VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WFXR) — The rod bowed and now it was time to go to work and reel in more than 200 feet of line. It took minutes of fighting the fish and heavy sinkers to bring everything to the surface. Once on top, what was thought to be a single fish turned out to be three. All were hefty blueline tilefish.
Triples, doubles, singles — the scene was repeated over and over on this July day 65 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach, Virginia aboard the Smoke Show.
“We’re deep dropping for tilefish,” said Smoke Show Sportfishing first mate Lia Harn. “We’ll drop squid all the way to the bottom and wait for a little bite.”
Smoke Show Sportfishing runs trips to troll for tuna, mahi, and billfish. Sometimes, especially when there are children on board and the kids want to do more catching than trolling, Captain Jay Brooks will take a break to do some deep dropping. He says catching fish gets next generation of anglers hooked on the sport…