This trip took place August 9-10, 2014 and is written by MFCC member Andrew Massard, aboard MFCC member Mike Starr's boat "Goin South" out of Oyster Harbors, MA. The crew for this trip was Andrew, Mike and Mikey Pajolek.
My heart sank as the status of my flight changed from delayed to cancelled. I called Mike to tell him the bad news.
Luckily, Mike being the good guy that he is, said he wasn’t leaving without me. We were scheduled to leave Oyster Harbors on his 26 foot Sailfish center console, ‘Goin’ South’, for Hydrographer’s Canyon at 9 am, but Delta Airlines had other ideas.
As I arrived at the boat at 1 pm (4 hours later than anticipated) we were all ecstatic. The crew consisted of my two close friends from high school, Mike and Mikey. This was our first trip to the canyons of the year and also the first in Mike’s new boat.
The weather was perfect and the seas even better; 85 degrees, sunny, and 1 to 2 foot seas. As we steamed southeast between the islands, I tried getting some sleep in the bean bag chair.
I had barely slept on a bench in the Detroit airport, less than 12 hours prior, but being on the water had my energy levels high. Knowing that no sleep was coming, I stood up and started to talk to the guys about the plan of attack.
The Gameplan
On this trip, during the daylight, we were to be trolling a mix of spreader bars, single lures, and skirted ballyhoos. On Mike’s center console we are able to run a 7 rod spread with a long and short outrigger, two flatlines close to the boat, and a long line down the middle.
The most recent sea surface temperature maps from Oceantemp told us that there was a good temperature break of warm to cold water near the northern tip of the canyon. Mike had the waypoint set, and we were going to fish as close to that temperature break as possible, while staying over structure.
We had all of our lines in the water around 5:30 pm. The water temperature was 76° and the sun was starting to set. Everything was perfect and the fish did not disappoint.
Fish Around The High Flyers
Ten minutes into trolling, we heard the sweet sounds of an outrigger line releasing and line being taken. Soon after, we had our first yellowfin in the boat. Being a little guy and with our limited cooler space we opted to throw him back.
We had hooked the tuna near a “high flyer”, which is an offshore lobster trap buoy. These buoys tend to hold bait and mahi. The hopes are that there are larger fish feeding in these areas as well. If there is no surface action we try to troll near these high flyers as often as possible.
An hour later the sun was about to go below the horizon and our time on the troll was over. We had boated two small YFT and a mahi.
We all agreed this was a great start to our trip, and decided to anchor up for the night.
First HookUp Of The Morning Just 30 Minutes Into The Troll
We started back on the troll at approximately 5 a.m. With an identical spread as the night before we had high hopes for some fish.
What we had started with was squid bars on the flatlines, jet heads on the short riggers, ballyhoo on the long rigger, and a big splasher bar on the long center line.
In the past I have run three squid bars close to the boat, as well as three squid bars long. However for this trip on Mike's boat we decided the above-mentioned spread would be the easiest to deploy. On a small boat such as Mike's (relatively speaking compared to huge sportfishers), ease of use sometimes trumps everything else.
About half an hour into the troll the long center line went off. Line was being pulled at a much quicker pace than the fish from the previous night and we knew we had a good one.
We all laughed later at the fact that I had disappointedly yelled “NO!” when I saw that it was the long line going off in the T-top rod holder. Mike kept the boat in gear for a while trying to entice other fish to bite.
While working to remove the rod from the rocket launcher I slipped and fell to the deck but managed to hold onto the rod. A half hour later we had a nice 70 pound yellowfin tuna on the deck and we were all fired up!
Here's a 5 minute long video recap of the action, and of the trip in general. Click play below to check it out.
With lines back in the water we started to see a lot of life; including dolphins and whales.
About two hours later, Mike landed another tuna that was just about the same size as the last.
Ready To Call It Quits, Almost...
It was now near 1 o’clock in the afternoon and we decided to pick up the lines and start the long trek home. Our totals for the trip were eight yellowfin and ten mahi; we had the two large yellowfin in the coolers which would provide enough meat for the three of us.
But just as we started towards the back of the boat, ready to call it quits, EVERYTHING went off.
We had a complete 7 rod knockdown and drags were screaming everywhere. It was complete mayhem until the drags all quieted down, which we found odd.
We then realized that the fish were only small skipjack tuna. They could not put up much of a fight on the Penn 50s and 70s.
However, I’ll never forget that initial hit!
We had one hell of a time trying to untangle and unhook each fish, but it makes for a good story. I can’t even imagine what it would be like if that school of skipjack had been a wolfpack of 140 pound bigeyes.
Hopefully I’ll find out someday.
What do you think? Let me know by commenting below!
