UNDER THE COVER OF DARKNESS-MONTAUK STRIPER BLITZ on 07-08-07
Storms rolling in Friday night in Montauk kept me inshore again this weekend. With the Thunderstorms having rolled trough Montauk by 10PM, my son Cody, and I fished the incoming tide from 10:30 till 2:00AM. It was a beautiful night came to be, the conditions and water were great, but the rips didn't hold much of anything including bait or bass. I went down swinging, with only two hits and no bass in the box.
Saturday morning after a three hour nap, it was 5AM, and Cody and I set off to troll for the Bluefin tunas South of B.I. we trolled till 11AM with no action and no BFT seen. So, we came back to Montauk for some bottom fishing, we had some beautiful Seabass and Porgys for my wife to cook.
Took a shower and a short nap till 10:30PM when my partner would arrive.

Undetered, and having experienced many, many early July blitzes in the Montauk rips, my fishing partner, Al talked with Cody about a past July when Cody had dropped a Monster Bass in the rips during the July moon. That July we managed thirty-two bass, over thirty-pounds, in three nights worth of outgoing tides. Six of the fish over 40lbs, with three over 45lbs. These experiences and strong beleifs are a great thing! So, off we went to the rips of Montauk knowing of these great past monster catches.

We got to our fisrt rip under the cover of total darkness except for the low glow of my amber cockpit lights. The wind had dropped out and the moon wasn't up, it was just dark and quite. Al dropped his eel in into the depths, then Cody dropped his eel down, then I dropped my eel down. Luck be on my side, I must have hit the fish on the head. Instantly I was into a 40+ pound fish. The fish came right to the boat like a schoolie! Then the big fish rolled, and made a monster run down and away from the boat, then as most monster bass do, she ran out and up towards the surface, making a huge commotion. I worked her back to the boat where she rolled and drove for a second run, Cody had put his rod down and grabbed his video cam.

The fish was a good solid 40+ ponder. I felt her shake her head and then I felt my 10/0 Gamogatus hook pull.
We continued back up to the begriming of the drift, as each drift passed we caught, hooked dropped and had shots for a good hour and a half. Then the action got slow on this great Montauk incoming tide. So, we ran over to the Elbow, made a few drifts there with not hits, then drifted Great Eastern for a couple more drifts with no action. This was the recent MO of the poor night fishing that has been so far this year in Montauk.
Believing that the break we had now given our initial spot, we returned. Drift by drift, we began to take one or two fish per drift. The bass were not committing suicide, they were finicky, in fact you had to let them eat the eel for a while, a sign that there wasn't a lot of bait in the area. After Cody had put his rod down and went to sleep, Al and I continued to put together a great night's catch. After the pethetic Friday night of bass fishing, many anglers may not have beleived that the fishing could have gotten good the very next night, plus with the cost of fuel and bait, many would have chosen to stay home. But, we believed! A nice brace of 28-bass taken, all the fish were solid 24-32 lb range with two more screamer cows dropped.

By 2AM, we were the only boat still fishing, by 4AM it was time to head in, clean our three bass we kept for steaks. But, that wasn't the end, no rest for the weary. I had to immediately get Cody up and drive him home for a Hershey Park trip by 8am. Off to the canyons next weekend. It's tuna time so the next report will be from the offshore. Capt. Mty



GLORIOUS RETURN FROM BEYOND-on 08-14-07:
XIAO MU JI was returned to the water on Friday, seatrialed and set to leave for a far away canyon for a two and a half day journey. Saturday at 1:30AM, my Partner Al was to arrive along with two other fisherman who have fished with me before. At 11:30PM I get awoken by my cell phone, its the other two guys tell me, one hurt his back and the other guy can't find a replacement so he not going either. This put me in a real pickle since they were to bring the food for them and my son Cody and I. Knowing this I got the marina restaurant owner to make us up some chicken sandwiches and three quarts of his great clam chowder. Luckily, we had picked up cereal and skim milk, water and some fruit and Danishes. Alfred arrives and off we go. I pointed my girl towards West Atlantis and off we went at 25-knots, just hitting 91NM, we arrived as the first light turned into daybreak. We set out a pattern of nine spreader bars, and out back one bird with a Black Bart Pro Jet marlin lure and a bigeye smoker in close to the bumper teasers. By 7AM we got the first hit, dumped half a spool trying to get a multiple hookup to no avail. Cody got to work and we boated our 1st 70-pound YFT on a CR-Lolly-pop bar.

