<< Back to Main Page for Key West Fishing Reports

 

September 2005 - Key West Fishing Report - Deep Drop Fishing

Deep Drop Fishing Tale

“This time of year, if you want to fill the box, you gotta think outside the box,” said Capt. Steve with a slight smile. He turned and went back to rigging a 400-pound leader for the trip to the bottom in 800 feet of water. Our baffled angler from Tampa, Florida just shook his head, cracked another Busch, and waited for what we had promised would be at the very least a learning experience…

Late in the summer, the Dolphin fishing usually gets spotty. The reef is too warm for big Grouper and Snapper and the wrecks generally produce Amberjacks and Shark. The best way to put “color” into the fish box is to fish deep. Yea, I know, every charter boat fishes deep water. But, not really. When you troll the top of a 1,500 foot ledge, you are really only fishing the top ten feet. I mean fish deep… right on the bottom. Have you ever wondered, as you trolled along the blue water of the Gulfstream looking for Dolphin, Wahoo, or a Billfish, what was on the bottom of the Ocean? Well, I did for years…

Deep drop fishing is an obsession for a few serious anglers. However, not many are willing to pony up the dough for a $3,000 electric reel. Many of us have made one or two (usually one) drop with a conventional reel to the bottom in several hundred feet of water just to see what happens and usually with no success. Monofilament line has too much stretch to feel a strike and creates too much “belly” in the line especially with a little current. Large lead weights are needed and only the largest 130 lb. tackle can handle them. Of course, reeling by hand may be more “sporting,” but is impossible when you consider the extreme depth. Many a mate has considered quitting after winding up a fishless 80 after one or two drops.

My interest in deep dropping started by way of the Internet. I was curious about these electric reels and the strange, bulging eyed fish they produced. I’d seen their pictures in the fishing magazines and a few on the cleaning table. I researched all the vendors and emailed many of them to find the right application for my boat and fishing conditions of the Florida Keys. There was only one resource left, eBay.

Anything and everything can be had on eBay. I daily searched, “electric reels” and was very surprised how many there were for sale. Now, thinking that bigger is always better, I kept my eye out for an electric 80 pound reel, 130-pound rod, and one that preferably uses a 32-volt motor. 32-volt? Yep, the Mr. Z is a Bertram and it has a 12-volt system, a 32-volt system, and 120-volt system. For dropping to the bottom in deep water you want as much ass as you can get for the wind up. But, not so much that it is dangerous. Think rough, salt water, and a 120-volt reel. Not a good idea. I finally bid on a Lindgren-Pitman modified Penn 80 wide reel. Capt. Steve had an old 130-pound rod that he customized to make even stiffer and we loaded the reel with 800 yards of 200 pound, “Spider Wire.” It’s a synthetic braid much like Dacron. Soft and supple, the diameter of 20 pound monofilament, and zero stretch. And no, it’s not made with real spiders. While I was securing the hardware, Capt. Steve worked on the terminal tackle. Researching everything from hooks, leaders, swivels, pounds instead of ounces of lead, colored strobe lights, cylume sticks, glow beads (it’s dark down there ya know) and what to use for bait. He spent hours online and a lot of phone calls to our peers picking brains.

Click For Larger Image Finally, we were ready for our first serious attempt to fish in deep water. Now, where? I picked a spot on the chart in about 820 feet of water that has a high rise on each side about the length of three football fields. This would give us a good drift across the top of the mountain if there was much current. And, frequently, there is a lot of current with the proximity of the Gulfstream. Our charter was an unsuspecting group of gentlemen from Tampa, Florida. Instead of bullshitting them with the, “we do this all the time,” story, we told them what we had in mind and did they have any objection to giving it a shot during their charter? It also helped that we mentioned the fact that this technique usually produces “vittles.” “No problem at all, Capt.” And we threw the lines and headed South…

Trolling the first half of the day we picked at a few small Dolphin, hooked and released a small “Wee-hoo,” and listened to the VHF radio confirming our luck was the norm for that morning. After the crew had lunch and the midday sun was high and hot, I finally made the suggestion to try a few “test” drops just to break up the day. Coincidentally, we were within a mile of the location I had picked on the chart that I thought would offer the best chance of Snowys, Tiles, and Rosefish.

Click For Larger Image“Fifteen minutes,” I shouted to Steve, and he knew to start assembling the equipment. The anglers’ eyes widened as Steve brought out the heavy tackle and pieced it together. Too heavy to set up in a standard, gunnel mounted rod holder, Steve set the electric 80 and 130 rod up in the Murray Bros. fighting chair. A 10 gauge yellow electric cord ran from the reel to the cabin bulkhead where we had installed a 50-amp plug wired to the boats’ main electric panel. Everything is a bit overkill, but the last thing you need when you have a 50 lb. fish on the bottom of an 800-foot ledge is a power failure. Yes, the reel is designed to be able to hand wind it up, but that should not be plan “B.”

“Standby,” I yelled to Steve as my depth sounder started its slow up hill climb from 1,000 feet. As we leveled off at 820 feet, there appeared a small fuzzy “bump” at the top of the hill. On any other trolling day, this would hardly be noticed and surely ignored as we cruised over it at 9 knots looking for pelagic fish. But, today was different. What was that curious bump not more than 20 feet high off the bottom? Today, I had the where-with-all to find out! “OK, drop it here!” I said. An eight-pound lead sash weight, 5 circle hooks with barracuda/squid strips, various glow beads, a flashing diamond strobe, and a neon green glow stick began their rapid decent into the blue. What a ride. What would a passing fish think of this rig? Frightening.

More on The Deep Drop ...

Fishing Report Archives:

• Deep Drop Fishing
• January 2005
• Spring 2005
• March 2006

---

Remember! If it swims, we can catch it!

Mr. Z Charters 
C/O A and B Marina
700 Front St.
Key West, FL 33040

(305) 296-0910

---

---

All content on this website is protected:
Copyright© 2002 - 2006 by Key West Fish Tales