Hunting Goldens

[Fish Dad]

What are we looking for when hunting places where the golden tiles live. I know they like the softer clay bottoms to burrow holes to live in but finding those areas and what they look like on your bottom machine eludes me. I fish around the Norfolk Canyon off Virginia and have tried areas around lobster pots. Even tried the walls of seamounts where black bellied rose fish live on top of the seamount. Not looking for anyones secret spot just looking for advice how to find the spots they might live. I've caught plenty of what we call blueline tiles at 50 fathoms but I think the goldens are a far superior eating fish.

Thanks for any advice.

[miamiangler1]

you might have to try deeper in 600-700ft of water ... you want mud bottom ... and baits on the sea floor ... squid , or clams up in your area ..

[Fish Dad]

Roger that thanks. Didn't mean to imply I was looking for goldens at 50 fa. Around the canyon been dropping anywhere from 70 to 150 fathoms, yes baits on the bottom. I guess I'll find them eventually if I drop often enough just looking to narrow my search pattern a bit.

[Fish Dad]

Saw a decent weather window Friday and Saturday (17-18 Apr 08) so decided to spend the night on the boat again. We head out after work on Friday to slick calm seas. Arrived at the Norfolk Canyon and found water to 61 degrees but it was ugly in color and not much life. But we put the trolling spread out anyways just in case. Not a bump on the troll, trolling past sunset to take advantage of the near full moon. Here is our obligatory sunset pick over the Norfolk Canyon.



Drifted all night for swords and think we had at least 2 sword runs but they came unbuttoned. Had several runs of big blue sharks during the night but had no interest in those. Had bluefish shred our baits during the night so had nothing to show for all night fishing. Winds were nice and calm but picked up a bit after midnight but still manageable.

At sunrise after our coffee, we dropped on the Osterfriesland but only managed bluefish and hideous conger eels. Well OK, lets go try something very different and deep. Find a nice spot in 850 feet of water and start bailing Black Bellied Rose Fish. These little fish are very tasty, better than BSB (my opinion) but have to work a heck of a lot harder for them. So we work this area and catch a whole bunch of these Rose fish. Here is a typical stringer (got to use a bunch of hooks to make it worth the drop).



Then in the same area, we start picking up the best eating deep drop fish, Golden Tiles. They have the taste and texture of lobster meat, no kidding. Lupe gets a 14 lb Golden Tile.



Mike K get a very nice, very fat, 30 lb Golden Tile. (it had a belly full of baby crabs)



I get a 14 lb Golden Tile. These fish are so beautiful.



Had so many different fish come up today, I'm not sure I remember them all but caught bluefish, big blue sharks, hake, conger eel, blue line tiles, golden tiles, BSB, black bellied rose fish, and even what I think was a Red Vermillion Snapper. Beautiful weather and even made it home before the winds kicked up too bad.

Until next time.

[miamiangler1]

Glad to see you finally found your golden spot ! some nice sized fish there ...

[Fish Dad]

We caught them on a hard bottom which surprised me. But there is soft bottom nearby and I know they live in holes they create in the mud or clay. So I'm guessing they come out to feed in the nearby hard bottom. I had always thought that they mostly stayed in their holes and came out when something came by there hole thinking they would pop out, snatch the food, then quickly go back in his hole. Brings up questions like how often do they come out of their homes to feed and under what conditions. We tried working the soft bottom nearby but no hits until we got the hard bottom. Certainly not like blueline (I think many call them greys) tile fishing for sure, requires much more effort and patience (and cranking).

[Catch-All]

Fish Dad - way to go! You planned your fishing and then fished your plan...and it paid off bigtime.

I hoped you hit your gps "SAVE" button like a labrat hittin the food pellet bar.


Catch

[sfcallen]

Nice catching Mike!!

[Gaitor]

Nice Report Mike! Grats!

[Disco Lady]

Gaitor, glad to see your doing well.

[Fish Dad]

Found more on Saturday.

[billspilingup]

Nicely done!

[Gaitor]

Thanks DL. And Mike ..... them feesh taste so good .... makes yer tongue slap yer brains out! thanks for the pics.

[BanannaMan]

Very nicely done bro... great fish for sure. Interesting you get rosies way up there too.

[CAPTAIN RON]

wow! nice catch and pictures. hope we can hit the norfolk canyon-its a little south of the areas we fish - about 65-70 miles . would like to get some groupers as they are scarce up here.