7/20 - Tales tale

[backman]

I used to go to the canyons to catch big and wondrous fish. After 30 or 40 trips I started to settle for a few fish. After 70 trips I now go to the canyons to experience the amazing; catching fish in addition is a bonus.

We left Falmouth 3PM Tues to a flat calm wind less sea but a rolling 3-5’ swell from the southwest. Staying in the water was a challenge on a 28’ hull and I had to slow to 19-20 knots in the shallows around Gay Head and Nomans with the period finally increasing to manageable below the Dump at which point I could kick the engines up another 50 RPM and make 22 knots.

Fuel is always an issue for me and with no additional fuel on board my budget said “4:15 out, 4 hours back” so at 7:15, 4 miles from the edge we pulled back and started trolling due south. Nothing in cold 69 degree water. We trolled off the edge past sunset eventually finding the break a few miles off the shelf, a sharp gradient that went from 69 to 73 in a few hundred yards. Too dark to see but 2 other boats circling the cold side. We joined the wagon train, raise a mystery fish that I could only barely see at dusk, but which came in high in the water and tap tapped at the long rigger. White?

At 9:30 – gorgeous night – we shut down and with 2 flats of bait aboard – started to power chunk. Close to midnight; lying in a bunk 75% asleep I heard a clicker and Jimmy yell “fish”. Coming up I found a cluster; lines forward of the boat; Jimmy dug in on the port side and a mako 6’ in the air forward of the starboard bow. Somehow we got the boat started and pivoted and the fish back where it belonged with a cluster of lines below in the props. Canyon fishing at night – got to love it!

Jimmy got the mako, the 6’ version to the boat in short order; Christian had it at leader as it snapped at the boat; trying to bite it. The gaff was ready; we all had that moment of “do we really want 100# of mako in the boat for the next 4 hours” doubt and the mako made the decision easy – biting through the mono leader. One for karma; to be called upon at some point down the road.

1 AM, the next line goes off and Jimmy boats a 30# yellowfin. Meat for the crew.

3:30 AM and I’m up and ready – Jimmy has been working the chunk all night, time to give him his due. I took over the chunk stream while Jimmy started to jig hard on the down current side.

Thunk and a miss. Bump, nothing. 0 for 2.

Marks on the finder – drop, jig, drop jig.bzzzzzz, fish on. Now we’re having fun. I continued the chunk stream while Christian leadered and boated a 20-30# rat, Jimmy dropped again and was instantly hooked up. Game change. The flat lines came in; another jig rod was set up and its double jig city. We had the yellows flashing just outside the glow of the Hydroglow. Drop; jig and you were on. Game on and as good as it gets. We probably boatside released 20 yellowfin in the next hour; all in the 20-30# range, all a blast on light tackle and hooked twice as many. The fish were perfect size; feel the hit; wait, get 1 screaming run, muscle it in and survive a couple tuna circles and release them quick so we could jig up more.

4 or 5 ended up on the deck because they did. More on that in a bit.

We started the dawn troll late for me; perhaps 5:30 AM in a foggy weird canyon sunrise. Its eerie to be out there in 1/2 mile visibility. We didn’t go 100 yards and only got 2 bars out before we were doubled up on the same rats; this time on 50’s. Not so much fun as on jigging rods. Another circle and 2 more.

OK; time to move from this spot; amusingly a spot someone else seems to have scored big a couple hr’s later once the rat’s vacated. We moved all around, no real one spot stood out as “it”. There was a ton of bait; skipjacks and frigate mackerel, but nothing bigger. We released a couple skipjack and small yellows before getting the call from Damon that he was tiger hunting and needed bait.

Bait ***** for the master tiger hunter? Worse things to do while trying to figure out the next step. The radio was consistent – tons of small fish with the odd 40-50 pounder mixed in.

We continued to troll the skipjacks, now boating them while we waited for Damon to arrive. When he did, we did the pas de deux with 2 big sportfish offshore – get close enough for a fishy handoff but not so close as to kiss. Watching Damon back in, parking a 45’ boat a few feet from me in 3-4’ swells was a lesson in boatsmanship.

Football drills; 2 handoff’s,, a couple laterals then a full fledged 5 yard option pass, Valle to Galvin – complete! before moving on in our day.

Words from Scott Sinclair as we departed – “with all this bait around there have to be a few blues in the area”. I’ll listen to professional crew over dock side chatter any day. Time to go marlin fishing! Off went the bars and jets; out came the Wide Ranges, Pro Jets and Prowlers.

