7/2-3 - The Atlantis's

[backman]

we played the weather window almost perfectly leaving Falmouth at 8:30 AM Friday with a quartering NW 15 wind. Rather than dealing with a bladder we topped off at Menemsha and really didn't leave the sound till close till 10 AM. By the time we hit Noman's the wind was down to 10-12 knots and letting go. A nice easy 22-23 knot ride got us to West Atlantis just after 1 PM. There was a settling 3' sea on there with perhaps 10-12 knots of wind.

water temp was 62 at the Claw, 65 most of the way down and 67 on top of the edge; 69 on the 100 fathom line. We ran south 2 miles off the edge, found 70 degree water and put in for an aimless troll south. We quickly found 73 degree water 5 miles off the edge; thought it lifeless and worked back north, nothing going on.

Mid afternoon is typically dead in the canyon's so we prospected south trying to find life.

Snap; transom ballyhoo rubber band pops; fin in the wake - "its a white!". I was diving and fumbling with the pitch rod; dropping back to the erect dorsal when next to me Jackson did his thing and came tight with the original ballyhoo the marlin had come in on. A quick clear, one jump and the 1st canyon fish of the year came to the boat - white marlin!

Working SW after that we saw a spotter plane. I knew a friend of mine was planning on diving and video'ing on any life he could find in the canyons so we moseyed over that way.

Christian got the spotter on the radio; it was circling a whale shark - I trolled that was as they are an incredible sight. It was a canyon life oasis and we passed a couple manta's as we closed. By now it was flat calm, I saw a couple boils and flashes and turned to intercept a school of skipjack playing on the surface.

Smart move! I put the spread in its face and chaos ensued - everything in the spread got hit; boils and explosions all over the wake and when it was done we had 5 rods down, a spider's web of line tangled off the boat and 3 of us to deal.

One broke off; we unwrapped the rest and bang-bang-bang Christian gaffed one-two-three 40-50 pound yellowfin. We let the 4th go for good luck.

I still wanted to see the whale shark - Wayne was directing Eric's boat in perhaps 1/2 mile west of us so we started to put rods back in and moved back up to trolling speed. I think we got 4 in before 3 went down! 3 fish still on the deck beating away - I cranked up the 4th rod, a new Offshore Innovations bar (yes Kevin - it works!!!!) so the bar was dangling off the rigger, just the stinger trailing in the water and started to go to work on one of the bent rods when a yellowfin exploded out of the water to take that bar down also! We ended up with one more in the box; released a couple and at 5 PM were done tuna fishing for the day. Too much work!

We put out a blue marlin spread and trolled around the area hoping to raise a marlin. No takers; just a gorgeous blue water boat ride on a crystalline afternoon. What is better than dragging a spread of singing popping dancing big lures over water that could have a 10' fish in it?

We stopped before dusk as we did not want any more tuna and set up in the middle of West Atlantis in 73 degree water/2000' of depth. The drift was fast, 13 miles ESE in 7 miles, 1 fish all night, a 15# mahi but oh what a night. Flat calm, crystal clear, the star's like dust, the Milky way poured across the sky, shooting star's firing across it like exclamation points on the glory of a canon night.

It doe snot get much better. I power chunked from 3-4 AM, woke Jackson and Christian at 1st light/4:15 and was on the troll by 4:20. The plan was to run a 6 rod spread; 2 singles long, 4 bar's inside. I think we got 5 of them out before 4 rods went down. 3 more releases and once more - we were done tuna trolling by 4:45 in the morning.

After the release Jackson noticed the sounder was lit up so I dropped a jig down. It made it perhaps 50' before I was doubled over on the cutest little 15 pound yellowfin you could imagine. A 2nd in short order and I handed the rod to Christian for his turn. It took him 30 seconds to get tight; this time with a real fish, a yellowfin perfectly suited to a light Torium setup.

This turned into a 15 minute tussle with another 40-50 pound yellowfin which we boxed for 4th of July party's. 5 AM, sun come up - time to go marlin fishing again! By now we were on the west wall of Atlantis so I started exploring there; 74 degrees on the wall; 72 in the canyon, 71 at 800' up on the deeper flats. We worked up to 800'; found a couple pods of porpoise with rafts of storm petrels; saw a freighter coming and missed the sign and turned south to troll the hot water again.

I didn't like it there; worked back up to the 71 degree water and found slicks and hundreds of dancing petrel's - it was going off below! Another boat called in a bigeye hook up; so i started hammering the slicks and birds, 1 - 2 - 3 - and a 4th pass before the long port rigger went off; waking Christian from his morning nap as whitey # 2 started porpoising across the wake. With a 13" wide range and a double 10/0 hook set its hard to imagine it coming off, but it did.

We probably could have raised tuna in the spot by changing the spread but we hammered it out marlin trolling for another hour, no luck before picking up and running for the barn at 9 AM, boxes full. Once above the lanes it was FAC the rest of the way and we ran from the Dump upwards in the tower spotting sharks, mola and bluefish along the way.

I'd rate this trip a solid B+; one more night bite and specie's and we would have been in the A- range!

Canyon trip #72 in the books and it was a good one!

