Outdoors Column | Fishing deep, and slow, pays off big for Gulf of Mexico angler
When Ethan Olah dropped an artificial bait nearly 300 feet below during his first fishing trip of 2021, he didn’t need to worry about it falling off and cranking up an empty hook. Olah is part of a fishing trend that’s catching on in the Gulf of Mexico, slow pitch jigging.
“I used to not slow pitch jig at all and only recently started doing it,” Olah said of the practice of dropping heavy metal jigs up to 300 grams when fishing deep. “Now I primarily slow pitch on most of our trips. My favorite rod is a Temple Reef Levitate 68-2 paired with an Accurate Valiant 500 single speed and 50-pound braid.”
The rod weighs in at a mere 5.5 ounces with the reel also coming in under a pound, making the combo light weight. By jigging the sardine shaped lure up and down in the water column it imitates a wounded bait fish. The method started popular with amberjack anglers but has recently been put to use more for bottom species as well.
“Since the rod is so light I actually don’t get as fatigued as I used to using heavier spinning equipment paired with stout bottom fishing rods. It’s nice the rod is so light.”
Fishing deep Olah never knows what he will hook up to, catching varieties of snapper, grouper, porgies and more. He fished near the bottom, lifting his rod up and letting the 300 gram drop back down repeatedly. His line came tight and a large fish put his rod tip over the gunnel and into the water pulling drag quickly off the reel.
“At first I thought I had a goliath (grouper). Then it started to do hard runs and made me think it was a big amberjack after we had just caught of a bunch off the same spot. I think I fought the fish for about eight to 10 minutes but it sure felt longer than that playing tug of war with a beast in that depth!” recalled Olah.
As he slowly worked the fish to the surface he still wasn’t sure what it was even when it was within sight.
“Tim Dillingham, Dominick Biagetti and I looked at each other and thought it was a warsaw grouper. It was overcast, the fish looked super dark and it was very rough out so it was hard to tell. Once I got a few cranks towards the boat we all realized what it was and stared in awe while freaking out at the same time!”
The fish they saw was a large carbo, or black, grouper nearly as big as Olah himself!
After returning landside the crew put the big grouper on a certified scale in front of a team of FWC biologists where it weighed a whopping 93.6-pounds. Olah submitted it to the IGFA for a potential world record.
“I still can’t believe I was able to boat this thing on slow pitch gear, feeling blessed!” He said.