8/15 & 8/16 RipDog Veatch Canyon Adventure

[Albatross32]

The crew for this trip was filled with Captains, great anglers and just all around good dudes! So let me first introduce the players…..

Captain Scott “Marlin Magnet” Clay
Steve “I’m on a Boat” Fochler
Dr. David Sloan from On the Hook TV http://www.onthehook.com/
Mike “The Consumer” Duffley,
Greg “SwordKing” Haronitis
Me

David was gonna be doing some filming for one of his upcoming shows that air on NESN, so it was important that we were on top of our game for this one..

So Scott, Steve, Duffley and I spent the better part of Friday getting the boat ready. We loaded her up with ice, food, drinks, bait and all of the other amenities that were needed for a two day Offshore Canyon Adventure.

We spent Friday night rigging baits, eating pizza and barbeque and strategizing our plan for the trip. Greg showed up from New York City at around 2300 hrs and Dr. Sloan arrived at 0230 Saturday morning. By 0300 we were ready to go, and shoved off from Falmouth Harbor just behind the JSEAS who was our “buddy boat” for this one….We had two great crews with 11 men who were giddy with anticipation for this trip. Needless to say, the Mojo was sky high!!

The initial plan was to stop at the break that was just South of the lanes and hopefully make our way down to the Canyon from there. Upon arrival at our first waypoint we had some trouble finding a break, and there was really no life so we decided to keep going.

We finally arrived at the tip of Veatch Canyon at 0530 and started working our way down the East Wall with the JSEAS close by. The conditions were absolutely spectacular. We had porpoise and birds all around, and the ocean was some of the nicest cobalt blue gulf-stream enriched water that I have ever seen. The variable winds and mill pond conditions didn’t suck either….77 degrees quickly shot up to almost 79.5 as we pushed to the SouthWest. Our first fish of the trip was a really nice 20lb class bull that ate a ballyhoo with an alien head….then we found the skippies and rolled right through them…4 rods got hit and we stayed tight with 3 fish and landed all of them. Very small YellowFins in the 25-30 inch class….

Then at around 0800 hrs we had a our first visit from Mr. Whitey…..He came racing right up the middle of the spread passing 5 Marlin lures on his way to the Green Machine spreader bar that was in tight off the Port Corner……I screamed “Marlin” as the fish rolled and slashed at the bar and eventually ate the one with the hook in it…..chaos in the cockpit ensued as we struggled to get the spread cleared and make sense of what was happening….Fish was up all over the surface jumping and peeling line off at a frantic pace. It did look like he was hooked pretty solid from my view point though. Then one final leap and a good bye FU wave from him and he was gone …..

So after the typical shenanigans from the White, we pressed on and had one other wolfpack from small yellers…..At around 1000 hrs, we got a call from Andy Levelle who claimed he was in “Marlin Country” and to stop whatever we were doing and get there fast. Seeing how we were only a couple miles away we decided to make the move.

The new area just to the SW of the West wall looked even nicer than the East Wall. The water temp shot up to 80 degrees and it quickly became obvious to us that we were in Blue Marlin and possibly Wahoo land. Bait was everywhere with a few species of porpoise cruising around the and toying with the bow of the RipDog. There had to of been 40 + feet of visibility through the water column….Just amazing to see these animals in their element effortlessly gliding through the flat seas doing whatever they pleased….

Ok back to the fishing – Scotty put a nice spread of the sexiest Black Bart and Pakula lures that we had out……we found the acres of skippies (marlin food) and trolled right through the madness

Every rod got hit and we boated 3 or 4 YFT in the 20lb class. The small YellowFins were right in with the SkipJack. Got the spread back out quickly and we boated a very nice female Mahi that was about 15 lbs or so……Spread back out and porpoise all around the boat, and that’s when it happened!!….