We worked a north to south zig-zag pattern as we headed to the east, from 450ft to 800ft with no other takers. As 9AM rolled around, we decided to look for better water in Veathes, so we pulled in and ran to about 5-miles west of the wall and dropped in the lines. we worked N & S along the wall, worked the north wall and then up and down the east wall. During the afternoon, we had been hearing a guy talking about taking big fish somewhere around Hydrogaphers. At 4PM the captain from the boat "TENACIOUS" give the numbers which was just another 13-miles from our location.
A: I want to send out a sincere THANK YOU to the Captain on the TENACIOUS, your sharing of your numbers and information, it really made a long and expensive trip (that just me and my partner were sharing alone ) less painful. In fact, YOU made it worth every dollar! Its a big ocean out there, its good to share and to receive. We differently received on this trip.

At 11:00AM I turned the helm over to Cody and went to knap, I hear Al say "Hey Man, I want to get a ten banger" to Cody, Cody replied, AL we can only keep three more fish, lets get a big eye or a wahoo. I closed my eyes grinning only to here clip after clip popping and reels screaming off line. One on, two, three On, four five ON, I jumped to the helm and Cody and Al went to work. OF coarse, with only two fisherman to man rods and me at the helm, it was tuff to work it all. But, Cody set up one rod in his harness and worked a second rod in the gunnel. Al worked one rod and I ran back and forth from the helm to each of the other rods that needed clearing. Ultimately, Cody dropped one and landed one fish, Al lost one and landed one. Al took the helm and I grabbed the last setup, a #20 Finnor with 600-yards of 60# JB with a 300-yard top shot of 30# Momoi. The reel was over 2/3 empty. I started barking commands to Cody to clear the last few tangled lines with his safety cutter and Al to go chasing after the fish. We bobbed and weave lobster pots and circled this big fish many times. After an hour and forty five minutes, twenty one circles on, and over the fish trying and achieving getting the fish out of the depths with 30# test line. I raised the brute three times to where the leader touched the rod, then the cow just saw the boat (and maybe me) and would strip of nearly half a spool again and again. On the third rise, I actually got to see this super bruiser, a real big boy 250-300# Bigeye. On the fourth time, we all thought that we were getting close to getting a gaff into this big fish. When with no motion or movement from me or the boat, the battle came to an end. Game Over! Oh know!. As I reeled the line up, the bimini knot came up, the 250# wind-on came up with the swivel and the 400# lure leader loop and line came up.

But! the lure leader was only three inches long. At one point in the fight I could feel the tail or something rubbing and something popped, but I still had the fish on, I knew in my heart, "That wasn't good". In examining the wind-on the first three feet was completely like sandpaper had been used on it. I was tired, sad but really proud that my little three man crew had put to the wood a stellar performance. Between great boat handling to my commands, my speed reeling, grunt pulling and Cody's standing by with gaff and a cold drink and my wiring gloves. We lost the battle, but I think, we won the War. NO! I know, we won! That unbelievable loss is what and why I fish. These great battles, whether won or lost, are the soul building, mind stimulating, adrenaline rushing challenges that I thrive on. Having my 15-year old son there to see the epic battle and the ultimate disappointment of the outcome and how I delt wit it. I know these actions will build his memory and soul with good things he too will pass on one day. Teaching him its not possible to win evey time no matter how good you are and how right you do things. WHen it's your turn to when, savor it, remember it and it feels so much better.

Details: We worked East to Weat from 10 to 13 mile to the east of Veatches in the 450-800foot depth. Marlins, big Wahoos, YF tunas to 130#s and nice big, Bigeyes as well as a 120# Sword that I heard of were all taken by a few group of boats. Water was 77-78 degrees, I marked a lot of bait on the bottom, Skippies and smaller 2- to 30 #YFT for Marln candy was present with squids of 8 to 14" long at night. Some porpises, and birds marked the area. Most guys were fishing less rods due to the hot bite. We ran 135NM back to Montauk, fueled up just before the lightning storm hit and burned 220-gaalons leaving me an 80-gallon reserve. New drive worked better, giving me 2-3 more knots of crusing speed at two-hundred less RPM. Nice!

