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.

“Whenever we have junior anglers, it’s fun to see how amped up they are,” said Brooks.

It helps that tilefish also taste good. If you ever needed some beer batter motivation, tilefish –both golden and blueline — are a good way to go.

“Oh, they’re delicious,” said Harn. “They’re a good white meat.”

But, just because you are bottom fishing does not mean you take a break from the bigger gamefish species. Teasers are set out to attract mahi mahi. Casting to those fish on light tackle is an adrenaline rush. One of those was taken the day we were fishing in July.

Smoke Show runs trolling and deep drop trips throughout the spring and summer. While it is primarily a warmer weather fishery, the trips book up early, so the time to reserve that charter is now.

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