7/17 Tuna Bailfest!

[Riptide Charters]

When the canyon weather window opens you need to JUMP through before it closes. Take a day off, call in sick, miss that meeting, whatever it takes because the season is short and the number of shots you can take are limited.

On Wednesday I was looking to go sharking with 2 buddies. One had boat issues that kept hiim OTW WAY longer than he had planed so he was out. Logistics kept Me and the other buddy from making the trip with just two of us. So as I'm sitting around Ruge rolls in from a work trip from the West Coast. He is tired and jet lagged. we were discussing his trip and somehow one of use said, "Man there is just NO wind!" Ruge asked "Ya wanna go fishing?" I reply, "It's kinda late to get started, it's after lunch, but it's EARLY if we want to run to the canyons!" Ruge:"We could leave NOW and overnight" Me:"Maybe a nap first then we'll go!" And so the plan was set. In the time it took you to read this we had a canyon run in place. The restof the planning takes longer, get ice, prep ballyhoo, gas the boat, etc. So we got to work!

At midnight we were launching at Falmouth. By 0030 we were clearing the jetties and by 0315 we were lines in at Block canyon. The ride out was a sweet as it gets! Itwas FAC, nearly a full moon with enough light on the water you'd have thought I had headlights!

Rather than chunk till grey light we set out a 5 rod spread and night trolled for the hour before grey light. Once we could see the spread we set out a full 8 rod spread and comenced skirting the Hi Fliers on the edge. Within a few minutes we had a 20 and a 15# mahi in the boat. We were hoping for yellowfin so we pushed off the fliers at the edge and moved into deeper water. It took about 45 minutes for us to find what we were looking for a small temp break on the West wall of the canyon. The next thing we know the 70 is SCREAMING, 200 yards of mono is gone and we are 200 yards in to the spectra backing. Ruge gets to work and puts a beating on the fish. In short order I stick a gaff into a SWEET 90# yellowfin. Bled and iced in the box!

We are in the area and now we are just trying to dial things in. There was a small fleet of boats to the west of us, but we tried to stay clear of the masses. We marks some birdsw on the radar and aimed for them rather than compete in the fleet. Once we got to the birds all hell broke loose. FISH ON! DOUBLE, TRIPLE, QUAD!!!!! One fish pulls off and Ruge and I clear the rest of the spread and get to work on the other three. We are both in harnesses so we can let go of the rods without loosing them. I'm diving and running the throttles as needed. My fish comes in first, Ruge leaders and I gaff. Then the process repeats in reverse for his fish. He takes the third and we are 3 for 3 on the fish that stayed tight these are all in the 40#-50# range. The lines are re-set and we are back trolling while Ruge works on the fish and hoses down the boat.

I see the mother load of Shearwaters a few miles away and head for them. Ruge readies the boat for what we know is coming. Gaffs are stratigicly placed, gloves are put on and we ease into the birds and what now is a mass of breaking fish and spraying bait! The wholes spread gets crushed! These are not the smaller fish. These are all 70-90#ers and Every rod in the spread goes off! Before we can even start to process whats happening, lines are crossing, some fish pull off, one line breaks from rubbing on another rod as the fish makes a lateral run accross the boat! It is total chaos! Ruge and I try to calmly work through the carnage. He clears the lines that are broken or the fish have pulled off. I begin a crash course in macrame and try to undo three lines that are wound together like a bimini twist ALL WITH FISH STILL ATTACHED! Ruge gets things clear, I get the lines untangled and we get to work. We land all three of these fish, lost a ballyhoo rig and broke a hook bait off a Green Machine bar. It wasnt the prettiest work, but when your running a short crew on a bite this we did the best we could.

The word on the radio os the bite was slowing down. We stayed off the fleet and pushed a bit deeper. Although the bite slowed for us too it stayed a steady pick as long as we avoided the crowds. We had singles and doubles of fish from 20# to 90# through the day.

Around 1500 the bite went off AGAIN! More big schools of the larger yellowfin on top busting. We stayed the course and kept to ourselves and out of the fleet. We did our best and although the big tuna gave as good as they got we managed to land some with only moderate gear damage.

At one point I was setting up for a pass on some birds when the biat began to spray, then some 20# YFT began to spray, then 100' from the bow of my boat an est. 250-300# Blue Marlin went airbore chasing the 20# YFT. The Marlin came completely out of the water in a greyhounding fashion. At its highest point there was 3' between its belly and the water. I screamed MARLIN MARLIN MARLIN!!!!! It hung the the air like Michael Jordan then landed with a huge spash. While the big blue girl didn't want anything in our spread it certainly made my day giving us an increadible show!

After a few more tuna we decided to call it a day. We stowed everything gave the boat a quick rinse and headed for Falmouth. Final tally for the day aound 20 YFT landed. The were in three distince classes. There were some sub legal 20#ers, 40-50#ers and then the gear crushing 70-90#ers. Also 2 nice gaffer mahi 15# and 20#. The lures of choice Green Monsta's. The chugger chains with GM's, my home made bars (or whats left of them) were the hot setup. Ballyhoo got eaten but the GM's were the lures that got crushed every time. The water was 1000-1600' deep and a cobalt blue super clear 80-82.5 degrees. It was hotter than we had planed to fish, but you take what they give you and this was where thefish were eating. One boat reported 83.5 degrees not to far from us. Although every position ins the spread got eaten the larger fish and most ofthe fish ate the bars right off the transom. The closer the bars the bigger the fish. We ran them right on top of my big kahuna teasers, the tuna would have had to swim up through the teasers to get to the bars, but they didn't seem to mind.

Overall just an awesome day offshore. With a 3 hour ride out and a 3 hour ride home we were able to get 14 hours on site. I only wish we had one more body on the boat. Ruge and I managed the bite pretty well and kept gear loss to a minimum (although half the teaser lines on my bars are missing) A third guy would have netted us a bunch more fish with less chaos and a faster turn around time getting things back out. Rather than running 11-13 rods we rely on getting the fish in fast and the gear redeployed even faster so we get more shots at the fish than we would with a dozen rod setup. I'm still learning this whole canyon thing, but after 4 trips this season, the comfort level is rising rapidly and so is the fish count!
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[sportfishingusa]

What a piece of art that post is!! WOW!! awesome trip and hope for many more for you and your crews!! incredible!! very very nice!!

[Seaker]

I wanted to pull the trigger but had too much on the plate

Good on Yeah!

[Fortunate One]

I wanted to pull the trigger but had too much on the plate

Good on Yeah!

Still not too late to steam out at 0 dark thirty.

Glad to hear someone's killing them. I just read another report from someone else on FFSW.

Come on Vin! I'll grab the ice and meet you at the dock at 6PM. You can leave Jay at home, apparently they're jumping in the boats down there.

[backman]

i'd jump on also - I can't make it in those seas in a 28' boat.

[Shortfin]

Locked and loaded ,maybe sneaking out before the sunday am bight

[MarkP]

Nice trip...

MarkP

[Riptide Charters]

Leaving again at 0300 from Falmouth 3-5's in my new rig PAA---LLLEEEESSSEEE, thats FAC in the Contender @ 35Kts. See you on the Edge.

[Nobody]

Great report man and nice job. I am hoping to hit it this weekend 7/26 or 7 .

[Innovator]

Way to go Terry, Nice Trip!!! Hope to get out there soon