6/14 The Canyons and Beyond!

[Riptide Charters]

Yesterday we took Riptide on our first Canyon trip of the season. Truth is it wasnt REALLy a conyon trip because we fished well BEYOND the canyons. The crew for the trip was Mike C, Ruge, Split and Me. The night before was filled with prepping the boat, loading on 450# of ice, winding on new topshots and all that stuff that happens before the first offshore trip of the season. This just adds to the list of the already labor intensive task of getting ready for any canyon trip. For good measure we did the oil, belts and gearcase lubes on the Verados as well. Lastly the most painful part of the prepping. The trip to the gas station to fill all three tanks to the filler caps.



Then it was nap time. A quick 4 hour nap was all I needed before leaving the house at 0100 to meet Split at Falmouth at 0200. We loaded on his gear to the already packed boat and by 0230 we were clearing the jetties at Falmouth. The run against the tide in the Sound was the bumpiest and slowest part of the entire trip. We made 30kts in the 2ers until we rounded Gay Head. Here we lost the opposing current and the water began to flatten out. Split and Mike C settled into the beanbag chairs for a long nap, Ruge kept watch and I pushed the big Contender up to 35kts for a fast flat cruise towards our destination of 39.30 / 71.00.

The run to the edge was unevenful and in 2 hoursfrom the time we rounded the 31 can off Gay Head we were clearing Block Canyon. Split and Mike C awoke to loads of shelf life. The sun was just breaking the horizon as we dropped over the 1000 fathom curve. We finally hit our numbers and we found some scattered weeds and a few shearwaters. It was no allot of life, but it was the most we had seen since we cleared the shelf. The water was 76 degrees. We decided to look around a bit before going lines in. I cranked the radar up from traveling mode to bird finder mode and Mike C put his eagle eyes on the horizon. We picked up a good flock of shearwaters about 2 miles away. We heaeed over towards them and when they came into view so did the breaking Yellowfin under them.

On this trip Split was going to be running his spread for us. It was unlike our normal spread in several ways He runs ALLOT of rods, we generally run only 7 or a max of 8. So when we saw the birds and fish it was a very rapid deployment trying to get all the rods out as we closed on the fish. When we reached the fish it took only seconds for 6 of the rods to go off and we had 50-70# yellowfin going in every direction. With the new spread we were not as smooth as we would have liked and some of us were grabbing the wrong rods from the wrong positions. When the smoke cleared we went a sub par 3 for 6 on the YFT, with 3 of them pulling the hooks as we fought the other three. While the extra rods do work well, it would have been nice to get used to the new spread with a double or even a triple. The six rod knockdown threw us for a learning curve loop at least we were on the board.

The guys reset the spread as Ruge bled, iced and boxed the tuna and I set us up for another pass on the fast moving birds. This pass was a bit slower and we doubled up, but on big mahi rather than YFT. The mahi put on a show and in short order Ruge was bleeding and icing a 15# and a 20#er. As I set up for the third pass.

This time the spread got bit but the fish were small skippies. Not sure what was happening but the same flock of birds kept giving up different fish. We landed and cut loose the 3-5# skippies and then the birds were gone.

The guys gave the boat a quick cleaning as I began to look for the birds again or some other target to go after. I found a scattered weedline on the break and we began to trol NW along the break. When we found sonething floating bigger than a bucket it was covered with life and also some super sized mahi. The best item we found was a 30' log that held a ton of fish and we pounded it for 2 hours making pass after pass at it. The best mahi of the day came from this piece of timber and was over 30#.


This hunt and seek went on for the rest of the afternoon and we picked away at mahi in the 15-30# range. I'm a HUGE mahi fan since I don't really love eating tuna, but blacken me up a big hunk of mahi and I'm in heaven. Add to it the size of these fish and I was in my glory.

When the day was done aroun 1600 we went lines in and headed for home. Just as Mike C and Split began to get into the REM sleep mode we cleared the edge and Ruge and I spotted SBFT slow rolling on the glassy water. We woke the snuggle buddies and set out a quick 5 rod spread. Dispite pulling right over the fish several times they were just not in the eating mood and they continued to roll slowly without so much as a sniff.

The rest of the run home was fast and flat and I even got an hour of beanbag time as Capt Split took the wheel from the Lanes to Gay Head. We hit the Falmouth jetties just as the sun slipped away at 2100 hours.

The final tally for the trip was 3 YFT from 50-70#, a bunch of mahi from 15# to over 30#, and a few small 3-5# skippies. We sort of landed two sailfish as well, when cleanign the big mahi today Ruge found a pair of 12" sailfish in it's stomach still in pretty good condition. So by proxy we got 2 sailfish The fish came on an assortment of lures, bars amd hoos. I don't know what all was in the spread most of the time. Split did a nice job of adjusting the spread for the conditions and he didn't rest for a minute. Dispite scattered weeds the spread was kept continuiosly weed free all day. The total fuel burn for the day was 307.9 gallons, leaving us 93 gallons as a reseerve. I found out some interesting things about the boat. We were able to reach Block Canyon from the Gay Head can in exactly 2 hours. That should put Atlantis in the 1:45 range or around 2.5 hours from Falmouth Jetties. I expect we will be making that run ALLOT this summer weather and fishing permitting.

Overall it was not the ultimate canyon trip, but considering this is striper season and we ran down with basicly no outside intel, in a center console for a day trip I'm happy with the results. I hope to get better with the bigger spreads. I think with our smaller spraed we may have executed more effectivly since we are more familer with it. But there is no denying the more rods in the water the more fish you can get into the boat if you fish them correctly. I was honestly surprised how many rods we could pull from my boat without any tangles or issues. Kudo's to Split for that and thanks for the lesson.

On a side note we didnt get any pics of the YFT due to the cockpit chaos, but Ruge did get some OUTSTANDING Mahi footage on the HD camera. With the polarized lens and the cobalt blue GulfStream water the footage is just stunning. I'll be working on that over the next week and hope to have some up for viewing later on in the week.
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[bisquit]

Great picture--beautiful dolphin and gorgeous water!

Thanks for sharing...

[Animal 1]

As always,awesome report.You're killing me.

[fountain17]

sweet report...very nice ..I enjoyed the read and thanks for sharing captain. kudos to you and your crew.

don

[Tunapursuit]

I enjoyed the read, pictures and the shock of the fuel price picture... Thanks for sharing.

[Nauti Natured]

That fuel bill will get your attention!