I've learned that the fishing is often extraordinary on offshore trips, and with liberal bag limits on these tasty bottom feeders, I often have many fish to bring home for the freezer. As such, I like to use a 62-quart cooler, which keeps the two one-gallon pieces of ice I carry in it from thawing for a couple of days. A cooler of this size comfortably holds what is often a lot of fish. And the wheels on the cooler enable me to board via the gangplank and to disembark with a heavy load of fish with ease.

I'll usually pack some iced tea or soda and a few sandwiches in the cooler, too. However, most of the boats have a galley on board, where you can purchase hot coffee, chowder and soup, hot dogs and hamburgers to satisfy your craving on a cold winter day as you move from spot to spot.

Once the grounds are reached, which may be just before daybreak, the captain sets anchor over a choice bottom location. The bright overhead lights are turned on, illuminating the boat to daylight-like conditions. As soon as the skipper announces over the loudspeaker, "Let 'em go," everyone at the rail is sending their rigs down 150 feet or deeper.

The boats supply clams as bait, plus strips of squid. The key is taking care not to overload your hook with baits that are too large. Remember that the majority of the porgies you encounter on these grounds average 1 to 2 pounds in weight, with seabass averaging 1 to 3 pounds. You'll hook more fish by using bait 1/2-inch by 2 or 3 inches long. Rest assured, even a 5-pound seabass or blackfish will inhale a small piece of bait with ease and readily get hooked in the bargain.

It's exciting when you arrive before sunup, and suddenly under the bright lights practically everyone hooks up as soon as their rigs touch down. This happens most of the time, so be out of your bunk as soon as you hear the engines slowing down in preparation for anchoring. Be at the rail, dressed for the cold, with hooks baited and awaiting the signal to go at it.

Being alert as your rig touches bottom is in my view the single most important consideration. All too often, anglers don't pay attention, and line continues to slip from their reel, resulting in a slight belly in their line. Unbeknown to them, they'll frequently receive strikes and have their baits stripped from their hook. As a result, they'll waste precious time during a hot bite without even having bait on their hooks. Then, of course, they'll have to reel all the way back up to re-bait.

Toward this end, I make it a point to always begin fishing with more sinker weight than I feel I'll need. While it's tough on the wrists when reeling in, especially with a double or triple on, with the heavy sinker I know I'm in total control and my baits are perpendicular and smack dab on the bottom where they belong. Often I've seen anglers fishing with 4 to 6 ounces, and their lines are drifting all over the place, getting in tangles, and their hooks stripped clean the moment they reach bottom without the angler even knowing it. As a result, they'll often waste an hour before they get settled into the correct pattern. Far better with too much sinker weight, as you can always scale down as the day progresses.