Canyon Report 7-18/7-19

The Small Fortune took a late-planned canyon trip this weekend after hearing of good yellowfin catches at Block Canyon (Fish Tails). We sailed out of Port Milford at 5:30am on Saturday, with Capt Steve, Andrew, Patrick, Glenn, and me aboard. After a detour to fix an oil filter in West Haven, we took off to Montauk to get bait/ice/fuel.

The weather was beautiful, but the seas were a bit rough when we got around the point. It was, hmm, let's call it a fishable 6-8 foot sea. All I know is that we didn't cruise out there at full speed, so you know it was a bit sporty when the 55' Small Fortune has to slow down. Absolutely safe and fishable, that's all that mattered. We started trolling north of the canyon and got a strike IMMEDIATELY after putting the second line out. Unfortunately, it was just a skipjack tuna (which were EVERYWHERE). For those that don't know, skippies do not have any business being near a dinner plate. We released double digit amounts of these little tuna, and kept a few for bait.

There wasn't much but skippies for a while, but Glenn took the wheel and buzzed us past a lobster pot buoy and we hooked up with a real nice bull mahi on the green machine spreader bar. Andrew reeled it in like a pro:



Eventually we caught what we were looking for, a yellowfin tuna on the same green machine spreader bar. This first yellowfin was short of the 27" legal limit, so it became the first yellowfin I've ever had to throw back. Shortly after, we did get a keeper yellowfin on the boat's secret weapon lure, a purple bird daisy chain with a purple jet head hook bait. So now we had a nice mahi and a yellowfin in the box.

Once the sun set, we set up for the night chunk. It was still pretty rough out there (weather man was a little premature on his "wind will die down at night" prediction. In reality, it didn't die down until sunday morning). The tuna weren't around, and this was the first time that we didn't see massive amounts of squid and baitfish in and around our hydroglow light. We figured we were in a tuna-less area but it was too dark and rough to move spots. So we put out the shark chum to see what we could find.

Not twenty minutes after setting out the chum, we had a tournament quality mako show up. Glenn quickly fileted one of the skipjacks we kept for bait and fed the shark. This thing took it immediately and the fight was on. Andrew got on the rod and fought it hard for about 30 minutes. This fish was fast and was very interested in getting wrapped up in the boat and gear. Under normal sharking circumstances, we'd be able to maneuver the boat to fight the fish better, but being that it was rough and after midnight, we didn't like the risk involved with coming off the anchor and chasing the fish. So you can see where this is going, we ended up losing the fish after 30 minutes when it ran under the boat and snapped the line. We estimate the fish to be about 250 lbs, and it is also officially a caught fish, as we touched the leader before losing it. No shark steaks, but it was an amazing scene.

The rest of the night chunk was pretty much uneventful. On the morning troll, we picked up four more yellowfin, with two being keepers and one of those keepers being a nice 35 pounder that Patrick reeled in. Patrick's fish took a blue/white jr ilander with a ballyhoo. His first keeper yellowfin:



Final Tally: 6 yellowfin (3 keepers), 1 Mahi, countless skipjacks, and a 'released' Mako. A nice trip for this early in the season, we all took home several bags of fresh fish. I have some videos of a pod of dolphin swimming/jumping with the boat, as well as an expletive filled clip of Andrew's reaction to losing the mako. I have a call into the FCC to see if it can be posted. Stay tuned for videos, here are a few more pics (click any picture for a larger image):

Spring is here

Well, spring is upon us and thoughts of tuna are running through our minds. It won't be long now. Capt. Steve and company took time out this past weekend to attend a Canyon Runner Seminar and hopefully they came away with a bunch of secret weapons and strategies. Keith has come through with a few pictures from one of our October trips from the fall. Some nice sunrise shots and one from the filet table. Thanks Keith!











It won't be long now. Save your money!

Cold Weather Fishing Report

I just recently went down to Maryland to fish the Fall MSSA Striper Tournament. We had some seriously rough weather, but managed seven nice stripers. No money in the tournament, unfortunately, as there were some 50 lb cows taken. Our best was 32 lbs.





As we wait for tuna season to come around next year, stay tuned to the blog for some of our favorite fish recipes, other random fishing reports, etc... Maybe Steve will fill us in with all the sweet upgrades he'll be making to the Small Fortune, right? How about outrigger mounted and underwater video cameras?? I'm sure our financial backers will support that!

Hope all is well

Pictures Galore

Here is a link to the latest run out to the canyons

Tuna October '08


The Yellowfin is delicious. After a week of sushi and steaks I am still excited about the other two bags of loins in my dorm room fridge.

Until next time...

Pictures from Atlantis

Here are a few choice shots from last weekends trip.

Photo by Sam- Johnny and Steve at sunrise on the way out to Montauk from Milford.

Photo by Sam: Penn and Mike

Photo by Dave: Penn and sunset

Photo by Dave: Sam on an early morning Yellowfin

Photo by Sam: Jeremy confindently driving back to Milford

Fishing Report 10/11 - 10/12

The Small Fortune sailed again this weekend with a crew of 8. As always we had Captain Steve at the helm. David was there as well, with his Middlebury friends Slibby Sam, Johnny (aka "pole sitter", aka "whooping crane"), and Jeremy (aka "I can drive with a girl around each arm"). Andrew (aka "Hard Hose") and Tony (aka the "One Armed Bandit") were also along for the trip.

