The disease progresses...

[Massbaytuna3]

I was finally able to break away from my comfort zone at "Stellographers" and recently got down to the canyons. I've been invited to go probably 10+ times, but have either had a sh*tty schedule or have not had the weather window...

Ended up making the trip on the Good Point; a 37 Duffy out of Scituate. Fun crew, great bunch of guys. The trip started off following the trend of my previous invites with the engine overheating at Falmouth...We fueled up, swapped the impeller, still overheating...We checked the main through hulls, strainer(s), etc etc, finally found the issue, and made our way down to Hydro with a 3 hr delay.

We setup, came by our 2nd flyer for the afternoon and nailed half a dozen NICE 20lb bull mahi. About an hour later on the troll we picked up a 50lb yellow on a bar. At around 9:30 we setup on the night bite. Before leaving I had a few conversations with my buddy Frank and my father's mate Corey (who grew up fishing the canyons) on how to rig for swords. Needless to say, I followed their lead...15 minutes into fishing we hooked and "released" a 200lb mako. Popped the 300 flouro when we had him on the leader. 20 min after that we went off again and had a 60-70lb sword pup in the cockpit. A few pictures, some vid, and a quick release. About 30 minutes later, one of the rods starts to click again. I come flying out into the cockpit and could feel the sword slashing at the mackeral. A minute later, the blue light comes flying to the surface at 20 mph, and as I'm reeling tight we see a NICE 7 ft ish sword in the lights. As soon as he saw the boat, he dumped 2/3 of the spool. 12lbs of drag, we had him on for about 30 minutes and pulled the hook...

Back on the troll early in the morning, we started trolling towards the NW corner of Welkers. We picked away at 50-65lb class yellows on our way; a few double headers in the mix. Most of the bites coming on skirted ballyhoo and bars.

Like Damon said in his thread earlier, the big eye bite at Welkers was INSANE. We assumed we were late; hearing about a guy getting 4, guys getting 1, 2, 3, all in the morning...but right at noon our long ballyhoo got inhaled and half the spool was dumped. 58 minutes later we had a nice 250lb class eye ball on deck. I finally got to see what all the hype was about these things and how; "They make bluefin look like p*ssys" and how "If they got over 500lbs they would be almost impossible to land." It was true, it was a battle.

On our way home, at the tip of Welkers, we had a nice 300lb class blue marlin come up on the left short. Popped the rigger once, and then came back and inhaled the lure only to pull the hook shortly after.

Finally tally was: (10) 50-65lb class yellowfin, (6) 20lb bull mahi, 200lb mako, 1 for 2 on swords, 250lb bigeye, and hooked up a blue marlin.

All in all and amazing experience. I am officially screwed...hoping to get back out there soon.

Here are some pics from the trip. Pretty much every fish is on HD Vid as well as Hero Cam as well. Taylor loaded it up last night.

-Bryan

[CaptainCJ35]

Awesome... simply awesome.

[tmack92]

Wow, I mean how do you beat a trip like that? Stellographers will never be the same

[backman]

yup. Just forget about bluefin boredom from now on and join the rest of us in blue water dreams. Once you go there you can't go back to the green water as easily...

[keithj]

Awesome trip! I used to fish for bluefin too. Good luck getting back into that. My most boring trip of the year was the one early season trip we did off chatham. And we got a 300 pounder on that trip. Trolling bars just doesn't get the job done these days...

Sick eyeball.

[Crazy Ivan]

Nice!!!!!!! Need at least 3 fish bags and tons of extra ice!

[On The Edge]

Nice trip Bryan.
The edge is a truly special place.
Looking forward to some of the same on Akula's return to the big blue this weekend. Last trip got us a hoo for Chris's bucket list. Lets see i we can cross one off mine off the list this time.

Ditto on dem Big Eye. Got a 230 2 years ago, dems tings can PULLLLL like a sombitch

[Thynnus]

Great job guys awesome trip, can't wait to get back out there!

[Defiant]

Outstanding !!!!!

[dougsulser]

awesome! nice trip sounds like out east has been the place to be