I spend lots of time daydreaming about hard-fighting, exotic-looking fish from around the globe. Someday I will check them off my bucket list, but so long as my time is constrained by work and multiple travel “obligations,” it’s just not feasible yet to take a swing at many of the most remote options. That’s why I was thrilled to see that one of the coolest species I’ve discovered lately lives up and down the east coast and within the eastern Gulf of Mexico – the tilefish.

Not only are the two primary types of tilefish pursued by anglers – Golden and Blueline – visually striking, but they can be caught via slow pitch jigging, an added bonus. Furthermore, they apparently are exceptional on a plate. You just might need to work on those Popeye-style forearms. The deepest bass I ever caught was in 47 feet of water. I’ve landed barn door halibut from the bottom in a couple hundred feet. Tilefish, on the other hand can be found as deep as 1,500 feet beneath the surface, and quite often in more than 600.

I’ll continue to prepare physically, but I have a feeling that they’ll be a target quite soon. In the meantime, here’s some tilefish light reading and ephemera.