Scotty and I were up in the tower as a Big Blue raced up the spread and pounced on the left Middle Pakula lure!! “BLUUUUUEEEEE MAAAAAAAARLLLLLLLIIIIIINNNNNNN”……..Scotty jumped from the tower to the cockpit in an instant (fastest I have ever seen him move) without using any of the steps….he set the hook on that ***** like a mad man….”YA WE GOT EM….WE GOT EM….WE F*CKIN GOT HIM!!!” he shouted……I slammed the big Yanmars as the Accurate 50 was melting away at warp speed. This fish was big and went leaping off and thrashing to the right yet somehow the line was still on the left side of the boat????…..More Horsepower from me as the spread was being cleared as I desperately tried to get this fish under control…..The fish turned around and started racing towards us so I picked up the pace to about 10 knots…..finally she settled down and the rod was passed to Greg. He and I worked together for about 10 minutes or so and we had begun gaining line back. Then - just as quickly as all of this happened, it was over. A few violent head shakes and she managed to spit the hook. Very tough one to swallow since we survived the initial craziness and actually turned the fish somewhat but hey, this is the game we play. You win some you lose some! Fish looked to be in the 400lb class.

After that, I had some trouble comprehending exactly what had just happened. I think Scotty had a full blown conversation with himself in the corner of the cockpit. Needless to say the crew went into the night with the morale a little on the down side especially since we were listening to PPOD battle his Grander for 3 + hours. Great job PPOD and crew with that fish. Big congrats to you guys!

The night bite was pretty much nonexistent for the entire fleet. It sure wasn’t from a lack of effort though. The Swordking and Mike the “Consumer” hung tough all night chunking away and making sure that the baits were presented perfectly. I stayed up for as long as I could, which was somewhere in the 0200 vicinity. The highlight of the night came at 0330 when I was woken up by Greg screaming and Scotty already starting the boat. The Shimano 50 was being dumped at an astounding pace and Greg claimed that he thought it might be a big Sword because it took the bait down at 175’. Dr. Sloan and I got the poon ready as Greg struggling to gain an inch with this fish. Finally after about 30 minutes, the fish showed itself for the first time and revealed its ethnicity as a 300 lb. class Tiger Shark. After 3 or 4 more grueling runoffs Greg got him under control and we got our Sword rig back and shipped the toothy critter on his way. Nice work Greg. Man those things are strong.

Back up on the troll at 0500 we immediately got wolf packed again by YellowFins and quickly boated three small fish. Then at around 0630 we got another chance with a Bill Fish and this time we were ready. There was no yelling or screaming. Everyone just did there job flawlessly and Steve brought his first White Marlin to the boat in about 20 minutes. The fish was handled boatside by Greg and Dave and was brought up for a quick picture before we revived and released him. Fish ate a custom made RipDog Marlin Lure in the left long position. Got some great footage of the action too.

From there we trolled to the South a bit and ended up grabbing our best YFT of the trip in the 35-40lb class before we eventually made our way back up for one more pass through Marlin Country on our way home. At high noon, Scotty decided with the 5 hour ride home that we should start to think about heading in. I convinced him to let me troll for another 30 minutes but that was it. At 1230 hrs we brought the spread in one by one and started putting everything away.

What happened in the next 45 minutes was just a mind boggling sequence of events and a little tough to put into words. It might also be a little difficult to believe but I swear on my unborn child that it’s the truth.

Scotty came up with the bright idea that he wanted to go for a swim. I said F-that but Steve and Dr. Sloan were both in. So we shut the boat down and these clowns made there way up to the tower for a swan dive. I made a quick call to the JSEAS to let him know what was happening. He was right next to us and of course tripled up with YellowFins as we are just sitting there dead in the water.

So Scott and Steve jump off the boat in 600 feet of predator infested canyon water. They swam around for a second and then get back in the boat. No big deal and it actually looked really nice. I still wasn’t game but I have to admit the water did look incredible.

