Well I have played a couple of times with my new toy that I got from the Boss, a Tanacom 1000 electric reel. My wife loves Sablefish and I caught a few last year with a buddy and his electric reels off of the West Coast of Vancouver island so I thought I would try it here on the East Coast. I did some research and determined I might be able to find some closer to home, so I got the reel from Alan, spooled it up and went to try. My first drop at 750 feet resulted in a decent Sablefish (4 lb), next drop dogfish, next drop blank, next drop at 1000 feet resulted in a smallish Sablefish. Boat battery issues drove me in.
Next day,new battery, went out and caught a spring and a couple coho and then went to experiment at some more spots, deep dropping. I found a real good spot for dogfish at 600 feet ; got the hell out of there. We had small tides so I went for the 1300 foot spot I had scoped out. It takes 4 to 5 mins to let out over 1200 feet of line !! First drop I get a Red Banded rockfish (very tasty), next drop a little deeper, 5 min to hit bottom, get a bite, 7 mins to retrieve line, a nice 8 lb Sablefish !.
Next drop I had a bite and started to retrieve and bang the line snaps and I lost 250 meters of line ......................... stupid ceramic insert on the guide had a nick !!. That finished the deep drop that day. Guide replaced, reel spooled. More adventures to come .......
Cheers:
Todd
Ceramic insert nick - ouch, hope you get it fixed
So you batts were running low?
I planning on using my tanacom 1000 for inline divers to get to salmon at 100 ft, don't have power figured out it.
I have the reel plugged into my downrigger power plug. The battery issue was with the boat: I killed my battery by leaving a switch on, I recharged it but it was pooched and would not hold a charge anymore. I replaced with a new battery and everything functions great. Plugging the reel into the rigger plug is the way to go.
Guide fixed.
Todd
Sable fish are tasty!! Mmm, like butter
The Tanacom 1000 is what I used in Sitka for commercial ling fishing at 450-500'. I was embarrassed at first to not be winding them in myself, but after fish #30 I was doggone glad for the "winch". It's tough enough all day long jigging, setting the hook, and then safely getting the rod out into the rod holder with the weight of the rod, reel, jig, and a 45" ling pulling for the bottom!
Sablefish are thought by many to be quite the delicacy. Glad you could get out and figure out how to catch 'em for your wife.
Todd, on the Tanacom did you ever have your tackle at the surface, reach to take the reel out of gear to make a drop, but accidently hit the power lever? Not recommended! :'(
Thanks for the pictures, and tasty too.
Toddy, how much weight were you using? Just wondering. Glad you got the batteries going on the boat.🎣
They were small tides with not much flow; 4 foot tide swing. 1.5 lbs worked for the shallower drops and I used 2 lbs for the deep drops. I would not want to attempt drops over 1000 feet on anything but the smallest tides. On a side note I was using salmon skin/ trims salted for bait on two single 9/0 J hooks tied on 100 lb test. Dogfish crew through 60 lb way too easy. Kind of fun to try something different
Cheers:
Todd
Thanks for the reply, sounds like fun anyway I look at it. Oh by the way save us some salmon..🚣♀️🤓
I gave it a try again today. started at 1000 feet and found where the dogfish live; three drops three dogs. Moved into 700 feet and 4 drops 4 Sablefish (1 gooder, 1 decent and 2 smaller but still OK). Turns out dogfish fight and bite differently so I'm starting to be able to put things together to figure who is who before they get too the boat. One pull I had a dog on one hook and a sablefish on the other.
Cheers:
Todd
We have sable fish here but illegal to fish that deep. They call it black cod in the fish market, I guess it sells better called that. Kind of like kiwi instead of Chinese goose berry.
Picked up 4 blk cod this morning. Had to get back in to get to work so no pics. Nothing big but good eaters. &50 feet was the ticket today.
Cheers:
Todd
Thanks tardy 👦, boy. Good luck 🍀 next time. Now go to work.🚶♀️
Good fishing, 850ft wow,
Yum...Sablefish is my most favorite cooked fish every. I could eat at least 5 days a week.
Spent a couple hours deep dropping at 700 to 850 feet the other day for only one smallish sablefish and several dogfish; I'm trying new spots as I don't want to only have one spot; its nice to have a trap line. Gave up on the deep drop and did the opposite , baby avet and light trevalla rod, 3 oz jig in 60 feet and got huge blk bass, lingcod, quillbacks, yellowtail and widows one after the other ............................. go with what works and cover your bases.............. I like it better when plan A works though .................. ???
Cheers:
Todd
Good interesting post Todd, what are you using for weights, some over here use house bricks, with very light line around them, when they get to the bottom, they give it a quick jerk, & the light line snaps of, others use 1 1/2 inch or two inch steel pipe, cut it to length on a 45 degree angle, then the next cut square, & so on, drill a hole through the top of the pipe to ty the leeder to, others do the same with PVC pipe, & use cement, cheaper than buying lead, just wondering, cheers Don.
