Page 7 - Martin Downs Bulletin - August '20

Martin Downs, Page 7
Treasure Coast Outdoors

Want Something Different? shellfish, sea urchins, sea cucumbers, squid, and an
Try Deep Drop Fishing For occasional fish.
Tom used an electric Daiwa Seaborg 1220MJ reel. The
Tilefish! line he used was a 60-pound braided line. Anything heavier
creates an issue with staying on the bottom due to the
By Jim Weix current. Attached to that was a hook size 7 or 8 circle deep
I was rather excited drop rig, a light, and a 6-pound weight. We used squid for
when Tom Flynn, of Palm bait and were careful not to cover the tip of the hook.
City, asked me to go fishing On the day that we fished the current was a ripping
with him. He had recently 5 mph. Although we could get the rig to the bottom, the
been deep dropping for current made it impossible to keep it there without letting
tilefish and had been quite out a lot of extra line. In this case a better weight would
successful. have been 12 pounds. Since we didn’t have one, we had
Tilefish are bottom to make do with what we had.
feeders and are found in The good news is, despite some setbacks, I caught my
water depths of 250 to 1,500 first tilefish! The size won’t set any records but it was big
feet. They prefer water enough to feed four of us. The bad news is that I was hooked
temperatures between 49 to 58 degrees. They are bottom and proceeded to buy my own equipment. Repair, at 2201 S.E. Indian St., in Stuart. Marty Romstadt
feeders with strong teeth, and feed on shrimp, crabs, To make sure I did it right, I went to Offshore Tackle and works there and I knew him from when he worked at Finest
Kind. Along with a long history in the Treasure Coast fishing
scene, Marty is also an expert on fishing for tilefish.
I bought the Daiwa Seaborg 1220MJ electric reel and
had 60-pound braided line put on. Based upon Marty’s
recommendation, I got an assortment of weights. I also got
an education on circle hooks.
Circle hooks can be roughly divided into two types, offset
and non-offset. The offset refers to the amount of deviation
in the plane of the hook point relative to that of the shank.
Offset means when you lay the hook down on a table, it won’t
lay completely flat. A true non-offset hook will lay perfectly
HarborChase flat on the table. Non-offset will normally hook your fish at
the jaw, while offset circle hooks are more likely to hook
your fish, but it can hook anywhere. A non-offset would be
desired if you are planning on releasing a fish.
Although the Daiwa Seaborg 1220MJ reel will cost about
Revel in Refinement $1,400, it is well worth it. Along with deep drop fishing for
anything from grouper to swordfish, it can also be used as a
downrigger. Don’t make the mistake that I once did. I bought
a cheap electric reel, with no manual crank or a way of setting
your reel for automatic control.
Editor’s note: Jim Weix is an avid hunter, angler,
conservationist, as well as an outdoor writer.
Jim is included in the Wisconsin Waterfowl Association’s
Hall of Fame, for his work in helping restore thousands of
acres of wetlands. Jim is a broker associate with The Keyes
Company. He can be reached at (772) 341-2941 or by email:
jimweix@jimweix.com.
The author caught his first tilefish and is hooked on
deep dropping.

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