We quickly pulled up and headed farther east. As we arrive there were three boats working the area and in we dropped. Within 20-minutes we had big tunas smashing our spread, I danced the boat, throttled up and down, zigging and zagging and we had knock downs on five rods, with only two hooking up. Cody and Al went to work and two 70 & 90# YFT, hit the deck. We trolled the area till dark with a few skippies getting into our spread. We set up for the night and drifted southward off the shelf with one Swordfish Squid down deep and three tuna baits distributed at different depths while we chunked fresh small butterfish and squid. THe Hydro lights brought in a mixed size of squids throughout the night until 2AM the Bent-butt #80 Sword rod went off as 130# line peeled off, the longer the run went the heabvy I increased the drag, the run that took 180-hards of mono off and down to my Jerry Brown 130# backing. THen, before anything could be done, Nothing! Gone! Over and Out! That hurt! The rest of the night was a wash. Took a short power napp and at 5:30 put the girl on the troll. We grabbed another 60# and 80# YFT with a few other single knockdowns with out hookups. THe other boats were saying that they had to keep the spread farther away from the boat. Big fish, but kinda finicky!
Sorry I don't have pixs just yet, I will postthem tomorrow and give the Loran #s too. I think these fish are moving towards Veatches...
Again, Thanks TENACIOUS ! Capt. Marty & Crew




RETURN FROM THE TAILS & WEST ATLANTIS-on 09-04-07:
Cody and I awoke at 1:30AM, with "XIAO MU JI" ready and waiting for the crew to arrive. On queue, Alfred, aka "Norman Batts-PSYCHO", George C. & Alex T. off pushed off for the deep. The plan was to run to 14378 x 436123 and drop in North of the Tails where the fish had been Thursday. We arrived on site at 5:00AM and set up our pattern of small bait spreader bars framed with two Williamson Bonitos chasing the spread and two Bigeye stubby chuggers on the outside of the spread, on the long riggers. The were skippies and small bait all over the place we worked the area till 8:00AM then headed to the South to the Tails, the radio chatter was that it was going to be a tuff troll, and only a couple of YFT at night on the chunk.

We hooked up on the Northeast corner of the mouth of the Tails, George being it was his 1st canyon trip was given the experience of fighting and landed his 1st 50# Albie, and we continued to work the area for an hour with no more takers. So, we pulled and ran 11-NM to the northeast, dropping in at 14600 x 43400, where the report of whales & bait had gotten my attention. We worked area with whales, turtles and porpoise, again no takers so we headed towards the southeast until we reached the notch west of West Atlantis. As we came across 650' line, we found and worked a huge school of small porpoise for a while with no takers. Then, trolling east towards West Atlantis we came across a 175-200# Swordfish cruising the surface and made two attempts to bait him with a slow trolled giant squid, he wasn't interested and sounded. It was 4:30PM, so we pulled and ran 8-NM to the Southeast corner of West Atlantis, 14375 x 43350 and dropped in our spread looking for the evening bite. We immediately ran over a huge concentration of bait balls, with porpoise around and stayed locked on the area until darkness took the opportunity away.

Under the cover of darkness, the slight breeze had died to complete calm. We moved out to 800', shutdown and setup for the night bite. Drifting Southeast till we got into 1500' around 11:00PM, were we pulled and ran back up to where we had all the bait balls were in 630' of water. Under the beautiful stars and half moon it made us feel so lucky to be in God's Country. We again deployed two giant squid baits at 250' and 125' for Swords, and three whole Butters at different depths for the tunas. The first YFT came into the spread and we were hooked up around 1:00AM. Alex brought to my gaff, a nice 70# YFT. The "Code Master" Cody immediately dropped down and started working his long Butterfly jig and with in 15-minutes had a nice fish screaming drag on 50# Power Pro off his Torium 30. A couple of minutes later, a 74# YFT met my gaff and landed on the deck. Things were looking up! Finally, the skunk was out of the box and we anticipated the next bite. Things stayed quite for an hour or so till another 60# YFT met its demise under Alfred's rod. At 4:10AM, first light was coming and another tuna baited rod started screaming off into the deep. George took this fish, and after a few screaming runs, I saw in the glow of our Hydroglow lights, that he had himself a Swordfish, no monster but a definitely a keeper. Being careful not to break the light 60# fluorocarbon leader, I wired and gaffed the Swordie. It measured out 48.5" lower jaw to fork and I could smell the barbeque. We were out of butterfish, so we re-rigged for the morning troll.

