6/28 - Whacked out Veatch trip

[backman]

despite my own words of wisdom we made a last minute dockside decision at 6:30 yesterday morning to go south. Left the dock at 7:30 and had a light following NE wind and 2-3' seas down to below the shoals.

We made a comfortable 23 knots and transferred fuel before the Lanes. As Seth found - there was an incredible birdpile of porpoise, shark and god knows what else at 30 fathoms. More porpoises than I have seen; incredible life. We trolled a half assed 4 rod spread for 30 minutes, no joy then moved on.

As Seth also found there was a nice 2 degree break in 60-70 fathoms holding large 15-25# mahi and small 15-20# yellowfin.

The light and variable was now NE 10-12 and the 2-3's were 3-4's. Veatch was nasty; over the edge the 3-4'sd turned to breaking 3-5's and the wind picked up to 15. WE worked the east wall, found more large mahi then pushed south into the canyon proper. Temp stabilized at 72.

About 5 miles down we found JSeas working a spot with shearwaters flying here and there. All of a sudden Chatham/October materialized - hundreds of shearwaters were hitting the water; skipjack were boiling on the surface and something else was clearly pushing them.

Christian was up top in horrible conditions, taking a beating but staying on the fish - turning NE was burying the bow in the seas. He stayed with the birds; saw the fish underneath and got the spread in front of them - 2 bars got boiled and a long ballyhoo dissappeared.

I got the rod; lucky me and announced it was fighting like an albie because it was staying deep and dogging. Till it peeled line the 3rd time. The 30 didn't have the backbone or drag to lift the fish; 30 minutes or so in I was at an impasse and my back was gone.

I handed off to Jackson for what I figured would be a quick end game; wrong. He got caught in the same struggle; unable to make progress. WE couldn't surf the fish up; it just dogged 100' down. Eventually Christian assisted with some light hand line action to turn the head up and we got our 1st look at a 6' electric blue canyon bluefin; gloriously shining in the clear water.

Christian could not leader it up; it was too tough - he threw at it 10' down and missed; then it was 30' down. Next time he circled it up 5' at a time; 25', 20', 15', I passed on a throw at 10'; but reached and jabbed at 5 with a bloodline hit towards the back.

The fish went ape at the boat; the tail rope, dragging and lancing was a complete cluster; especially in breaking 5' seas. Eventually we controlled it; all of us beat to hell by the fish and conditions; on deck it was a fat 69" bluefin.

110 nmiles from the dock; light and variable not happening we pointed north while we cleaned; trolled up the canyon, burying the bow every 4th or 5th sea. We released a couple mahi and 1 more yellowfin in 60 fathoms; trolled till dark; watched JSeas steam by us in the slow and decided we did not want to be out there alone.

Fingers crossed; up on plane and the design of a Carolina hull did its thing; 20 knots into 3-4's with the seas 30 degrees off the bow and we just ran; the occasional 5 not jarring us. Christian and Jackson slept half the ride home as I eventually added a knot here and there and crossed Muskegat at 25 knots.

Back to the dock at 1:07 AM; yet another canyon learning experience about what stalled lows can do to sea conditions 100 miles out.

[shoefish]

Great read Larry- glad that NE 15 didn't do much more or it might have made that trip a lot different for you guys on the run home. Congrats on a nice bluefin and a good mix of canyon fish mixed in to boot! Thanks for sharing.

[Sea Draggin]

Very nice write up Backman. Very nice.

[JSeas]

Nice write up! Nice work out there for team SkipJack you guys really hung tough in some nasty conditions. Ride home was surprisingly nice.

Glad we made a prospecting run. Still a lot of season in front of us. Hopefully weather conditions and water conditions improve!

Jim O (J Seas)

[parmentj]

back to work...

[JD5652]

Great report!..... sounds like you may have dodged a bullet...

[Parapapam]

Nice fish Larry, Christian and Jackson.

After reading your report, I am glad I called off my "take the kids sharking" trip on Sunday. Drifting chum in 3 to 4's is not a pleasure cruise for kids.

Mike

[keithj]

Glad to hear you found a few yellowfin.

[backman]

I don't want to misrepresent this as death defying or risky. It was 10-15/2-3 all the way down to 40 fathoms; not a big deal. It only got big and steep over the edge. I made 20 knots no problem from 100 fathoms up to 50 fathoms, 22 from 50 to 30 fathoms and 25 knots inside 30 fathoms in a 28' boat.

It was sloppy, it was nplesant and a really good lesson in what a low to the NE does to sea state between the relatively tame readings at 44008 and the 100 fathom line.

Jackson - youtube the ass whipping video ...

[GreenPondEd]

Great story Larry. As usual you make it so real that we can imagine being there. Great adventure and great writing.
Ed