[Parapapam]

Good stuff as usual Larry. I think after 72 trips you are getting jaded. Endless Yellowfin and two whites certainly sounds like an A in my book.

Mike

[keithj]

Nice work Larry. Here's our quick summary... Arrived at West Atlantis and began to work to the south a bit west of the canyon. Heard the Skipjack on the radio into good fish so we worked our way to the east a bit towards the mouth of the canyon. Spoke with endurance from Nantucket. They reported a slow pick, but at least there were fish around.

At dusk in the canyon we had school of skippies all over the surface, after pound these skippies, we finally came tight to some yellows. Only problem is they were rats. Repeated the process a few times and finally managed a 40 pound fish from the bunch. Continued on the troll but no eyeballs. Set up for the night to drift the deep part of the canyon. Nothing on the night bite other than two tuna bites on jigs, both of which broke off. Seems our luck from last weekend may be drying up.

On the troll in the morning, we first put a free swimming 15 pound mahi in the boat. Then a single 60 pound yellow. Then a second mahi. As we're fighting the mahi, who shows up but a white, all glowing a ready to munch. Naturally being a canyon novice, no pitch bait to throw, but the white did grab a black bart tuna candy off the rigger and head for the horizon, then like that he was off the hook. Next was a double of nice yellows, biggest went about 75. Really nice fish with the fins starting to curve up. After that all was quiet for a couple hours. I had run out to the West Wall of West Atlantis and was making my way up the wall when the bird with a Black Bart tuna candy long went off. Fish took a ton of line in a hurry, then we saw her on the horizon, greyhounding and doing flips like only a blue girl can, we got all the lines in and gave chase, as we were nearing the bottom of a specre spooled 50Wide. But it wasn't meant to be. Shortly thereafter she chaffed through the 200lb leader. Its tough to say how big she was because the fish was never closer then 300 yeards when she was dancing across the water, but it was my first blue hooked and fought, which I happen to think is pretty cool.

So no shortage of variety, yellows, mahi, whites and blues. Gassing up the boat today, we'll look to next weekend for another trip.

[chumtini]

That has got to be Eric S doing video. I can't wait to see this one. He's got some great stuff.

Great read LB. Thanks.

[rirockhound]

Nice job.

Larry boat looked good when we saw you near the Whale Shark (trying to figure out wtf the plane was doing...)

Kieth, saw you as well. we were in a 29 blackfin... kept mixing you up on the horizon w/ another cc that was out there we know.

We had a slow afternoon, pounded a pod of skippies as well near dusk for nada but pulled a few hooks, maybe those were rat yellows we pulled. couldn't seem to run across a pod of fish, que sera.

overnight was dead... covered 10 miles with a mix of squid and shark baits out. really strong thermoclinewith tons of krill/small bait early in the night... not a sniff. Dolphins and Whales around the boat a different points in the night as well. gorgeous night. worked a slick and chunks till 230 or so, got some sleep, ended up in 1500ft of water near Atlantis.

boxed some nice yellows in 1500ft+, and a 23lb mahi near the wall in 69 deg water on the troll before heading home (trolled up the wall to shorten the steam home). had one decent sized marlin fin move across the spread deep once, but never came to play.

good first trip of the season. I agree with Larry, probably a B or so. we weren't getting many multiples, the fish kept picking off the shotgun deep. oh well.

[Tight]

Great report, sounded like a solid A to me!

[parmentj]

Just another day on old Skippie.

Much nicer having yellowfin sashimi for a change, not to mention some of that maui wowie stuff for the grill.

[Albiemanmike]

I have never been out to the canyons so keep that in mind with this question. I am wondering why you both had trouble keeping the blue marlin buttoned up?? Are they difficult to hook deep enough to keep on the hook? I would assume being that Larry has done this awhile that the hooks were samarai sharp so what do you think the reason was for dropping those big beautiful fish?? Really am curious and not trying to be sarcastic at all would love to know what you analysis is afterwards.

By the way AWESOME story as always Larry B. you do have a way with the pen and always seem to have great adventures out in the deep.

[backman]

Marlin are extremely difficult on lures; less difficult on bait. Jackson pinned the 1st because he fed it in freespool a good while.

Both whites and blues and for that matter blacks come in hot and aggressive, slashing to kill with their bill; then circling back for the easy dinner. W/ a lure they often knock down but don't engulf.

Even when hooked a marlin is so fast, unpredictable and also goes airborne in a way that makes a tuna seem like a bluefish. Many of the blues I have seen have line peeling off in one direction - say 8 oclock, when another marlin starts jumping at 3 oclock; then you realize that is the marlin screaming line out in one direction which has cut across you faster than you can react. I've had them go past the boat like a greyhound, tearing off 400+ yards in 3 different directions. By the time you figure out where they are, they have long since created slack and dumped the hook.

the one we lost yesterday was just as well as it was on a double hook rig, a rig which has now been 0 for 2 on marlin and is about to be a single hook rig

If you really want to catch one - live bait. A nice 20 or 30 pound yellowfin and a hook the size of a small gaff

[scratchinbottom]

way to go boys, nice lookin fish