Captain Brandon Simmons | Deep Drop Fishing Like a Pro | Tom Rowland Podcast Ep. 338

Captain Brandon Simmons is a charter fishing captain based at Hawks Cay Resort in the Florida Keys, where he runs the boat Into The Blue and specializes in deep drop fishing for prized species like snowy grouper, tilefish, queen snapper, and barrelfish. In this How 2 Tuesday episode, Brandon reveals the exact rig setup he uses for multi-species deep dropping, explains how to read bottom composition through your rod tip instead of your electronics, and shares why scrolling back through your sounder's history could unlock spots you've been running over for years. He also breaks down the bizarre defense mechanism of barrel fish and why these slimy creatures might be the best eating fish in the ocean.

Finding Bottom Structure Without Marking Fish

Brandon's approach to finding deep drop spots centers on reading subtle bottom changes that most anglers cruise right over. He looks for humps where the depth might go from 850 feet on the outside to 750 feet on top—nearly 100 feet of vertical relief that holds snowy groupers, tilefish, and queen snappers. But he also reveals something surprising: some of his best spots show barely 10-15 feet of relief and are almost invisible on the screen. These smaller ledges often produce because they're not getting hammered by every boat that runs the same obvious marks. Brandon suggests that fish might actually move off heavily pressured spots when they're "getting hit in the head with a six pound lead over and over again for a week straight." His full strategy for finding and fishing both obvious and subtle bottom structure starts at 2:24.

Reading Mud vs. Rock Bottom Through Your Rod Tip

Here's where Brandon drops knowledge most anglers don't have: you can't reliably tell mud from rock on your electronics, but you can absolutely feel the difference through your rod. When your lead hits rock bottom, it pounds—you'll feel it bang and your rod tip will shake. When you're over mud, the lead "almost sucks down in the mud, and when it pops back up, it'll pop up real quick." It's a softer, different bounce. This matters because different species prefer different bottom types. Golden tilefish live exclusively in mud bottoms where they dig holes, while blue line tilefish prefer rocks. Snowy groupers want hard, rocky structure. Brandon says if you bring your lead back and it's "mushroomed out on the bottom," you know you've been pounding rocks all day. The full breakdown of how to read bottom composition and match it to target species starts at 3:32.

The Barrel Fish Slime Mystery

Both Tom and Brandon agree that barrel fish might be the best eating fish in the deep—thick, white filets that rival grouper. But there's something deeply weird about them: they produce an absolutely staggering amount of slime when you bring them up. Brandon describes it as "Ghostbusters slime" covering the entire fish, and says he's had clients hug these fish only to have "four foot of just drooping slime" hanging off both the fish and the angler. Tom compares it to a skunk's defense mechanism—you pull the fish out of the water and it just starts manufacturing gallons of the stuff, seeping out from under its scales. Neither of them fully understands why barrel fish produce this much slime, though they suspect it's some kind of defense mechanism. What they do know: don't hug a barrel fish unless you want a long-lasting reminder. The full barrel fish slime discussion and why these fish are worth the mess starts at 11:11.

The Game-Changing Electronics Feature Most Anglers Don't Use

Brandon reveals how he's found most of his deep drop spots in the last four years: scrolling back through his machine's history. Modern Lowrance and SIMRAD units (and likely others) let you scroll back up to two miles to see bottom you ran over while you were focused on something else. Maybe you were looking for birds while dolphin fishing, or flying kites for sailfish—you weren't watching the bottom machine. But later, you can scroll back through the recording and suddenly see a massive mark you completely missed in real time. Brandon does this constantly, spotting structure he drove over hours earlier, marking it, and returning the next day to find "a pod of muttons on the bottom" or a loaded hump. Tom calls it a game changer, noting that it wasn't long ago when this was impossible—you had to see structure in real time, then turn around and drive back over it to get an accurate waypoint. The full discussion of how to use your machine's history function to find unmarked spots starts at 15:29.

Final Thoughts from Tom

Brandon's approach to deep dropping is exactly what makes these How 2 Tuesday episodes valuable—he's giving you the actual tactics he uses every day as a working charter captain. The stuff about feeling bottom composition through your rod tip instead of relying solely on electronics is something most anglers never learn, and it's critical for putting your bait in front of the right species.

I'm also fascinated by his point about the smaller, less obvious ledges producing better because they're not getting pounded. It makes total sense when you think about it—those fish are getting hit with lead weights and pressure constantly on the big, obvious marks. Finding spots that are just barely visible on your electronics could be the key to more consistent action.

And that barrel fish slime discussion is just wild. I've experienced it firsthand and it's truly one of the strangest things in fishing. But man, those fish are incredible on the table. If you've been curious about getting into deep dropping or you want to add it to your offshore arsenal, this episode is packed with practical information you can use immediately. Give it a listen.