"The
Canyon Awakens"
The Viking - Montauk
September 26-27 , 2001
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Spent two days tuna fishing on the Viking with Steve Forsberg and Richie at the wheel. I felt lucky the day that we left and thought that the fishing would finally break open. For the past week it had been hard work to catch any fish, even with all of the signs of abundant bait in the Canyon. The water temperature was a wee bit high and the tuna were no where to be found. Though the six pack boats had been kicking some serious can all through late July and August...come September, someone had turned the lights off. Hey, if I was God, I could tell you why or come up with some long tale of bull of an explanation. Welcome to fishing...nothing is written in stone. So why did they finally awaken? Because I'm so special and they threw a party!
First morning we hit the bluefin hard, but you had to weed through the sharks. Three sharks, one bluefin...4 sharks, one bluefin. The customers had their hands full at best. Not much sitting around. Of course there are always those who are off...the fish would have nothing to do with their hooks...sorry Charlie. We had about 15 bluefin in the boat and busted off at least double that amount. Later that day, we moved on. |
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We got to the Canyon at dusk. Life was all around the light of the boat. You could see the dorado darting through the weed beds floating past us. A bit of wind and the ocean kicking a bit...then that sweet sound of a reel screaming it's heart out for mercy. Then the sound of running down the deck. Yesssss, this is what I've been waiting for. A yellowfin hits the deck, pounding against the steel hull, rattling like a drummer at a rock concert. A longfin here...a yellowfin there...and another rod doubled over like a fly rod. There's the mate egging on one fisherman to get serious with the fish or hand over the rod to another. The first mate, Eric, pushes him...for every time you rest, the fish rests as well...no good Bo-Bo. Some time went by and what we thought was a nice yellowfin turned out to be a serious swordfish, weighing about 125 pounds. The gaffs came flying over the rail and in came that pup. Many large fish were lost that night, but it was a good bite of at least another 14 fish and many lost, spooled or involved in your basic fishing antics. I had a nice yellowfin weighing in at about a buck and a swordfish, which we released. I also hooked onto some sharks and lost my share of tuna. So this may be the beginning of something nice and nasty for the Canyon. We'll see right after this Northeastern blows by us. Good trip all in all. God bless and may St. Peter bring a little luck to your next trip. ScreamingReel Dave
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