Golden Tilefish Trip - October 23, 2012

On October 23, 2012, I was aboard the Atlantic Star (Cape May, NJ) on a Tilefish trip. The fishing was spectacular, with 37 Golden Tilefish caught by myself. Also, I had at least 6 double headers during this trip. By now, you're probably wondering what kind of tackle I used. A new Tilefish jigging system (see photos below) did all the damage. Many bait fishermen had untouched rigs when I was able to constantly land fish. Not one second was I waiting for fish. They were attacking the jigs all day, and I was easily hooking up.

The torpedo shaped jig head coupled with a glow skirt is the perfect treat for tilefish.

Nice Golden Tilefish

One of the many happy fishermen with double header Golden Tiles

Canyon Tuna and Tilefish Combo Trip - October 3-4, 2012

At approximately 4 AM, we arrived at the Baltimore Canyons searching for tuna. Fishermen immediately dropped jigs and live bait into the water hoping for the best. The start of the morning was slow, with no hook ups happening. One fishermen managed to hookup and land a swordfish early. Afterwards, a large school of bait passed underneath the boat, and we hooked up one small yellowfin and a big eye tuna. Both fish were landed. Overall, the tuna portion of the trip was slow but we had a total of 4 hookups and 3 landed fish, which is a nice win percentage. Most hook ups resulted in an excellent fight and the best possible outcome.

At around 8 AM, we concluded tuna fishing and began movement to tilefish grounds. We arrived there at 9:30 AM, hoping for better action than what we had during tuna fishing. The fishing ground is a well known tilefish spot, with past trips coming home with over 2 dozen fish per man. This day provided no current which in turn provided no drift and minimal fish bites. Bait fishing was mediocre at best. On the upside, Mike was able to test out a new jig (see photo below). He had a significant increase in hook ups and a higher amount of landed fish than that of bait fishing. In his own words, "The tilefish were biting the jig before it even touched bottom on more than one occasion". The jig shown below was able to lure tilefish even though the weather had adverse effects on fishing. The torpedo shaped jig head coupled with a glow monster skirt was the perfect treat for tilefish on this day. It seemed like the jig put them into a temporary frenzy for food!

The perfect meal for tilefish!