Last week was another busy week on both Canyon Runner boats with 4 overnighters between them and another record mako for us to cap off the week. Fishing Tuesday-Wednesday with Capt. Deane Lambros at the helm of the 48 Viking with an open boat trip and Capt. Phil Dulanie at the helm of the 60’ Ritchie with the Chris Durnam charter they saw excellent yellowfin action down in the Lindy with each boat catching right around 10 30-40 yellowfin. The night saw mako action along with blue sharks and tiger sharks plus the trip was spiced up with mahi as well. Overall just outstanding fishing for this time of year – but we were starting to notice the water we had been fishing was thinning out and were happy to get double digit yellowfin in the boat.
When we went out again on Friday to Saturday the water was infact gone and we followed it all the way down to the Baltimore Canyon – 125 miles away from Manasquan Inlet. It would prove to be an epic trip for Capt. Phil Dulanie with Kevin Muller and Carl Geiger in the cockpit and the Mark Manigan charter on the rod. They had a nice but quick pick of bluefin release in cold 61 degree water then went 2/3 on yellowfin but there wasn’t much to it – until they started sharking. The night bite saw multiple blue sharks, tigers, brown sharks and 3 makos. One of the makos was a beast.
After already releasing a small one they had a double header of makos with a 70 inch fish coming to the boat immediately which they were about to boat when a massive 106 inch fish launched itself and almost landed on the bow. The cut lose the first mako and went after the big one – which proceeded to jump again almost landing in the cockpit. They finally got things under control and the fight was on – a fight that lasted one and half hours – a fight that saw a harpoon pull lose and get wrapped in the tail along with the leader – we even got the tail rope on only to get it riped out of our hands. Finally with multiple gaffs and a couple shots to the head she was tied off but not dead for a while. We dragged her on the troll for a couple hours in the morning and finally put her in the boat and made the long treck home from the Baltimore Canyon. Back at Clark’s Landing she weighed in at 463 pounds – last week’s 367 was Canyon Runner’s biggest mako ever – that lasted a mere week – this one may never get beaten.
Big thanks to OceanLED lights as that new blue color in those lights are really attracting the fish and thanks to Basil at BHP Tackle for is second to none shark rigs and of course Penn Reels – once again preforming flawlessly. And a heads up to Ritchie Howell & Danny Martin – better reserve that shed for the winter – transom needs a new paint job!