Castafari 4 Day Canyon Wrap Up

[cappyD]

Sorry for the delay in this report. We did two back to back canyon trips and were supposed to be back at it today but the northeast wind put a stop to that plan. I wasnt complaining The bottom line is simple. The canyons are all holding fish. We focused on blue marlin on our first outing heading out to Hydrographer canyon with a 10 year returning Castafari veteran, Jerome Baril. Jerome drives down from Montreal every year and fishes with us chasing big marlin and bluefin in the fall. He's a halves fan, but because he brings a vast array of exceptional cuisine he's treated with extreme hospitality. Anyone who brings duck breast and lamb racks on a fishing trip is alright in my book. So we blasted to Hydro and set in at the tip of the canyon catching some nice yellowfin to 60 pounds...no rats!! It was nice to limit out on yellows right off the bat and they were real fish. That would eventually change though. I set out my 5 rod marlin spread and we stepped up the speed to 10 knots so the plugs were slammin back there! The first day we raised a blue but never got a hookset. Caught a few rats at dusk and a couple of 25 pound mahi along a weedline. I found a nice break of 72 to 77 on the southwest edge of the canyon by the end of the day. This break is a fishy one. It is now in the vicinity of Veatch Canyon. The night bite came and we hooked into a screamer which came unbuttoned after a minute of de-spooling...bummer. That was it until the morning when we picked up a rat yellow. We got on the troll and worked the break. Its loaded with rats....but where there's rats, there are blue marlin. Within a few hours we had raised 7 blue marlin, hooked up three solid battles pitching horse ballyhoo and spanish mackeral. The fish were crashing in on my Legend lure Andy's with a vengence! One fish that we missed was a monster...700 class fish that just rolled on the left short like an electified submarine. We broke a nice one off after the fish wrapped up the mainline while tearing up the surface beside us doing 20 knots. We then pulled two more hooks after what seemed to be solid hook sets! Jerome absorbed the slack/belly..evrything was right. It was one of those days. The action was truly remarkable. Every 20 minutes it seemed the boat was calling a big billfish up from the depths. Only one white. The rest were blues. We had a blast anyway. Jerome still got his excercise The full moon and the overabundance of small tuna gave us the conditions we were looking for. The tide was screaming out there. It seemed the marlin were especially turned on at the slack though. If we werent hooked up to fish who knows how many we would have seen out there. the best part is with all this bait around, those fish arent going anywhere

We went back at it right to the same break on Monday which was now situated halfway down the 100 fathom line between Hydro and Veatch. Loads of rat tuna again and after a few hours bam, the tuna bait behind a bird gets inhaled by a huge blue. Fish takes off for Bermuda....hook pulls. Thats three hook pulls in a row...yes they were sharp...new...Mustads...just no love! My hand hurts from hitting my console We raised one more white that felt the hook on a plug and didnt hang around for a pitch. caught some nice mahi on the flyers, one fish just shy of 30. The highlight of this trip was at night. We released a small sword while drifting the throat of the canyon at Veatch. We hooked up a huge sword, and I mean this was a real one. The fish came up and literally swam right into the lights like a big grey ghost before taking off for the bottom. John and I both saw the fish...wow. It then blasted and there was no stopping it. Unfortunately it eventually sawed through the 250 pound flouro leader. Now Ive caught sword to 300 on 250 flouro out there. I just think the mojo is not swinging in the right direction yet. It was nice to have some action with a few monsters in between the mahi and yellowfin bites. We loaded up on 30 to 50 pound yellows and mahi trolling inside the shelf on the way home. Didnt see any marlin inside but man did we catch up the big 20 to 30 pound mahi in that water. theres a nice slug due north of Veatch by about 15 to 20 miles...nice break from 70 to 76. There are flyers stacked with mahi. Heard a guy talking about wahoo in there too. If youre in the market for a monster, go to the edge and get your pitch baits ready. My crew and I needed a break. Im taking the weekend to hang with my kids. Back out there Monday. Good luck to all of you guys fishing tourneys this weekend. Enjoy the weather!! It looks too good to be true

Be sure and check out the Castafari Monster Club at www.castafari.com for great sportfishing tv action documenting all of our trips! Tight lines

[chumtini]

the tuna bait behind a bird gets inhaled by a huge blue. Fish takes off for Bermuda...

I'm not quite sure how to read this, especially coming from the Castafari. Is that a "tuna bait" as in a bridled tuna or a bait for tuna

There are some BIG swords out there!