Where though? Cold side, 69 – less life but the possible eyeball factor or warm side; lots of small fish and skipjack and hopefully marlin. We picked warm and moved up to the edge to fish structure for bait and hopefully a blue lurker. In the high flyers ahead I saw an explosion ahead at an acute angle; the fish was all angles and spikes but as I didn’t see it in profile I couldn’t discern if it was a manta or a marlin. I should mention we had previously seen a couple mantas. The answer to what was it became obvious a minute later when skipjack’s started spraying in the air in that same location.

We hammered the spot but no joy. Moving on, moving up the bank – we finally got hit hard.

My marlin spread consists of 5 marlin lures in standard configuration with 3 ballyhoo interspersed in the middle as offers to the tuna gods within the spread. 2 of the 3 ballyhoo went down hard and a 3rd went and stopped. When all was said and done we had 2 40 pound class yellows at the boat; twisted around each other and a 3rd line. **** happened and 2 hooks pulled at leader. More karma.

More marlin fishing as we first slid up a bit to the flats then moved south and down; one more double, one on, one gone. Because I’m sporting and also because its more fun – I run my ballyhoo on TLD 25’s whenever possible. They are perfect for a 40-50# class fish; have repeatedly proven themselves against 60-80# class fish over 12 years and can when called to stand up to a 100# fish if your a good angler. This one was perfect – a 30-40 pound class fish which I worked carefully; having just pulled one and which we as a team babied at boatside with 40# class line.

I got it to that stay point; rod 6’ up and out, leader 6’ beyond that and stepped back; as expected the fish surged 10’ so I stepped forward, cranked hard and had the leader almost at the rod tip; fish lying on the surface 5 yards off the transom.

Perfect.

The sky was clear; the sea was blue; there was a crispness to seeing. As the fish lay on the surface I thought I saw a shadow in the sea; I made eye contact with the yellowfin. Then it rolled and went down. bzzz in that last second 10 yard dive before death last ditch effort.


bzZZZZ. BZZZZZZ. BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ and some more BZZZZZZZZ. The TLD changed from whine to scream to squeal. I knew and Christian knew because we had played this game before. Enjoy it while it lasts!

Line MELTED from the TLD as the line angle flattened; ¼ spool, ½ spool, angle coming up, ¾ spool when I locked down to break it off before we got spooled.

Up, UP UP! 400 yards out, ¾ of a spool of 40# mono on a TLD 25 – a large blue marlin made 2 leaps, spit in your eye, thanks for the free lunch as I was left with a lot of line to reel in and we were left with an indelible image burned into our minds, not to be forgotten for a long time.

As hoped the line broke at the swivel knot; best that could be expected under those circumstances. It takes a long time to crank in a spool of line; not much to say, just to savor the moment.

Meanwhile up top Christian turned inwards, on the hunt. 2 minutes later and another f-you moment as the marlin came in and slashed at my Wide Range in tight to the boat; dropped back and had a whack at the Pro Jet on the long left before whack and running on the Canyon Prowler on the center rigger and disappearing back where she came from.

“My house, my game, my rules – later fella’s and thanks for playing”.

I wish I could report of last ditch 70 pounders and quadruple knockdowns of 50 pounders; alas for us – it was a quad of 20 pounders and when the green machine down middle finally went off hard; poor prep for Larry, I broke it off because – shame on me – the drag on my sole Tiagra was locked down insanely tight at strike and when I went from K to strike – game over.

So – once more – a canyon trip; # 77 for me, lots of fish, nothing big, a bunch of drops, but the experience; oh the experience.

That's what keeps me going back.

[Agitated88]

Trip #77 provided an excellent read...thanks for sharing!

[amarshall]

Larry I should have my divorce lawyer bill you direct.

Great great great read.

[Diggin It II]

Good read , great action too. Good job. Check those drags . Very important Capt ( Im sure u know that ) Heard you and Damon on the radio, I'm sure he'll return the favor.

[demiched]

I really, really enjoy reading these - especially during work. Some day I can only dream of experiencing the same enjoyment.

Thank you!

[riggedandready]

I am sure you must have had a ball out there! Great action storytelling!

[nsvencer]

Thanks Backman. Look forward to these every summer/fall. One day maybe i'll get a chance to live what you so poetically report on.

[fish4stripers]

great read, thanks Larry

[Parapapam]

LB,

Do you write better than you fish or do you fish better than you write?

You do both pretty well. Great read as usual.

Mike

[Albatross32]

Great Report Lawrence