Todd, love to see your reports when you're getting out. Kinda shocked that the last report didn't have your usual "oh and by the way picked up a couple of salmon on the way back to the dock" :D - john
John: I guess fishing cant always be good ??
Donny: I'm using some round leads and some I poured in large copper pipe. I'm usually fishing 1.5 or 2.0 pounds. We have a max weight of 1 kg allowed here. Where I'm fishing the bottom is mud and or at least soft gravel , that is the habitat where Blk cod live, so hangups are not much of an issue.
Cheers:
Todd
I always thought 1,000 grams is the heaviest allowed in BC for bottom fishing. How many ounces is a kg ??
Ted: 1000 gr is 1.0 kg which equals 2.205 lbs or 35.27 oz................ I made some leads just over 2 lbs. Not sure if any officer would weigh your lead but better safe than sorry !!
Cheers:
Todd
QuoteWhere I'm fishing the bottom is mud and or at least soft gravel
Is that how you avoid Yelloweye?
They were just short of a plague both trips up there.
Not one yelloweye yet. Actually only the one rockfish (red banded). The spots I'm finding the blk. cod are flat. Must be a combo of the substrate and the depth. I really liked 240 to 300 feet when we could keep yelloweye.
Cheers:
Todd
This year we are restricted to no retention of yellow eye, any angler fishing now for halibut or rockfish must have a bottomfish release devise and release the non retained fish back to minimum 100 feet to keep them from dying from the inflated air bladder.
Blackcod might be my only Britespot on the horizon. we have no restrictions yet with the weight , nobody really target them here, and I know nothing much about where they are except in feb and march there is a longline fishery in the area. Thanks and good luck.
Took a buddy and his son out as he wanted to see deep drop blk. cod. Had some nice fish at 350 meters. Nice thing was only one dogfish for 10 blk. cod bites. Maybe the time of year. The grade of fish seemed a bit bigger also..... still learning this game so time will tell. Beautiful flat calm day.
Cheers:
Todd
Nice haul! There are a couple there that are almost as tall as the boy! - john
Nice picture there Todd, did the young fella, go out with you, good memories, cheers Don.
Don: Yes he came along. He is my buddies son and he likes going on the boat.; jigging rock fish is his favorite but he enjoyed watching the rod tip for the deep drop bites and he "helped" hold the rod on the retrieve and he helped load and carry the fish. Fun day.
Cheers:
Todd
Looks like you are getting deep drop dialed in! Good fishing, those are lunkers.
Curious what a fillet of the cod looks like.
Small tides (4 foot change) on Sunday and a weather opportunity to get out for a deep drop. went to my spot and had some success. I got four nice ones and let one go in a couple of hours. The best part was no dogfish. You can see on the reel I was fishing 350 meters or so. The timer says 5 mins, I took the pic shorty after contact so it takes 4 mins in free spool to get to the bottom. Light smoke and grilled on the grill.
Cheers:
Todd
rest of the pics.
Todd
That is making me hungry looking at it!!!!! So help me with my metric system conversion. 350 meters = 4 minute drop. What does that equate to in Beers? - john
Yum!
I really need to take a ferry ride some day when everything is open.
The Man
John that's a 1.5 beer drop ....................... but since it was morning it was a 0.5 cup of coffee.
Shibs: the meat is snow white. Just google sablefish recipes or its also called Black cod or Alaska Black cod.
Used a 10/0 circle hook this time and no drop offs, you just have to let them bite and mess around with it.
Cheers:
Todd
Ay Todd, thanks for your reply about the weights, cheers Don.
Well I'm still learning about the local sablefish fishery. Went out yesterday in calm conditions to give it a go. It was good at this spot last year at this time but yesterday not a one to be found gave it a rub for a few hours: tried shallow (800), tried deep (1150) and tried in between. My wife said that black cod are the best to eat but the most boring to fish for. At least a big Red Banded rockfish showed up for a fish and chip dinner. having the other side pan seared tonight. They have a beautiful moist firm meat. Well maybe next time.
Cheers:
Todd
Money shot.
hey amigo Todd,
its known that we have LinCod on the pacific ocea side of the Baja but not many know that we also have a fish from the Cod family on the Deeps of the sea of cortez, the fish its not targeted for sport fishing because it lives from 600ft and more but from time to time some guys drop line to those deeps on some zones to see what bite (mostly targeting pink grouper/ Baqueta fish) and its when this pacific Hake or pacific whiting can bite
they are a targeted fish for commercial fishing, the meat is snow white once cooked and pretty mild flavor, I normally get some from the commercial fishing boats from deckhands that work there for the season.
Hake is delicious, didn't know they were that fa South.
One of these days we need to do a SOC trip.
The Man
Yes, hakes makes baits.🦀. My bad? >:(
Quote from: gstours on October 10, 2021, 02:05:30 AM
Yes, hakes makes baits.🦀. My bad? >:(
;D ;D ;D Dominick