Atlantis

[SaltyDog]

Left for Atlantis at 1pm yesterday for overnighter, snotty near the Vineyard but flattened south out as predicted and was glass the rest of the way. The break was well north of the canyon but the water looked pretty quite. No sure why but we were the only boat there? We began the search for bait by driving around (in my opinion the most important 30 min of any trip). Jon, who can see birds and fish farther away than my radar found skipjack jumping mid canyon and it was all out for the next 2 hours. Small fish from 10-30 lbs but plenty of them. Triples and Quads with all the hits. As we hit the high flyers the Mahi bite was epic with all fish from 20lbs up. All the high flyers loaded with them. Such huge Mahi that we decided it was worth changing the entire spread over to target only Mahi. They were hitting harder than the yellowfin. Amazing seeing a big Mahi after a few years of all the chicken Mahi around...

Set up late 10pm for the sword bite bc of the prior action. After 1.5 canyon drifts through the highly anticipated bait region and no bites the Sirius Weather alerted us to a monster T-storm system at Fishtails that was heading our way. It blew up tenfold in size from this small little negligible system when we first got out there that was over NY/NJ. Anyways, lines out STAT at 130am and we were screwing north at 28kts to get away from it. I called out to any boat at Veatch on CH68 to pull the plug and head north. This thing was huge and full of lightning. It overtook us within an hour and we were dodging lightning on 3 sides for what seemed like eternity. Darkest, blackest ocean and sky, with zero visibility and torrential rain. Finally the Sirius gave us a small window to slip through north and we were home free by 630am. Lesson learned for me, you cannot outrun a T-storm. It had to have been going 35-45kts to catch us...

Overall a productive trip cut short, would have been an epic trip had we caught the rest of the night bite and the morning bite but glad to have everyone home safe. The canyon bite is great right now, just beware of those T-storms rolling through at any time.

[backman]

ugh. Worst nightmare - a storm at night - at least you couldn't see the waterspouts and square 5' seas you were running through. That does not sound like an experience I want on my resume.

I was sitting in the office the past 2 days questioning whether I was getting too cautious in my old age and kicking myself for saying no to you and someone else as well as not going down myself. FWIW - when I was looking on Sunday fishweather showed a localized yellow/red cell north of the tails between 2 and 5 AM Tues AM - how the hell did they know....

Any word from Damon or Greyback who were also out?

[JD5652]

Wow!....that's some scary chit there! You're lucky to have the Sirius weather. I've had XM weather for three seasons now and it is one of the best tools to have where you're offshore. Thanks for the report!

[Reel Pursuit]

Nice to hear you guys got into some good fish. The sat pics look amazing right now for W. Atlantis. Must be a 68-75* break.
This damned weather pattern we are in is kicking up thunderstorms on a regular basis. Glad you guys made it thru and home safely.
I'm hoping to hit the bluewater sometime soon. Mother Nature has different plans though.

[waggles02673]

ugh.
Any word from Damon or Greyback who were also out?

Larry

I know the Jolly Mon did well. 1 for 1 on Whites and 1 for 1 on Blues also a bunch of tuna and Mahi. I believe Damon got 2 whites.

Jon

[rirockhound]

fished west pf W.Atlantis Tues on a long day trip (ETD 0200- ETA 1945)

9 Mahi 12-22lb
10 YFT, 4 were short, 6 were legal to ~45lbs.

long day trip. 0200-1945 off the dock.

76-77deg water all day.

mostly up on the flats in 400-500ft.
little life at the edge, never made it over into W.Atlantis.

[JSeas]

Very glad to hear you made it back safetly. Backman and I have been caught out there in some nasty lightning storms and know how NOT FUN it is.

The weather this year, with these low pressure systems are difficult to read and hard to determine when a fun, safe canyon run can be made. Forecast for this weekend is looking shakey at best. Canyons, out of the question, and out east looks foggy and possible lighting storms. When will it end??

J Seas

[Shortfin]

Nice effort ,glad you made it back safely

[aprilfool]

we caught a bunch of small yellowfins some nice dolphin and went 1 for 3 on whites, all in all nice trip, when that storm blew threw west atlantis, it got cold and nasty but it didnt last that long

[Fishypantsmagoo]

CASTAFARI fished the Hydro area and tallied 15 or so Mahi to 20#, 35-40(lost count)YFT...most were rats about 5-15pounds but we managed a few keepers around 30#. 2 for 2 on whites. Night bite was non existent with virtually no squid and one flying fish that almost clocked me in the head. Great group of guys on the charter.

Ill let Cappy D chime in and with a more detailed report later.

Cappy D, Scotty and I are currently getting ready for our first annual Castafari Bikini Bash on Saturday...should be fun

Headed east with Kerinellie on Friday.