Atlantis Friday report

[captkev]

Headed to Atlantis Friday for a day trip, the original plan was to go lines in N of West Atlantis, troll eastish along the wall to the tip of the canyon. Crew is myself, good friends Kevin Patano from Ayer, MA, Garrett Ritz from NJ and Chris Graff from Sandwich. Lines off the dock in Mashpee at 3:30, the ride was pretty lumpy in the dark through Muskegat down to through the Hooter but it flattened out nicely in the deep water for a comfortable 22 mph cruise south. Got past the lanes to the 45 fathom line where we came across a field of flyers, birds and porpoises and decided to scuttle the original plan and go lines in and head S to Atlantis. Turned out to be a great decision. Not much around those flyers, one mid range mahi, however off goes the skunk. Trolled S from the 45 fathom curve down to the 55 fathom line in an apparently lifeless sea, no more life spotted, water temps remained steady at 73.5, but we had a warm edge coming up. Temps jumped 75.4, someone says "Hey, there is a mahi doing something weird in the spread!" It sure was a really weird mahi, it had a long bill in front of it! My seventh canyon trip, and this was the first time that I or anyone else on board has ever seen a marlin aside from being on a wall. Pandemonium erupts. The marlin takes a ballyhoo off of a green Seawitch on the port short rigger, popping the clip but not going tight. Expletives erupt. The marlin slashes at and tracks a green machine behind a small bird chain but doesn't take it, a naked ballyhoo from the wash gets dropped back, however it disappears from the spread. We really didn't care, we raised and saw an actual freaking marlin. The crew is now really pumped to the point of being electrically charged. 5 minutes later, here he comes again, flying in from the port side of the spread. Goes after the same seawitch, a swing and a miss, tracks the same green bird chain again, but this time we are faster with the naked hoo and he erupts on it in the middle of the spread. Holy shit, now we have actually hooked up with a freaking marlin. Clear the spread, into the harness, no jumps and 15 or so minutes later he is along side lit up to the most amazing blue color that I have seen on a fish. A white marlin is billed and brought on board to pics and pandemonium. My thoughts are that I can now die in peace, I have caught a marlin. Pics taken, back over the side he goes to be revived and we watch him swim away. But the day was still young, not quite 9 AM. Back up on the troll, same green spread on the port side, starboard is a pink seawitch long and a pink Islander short both with ballyhoo behind a rainbow bar, with a purple swimmer underneath., green machine chain behind a bird on the far back shotgun. Two miles later a flyer comes into view and a double mahi from it, we hang around the flyer with mackerel chunks and put 10 more into the box off of this one flyer. Back on the troll, a mile later the short pink Islander gets hit followed by a tremendous splash to starboard, but the splash is nowhere near where we think that the fish is. The 50 VSW is now screaming and dumping to "We're getting spooled!!!" and then an absolutely massive blue marlin blasts out of the water well to starboard and tailwalks and greyhounds it's way to the horizon. Holy mother of God. The fish is heading off the starboard corner, but the rod and line are dumping off of the port beam? That can't be our fish, but what then the hell is it doing? Someone says, "Hey, I once saw it this way on TV!" I hit the throttles while the spread is clearing to try to get some line back on the spool, successfully. We clear the spread in record time, get Kevin into the harness, the marlin sounds and everything eventually points to what we think is the right direction. Backing down, regaining line, backing down, backing down, eventually we get most of the line back on the spool, a tug of war develops while we are now backing down towards a flyer. While we are going over options on how to handle the flyer and what the hell do we do if we get this fish alongside, it takes a quick run and pops the hook. Probably mercifully for us. The fight lasted for the most exciting 45 minutes of my life. Everyone's blood pressure begins to return to somewhere near normal, out goes the spread, one mile later the same pink Islander in the same short starboard rigger gets blasted, and away goes another blue marlin!!! Since we are now experienced veterans in the world of marlin fishing this time no one soils themselves and everyone leaps into their now defined roles. As we get the spread cleared the marlin leaps again and apparently lands on the main line and breaks it in the process. Holy smokes, what a day. Back on the troll, another flyer, another dozen mahi from it and we pull the plug at 2:45 at 40 08/70 10, 65.8 miles from the Hooter in 78 degree blue water. A FAC ride on the way home and we pulled into the slip at 7:00 on the money. Final tally was 27 mahi mostly from 2 flyers, 1 white marlin released and two blue marlin hookups. Aside from catching our first mako with my two sons, this was the best day of fishing that I or anyone else on board has ever had. If anyone has any advice or guidance on how we should have handled that first marlin any differently, I would love to hear it.

[MarkP]

Great report...

MarkP

[Sea Draggin]

Great job CaptKev. I was clappping and routing for you guys just reading the recount. Sounds like plenty o meat with some bill action thrown in. Couldn't ask for more. Pretty work.

[simonsez1]

Holy Crap, that is a great story! I was living it while readin it!
Great stuff!

[rmoody79]

I need a bigger boat.....

[Ted Blount]

Arrived about 8:45 Friday and found the hot water in the Tails nothing until you get there. Talk was discouraging as not much was happening. Tolled west a bit about 700 feet deep and had a Big Blue Marlin maul the center rigger, pink islander chugger with a big ballyhoo near a pot with mahi on it.. Dropped back and wound in nothing. Five seconds later the right blue/white bally islander gets inhailed. 1h 10m later we had a 15foot 500lb+ Blue thrashing along side the boat, Couldn't get the tag in all the confusion. Trolled back toward the tails found a pot with a lot of mahi on it, coasted up while reeling in the lines. The last in was an mahi looking big marlin lure. 50 feet behind the boat chasing in the lure was another 15f submarine big blue. We were toast, the boat was stopped and you couldn't reel the lure any more. Stayed and got a bunch of mahi. That was around noon. Tolled a little to the east side of the Tails, lots of rays and whales, no tuna. Radio was quiet. Two pm a black purple braid starts to sing. Maybe we have a yellowfin. 30seconds later out comes another big Blue about 350lbs, 1h 10m we had her alongside. Got the tag but didn't get the hook. The best Blue Marlin day ever! Back at the dock at 7:30pm
The marlin were hanging around the pots and feeding on mahi I'm convinced. Remember when you fish that hot blue water always be prepared for the big ones.

Ted Blount
Judy B

[stripah]

Ted,

Great job glad to see the Judy B still raises the big blues! That was a fun season a few years back, wish there was more time for fishing, but priorities have changed lately.

Marc

[amarshall]

The honesty is what makes it such a great report. !

Fucking awesome.