W. Atlantis Sun./Mon.

[storm petrel]

Inaugural canyon trip on the newly refitted Storm Petrel!!

We left Block Island at 5:00 am Sun morning, aimed for the very "lifey" water West of West Atlantis. We barely made 20 kts weighed down w/ 165 gallons of diesel, 800 lbs of ice, 3 80 wide bent butts, and 6 50s (Storm Petrel is only 26'). One hour out, the alternator belt snaps. We drifted around for about forty minutes trying to get the new, somewhat smaller belt to fit on the pulleys. Back in action, we have lines in the water 16 miles West of W. Atlantis in 500 ft of water. Ten minutes later.....two on!!! Two in the boat about 45 lbs. found our way out into the deep and all the life. I have been doing this for a while, have made between 100 and 200 canyon trips. I have never seen quite the variety and quantity that we saw this trip...............at one point we saw mantas, sharks, marlin, and yellowfin feeding at the same time, together!!! Acres of dolphins, finback whales, jumping mantas (some doing backflips, even double flips), the occasional whale shark and blue marlin sunning themselves.......holy ****!!!!

I run the boat from the tower all day, out of the sun under the canopy. It has to be one of the nicest days I've seen out here; great visibility through air and water,beautiful blue water glassy calm surface that showed the slightest fish activity. And, as I've already said, all the life you could wish for. Glory, just waiting in the wings to happen!! All of a sudden all the time and money I spent on the boat refitting her seems well worth it. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

The only thing missing was a good bite Shearwaters and Storm Petrels sitting around on the water in numbers that boggle the imagination. We did hook a white, fought it for a few minutes before it got off. Trolled North back to where we picked the first fish, no love. Saw ONE Mahi the whole trip...it saw the boat and fled for it's little rat life!!!!

Trolled back to the zoo of life, kept pounding the ground, South into the warmer water, North into the cooler water. Finally, around 3:30, a monster knockdown. We didn't see the fish,just a volkswagen-sized hole.The fish took the bird daisy chain by the bird, not the hook bait. Oh well. An hour or so later, another knock down. keep going, keep going, keep going, no more hits. Slow down, one more 45 lb fish in the boat. Another fish hits, heads left at approx. 40 mph, then right.. Marlin? Wahoo? It has some serious weight, but no more runs or jumps. It takes line from the fifty. we get all the other lures in, try to work the fish. The hook pulls after twenty minutes, without ever gaining line on the fish. A mystery. Start up again, one more decent yellow before we stop trolling at around 9;00 pm and settle in for the night with as much bait as I've ever seen.

Nothing till around 11:00, when a fish hits on a jig. fought it for five minutes, broke it off. Then a runoff on a working bait. No love. Then a small swordfish swimming around, won't take a bait. Nothing 'til 4:00 am or so. Then, with the approach of an awesome thunderstorm and a bunch of dolphins feeding on the billions of anchovies, the bite happens!! We get a runoff and a hook up. While fighting that fish, I hook another one jigging. The chunk fish is 40 lbs, the jig fish is a 32 inch rat. We quickly put a few more in the boat. The bite is over.

We get on the troll with a massive thunderstorm to our South, and a building wind out of the Southwest. The dolphins and birds are everywhere, going nuts feeding. We pick up three little rat yellows, ONE AT A TIME (where O where is the pack-attack bite we've been hearing about?) We keep trolling North, take the lines in and start steaming home before the winds that are predicted to gust to 20 in the afternoon start up.

All in all, a pretty good trip. Really, an very excellent trip when you factor in the perfect weather, all the life, and the number of hits. Then there was the crew; Perry Phillips, who was my mate for one year when he was fifteen. He learned to use a harpoon on his first canyon trip when we boated some slob tunas. Tom frye also worked as mate on the old Storm Petrel for two years and a bunch of canyon overnights and tournaments. Jeremy was our newbie, caught 'em trolling, chunking, and jigging. Not bad for a first trip. Had the bite been consistent with the bait and the life, it might have been even more memorable

[keithj]

We were out the with you, somewhere. Pretty similar trip. Got lines in about 3PM Sunday afternoon west of the canyon by a few miles and immediately hooked a white on a big blue marlin lure. About 20 seconds later the fish was gone. We continued south for maybe 20 minutes before the wahoo pack attack. Three big wahoo exploded through the spread. 1 bit through the doubled 300 pound test on a marlin plug, the other pulled a hook and the third made it to the fish box, a nice 65 pounder. On the troll again and we worked the water into the deep checking out the manta's and nearly running over a whale shark (thought it was a manta until we got the boat almost on top of it!) Jon on the tunanut called us in toward some fishy looking water with petrols feeding and we put 4 40+ pound yellows in the box before nightfall. Set up on the west wall of the canyon and had a nice overnight drift northeast along the wall until the drift stalled out. Spent the last three hours watching that monster thunderstorm on the Sirius wondering weather it would slam us or pass to the south. No action on the night bite, although we didn't chunk and just drifted for swords. On the troll in the morning, the passing front seemed to quiet the tuna bite where we were and they didn't seem to be where we left them. Hit 2 mahi of th 5-8 pound variety on a floating ball, then hooked another white on a bigeye lure. Then lost another white after about 2 minutes of battling. Then had the wahoo show again. Went 1 for 2 and put a second 40 pound wahoo in the boat. Second fish shot through the spread but missed the hook entirely. With sustained 15 knots southwest an d building whitecapping seas, pulled the plug and ran home. Wahoo and whites were on the cold side of the break. Tuna in the deep on the warm side. Hopefully next trip takes us east.