Deepwater bottomfish are pure ‘gold’ off Outer Banks
Golden tilefish are canyon fish. North of the Virginia state line, boats from Lynnhaven Inlet go to the slopes of the Norfolk Canyon or farther north to Baltimore Canyon. The nearest canyon for North Carolina fishermen is Hatteras Canyon, south of Hatteras Inlet.
Canyon trips take 18 to 24 hours to reach the 100-fathom curve and deeper. Being able to fish that deep depends on the bottom currents that day. Commercial boats from Wanchese regularly fish Norfolk Canyon, a two-day round trip. Even from Virginia ports, Norfolk Canyon trips require 18 hours to get in fishing time. Hatteras Canyon has the strongest currents on the east coast, so not all attempts manage to bottom fish, deep-dropping or otherwise. The targets of deep-drop bottom fishing are golden tilefish, groupers, wreckfish, blackbelly rosefish, barrelfish, and hake (ling cod).
Capt. Jim Brincefield (252-336-4296), who previously piloted a headboat out of Lynnhaven Inlet to Norfolk Canyon for a weekly 18-hour trip — weather and currents permitting — knows more about golden tilefishing than almost anyone in our area.
His deep-drop trips fished in 150 fathoms (900 feet) of water, which isn’t for everyone. Boats out of Ocean City, Md., fish at 750 feet in the Baltimore Canyon. Golden tilefish range north to Canada wherever the Gulf Stream baths the edge of the Continental Shelf at 100 or more fathoms.
Some charter boats supply electric reels for deep-drop specialty trips, but, according to Brincefield, “Most deep-drop fishermen have their own electrics, usually the blue Daiwa Tanacom Bull 1000, loaded with 1,100 yards of 60-pound braided line, a power cord, and clips for a 12-volt battery,” Brincefield said.
The line ties to a 200-pound monofilament leader with one 18/0 circle hook and 2 to 3 pounds of lead.
Brincefield prefers a whole butterfish, Boston mackerel or menhaden for bait, but other skippers might use 24-ounce jigs of various colors.
“We’d rig a single hook for golden tilefish in deep water and two hooks for blueline tilefish in shallower water,” he said, explaining that blueline tilefish are a fall-back when deep-water currents overwhelm weights. Blueline tilefish are in only 200 to 400 feet of water.
Golden tilefish construct burrows in mud accumulated on ledges that interrupt the slopes of the canyon. They poke their heads out to ambush passing shellfish.
“Until you get on a flat ledge and off the slope, you use trial-and-error, feeling for the suction and pop as the sinker comes out of the mud bottom. Golden tilefish occur where they can burrow in mud,” Brincefield said. “On the mud-free slopes, you’ll pick up more grouper and seldom a golden tilefish, and in water over 600 feet deep we’ll sometimes get wreckfish. Deeper than 700 to 900 feet, we’ll pick up barrelfish.”
One of the biggest headaches for deep-dropping boats, even at these depths, are dogfish sharks. Some days, Brincefield said, you can’t catch anything else.
Brincefield estimates that golden tilefish averaged 25 to 40 pounds, with 50-pound fish not uncommon. The Virginia record is 56 ½ pounds and the world record is 62 pounds, but they get bigger.
“Commercial guys regularly bring in 70-pound fish,” he said.
Aaron Sledd caught the Virginia state record on Capt. Steve Wray’s Ocean Pearl charter boat out of Lynnhaven — on Wray’s first trip for golden tilefish.
Wray (757-237-7517) provides stand-up Penn Senator 6/0 reels loaded with 150-pound Power Pro braid. It’s stand-up because electromates disqualify a fish from a sportfishing record.
He fishes mud ledges on the Norfolk Canyon at 400 to 600 feet. The 2-pound sash weights always feel like they’re sliding down into mud.
“I’ve been catching golden tilefish for more than 40 years on the same mud ledges, and the fish are still in the same places,” said Wray, who uses 12/0 Mustad tuna hooks and 14/0 Lazer Sharp circle hooks.
He fishes with a single hook to avoid violating the one-fish limit on wreckfish.
Both Wray and Brincefield said the deepest waters and strongest currents often preclude holding bottom. In that case, they come back to shallower water to back-up blueline tilefish, always available and accessible.
Wray and Brincefield have had difficulties keeping hotspot locations to themselves. Once people know where you’re catching golden tilefish, you can kiss that spot goodbye, as amateurs will stand on it and fish it out.
“People come out to steal your numbers. The day of the Virginia record,” Wray said, “the air was smoky from big forest fires in the Albemarle, and nobody could see what anyone else was catching.”
So that location remains his secret.
Brincefield and Wray aren’t the only skippers trying to keep honey holes from becoming public knowledge. Brincefield said Capt. Spurgeon Stowe (252-986-2365) and Capt. Patrick Caton (252-216-8430) of Hatteras fish for golden tilefish at Hatteras Canyon.
