What is Deep Sea Fishing?

Inshore fishing is fishing within 9 miles (14.5 km) from the shore. Deep sea or offshore fishing everything beyond that 9-mile radius from the shote. At this distance from the land, the water can be anywhere from thirty to hundreds of meters deep.

Why You Should Try Deep Sea Fishing

Deep sea fishing is a incredible and unique experience from inshore fishing. You should definitely give deep sea fishing a shot if you want to:

Learn from the Best Hunters in the Ocean

Deep sea hunters are socially intelligent animals. Even sharks, which rarely seek one another’s company, will swarm in the hundreds to feast on a school of anchovies.

Hunters may have bloodhounds to lead them to their prey, but deep sea anglers have every apex predator in the sea and the sky as their guides.

The next time you go deep sea fishing and feel intimidated by the size of the ocean, pay attention to where the dolphin pods and seagull flocks are moving. These predators have hunted in the oceans for millions of years, and, if you watch them closely, they will lead you right to where the fish are schooling.

Enjoy Greater Freedom and Mobility

Inshore anglers must constantly deal with competition from other anglers. Instead of shuffling around the pier, knocking elbows with tourists and the dozens of other anglers at 7 a.m., you can go fishing anytime you want, anywhere you want.

Catch Bigger and a Greater Variety of Fish

Look at photos of anglers with trophy-sized catches. Unless they are fishing in a river or a lake, chances are, they’re standing on a boat, not on a beach or a pier.

There are two reasons for this: sound and space. Piers are loud and crowded, and fish don’t like vibrations or noise.

While the shoreline is a welcome shelter for tiny sculpins and hermit crabs, larger sea creatures like mahi-mahi, bluefin tuna, and swordfish didn’t grow large by scuttling around a pier. They grew large by feasting on large schools of open ocean fish, and by avoiding getting too close to inshore anglers. By only fishing inshore, you miss the opportunity to catch a bigger and a greater variety of fish.

In order to catch larger fish, you have to hunt where they eat. The Peruvian anchoveta is the second most-caught wild fish species in the world by commercial fishers. Anchovies swarm in the thousands in the open ocean. They need a large expanse of open ocean to maneuver away from predators. Large predatory fish will follow and hunt for anchovies in the open ocean.

Take Mahi-mahi, for example. Mahi-mahi specialize in hunting and catching flying fish. And where do flying fish fly? In the open ocean, away from the shore, where they have lots of room to swim and leap.

Another advantage that you have as an angler in the open ocean is the lack of familiarity open ocean fish have with anglers. Bass fishermen are well aware of this fact. They know that bass in a lake that doesn't have many human visitors will more readily bite than a lake that is popular among anglers.

You have a much better chance of reeling in a unique species that you've never caught before and catching a larger fish in the open ocean than shuffling along the shoreline.

Expanding Your Community

As you explore the world of deep sea fishing, you will get the opportunity to meet kayakers, windsurfers, sailors, scuba divers, marine biologists, and hobbyist and commercial fishermen.

All of these groups of people explore the ocean for different reasons, but all of them can provide you with valuable advice on the technical aspects of fishing and tell you where the best places to catch fish are. Who knows? You may even pick up a new skill or fishing buddy.