Hawg73
Mediocre with flashes of brilliance
- Joined
- Nov 26, 2002
- Messages
- 25,123
- Reaction score
- 11,428
- Points
- 113
- Age
- 68
- Location
- Gumdrop house on Lollipop Ln.
Yeah...Photographs don't begin to show the beauty of a lit billfish. It's breathtaking the first time you see it.
The canyons off Jersey and Long Island are a favorite place for overnight fishing for big Blue Marlin, Swords and Bluefin Tuna. Those canyons get deep - well over a mile deep - and the biggest of the bigs feed in the canyons. I have known people who quit their lucrative day jobs, invested in capable boats and became full time tuna fishermen. One fishing friend, a cardiac surgeon from Needham who was maybe 45 years old back then, made more money fishing than as a physician. That's back in the '80s when a 500 lb tuna would bring $20/lb minimum with the Japanese buyers waiting for him on the dock. He'd average at least 2 or 3 bigs on every 2 day trip. He'd have done it for expenses he loved it so much.
I love fishing for pelagics - tuna, sails, black, blue or white marlin - there's nothing like it. Back in the '80s, I fished in the SCarolina Governor's Cup billfish tournaments out of places like Bohicket, Georgetown and Murrell's Inlet. I'd stop at a Coast Guard tower on the way out to the stream to catch dolphin fish (Mahi) for bait and one day I thought I'd try chunking for yellowfin. It's a technique I learned from an old salt in Snug Harbor/Point Judith, RI. Well, the Southern fishermen had never heard of big yellowfin being caught off SCarolina's coastal waters or chunking either, for that matter. I'll never forget the first time I did it. They thought I was nuts. "You're just feeding the 'Cuda!" You should have seen their faces when I pulled up the first 200 pounder after 15 minutes of fishing. Then, 5 minutes later my 8 year old son hooked a 50 pounder. To be honest, I didn't know what to expect but I gave it a shot and it worked beautifully. These were charter captains out of Savannah and Charleston on my boat for the tournament who had no idea big yellowfins could be caught in inland waters. Of course, the trick was to cut the chunks too big for the barracuda to eat. Big game fishing is a rush everyone should try at least once. Bucket list for sure if you've never experienced it.
Great post. You're right. There is nothing like it. I'd never really seen a map of it, so thanks for that. I wasn't real clear about where we were, but had it about right.
I call it "the canyons" but was just trying to Cliff Notes it. We'd tried to get out there (from Bass River) several times but finally the weather was with us and I got to find out
why people go all the way out there. One of my cousins, who is now very ill, had a yellowfin on his line and at the same time I reeled in a big-eye. Great memory. Then we caught that marlin and
when that thing jumped out of the water we all howled. Mahi's with literally every cast. At one point we stopped for a swim in the warm current and I dove under and there was a circle of about two dozen mahi just staring at me and trying to figure out what I was. What an experience that was.
We drifted all that night with a man assigned watch and it was a perfect, ultra-clear night. We were in high spirits, doing shots and listening to music, etc., and then the Captain shut the running
lights off and we went up top and the stars were unbelievable. We went from "which actress would you most want to bang?" to "what do you think happens when we die? in record time.
