First Canyon Run of September - 9-14-2012

Received hot Intel from Hudson Canyon that there was a huge Bigeye Bite right before the storm blew through. Lou had a friend out there and called me up to assemble a crew to make the run. A great crew of guys we ran with Derek, Ray, Nick ...and Dave. Sea conditions were beyond favorable making it so that Hot Reels could maintain a cruising speed of 45 miles an hour the entire way, cutting a 4 hour ride down to about 2.5.

 About half way out near the shipping lanes we ran into a Dragger that had some large boils behind it. We ran in for a closer look, just to rule out Giants. It turned out to be large Bottlenose Dolphins feeding on the by-catch. We scooped up a few floaters for hook baits and got back underway. 

Upon arriving at the canyon, we found over a hundred vessels. Over 97 of them were located between a 3 square mile area in deep water. The convoluted conditions made it very difficult to run in a straight line let alone target any signs of life or structure. We did see a few vessels get tight on Eyeballs out of the many, but it was a very far cry from the previous day’s reports

After running up to the elbow and scoring some beautiful Golden Tilefish and One Blue Tile, we set out to be wolves rather than stay herded up with the sheep.

 We headed South and East away from the Canyon in search of life, cleaner water and a few points of structure unlabeled on the charts. Along the way we ran into a large pile of floating poly rope and other debris. Upon closer inspection we found it was loaded with a biome of different small fish from triple tails and small jacks to a variety of different triggers and rudderfish. Eating these guys were dozens of large Mahi. Nick Lou and I tied on jigs while Derek Ray and Dave tipped 6/0 hooks with some of the squid we jigged up the night before. Nick was the first to drip with a 7oz Stingo PBJ in Blue and silver. We watched it flutter down and before it could even get hit by the pursuing Mahi, a Wahoo came rocketing out of now where and smashed the Jig. Nick was treated to a few glorious seconds of bent rod and screaming drag before tick….the line when slack as it chewed through the line. After we picked our jaws back up off the deck we tied on a few more jigs consisting of Stingo PBJ’s in 5oz, Pt Jude Deepforce Slims in 5oz sardine, and 3oz Shimano Whirly gigs in pink. All three different styles got smashed by Mahi in the High teens to 20lbs. We also managed to get one on a topwater slider and bait in several more Mahi and triggers on chunks after they got wise to the jigs.

After moving further along a formed weed line into some shallower water, Lou spotted a school of porpoise that he thought were acting unusual. He maneuvered us a head of the school to get some artificials ahead of them. Immediately the entire school got very active and began to swarm all around us. 

Just as they did we received to most violent topwater strikes I have seen, since fishing in Panama a couple of years ago. Nick and I came tight immediately with two of the largest Yellowfin I have seen in years! Fighting these guys on large conventional would have been a lot of work let alone the spinning gear we were using. The crew got to work clearing the deck and preparing for the chaos to ensue, while Capt Lou maneuvered the boat carefully to avoid having the fish tangle and break off

We boated my fish first and had no time to marvel at it, as Nicks was already knocking at the door. I handed off my rod and reached for the gaff. As I looked down into the water at nicks fish I was stoked to see it was even larger still with massive Sickle fins. The Combination Louie’s boat handling combined with Nick’s local Hooker Leviathan and VS275 (Lou’s Setup) planed the fish up nicely, and I was able to secure a “money” gaff shot right in its dome. It took two us to drag it up over the gunwale without damaging it!

At that point we added a few more to a nice full box of fish and had been on the water for over 35 hours, so we said lets role. The conditions for the ride in were just as nice as they were on the way out; it was a real treat heading back in at about 40mph. Another great day on the water on Hot Reels with Lou and a great Crew in Nick Derek Ray and Dave! Can’t wait to get back out there!