I decided to get a casting rod for inshore fishing. I picked up a Dark Matter John Skinner 6'6 MH with spiral wrapped guides. Rod feels and looks great. I'm pairing it with an Accurist baitcasting reel. There a setting on it that allows you to push down on the thumb button to let line out and then release it to stop it as opposed to cranking the handle. That will come in handy for jigging. You can also cast it like a conventional baitcaster in the other setting. I'm going to spool it with 15lb braid when it arrives. I'm giving my Penn Battalion II spinning rod to my father-in-law. The rod performed well the one time I used it but I just prefer casting rods/reels. I didn't care for the spinning reel though. It's an Evict 2000. It's really hard to close the bail when you first crank after a cast. Oh, also picked up this bib. https://setthehookgear.com/products/tide-chasers-lightweight-bibs
oooh fancy... I really like the spiral wrapped guides for jigging, not sure how well it'll cast though oh, and btw, you should manually close the bail on your spinning reels
That's for the tip. I've always just reeled them shut. I was using a leader that was just a hair too long for my liking and I was constantly hitting the swivel when I went to open the bail. I know, don't use a swivel, but I happened to be using one last week. Letting the line out a hair is a pain in the ass with a spinning reel. Baitcaster is so much easier.
Went out this morning in Narragansett Bay and finally boated a fluke. I ended up catching 4, all shorts. I also caught a Sea Robin and something that I'm not really sure what it is. I'm attaching a photo.
I picked up this Shimano TranX 301HG from a local tackle shop in North Kingston. The Accurist I ordered didn't deliver in time for my trip today. It's a nice reel but I couldn't cast it for shit. I'm going to get another casting rod for stripers and use it in that. It felt too big for the Dark Matter fluke rod. @Cman65 @stinkyB Any idea what that last fish is that posted in my previous post? Is that a whiting or southern kingfish? I hooked either a small bonito or a false alby that I lost flipping into the boat. I also caught a tiny black sea bass. We fished mostly in the harbor and I ended up with 4 fluke, one decent size sea robin (I have to say they fight really well), the mystery fish, the false alby and the black sea bass. Much more productive than my trip last week. Was out about 4 hours. Everything was caught on a fluke rig (white bucktail with a teaser a foot above it.)
Nice day, too bad those flatties werent a lil bigger That's a whiting (or I believe "kingfish" in some places.... but as far as I'm concerned a "kingfish" is a KIng Mackerel) Theyre in the drum family. That's a pretty nice one. good eats. I'm not a baitcaster guy, but I know those tranx get great reviews. I know a guy who uses a 500 to catch big fish offshore
That fish is called a kingfish down in OCMD. Its also known as a whiting although I remember the larger whiting being black and silver but those are pretty much long gone from these waters. Nice tranx! Upside is those reels are levelwind so you don't have to use your thumb. Congrats on that haul man!!
Thanks! The first fluke was probably the closest to being a keeper but I didn't measure it. I actually have a fish ruler for my kayak so maybe next time I'll get some measurements. Thanks for the info on the whiting. I had no idea what it was but it fought well. After reading about them I'm surprised it hit a 3/4 oz bucktail. If I catch another I'm going to keep it and eat it (assuming it's the same size or bigger than this one.) The most challenging part of the trip was trying to stay vertical with the jig while being blown around in the kayak. It's doesn't take much and we were fishing around moored sailboats. I bounced off a few, lol. This saltwater stuff is very addicting. Oh, the charter we had planned for next weekend out if Gloucester got cancelled. The captain is recovering from cancer surgery. We booked a charter in September out of Narragansett. Hopefully the fishing is good. Still haven't caught a striper yet. I'm looking forward to it.
Pretty soon you'll be saying freshwater is just for rinsing off your gear Had intentions to take the yak to the ocean today as it's pretty flat.... but ssw winds caused some upwelling pushing the warm clear water out of reach so then changed plans (and rods) and went inshore.... came across an upper slotsized Redfish (slot is 18-27") in under a ft of water, belly practically rubbing in the mud as he was focused on shrimp or crabs or whatever....Made a perfect cast to lead him but Couldnt get him to eat. awesome and terrible at the same time also forgot my inshore lures and water at the house so only had what was rigged up.... flounder bit the tail off my paddle tail, then I pulled the hook on another, then went home
Headed out tomorrow on a 2 day trip that will probably be cut short a day. Looks like a coastal storm will be coming up from the south Tuesday PM. Best guess is we'll fish all day Monday and tuesday, head for port early to stay ahead of the weather.