I was setting in the spread and with just two rods left to get into the spread the center rigger popped. The fish missed the hook. I raced to the helm and started dancing the boat and throttle. Nothing, so as I was deploying the 10th rod the 9th rod, short rigger on a Zucchini Spreader bar went off screaming. I jumped back to the helm and danced the boat again dumping nearly half the spool looking for a multiple hookup. Nothing, back down the throttles and Alfred was into the battle. The boat next to us, the "REEL OFFICIAL" hooked up on two Bigeyes too. Al fought the fish and I drove around keeping the fish in the Starboard corner for nearly 2-hours. I was a little frustrated with Al, because I felt he wasn't putting the pressure on the fish. But, I held back telling him what to do. I figured the fish would soon start to dictate to him that he should start listening to me and start pressuring the fish. That point came and Al started to really pump the fish, the fish at one point came up to the surface around 60' from the boat, what a pig, probably in the 300# range, just monstrous. Then it sounded again going deep. Here, the very next trip, we were again into another bruiser Bigeye, but, this time, it was on a Shimano TLD-50 LRS with a top shot of 250-yards of 80# Momoi and 900-yards of JB. Ten minutes later, we had my Bimini knot coming out of the water, I gave Cody the helm, and as I was moving toward and watching the knot coming out of the water, the line parted. Al was jolted backwards, he wasn't doing anything when it happened, the line just snapped! Once again, we lost shot at landing a Bigeye bruiser. Getting over the depression, I got us back on the troll, Al from the REEL OFFICIAL called me and said that he had a fish on so I made way for him. He had landed his two 300# Bigeyes that he had hooked up on and was now into a smaller fish. We worked the area till 10:00AM, the wind was now blowing an easy 15-20-knots out of the Southwest so we started trolling toward the barn. At 11:30AM we pulled in and ran the remaining 86-NM home being able to only run between 18 to 20-knots, we rounded the Montauk Jetty at 4:30PM. Cleaned fish, the boat, then drove Cody home dropped him off, then took my tired ass and finished my drive back to Manhattan, arriving 10:30PM. The end of a good Weekend Canyon Trip and said Good Night! Capt. Marty





ANOTHER TRIP TO WEST ATLANTIS-on 09-10-07
The "XIAO MU JI" was in for another run to the edge, as the weather was going to take a dump late Saturday going 5-7 ft out of the southeast and Sunday building to 7-9ft on Monday. So,Friday night into Saturday was going the only opportunity we were going to have in getting back to our big fish we had last week in West Atlantis. The crew comprised of George M., Rexx L. Cody and myself. We arrived at the vessel at 5:30PM and Cody & Rexx started icing and salting the boat. I started rigging the swordfish squids while Cody and Rexx started chopping the butterfish for the coming night. George arrived and we shoved off. As we came out of the inlet and I went into program mode and got the AP16 into the auto-tuning mode. Alan from Simrad had been kind enough to reset the unit and reprogram it for me before we got to the boat. Thanks Alan! With the unit now runnning good, we set off for the edge. As we came around the Montauk Point we headed the 96-NM to the West Corner of West Atlantis, we soon were backing down from our initial 25-knot cruise speed to slower 18-19knots in building seas. We arrived on scene near the edge at 11:30 in 4-6 foot seas.

We motored over to our last week numbers and put the boat into neutral. As we readied the bait rods the current gave up it's direction that we were going to be drifting as I wanted to the east. Out went the Sword bait rods, one set at 250ft and the other at 125ft with giant rigged squids and tamden 12/0 Gamagatsu Big Game Hooks, 300# leaders and deep drop multi-color lights. George started chunking as Rexx got the tuna rods in the water with whole butterfish and sardines. I got to putting the green and blue Hydroglow lights into the water and the generator going. Cody started jigging with his Butterfly jig he had been successful with last week. It was a rockin-rollin night with the 4-6 foot seas and the occasional 8-footer thrown in to keep you working on your toes.

