopping along the way for food and to locate bluefish that we read that tilefish loved. I also brought some squid form my local international grocery store. We checked into the Best Western which had a fisherman's special. $45 per room, 8th floor, ocean front with a balcony. Not bad when you consider that we split the room cost. Free breakfast and wifi was also included. We got a power nap of 90 minutes before waking up and leaving our room at 1:30am to get in line at the boat before 2am. The boat was scheduled to leave at 3am, but everyone had the same idea and got there early, so we were able to board and head out by 2:30am to my surprise. We arrived at the Norfolk Canyon fishing grounds at 7am 70 miles into the Atlantic. The boat provided squid as bait. We started fishing over a wreck in 150 feet of water. The fishing was on fire. As soon as I dropped my line I had a fish on as soon as my weight hit the bottom, BAM there was my January 2013 fish. Everyone on the boat was landing fish. So far on this first stop, we were catching tons of large black sea bass. We were catching nice sea bass, but we decided to through back anything under 15 inches. We wanted the big ones. I decided to use my squid that I bought from the international market. They were larger squid than the ones provided on the boat. I decide to use larger chunks of squid, especially the tentacles to see if I would catch a larger class of black sea bass, and It worked! I caught a larger class of black sea bass so big bait equaled big fish. After I caught a few large fish, Harry switched over to the larger squid chunks and began catching larger black sea bass. By 10am we had a cooler full of 3 to 5 plus pound black sea bass. We looked at each other in dismay, and realized that we did not even get to the deeper water to fish for tilefish yet, and we were trying to come up with ways to store any additional fish. Well, fishing slowed down, and smaller size fish catches were the norm. We probably through back 40 keeper fish of the smaller sized sea bass. On my last hook up, my arms gave out. They began to cramp up so bad that I had to take two Motrin's from my brother-in-law, and stop fishing, but not until I pulled in that last keeper black sea bass of my day. At least I stopped after we filled the cooler. I let my brother-in-law continue to fish from the 300 foot line and the 750 foot depths. He said that he stopped fishing also, since he was not getting any keepers from the deeper depths. He tried to use the bluefish that we bought in Virginia Beach, but he got no nibbles with the 25 pounds of bluefish that we bought and cutup into ziplock bags in the hotel before we got on the boat. . I would have sworn that he would have pulled in a few keeper tile fish like last year, but the tile fish alluded us on this trip. I sat in the cabin trying to de-cramp my hands and arms. I ended up sleeping in the cabin for an hour and then it was time to head back. At least we were able to watch the football games on the way back. The boat had a 47 inch LCD TV with a satellite TV connection. So it was a good time on the way back.
In the end, Harry and I accomplished our goal. We filled the cooler and we both got citation registered black sea bass of 15.7 for me and 15.8 pounds for Harry. Most of the Black Sea bass was 3.5 to four pounds that we kept. The weight of the cooler was around 130 pounds, which translated into 53 pounds of fillets, by the time that we had the local person in the fish cleaning station fillet the fish. We had planned to fillet the fish ourselves, but it took us over 2 hours to that in the cold last year. With my arms still cramping, I would have been of little help, plus we were tired from the long day. My brother in law was suffering from sinus issues, but he hung in there. So with all this going on, paying for someone to fillet the 100 quart cooler was very appealing. The guy named C. D. Wells cleaned our fish for only $45. He did an excellent job and was very entertaining. We head home on Sunday and caught some of the football games on the radio and at my house. Now it is time to separate and vacuum seal our fish.
My Brother-in-law and I planned on going on the deep drop trip for the second time out of Virginia Beach. The first time we went we filled a cooler, and we planned to do the same on this trip. We were scheduled to go the last weekend in December, but the weather became unfavorable at the last second, so the Captain called us the morning we were heading down. I was packed and my brother-in-law, Harry, was already getting in his car to come and pick me up. You know we were disappointed for the last minute change of our weekend plans. Fortunately, we were able to reschedule for the following weekend of January 5th. The December trip was a 16 hour trip for $200, and the January trip was a 17 hour trip for the same price. So we gained a hour more on our trip by going in January.
So on Friday January 4th, Harry met me at my house and we headed down to Virginia Beach, stopping along the way for food and to locate bluefish that we read that tilefish loved. I also brought some squid form my local international grocery store. We checked into the Best Western which had a fisherman's special. $45 per room, 8th floor, ocean front with a balcony. Not bad when you consider that we split the room cost. Free breakfast and wifi was also included. We got a power nap of 90 minutes before waking up and leaving our room at 1:30am to get in line at the boat before 2am. The boat was scheduled to leave at 3am, but everyone had the same idea and got there early, so we were able to board and head out by 2:30am to my surprise. We arrived at the Norfolk Canyon fishing grounds at 7am 70 miles into the Atlantic. The boat provided squid as bait. We started fishing over a wreck in 150 feet of water. The fishing was on fire. As soon as I dropped my line I had a fish on as soon as my weight hit the bottom, BAM there was my January 2013 fish. Everyone on the boat was landing fish. So far on this first stop, we were catching tons of large black sea bass. We were catching nice sea bass, but we decided to through back anything under 15 inches. We wanted the big ones. I decided to use my squid that I bought from the international market. They were larger squid than the ones provided on the boat. I decide to use larger chunks of squid, especially the tentacles to see if I would catch a larger class of black sea bass, and It worked! I caught a larger class of black sea bass so big bait equaled big fish. After I caught a few large fish, Harry switched over to the larger squid chunks and began catching larger black sea bass. By 10am we had a cooler full of 3 to 5 plus pound black sea bass. We looked at each other in dismay, and realized that we did not even get to the deeper water to fish for tilefish yet, and we were trying to come up with ways to store any additional fish. Well, fishing slowed down, and smaller size fish catches were the norm. We probably through back 40 keeper fish of the smaller sized sea bass. On my last hook up, my arms gave out. They began to cramp up so bad that I had to take two Motrin's from my brother-in-law, and stop fishing, but not until I pulled in that last keeper black sea bass of my day. At least I stopped after we filled the cooler. I let my brother-in-law continue to fish from the 300 foot line and the 750 foot depths. He said that he stopped fishing also, since he was not getting any keepers from the deeper depths. He tried to use the bluefish that we bought in Virginia Beach, but he got no nibbles with the 25 pounds of bluefish that we bought and cutup into ziplock bags in the hotel before we got on the boat. . I would have sworn that he would have pulled in a few keeper tile fish like last year, but the tile fish alluded us on this trip. I sat in the cabin trying to de-cramp my hands and arms. I ended up sleeping in the cabin for an hour and then it was time to head back. At least we were able to watch the football games on the way back. The boat had a 47 inch LCD TV with a satellite TV connection. So it was a good time on the way back.
In the end, Harry and I accomplished our goal. We filled the cooler and we both got citation registered black sea bass of 15.7 for me and 15.8 pounds for Harry. Most of the Black Sea bass was 3.5 to four pounds that we kept. The weight of the cooler was around 130 pounds, which translated into 53 pounds of fillets, by the time that we had the local person in the fish cleaning station fillet the fish. We had planned to fillet the fish ourselves, but it took us over 2 hours to that in the cold last year. With my arms still cramping, I would have been of little help, plus we were tired from the long day. My brother in law was suffering from sinus issues, but he hung in there. So with all this going on, paying for someone to fillet the 100 quart cooler was very appealing. The guy named C. D. Wells cleaned our fish for only $45. He did an excellent job and was very entertaining. We head home on Sunday and caught some of the football games on the radio and at my house. Now it is time to separate and vacuum seal our fish.
LOL
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