I'll never stop freshwater fishing. A 5 lb largemouth fights like hell! The Housatonic River by me has 20+ pound Northern Pike. The reservoirs I fish have Walleye which is one of the best tasting freshwater fish. I'm not sure what freshwater is looked down upon.
Well, another washout for my Tilefish trip. Looks like that's it for '22 but I still have Tile vacuumed sealed in the freezer so I can live with this. Just wasn't in the cards but it does open up other inshore opportunities until the season is over. That's the one thing about SW fishin Bickety.. You're at the mercy of the Weather more often than not.
Can you tell me about Tilefish fishing. I read they are usually found in deep water. What kind of gear do you use? What bait? Do you go out on boat with other people all fishing for Tilefish? I understand they are good eating but is catching them fun? I've never heard of tilefish until I read this thread.
Sure.. Be advised this style of fishing is also pretty addicting. Good thing we don't live down by Stinky! Tilefish up in our waters live between 300-1000ft. They live in mud burrows and come out when bait drops to them. Not sure if you've ever heard of the Hudson Canyon, but it's where the Hudson river originates on the continental shelf. Roughly 80-100 miles offshore ESE of Belmar, NJ. As you can see, private boats simply don't have the range to get out there. The bigger yachts and head boats can make it there and back. 6-7hrs one way usually gets you to the spots. That's why those trips are sold as overnighters. Gear varies but you have to keep in mind Tilefish aren't the only fish in the sea out there. You could hit almost anything so your gear had better be able to handle what might come your way. 2lb-4lb sash weights get you down to the fish. Its also dependent on the current at those depths. The heavier line "scopes" out and you will have problems even reaching bottom. Scope happens when your line is pushed by the current. You'll lay out 300m of line to reach 150-200m of depth. Your reel also has to be large and able to hold 600m or more of line. Keep in mind seawater weighs 64lbs/cu ft. At 300ft or more that's a lot of additional weight you're working against not including the weight of the fish and the sinker which brings us to.. tackle. Conventional tackle is usually 60-80lb braid with 100lb mono leader and 7/0 to 10/0 circle hooks. Mono has too much stretch to use at these depths. The rod should be between 6-8ft and capable of handling the 4lb weight. Reels vary between Conventional and Electric. Some Capts don't allow electrics so folks use 2 speed conventional reels. Down in Fl, they use 3, 4 or even 5 hook hi/lo rigs. Kinda like jug lines for catfish except vertical. Up here, some Capts will tell you to take off the second hook as Tiles rarely come up higher than 3-5ft off the bottom. In addition, if you hook 2-30# tiles at 500-600ft, you're gonna wish you hadn't. I use 20# braid to keep the scope to a minimum and only 30# flouro leader for my hi/lo rig. I also use electric reels even with my jig rod which I use the "long fall" jig technique. My hooks are 6/0 circles as I only use circle hooks unless I'm Porgy or Fluking. To set the hook, all you do is either reel down or raise the rod slowly and let the fish hook himself and the rod to load up. No need to rear back with a hard hookset. The fight is a bit anti-climatic. Tiles fight for the first 100ft or so but the pressure eventually kills them on the way up so, you'll be cranking up dead weight for the last half of the retrieve. You will need to have glow beads on your rig and I use a multi-flashing water powered light. There's very little light that far down and glow will remind the Tiles of their favorite prey: Squid. Some folks bring additional baits with them. I had planned to bring cut mackerel as the oil slick usually draws the Tiles. Squid advertise their presence by emitting multi-color flashes hence, that what I use on the rig. I also have Squid Jigs that glow and mimic live squid. After all this effort, you'll wind up with some of the best tasting fillets you've ever had. The fillets tastes almost like crab/lobster/shellfish. The fillets are nice and thick and the meat is flaky and white. Broiling is the preferred method of preparing them. SPOG and go from there. (Salt, pepper, onion, garlic). At the end of the day, you'll will have gotten a pretty good idea what deep drop fishing is about. Depending on where your water is, you could be fishing reefs down in the GoM, or the deep water off Stellwagen Bank off Gloucester, MA. Just remember that deep drop is the big brother to bottom fishing and you have to gear up accordingly. Same technique basically but the difference is in the scale of what you're using and what you might catch. If I could be of any further help, just let me know!