Eventually, Cody hit the sack, George had been chumming himself and he too went down for the count. Rexx and I stay focused on getting the action going. Around 2Am I took a nap then gave Rexx a short nap. Around 4AM I got Cody up and he took over the chunking duties. I laid down to hear Cody yell "Dad" "Dad" , "I got something!" I need help the line is tangled. I jumped up and as I got to the rod and tried to get it out of the holder to get the tip wrap undun the rod doubled over and SNAP! It was free. The hit wasn't like the typical tuna hit. it was that tell-tale swordfish run-off. It was also the witching when we always get our swordfish bites. Oh well!, then reeling in the 125ft swordfish rod, we found a small Mahi on the bait. Could'nt belief it. I started getting the trolling rods ready and baits on the for the mooring troll. The night radio chatter was that our slow bite was the same for everyone else sitting on the edge. We heard of one short sword and one keeper sword coming in along with just one or two yellows.

With everyone up and the sunrise upon us, we set out the spread riding in the trough of the rough seas. Just as we trolled northward to our last bigeye bite numbers the port corner rigger with a lolly-pop spreader bar cracked and the 80 bent butt started screaming out line. I started my throttle dancing and thrashing of the boat dance trying to get a multiple. Finally, I gave the helm to Rexx and I took the rod. I started to reel and there was nothing, it was gone. The mystery fish was gone! We worked the area till 10:30 AM with no other takers.

We started trolling the toward Montauk, as I got off the edge and up on the flats I switched my spread to four Stauker "The Ticket" chugger lures framing seven new Fred Archer mini-bait bars in Silver/Pink 2-3/4" squids being chased by large 12" predator squids using weed guards on them since the amount of weed was ridiculously bad! We were coming up on 14435 x 43335 and I changed the seven to pink/silver mini bars to seven black/silver/pink mini Fred bars with 9" Hot Pink baits chasing them. I went up to the tower to enjoy the ride with Cody and get some filming in. I was watching the spread when a two big fish rolled on the port side corner rigger mini bar and the long lat bars. The rigger clip cracked but the rod didn't come tight. I got down and started coming about to run over the same spot. We rest the corner rigger and as we came back over the waypoint the pack attacked again. With the kreel in the area, I knew these mini bait bars were going to be the ticket. This time I danced the boat, saw a few more fish roll and the third fish was on. Cody and Rexx started fighting the two fish when Cody's fish was off, he quickly grabbed the other rod. Cody's fish came to the boat first and met the gaff in it's head. Nice Albacore! Then Rexx's fish met Cody's gaff in its head too. Nice Gaff job Cody, I said!
We got the spread back out and worked the area for a couple of passes. Then I put "XIAO MU JI" back on auto-pilot with her path to Montauk. A ten minutes later another fish hit the spread and George took the rod. This fish was taking lots of line and I thought that just maybe we had found the Allison yellow fins or even a Bigeye. With no more takers in the spread I throttled back and let George get to work. I have to say this fish fought hard all the way to the boat. I felt comfortable since it was on one of the 80s. I got my gloves on and Cody readied the gaff. As I saw color it was a nice fish but not a really big fish. I wired the fish and brought it to Cody who made another perfect head gaff shot. Cody couldn't hardly get the fish over the gunnel. Wow! that's some slob of an Albacore! its close to 60-pounds guys. We iced the fish and got back to working the area for a while. Soon two more rods when off and Cody and I took the rods, these were small fish, I thought. Sure enough, I see my fish going side ways across the surface. What! What was this, its small whatever it is I thought. Soon, the two dolphins showed themselves and we had them in the boat.
Finally, with no more action it was 2:30PM and 64-miles to the Point we said enough! We cleared the spread, pulled in the riggers, pointed the girl toward the barn and rounded the Inlet at 5:30PM. Fueled up taking a mere 140-gallons of diesel for a 200-mile round trip with 14-hours of trolling canyon trip, Not Bad, I thought!

Back at the dock, with three Mahis and three Albacore, we saw the largest Albacore on the Dock Record board for the year was only a 51-pounder. So, we took to getting the big Albacore weighed. It tipped the scale at 57.65 pounds, a new dock record for the year. Well, it was a little consolation prize for a slow trip to the edge. I can't wait to get out there again. Capt. Marty