greg
Captain
Our plan was to leave sunday night and come back late tuesday afternoon, using sunday night to get there for first light.
We were going to head for a spot between veatch and east atlantis, but got scared off when a couple of very good crews found no life there. As it turns out we should have stayed with the plan; a day can make a huge difference and fish were caught later but we didn't know that at the time.
So our plan b was to start by checking out the 500 square at first light (nothing going on) then shooting to west atlantis and then to atlantis and finally checked out the dump on the way in.
Wandered well over 300 nm and covered from 200 feet to 3000. Patrolled the deep, the canyon walls, well, and flats.
We didn't boat any tuna (though did come tight on what was likely a bigeye, or at least a very good tuna, in atlantis at first light and a couple of other good feeling mystery fish), but we did get a 60" wahoo and a few nice mahi. The dump is holding mahi under pots btw. I have no idea why anyone is setting ground tackle in a munitions dump, but the chart isn't wrong.
The big loss was whatever took down one of our greenstick lures. Harrison and joe's backs were turned putting out other lines and all they heard was the pop of the snap line and a huge splash under the mainline.
I went back from the helm and saw the steel rod that holds the pulley on the bandit reel with a significant bend and the mainline was as tight as a guitar string. Then suddenly nothing. It came unbuttoned, but it was big. No damage to the lures or dropper lines, so it wasn't a shark. Just bad luck.
Harrison thinks it may have been caused by the bandit reel locking up and giving zero drag. I think it may have been my fault for (and I NEVER do this) taking the boat out of gear before heading back to help. But what it really was is that we discovered that "someone" brought dried banana chips in a snack bag.
Both west atlantis and atlantis looked good, but didn't hold a lot of fish. Whales, dolphin, squid and swords seen at night but no tuna (and no sword hookups - it swam through the lights).
Anyway, long couple of days. But it feels like things are ready to pop. As soon as the tuna agree, I'll be much happier.
We were going to head for a spot between veatch and east atlantis, but got scared off when a couple of very good crews found no life there. As it turns out we should have stayed with the plan; a day can make a huge difference and fish were caught later but we didn't know that at the time.
So our plan b was to start by checking out the 500 square at first light (nothing going on) then shooting to west atlantis and then to atlantis and finally checked out the dump on the way in.
Wandered well over 300 nm and covered from 200 feet to 3000. Patrolled the deep, the canyon walls, well, and flats.
We didn't boat any tuna (though did come tight on what was likely a bigeye, or at least a very good tuna, in atlantis at first light and a couple of other good feeling mystery fish), but we did get a 60" wahoo and a few nice mahi. The dump is holding mahi under pots btw. I have no idea why anyone is setting ground tackle in a munitions dump, but the chart isn't wrong.
The big loss was whatever took down one of our greenstick lures. Harrison and joe's backs were turned putting out other lines and all they heard was the pop of the snap line and a huge splash under the mainline.
I went back from the helm and saw the steel rod that holds the pulley on the bandit reel with a significant bend and the mainline was as tight as a guitar string. Then suddenly nothing. It came unbuttoned, but it was big. No damage to the lures or dropper lines, so it wasn't a shark. Just bad luck.
Harrison thinks it may have been caused by the bandit reel locking up and giving zero drag. I think it may have been my fault for (and I NEVER do this) taking the boat out of gear before heading back to help. But what it really was is that we discovered that "someone" brought dried banana chips in a snack bag.
Both west atlantis and atlantis looked good, but didn't hold a lot of fish. Whales, dolphin, squid and swords seen at night but no tuna (and no sword hookups - it swam through the lights).
Anyway, long couple of days. But it feels like things are ready to pop. As soon as the tuna agree, I'll be much happier.
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