Get Reel Atlantis report from SEP 20-21 – YFT limit

**getreel** · 09-22-2009 11:45 AM

Headed to the SST break North of Atlantis canyon with great weather and a solid crew of 7 including myself: Paul, John (On the Edge), Chris (Hoopa drives the boat), Fred (Seaworm), Dave, and Jamie (the anti-gaffer). Hard SST break from 65 to 75 degrees with green water on the cold side and cobalt blue on the warm side with weeds spread out all over. Lines in on the warm side and first YFT in the box soon thereafter. Then it got quiet. Worked the temp break on both sides and found more life on the warm side and less weeds. Plan was to head to Veatch, but the warm water appeared to be pushing west, so we worked towards East Atlantis for the night. The day troll was quiet with the exception of an occasional suicidal mahi and what must have been a nice wahoo that cut us off after a blistering runoff and left Chris muttering “I want a wahoo” for the remainder of the trip. Trolled up the west wall of E. Atlantis and chatted with Skipjack who said he was on fish to the east in 600 feet of water. Just before sunset, and near the tip of E. Atlantis, we started to get the multiples of small YFT. All legal, but nothing bigger than 30#'s. Trolled into the dark and pulled lines to run to the deep west side of East Atlantis for a NE drift across the canyon. Set up for the night chunk in 3000 feet of water and within a half hour we had fish behind the boat. Throw out chunks on the spinning gear to the mahi darting through the lights only to find out they where YFT. Had some fun on the spinners, got a couple in the boat and opened them up to see what they where eating. They had about two handfuls of partially frozen chunks in them. Plenty of life all night and we jigged up some nice big squid to liveline. Had a few live squid ripped off the hooks and then one really good runoff that broke off below the swivel. It was then quiet until about 0300 when all hell broke loose. All the baits went down and John hooked up with a squid jig on a very light spinning rod. The jigging sticks came out and it was lock and load on jigs and chunks fished on spinning gear for the next hour. An hour later John finally landed a ~35# YFT foul hooked with a squid jig. The fish stayed with us for another hour but became more selective and we picked away at them. Nothing on the sword baits until we were just about ready to get on the troll. The absolute last thing we were going to do before the grey light troll was to retrieve the last deep sword bait. I was getting ready to start the engines when we got a good runoff and came tight. Unfortunately it turned out to be a big bluedog that Chris got to the boat on 200# mono. Spent the morning working the tip of E. Atlantis and then trolling back towards Atlantis before heading to the barn. We had a big fish slam a splash bar on the approach to a high-flyer. We came tight and the fish smoked out 500 yards of line heading for the deep. Unfortunately he managed to wrap the high-flyer line before I could get clear of it. We lost the fish, but I got my bar back. We did have one fish smack the flat line, then smack the short rigger and Fred teased him with the short shotgun and briefly came tight, but no joy. Had to be a marlin, but with the sun at our back, we could not see it.

Best bait was the hoo behind the bird fished long of the center rigger, but when we got covered-up, they took everything. Not many mahi for us this trip, but more than enough YFT. We kept our 7-man limit with fish up to 40#s. Water temp ranged from 63 to 75 degrees with very defined edges. Where are all the bigger YFT and LFT?

A shot of the night bite mayhem. And a sunrise shot with John wondering if his jeans made him look fat.

**JD5652** · 09-22-2009 12:41 PM

Great report and pics. Sounds very familiar to the trip I made exactly a week ago.....I heard that the big YFT....and a few big eye were and are still in Veatches.....

**keithj** · 09-22-2009 01:08 PM

We found mostly smalls in Veatch too. Heard of a few bigger tuna caught to 80lbs but that was the exception rather than the nor. We ended up with a dozen yellows to 30lbs and 20+ mahi to 30lbs on the day trip. No bills or big tuna but the mahi were fun on light tackle. Wish I could have gotten Monday off and spent the night...