8/21 & 8/22 RipDog Canyon Report

[Albatross32]

7 Man Crew - Capt. Scott Clay, 11 year old Tommy Clay, 11 year old Liam Lynch, Jim O'Brien, Tim Wood, Brian Kelly (Pickles) and I.

With the destination of Oceanographer Canyon in mind, we decided it was best to leave from Nantucket with a full tank of fuel before making the 105 nautical mile trek out to Eastchuckaf**k from there.

So after overnighting in ACK, we left at 0600 under calm winds and clear skies. We rounded the tip of Great Point and set a course of about 150 degrees heading for a break that was about 10 miles to the NW of the tip of Ocean. The ride out was beautiful and uneventful and we arrived at our first spot just after 1030 hrs. We set the spread in beautiful 76 degree water and began trolling down towards the Canyon's west wall.

15 minutes in and the daisy chain right middle - or "inside right" as Jimmy was calling it got blasted and rolled on. Pickles shouted "Marlin" but no one else saw the hit…….I grabbed the rod as it went screaming off…..and just after coming tight, I felt that horrible feeling of slackness and the first fish of the day was gone. It would have been a great start to our trip - but just wasn’t meant to be…...

So we pressed on and 20 minutes later…...Scotty and I, and the two boys - who were all up in the tower - witnessed one of the coolest things I have seen in ten years of Canyon fishing……15 feet from our spread and just off our port side we see a 10lb Skip Jack leap about 8 feet up into the air - fish appeared to be all battered, bruised and discolored - just below the Skippy we see what looked to be a 700-800 lb. class Blue Marlin all lit up, come streaking up after it and swat the $hit out of the helpless little tuna before disappearing into the depths with a late breakfast snack………

After seeing that, we really felt as if we were in the right area especially since the water color was so blue it almost looked purple…….some of the best gulf stream enriched water I have seen in years. We pushed on and shortly after we hooked a nice 10lb female Mahi that ate the Center Rigger bird/daisy chain combo long down the middle…..Scotty reeled this fish in and little Tommy Clay gaffed and yanked her up over the transom for our first fish of the trip.

30 minutes later and we found some whales and started working down the west wall of the canyon. About half way down the same center rigger bird/daisy chain combo got blasted and ran off hard. We've heard this sound before and decided to strap Liam in for his first ever Canyon tussle. The young lad did a great job making short work of a 50lb class YFT.

The rest of the afternoon we worked the West and East walls of the canyon where there was a sharp break that went from 71 degree green water to 77 degree blue eddy water. All the signs were there for a nice bite to develop…..we had some whales, porpoise and slicks everywhere amongst the FAC canyon sea. We released a few more small YFT and then Scotty got on the binoculars and found a nice long slick about a mile away with hundreds of little petrels hovering and picking away at it. We finally got over to it and dragged our spread across it without getting bit…….I circled back around and made a 2nd pass right over the top of it with no love …….you could smell the bait as the birds were going crazy feasting on the leftover carnage. It was almost like we missed an insane feed by like an hour or so…….I hammered the area for a solid 30 minutes and we finally got a nice runoff and ended up dropping the fish shortly into the fight. Very frustrating turn of events right there, but we continued to press on and remained focused as our luck was sure to change..….

We circled back up to the Canyon tip from the east side back into the green water and then back down the West side across the break and back into the warm water again. Just across the break we had a wahoo come slashing into the spread and made two separate attempts to eat a ballyhoo with a pink Ilander that was in the prop wash. No Hoo love though - and with the lost Marlin, missed wahoo and the lost fish from that nice slick, we were beginning to see a pattern of back luck developing.

At 1630 hrs. and 6 hours of trolling without seeing another boat (never felt so alone in my life) we decided to pull the plug on Oceanographer and head to Welker Canyon to troll the evening and spend the night. We made the 18 mile ride from Canyon to Canyon and put our spread out on the East side of Welker and began trolling North towards the tip. There was some good life with a mix of whales and porpoise in the area. Water temp was 76 degrees. We had a few swings and misses and then at 1900hrs we got a nice bite on a purple Archer bar in the right long position…..or "outside right" as Jimmy called it…...I grabbed the rod and settled down with this fish….15 minutes later Jimmy leadered up a nice 50lb YFT and Woodsie hit it with a nice gaff shot. That would be our only action of the evening but a nice fish to end the day.

For the night bite we set up in about 1200 feet of water right in the throat of Welker Canyon. I made a hot dinner for everyone as the rest of the crew set up the gear and bait for the chunk. After dinner we sent down 2 sword rods at different depths and started tuna fishing with the other 2 rods. 20 minutes later the sword rod at 125 feet doubles over and goes racing off……we survived the first initial runoff and started making headway with this fish before pulling the hook about 7 minutes into the fight. The squid came back fully intact with a nice slash across it - all signs pointed towards a Sword and by the look of the rod and the initial blast off it seemed like a nice fish. Just a real kick in the balls to miss this fish but that's part of the game I guess.

