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The Invitation Late last summer, we received a call from our good friend David Martin, then CEO of Penn Fishing Tackle. He explained that he had arranged an overnight canyon trip with a few of his top engineers to field test some of the new reels set to be released this past winter, and he asked if we wanted to tag along. “Hell, yeah!” was our reply. A chance to tangle with some bruiser fish on the latest-and-greatest hardware coming out of the Penn factory was too good to pass up. Then we had an even better idea. Why not bring along a camera crew and document the entire trip? We knew we had a great premise for a show. What we didn’t know was how great a trip it would turn out to be. The Day Troll Time to Chunk Just before dusk, we set up for the night chunk in about 400 feet of water right at the tip of the Wilmington. Captain Mike Sorgengoni had read fish and bait there earlier in the day, and had some reliable information that the spot had produced well the night before. A few curious dolphin showed up immediately, but were very, very skittish, and we only took a singleton before the school departed. Just as well; it was tuna we were after. By nightfall, the task at hand became doling out chunks of butterfish until they could no longer be seen, and then repeating the process indefinitely. Hours went by. More chunks went in the water. We began to wonder if this might not be our night. Just before midnight those great harbingers of tuna, the squid, began to show in the underwater lights of the C-JAM (these lights were incredibly bright, and a great offshore tool!) After netting a few and getting them on hooks, our confidence level increased. Squid are a very important part of the forage base of the tuna, and also of swordfish. These ink-toting denizens spend their days at incredible depths, but rise toward the surface during the hours of darkness. We knew that our chances of encountering gamefish increased markedly with swarms of squid around the boat. Our first fish was a 40-pound class yellowfin tuna that came to the boat quickly. The second fish was only slightly larger, but gave Bill a real tussle on a little Penn Torque 200 outfit loaded with 50-pound Power Pro that he normally uses for stripers! The presence of these fish seemed to coincide with the presence of a massive school of squid down about 50 feet. Captain Mike had marked them on the sounder, and we began to jig the squid using a weighted squid jig in tandem with a weightless one. Dropped to 50 feet on a light spinning rod, these jigs were inhaled immediately by large squid. We filled the livewell rather quickly. The C-JAM sports a huge recirculating live well, so inking was not an issue. When keeping squid in buckets for bait, make sure they ink outside the buckets, as the ink will cloud the water, and ultimately kill all the inhabitants. With a few fish in the box and a live well full of squid, we felt much better about our chances. True to form, the bites increased in frequency and the fish got bigger as the night progressed. Just before daybreak, we were treated to an all-out “mad-dog” tuna bite in which we landed quite a few fish that flirted with the century mark. We needed two gaffs to subdue some of those fish A New Generation of Tackle While many of the reels we used were still in the “field-test” phase, they worked flawlessly. In fact, Darren beat a 75 pounder in less than 2 minutes using one of the new commercial grade Senators! As for the experimental rods, we did push one to the breaking point, but that is what field testing is all about. And, we did mange to land the fish! For years, we’ve been extolling the virtues of a new generation of offshore tackle designed to be used with the new super-braids like Power Pro. For us, this outing underscored the fact that “the age of braid” has indeed arrived in the offshore arena. Armed with a relatively small, light “braid-ready” reel, like the Penn Torque 200’s and 300’s that we used on this trip, anglers can stand toe-to-toe with the largest fish and beat them handily. It’s truly a neat experience. On the morning troll we were treated to a nice aerial display from a quality white marlin, and broke off a huge tuna that we still have nightmares about. A big-eye for sure, it porpoised clear of the water before eating a little Black Bart "Pro-Jet" and heading for Portugal. We never even came close to stopping that fish before it came unbuttoned. Hey, who tied that Bimini? The New Jersey Canyons are an amazing place, where amazing things can, and often do, happen. If you’ve never had the opportunity to experience this type of fishing for yourself, you are missing way too much. If you’ve been there, then you understand the addiction with which so many anglers contend. Get out there and catch ‘em up! - Bill & Darren Season 1, 2, & 3 DVDs are Now Available! |
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