Hudson 7/26-28

[chumtini]

With the tri-state coming up, let's just say - The Hudson is En Fuego.

But I'd be lying

The plan was to shove off around 6PM Tues and run as fast and as far as possible, then steam S overnight at 10 kts. We've done this before. It saves fuel and puts on location at sunrise. But with little intel nor satelite imagery, we still weren't sure where - somewhere from the Hudson to the Atlantis's (Atlantises? Atlantisis?).

Our departure was delayed due to a line of t-storms passing overhead. By 9PM we were passing Montauk, heading S. We made good time, thanks to Andy's beautiful 42' Henriques, a fishing machine ...and on the market (a shameless plug ) We even managed to catch the line of t-storms along the cold front that passed by earlier. No way around this one. It's "hands off the metal" time.

Fortunately, there wasn't much wind. But it was charged up. If you've never experienced an offshore squall at night, it's a little eerie up on the bridge - pouring rain, pitch black except for the continuous blinding flashes of lighting, the kind you see....and hear at the same time.

It's hard to see, but we were pulling 3 squid chains with green light sticks 60-someodd miles without a sniff (thank god!)


Same shot...with lightning







It took maybe an hour to break though that storm and we continued trucking S thru the night. Just before sunrise, we were lines in at the dip. It was nice to see the sunrise after that long overnight run




We did a quick troll to check things out, then picked up and ran to our destination.

Things were slow. We picked off a couple nice yft and very nice mahi.



And, we found this little fella. We don't catch many of these. The first and last one I remember was 3 or 4 years ago...on a flyrod.


Water was 77-78 and dirty, white marlin country. We spent the rest of the afternoon plowing the area. Nothin, not even a mahi. Just before dark, we get a bite. She dug deep getting pulled to the boat. Thought for sure it was a tuna. She was no match for my home made Super Seeker rod. All of a sudden, she leaps from the water at the transom - Marlin!, White Marlin! Randy, aka Marlin Rando, makes quick work getting her to the door and in she comes - green and chippy. After ***** slapping Jim around, she's out the door. Another Sunset Surprise!!




The night's excitment was a boat (small freighter) off our back corner. She was showing her green nav lights making way at about 10-15 knots. We were showing nav lights as well as we were adrift. Next thing we know she's coming up on us. She was close enough to wake Captain Andy and start the engines! I'll guess the other boat never saw us. She passed about 200' off our port. The cap was probably watching TV or asleep at the wheel. Who knows. I called it a night after that. My nerves were shot. Quiet night after that. One mako bite off and a mystery run off on a sword rig.

At day break we were back on the troll running N back toward Block along 1600' looking, hoping, for something big. All we found was more greenish dirty water. As we came up on Block we watched another boat wrestle a marlin. Cool. We add more marlin flavors to the spread and....nuthin, zippo, nadda. We ran up the middle of block and found a huge pile of yellow nylon rope and pulled a couple real nice mahi out from under it. Went back and picked up that disaster waiting to happen. I never noticed just how much life is in those floating piles of debris. We found trigger fish, crabs, all sorts of stuff. There's some nice mahi down there.


That's about it. We broke out the trout rods and had some fun with the mahi. A couple were 20 lbs or more. Hardly lights out fishing. But it was action packed!

So if someone asks, tell them you heard THE HUDSON IS ON FIRE.

-Steve

[Avenger]

Interesting pics and report. Looks like you had an exciting trip. Thanks for posting.