# Deep Drop Jigging for Tile/Wreck fish



## ksong

Thanks Dave to call me last moment. It was only 4 hours before the departure time. Within 15 minutes I dumped every thing in my car and ran.
I know traffic in Long Island is really bad on Friday. I had a 2 day Georges bank cod jigging trip on the Viking on Friday in late May in 1985 and it took 5 hours to get there. I had to call the Viking to wait for me. But fortunately, I barely made this time.
After driving 3 1/2 hours, I barely made it.

Among 22 fishermen on the boat, At least half of the them were familiar faces. 
We left around 7:00 pm on Friday and arrived at the destination after long 14 hour run. Bunks are not fancy, but they are comfortable enough.

It was calm, but foggy. We caught varieties of fish, but most of tile were small. Bottom was pretty sticky and I lost a few jigs I brought.
Jigging was not hot and I managed to jig three small tile among many cusk or hake on jigs.

At night they anchored. There were squid around the boat, but I didn't
bring any squid jigs with me. Guys jigged squid did very well.
I tried to jig for tuna for a while and I went to sleep.

While having breakfast, a mate told us two wreck fish were caught. Wreck fish ?
One of the main reason I joined this trip is to catch wreck fish on jigs as well as big tile on jigs.
I dropped down 21 oz Solvroken Viking jig which was the only heavy jig left. 
Guys using bait were catching nice wreck fish steadily, but I was determined to catch a wreck fish on jigs this time even I get skunked. The last time I caught wreck fish on jigs was in Three Kings Island, NZ.. They call hapuka.
Finally my moment came. I felt heavy and I cranked like hell to lift the wreck fish off the bottom. Then it started to pull hard. 
After brief tog of war, I loosened drag a little bit and reeled slowly. It took long to reel from 600 - 700 ft and finally a nice wreck fish came up to the surface.
I tried one more on a jig, but that was it.
Capt pulled anchor and decided to drift. We had a few more tile before we headed to the dock around 11:00 am.

In retrospect, we had lots of fish,though there were not many big tile which I expected based on previous trips. 
Some suggested they usually catch big tiles when it is sunny. 
It was foggy all day.
Tangles are inevitable to fish deep, but most of fishermen were experienced and had patience. It is a big plus to fish with a good group of fishermen when you do deep drops like this trip.
Only one old fisherman used an electric reel though we fishedn 500 - 800 ft.

Among 22 fishermen, I saw 4 - 5 fishermen used JM PE reels even though
The reel is pretty new and it is not cheap.
I started to use PE6 filled with 600 yards of Jerry Brown 60 llb hollow and used PE7 later. Though PE6 was pretty good, it was much easier to crank with PE7 from the deep.

I used two rods on this trip.
7'9" custom Ct Croix Legend and 5' Black Hole Cape Cod Special jigging rod. 
The St Croix Legend rod is one of my favorite rods for grouper and
Cod jigging, but I am afraid to use it for tuna jigging because of so thin wall.
The bottom bouncing with short 5' 450g BH rod was surprisingly effective and easy. The only issue was when I tried to set the hook.
I had to set the hook with the rod and crank hard at the same time.

Deep drop fishing is demanding physically, but it is the trip I don't want to miss. 
I'd like to go back to deep drop trips on the Viking again, but tuna season start soon.

varieties of fish we catch on the trip.
In addition to fish in the picture, we caught cod, pollock and barrel fish.














































my jig setup









popular bait fish rig









decent size tilefish. There were a few tile in 20 - 30 lbs range, but most tile were small on this trip.


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## ksong

wreck fish. 
5' Black Hole 450g jigging rod/JP PE7 filled with #60 Jerry Brown hollow/21 oz Solvkroken Viking jig were used to land 24.5 lb wreckfish.


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## RedFly

Excellent Post!!! Glad you made the boat!


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## Roger

Great story & nice pic's. Still looks like it's kind a chilly up there. By the way, what kind of swivel is that on the chrome jig?


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## mad marlin

those Brotulas are some finesse eating fish Delsih ! Well done Kil


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## ksong

some more pictures.


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## hog

A nice fish ya caught there Kil.... thanks for the report...

U Dunn goouD


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