Salty Dog Wahoo/Marlin Bite!

[SaltyDog]

We hit the counterclockwise rotating eddy that was smacking right into east atlantis on friday for a day trip. Left the Falmouth Harbor at 4am and lines in between Atlantis and East Atlantis, pointed south, at 8am in FAC conditions, sun shining, water true blue. Finally got my spread figured out this year, its full of bait, popping, chugging, and movement, looking alive. Water temp was 76.1 on lines in and our goal was to fish the INSIDE southern break on the eddy(see pic) rather than the northern outside. We traversed through 77+ degree water, picking up mahi on each flyer and then broke through into the inner colder edge of the eddy at 75.1 degrees. My Sirius Weather system tells me exactly where I am in relation to the break, it helps put me in the right spot when used with Roffers charts. We arrived in 600-700 feet on the edge and turned east towards East Atlantis. After a few minutes we had our first Blue Marlin on hitting my right long with a horse ballyhoo/chugger. Estimated around 200lbs and it spit the hook, still green, right at the boat after a 15 minute fight. Nice way to start the day and its only 9am! Then the fun started...

Suddenly a silver missile comes blasting out of the water right through the port teaser chain right behind the boat!! Was that a wahoo? Looked kind of long for a tuna, right? The debate begins on what it was and then the right short Beamish Lydonia Lady goes off hard!!! Fish On!! Captain was told this is his fish so I strap in and 15 minutes later, 2 blistering runs with head shakes, we stick a big ass Wahoo! The Wahoo!! cries erupt in the cockpit and the day just got even better. We spin the boat, reset the spread, and hit that exact same spot, and then, BAM, huge hit, huge run, tons of line, way bigger than the last wahoo, we fight this fish for 15 minutes and it is running deep and hard, its not a marlin, got to be a huge wahoo. As we get it close the hook pulls and we all sit back in silence, could have would should have been a 100lb wahoo---never know... So lets get our mojo back and we hit the spot again---BAM!!! 10 minute later Wahoo #2 in the boat!! Now we got wahoo fever so the cedar plug comes out, the black/purple swimmer goes in, the trolling speed goes up a bit, BAM!!! wahoo #4 on the line, this is an epic wahoo bite is all I can think!!!

After awhile the bite slows with only mahi on the flyers and we point the boat east again towards east atlantis. Nightbite is on the bridge and yells out he has fish on the surface, we motor south into 800 feet and see a large fin chasing a mahi!! Holy Shi$$ thats a huge marlin. I am not a good marlin fisherman with little experience and probably could have done something to ensure we caught this fish. Regardless, we turned in to him and let our spread run him over---Whack, Boom, Bam! She hits two or three lures and settles in on the Beamish Munson Mahi----and takes off!!! Big Blue Marlin erupts out of the water, massive shoulders, I have no idea what to do with a big marlin 400-500lbs?, we clear lines, do we back down? turn and chase? I wish anyone from Castafari was here.... We fought her like champs and she pulled the hook 30 yards from the boat---DAMN! I know we did something wrong but cant put my finger on it. Need to talk to people on this one...

Lines back in and we make it to East Atlantis, no signs of tuna and have only seen 1 boat all day. A center console that we earlier dialed into the wahoo bite for good mojo... Now its 2pm and we make the turn north to troll back through the warm part of the eddy. Nightbites recommendation is we start cutting up some of the 15 mahi over the next hour so the ride home can be some cold beer drinking, chair sitting, relaxation time. Captain says lets do it. Set the autopilot on The Hooter and we get to work on the mahi. Water temp 77.5. Two mahi done and then 3 rods go off!! WTF!! No fish on? It's quiet and then BAM! the wayback center rod with a Beamish Munson Mahi/Horse Ballyhoo goes down hard and Marlin #3 starts giving us a show. We strap in and go to town, this one is hooked good. After 30 minutes and great aerial shows we get a White Marlin leaping all around the stern of the boat, brilliant blue colors, OMG! amazing, amazing color! We finally bill it and bring it on board for some great pics. It had two remoras? stuck on it which we grabbed( see pic ). Swam it and it went back home to be caught another day. What an awesome ending to the day. It's now 5pm and we need to get home being 75 miles from MV. FAC on the way home, fish all cut up, Bud Light Lime as the victory beers. We head past Oak Bluffs in the dark and get a nice fireworks show for us that we stopped and enjoyed. Great ending to an explosive day. Hopefully we get some variable winds after this gale blows through. September is almost here and thats when the swords arrive... Cant wait...

[MarkP]

NICE report on a great trip...

MarkP

[tajon]

WOW thats an amazing trip! You got most of my bucket list on one trip. Great work!

[Animal 1]

Wow!Great report.

[rirockhound]

Salty:
think we talked to you Fri afternoon near ATL on your steam north. 29 Blackfin we were the only other boat in the vicinity of ATL...

[SaltyDog]

What was the name of your boat and where you from? Someone else drove while I was cutting fish down below on our slow troll home. I dont have much of a network out there so PM me next time you go out and we'll try to hook up

[scratchinbottom]

great trip and awesome pics

[backman]

awesome trip Mark. Thanks for the numbers for us the next day.

[mzajac]

Great report. Way to get it done.

[Reel Pursuit]

Great job Mark, Jon and crew! Anytime you catch a marlin in our waters it's a good thing, let alone 2 for 3! And wahoo to boot. Not bad for a day trip.