panhandle deep dropping

[doublecorona]

I'm new to deep dropping, but already am having a ton of fun doing it. Caught my first yellowedge grouper last week: DELICIOUS!! I fish out of Panama City FL, was wondering if anyone else deep drops around here. Found the spot where this one "used to live" at 400 ft and by sheer luck while trolling and watching the bottom machine. Anybody else gettin' em?[img][/img]

[Boboe]

When you're out trolling for wahoos and see a hump that's got bait on it (and you usually also get an associated hoo bite), mark it to make a drop later. The problem you'll have off of PCB is that the Middle Grounds are generally too shallow to be considered "deep dropping." The fishing there's great, but not "deep." Also watch out for the CLOSED FISHING AREAS, such as Madison's and Swanson's. When we fished deep out of Destin it was either straight southin the "warsaw grounds", or way out to the southwest off Alabama and Mississippi, 100+ miles from Destin.

[doublecorona]

Thanks for the reply. The bottom machine on my boat is NEVER OFF and the mark button on the gps gets used quite a bit. Heard rumor from a commercial guy that there's tilefish in the 600-1000 ft areas (areas we troll for billfish a lot); hopefully will be posting pics of some in the near future. Gotta keep lookin'!
Good luck & tight lines

[Boboe]

There are golden tiles out there. Long liners have done a number on them though. I've watched them unload an entire commercial boat slam full of golden tiles at the dock. No idea how long it took them to catch them all. With the length of run to the areas you'd find tiles, I don't think it's worth the effort to target them, especially with how amazing the billfishing has been this year off of Destin.

And be careful if you do decide to make that drop in 800'. You might get a hold of something larger than you want. Those warsaws are mean

[Boboe]

I don't know of anybody who's ever dropped at "The Spur" (50 miles straight south of Destin. Hell of a spot for billfish of any type, whether the bill is flat or round). It sits in about 1200'. There's got to be something down there on the bottom though, with all of those contours. If you man-up and try it, tell how it goes!

[doublecorona]

It's been tempting to drop the rig down on the bottom at the Spur while drifting, waiting & soaking big squids for Mr. Sword. Been a good year for them, by the way. Havn't done it, though; I can only imagine how ugly it would be to foul a big sword around the deep drop (130 lb spectra) rig. Ouch.
We'll find 'em, just a matter of time. The spur and the canyon wall(s) probably not a bad start. Got the big Kristal reel, so we should be able to handle anything that's dumb enough to bite the hook.
Got a trip planned early next week, weather permitting; we'll see.

[cogzwell]

doublecorona, any luck last week? I tried for some tiles on saturday off of boca and came home empty.

[Boboe]

I know of some guys who deep dropped the Petronas rig which is in either 1200 or 1800' of water...can't remember which. They said they caught some frighteningly-large conger eels and some yellow edge. When things are "right" at that rig, there are yellowfin on it, so you'd pretty much be nuts to deep drop it. Stay on the surface and have more fun. When they aren't right, I guess you could go try to tangle with Mr Nasty, the 12' conger eel that's coiled up around the rig leg

[BOTTOM FEEDER]

we dropped @ the spur a couple of weeks ago, and only pulled up 2 gulf hake. diddnt do it for too long though bacause of storms. caught some tilefish in the 800ft range. Anyone know where the "warsaw grounds" they are talking about are?

[Boboe]

"The Warsaw Grounds" were named that in the 80's, when the Destin charter fleet learned how to catch warsaws in the certain area and abused the hell out of them. They were overfished terribly. There are still a few warsaws out there, but not in the numbers like they were.

The "Warsaw Grounds" are about 30-35 nm SSE of Destin in 300-450' of water. You'll find large humps out there which usually have snapper and grouper on them. They used to hold a lot of warsaws. Now they're only there occasionally, or on the wrecks in the area. This is usually where the annual Destin Fishing Rodeo winning warsaw is pulled from every year. I've never seen the winner weigh in at under 300# whole.

Speaking of the Rodeo, it starts in 11 days.

[BOTTOM FEEDER]

thnx 4 the repply boboe. your reply sounds like the red snapper fishery of the current year. the destin fleet has fished the area out. 200ft and less is like a desert. not much there but lil ones. just gettin into this deep dropping thing and it seems like there are not as many people out there in 800ft. we are going to try the "warsaw grounds" depth in a couple of weeks. Are there "silk snapper" and "queen snapper" in this area or are they farther south??????????? We caught some wenchman snapper a couple months ago and they were some fine eating. just trying to get as much info as i can. thnx for the help.

[Boboe]

The Destin fleet fishes out everything within 25 miles of Destin Pass every year. I was a part of the fleet for the past 8 years. I only recently changed careers. That said, don't think that there are "no snappers" in <200 feet. You've just got to build your own wrecks and fish them responsibly. You'll have fish all year round. We did. Lots of boats didn't. It takes a good bit of time and money to do, and many guys aren't willing to make the investment.

The Warsaw Grounds get hammered pretty hard too, and they don't have a lot of fish spread all over them. The fish will be on certain humps on certain days, and if the current's ripping you can't fish it. Also, a lot of the Warsaw Grounds are generally shallow enough to fish with non-electric gear...<400'. I never fished it with clients at over about 330'. They can't see or feel their bites and don't enjoy reeling up the entire spool of line when they miss a bite. We could make a better day somewhere else.

In my above post I wrote that it was SSE of Destin. That's not so. It's more like straight south, or just slightly west of south. If you're looking for true "deep drop" fish, this may be a bit shallow still.

I asked my friend who won the shark tourney the other day if he knew of anybody dropping on the Spur, and if it was loaded with queens etc. He said it's too deep for queens and that he never heard of anybody bringing much home from out there. I wouldn't think it would be worth your time on a good billfish year like this year, but if it were 2004 again, then it'd be worth giving it a shot. Maybe hardly anybody has tried it.