Ambrosia Mae - Shortest Canyon Trip Ever

[Bob Bradley]

Unusually short trip for us this time. A lot of the regulars had commitments, so we headed for the edge with a short crew of 4 hardcore guys - Frank, Jay, Walt and myself. Frank had a Friday evening wedding, so departure had to wait until Sat morning. Hit Stonington dock for ice and found the ice house out of order, so we had to go to Gosmans in Montauk wasting a couple hours in the process.

Iced up, we set a course for West Atlantis. Around 330pm, we hit a 3 degree break near a wx buoy in 400FOW NW of the canyon and put lines in. 10 minutes later we had 2 80# yellows slapping the deck - just like I planned. In my dreams last winter that is. We pounded the area for an hour or so, but that was it, so we trolled the canyon til well after dark with no love. Reality always seems to set in out there.

We set up for the night in about 1500ft near the SW corner of the canyon. With the full moon, we were hopeful for a shot at a sword. Frank meticulously sewed a big squid to a hook rigged on 300# mono. We put out the sword rod with the bait down about 100', and set out tuna rods at 90, 60, and pitch depths. A jig from the big Stella hung from the port long rigger rounding out the spread, dancing about 50' down.

Sometime around 1am the 60' tuna rod, baited with a sardine, went off. Frank harnessed up and took the rod. 5 minutes later the sword was greyhounding across the surface 30 ft from the boat. Great. 60# test flouro, a 7/0 hook, and a small Sampo swivel were all that attached us to the fish. Frank spent the next 75 minutes scurrying from corner to corner trying to keep the fish from getting into the boat's running gear. Finally, Walt got an off balance shot with the poon. The shot missed, but somehow the dart, still on the poon, got wedged into the sword's gill. As Walt pulled up on the poon, the fish's sword came up out of the water, Jay took a wild shot at it with the gaff, and managed to connect with a clean head shot. We snapped the flying tail cuff onto the fish and got his engine out of the water. 2 minutes later a beautiful 65" swordfish was in the boat and the tuna door was latched closed. The flouro and Frank's nerves had held. I, on the other hand, had spent the entire fight up on the bridge maneuvering the boat with my shaking hands on the shifts watching the fish pass repeatedly under the fish finder's transducer, each pass getting a foot or two higher in the water.

We gutted, iced, and bagged the sword and put the spread back out. I had hooked my cabin tv up to the simrad fish finder with an HDMI cable, so we could watch the fish finder in the comfort of the cabin. Well, it was lit up with marks 50' down, so Frank and I grabbed a couple jigging rods and dropped down. I broke off on one, but Frank came tight and we boated another nice 80# yellow. That was it for the night.

We got up on the troll after dawn, and it became clear that the wind shift which had been predicted for Sunday night, had already occurred. Given the forecast of significant NE winds on Monday, and the fact that the shift had started much earlier than predicted, we made the decision to pull the plug and head north. We left the spread in and did a long troll - probably 20 miles in all - back toward the barn.

Well up on the flats, in about 400fow or so, we got a double knockdown and boated 2 nice 60# albies. Two passes later we had another similar albie and another 80# yellow.

Final tally was 4 good 80# yellows, 3 60# albies, and a beautiful 65" sword that we estimate to be north of 150#. Not bad for 18 hours of fishing. Maybe I should rethink my triple overnighter trips and just catch all the fish in one day.


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[rsmith]

Congratulations nice trip! Didn’t think you liked those pointy nosed fish.

[Bob Bradley]

Swords are just fine. It's the dirty white girls that I don't like. They just screw up the tuna trolling.

[Avenger]

Short. But productive.

Great stuff. Wish I didn't have all the problems I've had this season. I really need to get out there and try some of this stuff again. But for now, I'll have to live vicariously through your reports. Thanks.

[Glory]

Congrats, sounds like a great boat ride!!

[rsmith]

Swords are just fine. It's the dirty white girls that I don't like. They just screw up the tuna trolling.

You running mostly 50sw’s?

[Bob Bradley]

Yes. Penn 50VSW spooled with Jerry Brown hollow core. I also have 4 70VS setups that I use exclusively for shark tournaments. If the tuna aren't big I'll use Penn 16 and 12VSX setups for chunking. And we often hang a jig from the long rigger on the opposite side of the boat from the chunking gear. That's off a big spinning rid with a Stella 18000. Any time I get a fish on that one I yell "STELLA!".

[rsmith]

I used to fish 20’s and 30’s with a 50 on the shotgun for whites. At night we drift 3 80’s with various depths for swords. This was all pre chunking days. I seriously believe the quality of the tuna meat changed when all this chunking started. Oily butter fish. IDK. I went with the 50vsw’s standup setups for blue marlin in the Bahamas. I got 2 70’s for shotgun and my standby rod (I have that with a big squid for a pitch bait) I’m not crazy about the VSW construction or quality. The stainless screws in the aluminum corrode and I’ve had several gear change failures. Penn had a recall on the V series early on and since my family home is near the factory I took them in. Went to pick them up and got a big bill for servicing them. I’ve always owned Penn reels but not real happy about the V series

[q240z]

That's outstanding!

[rustybucket]

Killer Trip!! Way to get it done guys!