CaptDom

Did my first open boat trip to the deep on Wed. into Thur. Got a last minute cancellation for a shark trip, so put together a trip on short notice, with one guy I knew, and 2 I didn't.

Dan, Jon, and Sean met me at the boat at 9am, we topped off the tanks, and set a course for the tails, as I did not want to run to Hydro with an untested crew.

Hit the edge around 2 pm, and put lines in up on the north flats, thinking of heading down to the 500 fathom line where I had plotted a break. Never made it that far, as there were great signs of life up off the edge and just over it into 1100 feet. Lots of porpoises and a few whales, plenty of tuna chicks and shearwaters, along with quite a few boats. Talked with Carly2(CarlyNewlondon) a few times, as well as a few others. Nice to see a strong NBS crowd out there(heard F-troop, Boonebird, and others on VHF)

THe troll bite never happened for us that afternoon, so we set up in some good looking water south of the shelf in 1300 feet of water, to drift up into the 700 depth areas.....

First drift produced nothing, and we were moving pretty fast, as the easterlies had not let go as predicted, we had some wind, although nothing unbearable, only the occasional steep dropoff. Moved the boat out on a different line, to hopefully bring us up the west wall where the majority of action on the troll seemed to have taken place. As we drifted into 900 feet across into the notch of the tails, we had the short bait go screaming, and a yft of 40 pounds or so came into leader, but changed direction, and spit the hook. Jon was the rod man, and did nothing wrong, the fish just never really had the circle lodged good in its mouth. 0 for 1 on yft, we re set the short bait, and moments later, it gor drilled again, this time by a nice healthy 47 inch sword, which was released without much effort, and swam away strong. Dan was the rod man on that fish, and although not what we were looking for size wise, his first broadbill none the less!

WE drifted out that line, until we hit 650 feet on the ewastern wall, as the drift had changed considerably from our first pass. We had very little bait in the lights, only a few random squid now and then. The last move we made I started out in 1350 feet, and this time the drift angled us perfectly towards the middle of the notch between the two walls. We had a knockdown around 1:30am, that screamed the drag on the mid bait, a live squid, but no solid hook up. Hook was clean when we reeled it in, so mystery fish. Did not hit like a tuna, perhaps a swordie whacked the bait then got bill wrapped shortly?

Around 2, the tip rod got drilled, and a couple of billfish raced through the lights, along with a sizeable mako. Bedlam unsued as I tried getting the tip rod back out, and we came tight instantly on the mid bait. What we thought to be a very large swordie put on a very brief aerial display, then took off runing, dumping the entire 50 wide in a matter of seconds. With only a few short turns left on the reel, we managed to get the other lines cleared, and gave chase, backing down hard for 15 minutes until we had a 1/4 spool back on the reel, and the fish settled down a bit. For the next hour and a half, we slowly gained line on this fish, all the while thinking monster swordie....The guys too kturns on the fish, until we finally seemed to be gaining enough back to think about taking the fish. We had color out away from the boat, and then something changed in a heartbeat, the same mako in the lights earlier decided to come out from under the boat, and take a swipe at the now exhausted "swordie". He managed to take a chunk out of the tail area, so we quickly ramped the drag down tight, and got the fish boatside. What surfaced was no sword fish, but a blue marlin estimated at 200 pounds or so!!!! WE got him in the boat, away from the hungry shark, and motored off a good half mile, then dragged the marlin alongside for 15 minutes, finally letting him glide away after he seemed to get some color back. We are not sure if he made it or not, as he was tired from the fight and bleeding pretty badly from the shark bite. Who would have thought a nice blue marlin on the night chunk?

WE quickly got back to near or prevoius drift where we hooked the marlin, and set up the chunk line again. Around 4 am we had a nice 68 pound yft, seans very first east coast tuna(hes from Hawaii), which again nailed the short bait, and gave a very good fight as he started and ended very hot!

The next hour brought nothing, so we hopped back on the troll, where we again listened to other boats hooking up with big eyes, but all we managed to get were a couple of smallish albies for out efforts, and they came well up into the flats in 330 feet of water, after trrolling for 3 hours around the porpoises and such. Trolling always seem to happen that way fro me, either we get very little, or we slay em. That's fishing though, and we ended the trip a very respectable 1for 3 on tuna, a released sword, a released blue marlin, and 2 albies. Not a bad first canyon charter for Fortuna and Coastal Charters Sportfishing!

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CAPT. DOM PETRARCA
COASTAL CHARTERS SPORTFISHING
NEWPORT, RI (401)-862-0358
www.coastalcharterssportfishing.com

Tuna Meltdown

Capt Dom, I may not be an expert on this because I have never caught one and don't mind my correction but that looks more like a white marlin to me. Great catch anyway and its to bad the sharkie took a bite out of it.

__________________
Dan Stewart
Tuna Meltdown
25' Seacraft

gerg

Great report capt. I always wondered though, if we caught a marlin and couldn't revive it (or like yours had a mortal wound of some kind), would it be good eating?

I'd never kill one to eat, but if it were already dead or doomed, and the regs allow keeping them, are they edible?

But it sounds like a memorable trip!

Congrats.

CaptDom

I thought the same thing, however, this fish had no spots on its dorsal, and its pecs were not very rounded like a whites. The size was the other indicator, as it would have been a HUGE white. But maybe it was......

__________________
CAPT. DOM PETRARCA
COASTAL CHARTERS SPORTFISHING
NEWPORT, RI (401)-862-0358
www.coastalcharterssportfishing.com

CaptDom

Marlin is delicious, they eat it regularly in Hawaii. You can currently keep marlin under HMS regulations, it is within legal rights.

I have a very strict no kill policy on marlin, and this fish was the closest I have come to breaking that(I have taken dead marlin in the past, 1 that died on the line, 2 more that were shark bait). He was lively until the mako hit him, and still had great color when we boated him. After trying to revive him, he was difficult to hold on to, so I figured it had a good shot at making it, and let him go. If he didn't make it, there are plenty of hungry fish in the canyons...I feel the billfish are in big trouble, so its a personal decision. One guy on my charter wasn't too happy I let it go.......

__________________
CAPT. DOM PETRARCA
COASTAL CHARTERS SPORTFISHING
NEWPORT, RI (401)-862-0358
www.coastalcharterssportfishing.com

Captain Curt

Great report and good job on the release some can be tough.

would love to head to canyons but ankle is holding me back still!

Good luck on your next trip.

__________________
Capt.Curt Maxon
www.relentlesscharters.com
"we are a full service charter boat"

gman

great report Dom, that had to be an amazing site

striperchaser

i lived in Hi for 10 years, and the locals love it!!!!! when you catch one on a charter boat, it is customary to give the owner of the boat half of it for him to sell on the food market. this way he makes xtra money for fuel. my first marlin was 669 lbs, and he filleted that bugger in half and gave me half. they get like 1.75 a pound for it. not bad 775 bucks for a charter, then another 400 bucks for the marlin. then they get more for ahi, or aku, and mahi mahi.
Henry