This weekend we decided to take a longer run than we normally do and we headed to the Atlantis Canyon, as opposed to Block Canyon (Fish Tails). There were better reports and good temperature readings out there, so we figured we'd give it a shot. We started trolling around 2:30 pm on Saturday and only had one knockdown, no hookups.

We settled in for the night chunk on the canyon wall and quickly had a fish take a chunk only to lose it a minute later. Then we had a double header shortly after that, landing a nice albacore and losing a nice yellowfin. Here's a pic of Johnny's albacore:

I'm embarrased to say that both lost fish were my fault. I'll mention it here so no one else makes this mistake. When crimping our chunk lines to the swivel, I used crimps designed for 150lb test when we were using 80 lb test. Now when you crimp the line, it looks so unbelievably tight that you would never imagine the line pulling out. Well people say that tuna can find any and every weakness that you have in your tackle. If you give them the chance, they will get away. And they did twice. I'm still kicking myself over it! So don't let it happen to you.

The night time chunk is an incredible experience. We use HydroGlow fluorescent lights in the water to light up the area all around the boat. This attracts schools of squid and baitfish to the boat, with the idea that where there is bait, the tuna will show up. It's hard to get a feeling of what this is like when you are way out in the middle of the ocean. I was able to take a picture and brighten it to show the light and some squid swimming around it. It truly is like watching the Discovery Channel live in person.


Back to the report. Late in the night, Andrew was able to catch a real nice Mahi on a chunk. In the morning, we got back up on the troll and found a great weed mat. We were able to pick up two more mahi and a nice yellowfin. We worked a temperature break where the water temp went from 60 degrees to 70 degrees in the matter of a few hundred feet. Normally these types of breaks are chock loaded with tuna. Unfortunately it wasn't the case this time. Here's Sam's yellowfin:


David and Sam were taking pictures like crazed papparazi lunatics, so I'm sure there will be a follow up post with a lot more shots. It was a short and slow tuna season this year, after a spectacular one last year. Hopefully they just took a year off and we will hit them hard next year.

Fishing Report 10/4-10/5

The Small Fortune sailed to Block Canyon (Fish Tails) for an overnight trip, leaving Montauk at daybreak on Saturday 10/4. On the trip were Captain Steve, Jeff, Graham, Keith, and myself. We started trolling in the flats north of the Tails at about 10 am or so. Took a while, but we eventually broke the skunk with a mahi after a few hours. The action was slow for most of the day, with a mahi here or there until the late afternoon. All of a sudden lines started going off like crazy. We were excited to be in the fish, but unfortunately they were the wrong kind. Lots of False Albacore, which have absolutely no table value whatsoever. They are an aggressive fish though, as they were peeling line off 80w reels that were pulling large spreader bars. Exciting stuff, but not what we were looking for.

As we set up for the night time chunk, we had two diamond jigs off of the outriggers, letting the waves do the jigging for us. Right off the bat, we had one clip release and the line came tight. Finally we felt that pull we were waiting for and in no time we had a gaff in the first tuna of the trip, a nice 35 pound longfin albacore. We tangled with a few mahi during the night. Keith was working a chunk line when something pulled tight. It took a jump by the boat, but this was no mahi. It ended up being a small mako. It eventually chewed through the 80 lb fluorocarbon leader, which was fine because it was only 40 pounds or so, which is too small to keep if you're talking makos. Still a very cool sight to see a shark jump out of the water.

After that, we were put into shark mania. We were harrassed by blue sharks all night. They were cutting every line that we had out. At one point, Steve and I were fighting fish at the same time, only to realize that the same blue shark took both of our lines! Then we figured that since we had sharks in the area, we might as well make the most of it and let Keith tangle with a biggun' on his first trip to the canyons. We used a big fat filet from one of the few falsies that we kept earlier in the day. It literally took 20 seconds to have a blue dog inhale that bait. Keith fought that guy for a while, probably about 200 pounds. Nice blue shark. They were all around, and they were so thick that we had to stop chunking for a while to try to get them to leave.

As the night wore on and we ran out of chunks, we decided to just leave the deck with our 2 diamond jigs jigging away and our deep drop swordfish line out (which didn't get a nibble all night at any depth!). Just as Graham and I were going to sneak inside for a snooze, one of the diamond jigs went SCREAMING!!!! I had just taken my shoes off, but I saw this line peeling away, so I jumped to it in my socks and grabbed hold. Whatever this thing was, it meant business. After trying to pass the fight to Graham or Steve with no takers, I had them put the belt and harness on me to go to work. We were thinking that this had to be the big yellowfin we were waiting for. After a good long fight, I pulled up the biggest blue shark that I've ever caught. Really big and impressive shark, over 300 pounds (if I'm the one telling the story), just not what we were hoping for.

In the morning we started trolling before day break. After about 3 hours of no takers, we called it a trip and headed back to Montauk. At the dock, we talked to another boat that just got back. We asked them how they did and they said, "A bunch of mahi, one albacore, and we were harrassed by sharks all night." Sounds familiar!

Weather was great, good company, and we all had fish to take home with us. So the trip was a success. It was too bad we couldn't find more tuna, but it looks like the one we got was better than some people did. Come on you tuna!!!

- Michael