Capt. Mark DeBlasio nails 7 Bluefin/5 Yellowfin and Sword

[TommyTuna]

[Capt Josh]

Mark is a fishy little beawtch for sure...

nice work there bro...

[Canyon Runner]

Jonny and Josh - thanks a bunch and I'll pass everyone's comments along. Mark should be on line tomorrow (maybe tonight) so he can fill in all the details. He and Phil had a big day today laying out the details on the new boat. There definately are pictures so he will put those up as well.

[Anngler]

Awesome report! I'm dying to get out there!

[Bay Fishin]

Jonny and Josh - thanks a bunch and I'll pass everyone's comments along. Mark should be on line tomorrow (maybe tonight) so he can fill in all the details. He and Phil had a big day today laying out the details on the new boat. There definately are pictures so he will put those up as well.

What boat did you guys end up deciding on?

[Capt. Mark]

Thanks guys .. it was awesome being out there again. We had great weather and once we found the conditions we liked , we put together a catch. I have to say we are a little spoiled by the fishing we experience off the NJ coast during the summer and fall, but 12 tuna and a sword is a good trip in my book ( particulary when i awoke at 5am Saturday morning to make a cup of coffee and get started only to see a huge box of BANANNA NUT CRUNCH sitting on the counter .. had we been at our home marina I'd suspect another crew of planting it there, but this box belonged to a non believer .. it went over the side of the boat late saturday afternoon with nothing in the fishbox). We found what I was looking for around 2:30 am and had a good one on by 3am only to pull the hook. A few minutes later the one of the tuna rods popped out of the rigger clip and I crank like hell coming tight on what I know is a sword. Matt Smith goes to work on the fish and 15 minutes later his first ever sword is on the deck. She measure 54" on the lower jaw .. we continue on that drift for a bit longer , but we are bearing down on two longline boats so we move back down the line and start over. Just before first light with just myself and Dan Smith in the cockpit, the whole mackeral at 165 feet goes off and we are tight. Dan does an excellant job and we put a nice yellowfin in the boat. Quickly getting some jigs down to 150 feet, Peter and John come tight in seconds and two more yellowfin hit the deck. We lose the bite with sunrise and get on the troll. We work our way back in towards the 100 and the break when the sounder lights up with fish .. I yell down to get ready and seconds later 6 rods are screaming . We go 6 for 6 with green machine bars and purple squids bars accounting for 4 of the 6 fish .. all bluefin. They are stacked up on the edge and it reminds me very much of the trips i had in November around the washington canyon where we were catching 50+ bluefin a trip jigging and chunking. We make another pass on the troll and release another fish on a bally with several misses on the bars. With late afternoon flights scheduled and a long run back to VB , our time there is very limited so we opt not to go back to drift fishing. I gave a couple of the OI boys a heads up and pack it in with the fish still biting .. when we cleaned the yellowfin they were packed with freshly eaten squid. I am anxious to get back out there and fine tune the night fishing .. there is tremendous potential there , and the longline boats would not be there if there wasnt a fishery .. but time will tell ..

on another note .. the 60 Ritchie Howell is an impressive boat. We sea trialed the "Rebel" a 60 Howell two weeks ago and the boat is an animal. I have been to Ritchies shop a few times in the past few weeks and spent a good part of today there .. I dont sign the checks , but even without a crystal ball I can see a 2008 Howell 60 with the Canyon Runner name on the stern. Its exciting to be involved with a project like this and be able to custom build a boat that will suit our needs and our customers needs perfectly.

[Capt. Mark]

Here are some pics from the trip ...