RETURN FROM THE TAILS TO WEST ATLANTIS

[Ironwoodtuna]

Cody and I awoke at 1:30AM, with “XIAO MU JI” ready and waiting for the crew to arrive. On queue, Alfred, aka “Norman Batts-PSYCHO”, George C. & Alex T. off pushed off for the deep. The plan was to run to 14378 x 436123 and drop in North of the Tails where the fish had been Thursday. We arrived on site at 5:00AM and set up our pattern of small bait spreader bars framed with two Williamson Bonitos chasing the spread and two Bigeye stubby chuggers on the outside of the spread, on the long riggers. The were skippies and small bait all over the place we worked the area till 8:00AM then headed to the South to the Tails, the radio chatter was that it was going to be a tuff troll, and only a couple of YFT at night on the chunk.

We hooked up on the Northeast corner of the mouth of the Tails, George being it was his 1st canyon trip was given the experience of fighting and landed his 1st 50# Albie, and we continued to work the area for an hour with no more takers. So, we pulled and ran 11-NM to the northeast, dropping in at 14600 x 43400, where the report of whales & bait had gotten my attention. We worked area with whales, turtles and porpoise, again no takers so we headed towards the southeast until we reached the notch west of West Atlantis. As we came across 650’ line, we found and worked a huge school of small porpoise for a while with no takers. Then, trolling east towards West Atlantis we came across a 175-200# Swordfish cruising the surface and made two attempts to bait him with a slow trolled giant squid, he wasn’t interested and sounded. It was 4:30PM, so we pulled and ran 8-NM to the Southeast corner of West Atlantis, 14375 x 43350 and dropped in our spread looking for the evening bite. We immediately ran over a huge concentration of bait balls, with porpoise around and stayed locked on the area until darkness took the opportunity away.

Under the cover of darkness, the slight breeze had died to complete calm. We moved out to 800’, shutdown and setup for the night bite. Drifting Southeast till we got into 1500’ around 11:00PM, were we pulled and ran back up to where we had all the bait balls were in 630’ of water. Under the beautiful stars and half moon it made us feel so lucky to be in God’s Country. We again deployed two giant squid baits at 250’ and 125’ for Swords, and three whole Butters at different depths for the tunas. The first YFT came into the spread and we were hooked up around 1:00AM. Alex brought to my gaff, a nice 70# YFT. The “Code Master” Cody immediately dropped down and started working his long Butterfly jig and with in 15-minutes had a nice fish screaming drag on 50# Power Pro off his Torium 30. A couple of minutes later, a 74# YFT met my gaff and landed on the deck. Things were looking up! Finally, the skunk was out of the box and we anticipated the next bite. Things stayed quite for an hour or so till another 60# YFT met its demise under Alfred’s rod. At 4:10AM, first light was coming and another tuna baited rod started screaming off into the deep. George took this fish, and after a few screaming runs, I saw in the glow of our Hydroglow lights, that he had himself a Swordfish, no monster but a definitely a keeper. Being careful not to break the light 60# fluorocarbon leader, I wired and gaffed the Swordie. It measured out 48.5” lower jaw to fork and I could smell the barbeque. We were out of butterfish, so we re-rigged for the morning troll.

I was setting in the spread and with just two rods left to get into the spread the center rigger popped. The fish missed the hook. I raced to the helm and started dancing the boat and throttle. Nothing, so as I was deploying the 10th rod the 9th rod, short rigger on a Zucchini Spreader bar went off screaming. I jumped back to the helm and danced the boat again dumping nearly half the spool looking for a multiple hookup. Nothing, back down the throttles and Alfred was into the battle. The boat next to us, the “REEL OFFICIAL” hooked up on two Bigeyes too. Al fought the fish and I drove around keeping the fish in the Starboard corner for nearly 2-hours. I was a little frustrated with Al, because I felt he wasn’t putting the pressure on the fish. But, I held back telling him what to do. I figured the fish would soon start to dictate to him that he should start listening to me and start pressuring the fish. That point came and Al started to really pump the fish, the fish at one point came up to the surface around 60’ from the boat, what a pig, probably in the 300# range, just monstrous. Then it sounded again going deep. Here, the very next trip, we were again into another bruiser Bigeye, but, this time, it was on a Shimano TLD-50 LRS with a top shot of 250-yards of 80# Momoi and 900-yards of JB. Ten minutes later, we had my Bimini knot coming out of the water, I gave Cody the helm, and as I was moving toward and watching the knot coming out of the water, the line parted. Al was jolted backwards, he wasn’t doing anything when it happened, the line just snapped! Once again, we lost shot at landing a Bigeye bruiser. Getting over the depression, I got us back on the troll, Al from the REEL OFFICIAL called me and said that he had a fish on so I made way for him. He had landed his two 300# Bigeyes that he had hooked up on and was now into a smaller fish. We worked the area till 10:00AM, the wind was now blowing an easy 15-20-knots out of the Southwest so we started trolling toward the barn. At 11:30AM we pulled in and ran the remaining 86-NM home being able to only run between 18 to 20-knots, we rounded the Montauk Jetty at 4:30PM. Cleaned fish, the boat, then drove Cody home dropped him off, then took my tired ass and finished my drive back to Manhattan, arriving 10:30PM. The end of a good Weekend Canyon Trip and said Good Night! Capt. Marty