East Atlantis Canyon Report June 28th & 29th

It is no secret among offshore fishermen in the northeast that the canyons have been producing consistent early-season action this year. Warm water pushing up from the south has fueled an assortment of life including whales, dolphin, birds, baitfish and squid as well as different species of tuna, sharks, marlin, swordfish and mahi.

This past Saturday, we headed south for East Atlantis Canyon, just under 100 miles from the southern edge of the Vineyard. We had a crew of four including myself, Capt. Tim Cohan, owner of Fat Tuna Guides Capt. Bob Cook and Ray Liberatore, owner of the 37ft Grady White Canyon 376 WIDE LOAD. I estimate the seas were 1-2ft when we left the dock from MacDougalls’ in Falmouth, but it flattened out when we got south of the Vineyard and on past the hooter buoy. We enjoyed the great conditions for the run out with lots of life sighted including tons of small sharks and one larger basking shark all finning on the surface.

We arrived at the tip of East Atlantis around 7pm. Outriggers out, lines in. We trolled a variety of spreader bars, skirted ballyhoo, cedar plugs, divers and a token marlin lure or two. Radioed our buddy boats in the area who reported packs of small yellowfin tuna roaming about. “We have been clearing sub-legal yellowfin like weeds with a slow pick of 30 to 40 inch fish in the mix…” Hearing that report come over the radio got us fired up, game on.

About a half an hour later a small yellowfin ate a blue skirted ballyhoo behind a daisy chain and took off for a short run on the 50w. We left the spread out and made relatively short work of the little tuna, bringing him boat-side to the gaff and put the first yellowfin on deck. A while later we were trolling into position for a night of swordfishing when we came tight again. Two rods this time, one sub-legal 25 incher and one just over 30 inch yellowfin. Knowing there were yellows in the area we re-set the spread in the dark and immediately came tight again. Nice to have the underwater lights when handling fish boat-side in the darkness.

With the fish on ice and darkness fully set in we decided to set up for a night of drifting with squid baits for swordfish around 9:30pm. For primarily targeting swords we set up in a bit deeper water than when targeting tuna, chunk lightly to minimize sharks and have few or no tuna rods. Good conditions for the overnight. Nice drift speed but no bites on the swordfish rigs, not even a nibble. We reset position once overnight and chunked butterfish to no avail. Only visitors to the underwater lights were one lonely squid who cleverly evaded my best dip net efforts and one medium size baitfish I wasn’t able to clearly identify. Not much radio chatter, seemed like a slow night for most. Long night, it helped that there was an amazing display of stars overhead with shooting stars and satellites spotted regularly. I won’t ever tire of that part.

We got back on the troll around 4:30am as it started to lighten up. “We don’t need coffee, we need adrenaline.” Bob said as we set out lures behind the boat. Didn’t take long before the spread was attacked and four lines came tight. Ray was on the throttles keeping us lined up while the three of us put all fish in the boat. We released the smalls and with everyone fully awake now we were back on the troll. What ensued was the most lights out small yellowfin fishing I have experienced. Tough to remember the exact sequence of events but we re-set and got attacked by packs of fish over and over again from 5:30am until around 10:00am when it quieted down. With six rods targeting mainly tuna and two rods targeting marlin with large single lures we had at least one occasion when all six tuna rods got attacked and came tight. Did well with multiple hookups this trip, helps when the fish are smaller but we were thrilled to have a couple sessions where all five or all six fish hooked were landed with only four anglers on board. Good day for terminal tackle as well as I can’t remember a breakoff and can only remember one fish lost at boat-side when it fell off the hook as we tried to hoist him straight out of the water into the boat from the leader.

The estimate for the total number of fish caught was somewhere north of thirty. We kept about a dozen then started sending them back in to fight another day. It was tough to keep track of how many were coming into the boat especially when they came in and went right back out while still fighting other fish. By the time things quieted down everyone was approaching exhaustion and we pulled lines, outriggers in, stowed gear and headed for home.

A smooth ride home put us at the dock in Falmouth around 2:00pm on Sunday. True pleasure to fish with Ray and Bob for the first time as well as share in the maiden voyage of WIDE LOAD. Fantastic adventure out there on the edge.