13-14 July 2007 Overnighter Video

Saw another good weather break after the forecasters made up their mind if it was going to blow or not.  Gathered up a crew of Lanie, Michael Jr. Naved (NJ), Greg (sfcallen), and Ike (Dr. Ike).  We headed out at 3 pm and headed east to the 420 line.  Found some bait busting the surface around 24 fathoms just east of the fingers crotch and played around there to see if their were any predators around.  Didn't find any so we headed east.  Once we got to the 420 line around 50 fathoms saw more bait and 2-toned porpoises. We put the spread out and worked north.  We worked between 50 and 200 fathoms heading north towards the canyon since that is where we wanted to set up for the night.  Found some skipjack tuna busting the surface as one tried to commit suicide on the short but didn't come tight.  A bit north a big tuna attacked our long and rolled on the surface but again didn't come tight.  Starting to get dark so we head to the canyon to set up for the night.

We get to the mouth of the canyon on the south wall and try to calculate our drift which turns out to be a very slow 0.2 knots to the SE.  The wind is from our south so the current is winning over the wind this time.  The drift is so slow we only cover 1.9 miles the entire night, a big difference from the other overnighters where we traveled about 9 miles.  Some pretty sunsets, Lanie has about 1001 sunset pics but here is 1001.

We setup for the night.  I got tired of the cheap BPS lights that didn't make it through the night so I did a little research and broke down and bought a sword light.  Seemed to be a bit sturdier than the hydraglow and had it's own built-in weight for getting down.  Put the light out and deployed the spread with two on floats deep, and two without, not as deep of big asian squid. 

Naved's wife Rabia, made dinner for us all.  Man it hit the spot. 

First run was a sword.  He hit the deepest rig (about 200 feet) the farthest away.  This one came to the surface but ran straight out from the boat as we can see our chemlight on the top way out.  I crank out the slack and get him tight as the crew clears the other lines.  We get him to the side of the boat and Greg and I are trying to figure out if he is legal (47" lower jaw to curved fork tail).  I think he is but Greg thinks not so just before we can snap a pic or video, the hook pulls and he is gone.  Pretty pup sword but no sword steaks this time.  The next run is another sword, this one feels bigger and we can see him on the surface running to the back of the boat but the hook does not come tight. 

Next run is around 1 am and screams the drag.  Greg jumps on the rod and a good 30 minutes battle ensues. Greg horses in a big 9 or 10 foot hammerhead shark for a release citation.  Next run comes at 3:30 am as a pod of porpoises play around the boat and lots and lots of bait around the boat at the SE wall of the mouth of the canyon.  Dumps about 3/4 of the spool of my tiagra 50W.  Dr. Ike grabs the rod and we get him in the harness for a long fight.  This one is not coming up so we start the engines to chase this guy.  At first we thinking big tuna the way he is sounding but turns out to be a big shark, I think it's a lemon shark.  After a hour battle from 3:30 am to 4:30 am, we finally get him to the surface.  Must be 11-12 foot so we release him for Dr. Ike's release citation. 

There was life around the boat all night long as the swordlight put a green ring of light around the boat.  These little baitfish (don't know what they are) hung around the boat by the hundreds all night. 

A dragonfly came by.  What the heck is a dragonfly doing 75 miles from land? 

At sunrise we regroup for the troll.

At 4:45 am we put the tuna spread back out and troll, and troll the canyon walls, south wall, north wall, tip, deep, shallow.  Nothing, not one pull.  Nothing happening that we can hear on the radio.  Naved has a big family that eats every ounce of fish we catch and he is getting low so we deep drop and get a mess of tiles and seabass.  Nice class of fish.  I pull up a 15 lb tile (on the electric) and Ike gets an 11.3 lb tile for a weight citation. 

We move over to deeper water to try to find the golden tiles but did find some black bellied rosefish that is not so painful to crank up at 140 fathoms on Greg's electric reel. 

1:30 pm and everybody is getting real tired.  Most everyone only took little cat naps so we are all a bit loopy.  Die hard Greg tries to get us to head to the fingers to fish more but the rest of the crew is simply not into it since the radio traffic is dead.  Talked with Evan on Dawgonit who fished the fingers and got some mahi. So we all start dumping the left over squid and hoos.  I look down and it's a marlin checking out the bait as it sinks.  Couldn't tell if it was a white or small blue from the top but we drop some rigged hoos and jig them to see if we can entice a bite but nothing doing. 

We head home to calm seas as most of the crew chills. 

Had a great trip.  Swords, big sharks, tiles, seabass, rosefish made the trip worthwhile.  We'll find the troll bite next time.  Here is a short video from the trip.  13-14 July 2007 Overnighter Video