Got out on a friend's boat near Pompano Beach on Saturday and did some deep dropping. Ally and I were hoping to get our first golden tilefish, and we knew we'd have to wade through a bunch of the very abundant blackbelly rosefish to find them. They taste similar to scorpionfish.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51879467148_e70a5ee77c_c.jpg)
We didn't find any golden tiles, but I picked up a new shark species from 790 ft down, a Cuban dogfish.
https://biogeodb.stri.si.edu/caribbean/en/thefishes/species/2711
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51878424242_bd5d2a494e_c.jpg)
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51878424207_28568ffbf2_c.jpg)
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51879467063_892d60e5ea_c.jpg)
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51878424172_ea2f2069bb_c.jpg)
We came in shallower to 400 ft to try for other species. Nothing new there, but I got a nice photo upgrade for blackline tilefish. These guys are very tasty, similar to ocean whitefish, but I think better.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51878423962_3c8c120df1_c.jpg)
Species fishing can get pretty weird. We found a small abandoned dinghy about 10 miles out that had some tiny fish in it.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51879392641_bb57ce150e_c.jpg)
We couldn't get them to bite on our micro gear, so eventually I netted them with the bait net to see what they were. There was a juvenile grey triggerfish and about a dozen freckled driftfish. I added the driftfish to my list of species to try for next time. :)
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51879466963_b6ccac6c8f_c.jpg)
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51879466948_59006ff12d_c.jpg)
We also saw some man-o-war fish, which live under the tentacles of Portuguese man-o-wars, and a really crazy looking juvenile flying fish that was camouflaged under a piece of drifting sargassum seaweed. We might have to dedicate a full day to looking for pelagic micros on a good calm day. ;D
Will you ship the dingy?
Sweet fish Ben! I love that little trigger and you said they were floating in the boat?
Hopefully you took the dingy home, as that's a good score as it looks like it's really good shape.
Would have been something else to get a new species out of that dinghy. Cool stuff.
: Latimeria February 15, 2022, 02:17:14 p
Hopefully you took the dingy home, as that's a good score as it looks like it's really good shape.
: skrilla February 15, 2022, 12:30:24 p
Will you ship the dingy?
We left it out there. :-[
As always, great pictures Ben...............