September is prime time for an overnight trip to the canyons, so when I had the chance to join Captain Jody Distasio and Captain Scott Kulaszeweki aboard the XTC out of Belmar, New Jersey last Wednesday, I jumped at the chance.
Up until last week, the vast majority of my canyon runs had been on smaller vessels, often center consoles of 24 to 26 feet, so heading for the edge in a 44-foot Henriques was a new experience. A fully-stocked fridge and microwave, and comfortable cabin seating made the 4-hour steam a pleasure.
It had been two years since I’d been tuna fishing when Captain Jody throttled back in Hudson Canyon around 11:00 a.m. and XTC mate Joe Yuka dropped the lines in. The tuna didn’t make me wait too long to reacquaint myself with them, and less than 20 minutes into the troll, the portside long rigger went down. Kevin Kelly of Kelly’s Bar and Grill in Neptune, New Jersey, grabbed the rod and made short work of a stocky longfin albacore.
We barely had time to set out all the rods before fish number two slammed the flat line off the starboard corner. On The Water Sales Rep Rich Dunn belted up for this one, and before long, Rich’s first ever tuna, another longfin, was tail-thumping on the deck.
After that the tuna would make us wait a couple hours before giving us another show. In the late afternoon, a 60-pound yellowfin left the water entirely to attack the green Tuna Clone fished in the propwash. Jody’s friend Laird settled in to fight the beautiful yellowfin.
The crew didn’t even have time to move Laird’s yellowfin to the ice box before another rod went down. My turn. I belted up, removed the rod from the holder and leaned into my first pelagic in two years too long. I discovered right away that my tuna-fighting technique was rusty. My back was screaming, my arms were burning, and I had to ask for a little support. Captain Scott locked me into a bucket harness that let me use my legs to get the tuna headed in the right direction. The fish was heavy, and I had visions of the long yellow sickle of an Allison tuna or the orb-like eye of bigeye tuna, yet when the fish came into view, we quickly discovered it was instead a 40-pound longfin tuna hooked squarely in the tail.
A bit after that, Ryan Schlosser picked a quality mahi off a lobster pot as the XTC trolled past.
I woke up just as the sun was about to touchdown on the horizon. Before the last sliver of orange sunk out of sight, another rod went off. Kevin grabbed the rod for round two, and battled another 60-pound yellowfin in the failing daylight. The fish came close enough for a good look, but threw the hook before Joe could plant a gaff, and sped out of sight to continue gorging on squid and butterfish.
After that, it was time to set up for the night. With a bucket of pre-cut butterfish and a load of other chum and baits, the crew of the XTC got to work on attracting some fish to the boat.
The first fish to take interest were mahi. Packs of the green fish darted in and out of the lights, snapping up the bits of butterfish that Joe tossed overboard. Upon seeing the mahi, Captain Scott produced two light inshore rods rigged with small circle hooks and baited with pieces of sardine. For the first 45 minutes, the mahi fishing was madness. Rich Dunn, Ryan and I caught a few fish each before the remaining mahi wised up and began to avoid the hook baits.
Since I’d gotten some sleep during the day, I planned on staying up all night to hopefully nab a tuna or two on the jig. But when the tuna were no-shows by 3:00 a.m., I decided find some open couch space in the cabin and get some shut-eye.
I couldn’t have been asleep very long when a commotion in the cockpit woke me up. When my eyes focused, I saw Rich holding onto a doubled over rod.
“Shark?” I asked, figuring one of the blue sharks we’d seen earlier in the night has finally found a bait.
Captain Jody shook his head no. “Swordfish,” he said.
Swordfish are tough customers, tougher than Rich apparently, and he had to pass off the rod 40 minutes into the fight. Captain Jody took over, and within 10 minutes brought the swordfish to the surface where Captain Scott and Joe secured it with a harpoon and a gaff.
The 100-pound sword was the first I’d ever seen in person. The eye is enormous, designed to pick up the faintest bit of light in order to hunt in the black depths of the canyons. The bill was broad, and surprisingly sharp. The skin was a purplish brown, but faded to silver-bronze as the fish expired.
Almost as impressive as the sight of the fish itself was the taste of the fresh swordfish steaks on the grill the following weekend. The steaks were rich and tasty, I ate nearly all of my portion of the swordfish in one sitting, Mercury warnings be damned.
The swordfish would be the last fish of the trip, as heavy west winds and rough seas made trolling difficult after the sun rose. Captain Jody pointed the bow west into the sea, and wrapped up an exciting offshore adventure.