Then Scotty says he is gonna jump in again, Steve agrees and this time Dr. Sloan is in too. Back up to the tower they go and Scotty again jumps in first. I am standing in the port stern corner of the boat filming these donkeys do this, so I had a perfect view of what happened next. Scotty did a huge dive and looked like he went down about 15 feet or so. When he came up he started swimming frantically at the boat screaming like a little ***** not to jump in……at that moment I see a big Blue Marlin all lit up racing right at him and the boat. As soon as she got right behind the boat she slowed up a bit and just cruised right by us slowly at the surface before she kept going. Scotty was in a panic mode as he said he saw a big gray flash coming up from depths after him….LOL…

I got on the radio and told Jimmy what had just happened and since he was still trolling to circle back around and come right between us and the high flyer that was about 200 yards to our South. Just as the JSEAS got right behind our boat about 50 yards away, I see from the tower of the RipDog, a Marlin come racing up their spread….attack a bird they had out, turn and go for the ballyhoo and then take off for the horizon with a hook in its face. None of us could believe our eyes. Jimmy gunned the boat as chaos ensued in their cockpit. They had the fish hooked up for a few minutes but it managed to free itself after a short fight and a few jumps.

Then (yes there’s more)….Since they had their spread cleared I cruised over to them to talk about what had just taken place between Scotty raising the fish from the depths and then them hooking it. Little did any of us know, we all were in store for a little more wildness…..Just as I got to within 10 feet of them, Timmy Wood (JSEAS crew member) decides to pull a Scott Clay and go for a dip. He jumps off the boat and quickly gets back on the swim platform. I look over my left shoulder to see another gray flash surging towards their transom. “SHAAARRRRK – get the F*ck out of the Water NOW!”…. A 10 foot Tiger shark swam right up to the back of their boat and was apparently looking for a little afternoon snack. LOL……Needless to say, that was the end of the swimming and was also the end of our awesome trip!

All and all, it was one of the sickest Canyon adventures I have ever been on. The weather was spectacular, the Crew was awesome and the fishing was great. It was also great to fish along side the JSEAS, Get Reel, Salty Dog, PPOD and the Four SEAS out there. Fishing an area that big is much easier with friends who spread out and work it together.

Big thanks to Scotty Clay or should I say Mr. Marlin Tamer….hahaha….

It would have been nice to get that Blue but those are the things that make this sport so special. I wont be able to sleep for a week thinking about that fish.

Good Luck everyone! Few pics below….Hopefully David can post some of the video as a little tease to his show.

-Brian Droney
Albatross on the RipDog

[On The Edge]

WOW all i can say is WOW. That is some crazy shit man. The going for a dip idea went around Get reel for about 3 seconds with no takers. My feeling is i dont swim in that cuz i know what lives there and i like my odds better from the boat.

Somehow i see a new marlin lure in development something like the "clayswimmer" or somthing.

Great fishing out there with you guys. It is always nice to share some cobalt blue water with a group of great boats with great crews..

[chumtini]

Talk about greasy seas. Great report and pics

[seacoast]

Congrats
WOW!

I need a bigger boat......

[getreel]

That is sick....I have no desire to swim in that predator infested water. Especially while cover in tuna blood! At least convince them to take a hook and line with them next time. That way they can take one for the team.

[JSeas]

Great fishing with you guys and Get Reel, Salty Dog, Four Seas, and other boats out there too. Everyone was great out there, working together, staying out of each others way etc. Lots of fun.

I can't wait to get back out there with my new MARLIN TEASER.. Scotty Clay!

Jim O (J Seas)

[Albatross32]

courtesy of the JSEAS crew!

[backman]

nice tale; how would you rig a Clay lure to troll straight?

[c parks]

tie the hands directly over the head in the dive position, sew the mouth shut, attach a downrigger ball for an egg sinker and then slip a cheerleader pom pom over the whole rig.

[getreel]

tie the hands directly over the head in the dive position, sew the mouth shut, attach a downrigger ball for an egg sinker and then slip a cheerleader pom pom over the whole rig.

Now thats funny....sounds like you have put some thought into doing this before. But where do you position the hook?