The rest of the night was uneventful and the vast majority of the crew was spent at this point. The men split the night into 2 shifts with 3 of us staying up until 0130 and the other two keeping watch from about 0200 until we started trolling at 0500 at grey light. The weather was beautiful with unlimited visibility from the premature full moon and calm seas…..

The plan for Sunday was to fish until around 0830 and then head for the barn as the seas and weather were both scheduled to intensify dramatically as the day went on. At that point we were looking at 120 NM ride back to port so we needed to keep a close eye on things. We finally got a real nice runoff at around 0700 again on the center rigger bird/daisy chain combo which was long down the middle. Woodsie grabbed the rod, took about 50 cranks and pulled the hook - MORE heartbreak here - but we continued to remain focused and determined and at 0745 we got another chance…..The right long Archer bar got rolled on and missed….I took two cranks…let it back and quickly took three more cranks….the fish came airborne from the side and smashed the bar again…….zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz… …..I handed the rod to Woodsie and he had a nice battle with what turned out to be our best fish of the trip…..a nice 65lb YFT.

Just as time was running out on this trip, we get a call from a buddy boat who was 1.5 miles to our NW with reports of him being "spooled by a big Blue Marlin"……we trolled over to his position and decided to pound that area for an hour or so before having to pull the plug ourselves as the seas were starting to build. After about 20 minutes of working this new area….Jimmy, the two boys and myself, were up in the tower and witnessed a 400lb class Blue Marlin come leaping clear out of the water chasing bait about 100 yards in front of us……. Just an absolutely awesome sight to see these big animals operating in their element.

We decided at 0930 to finally pull the plug and head in as the ESE swell was building nicely at this point. The Sirius weather system was also indicating a good sized rain event covering most of Southern New England. The Henriques performed nicely on the ride in which included a sloppy haul through the Muskeget channel. We eventually made it back safely to Falmouth Harbor just before 1500hrs…..

Overall it was a pretty tough trip with a combination of a few tough breaks and some iffy angling by all involved. Except for the boys of course who were an absolute joy to have on the boat. They never made one complaint in 2 days. We ended up with 5 YFT, a few Mahi, a lost Marlin and Sword and countless other swings and misses……….We certainly had our chances out there and seeing those 2 big blue Marlin made it worth it for me….Chalking this one up to the difficulties and challenges of fishing the NorthEast Canyons…….

Big thanks to Scotty Clay for taking me out to see a body of water that few will ever visit. We had a shot at just about every pelagic fish that patrols our Canyons. Can't ask for much more than that. Also had a great time overnighting in ACK on Friday. That place is the balls. I will get a few pics up a little later tonight when I get home…

-Brian Droney
Albatross on the RipDog

[backman]

great trip, great report - as we said at the dock yesterday as we cried in our respective beers as what we could have done differently - we don't go to the canyons just to catch fish - we go for the total experience which is so much more than just the fish.

BTW - as Paul Harvey said "and now for the REST of the story" on the Raiders of the Lost Sword

[SaltyDog]

Balls to you for going so far, we all have to sit down and go over how to STAY hooked to a marlin, I think we have the other part down pretty well this year, nice trip, glad for you guys

[Albatross32]

BTW - as Paul Harvey said "and now for the REST of the story" on the Raiders of the Lost Sword [/QUOTE]


That part of the story is for the skippa to share if he so desires....

[HIGHTIMES]

Nice report..curious as to why you left that sweet break at ocean for the night bite? from your report it sounded great.

[AlloyToy]

Great read Brian as always.....came home with some great table fare...WTG!!! Can't wait for your next trip & read

[JSeas]

Droney:

Great report! It was a fun trip. Cannot wait to get back out there...

Thank you Cappy Clay for letting me on the RipDog for this trip.

Jim O (J Seas)

[Albatross32]

Nice report..curious as to why you left that sweet break at ocean for the night bite? from your report it sounded great.

That's a good question and something we gave about an hours worth of consideration towards. The water was there in Ocean, and had we converted a few of those missed opportunities we probably would have stayed.

We started getting a bit of an unlucky feeling being there and it wasnt exactly stuffed with life, so the call was made to make the move to Welker where the Sirius System was also showing a nice break.

In hindsight I think it was the right call to leave, and I kind of wished we would of just went to Welker initially as there were definately fish there.

Canyon fishing is all about making the right call on where and when to fish, which is not always an easy task considering the options between Canyons that all have nice breaks. This is something that we begin planning days in advance and dont typically make the final call until the evening before when and if we get an updated sat chart and hopefully some recent intel.

I have to say - Ocean was definately the most eerie canyon I have ever fished. We saw one long-liner pushing through the area and not one Sporty in 6 hours of trolling on a calm Saturday with good water there.

Sorry about the pics.....I'm having some issues locating my usb cable to get them off my camera.

[JoeyM]

great report as usual!


my boat sale is pending (*crossing fingers for everything to go through).


if it goes, i'll be looking for my own 35 henriques!