A night in the Lindenkohl Canyon with KRM Sportfishing

Combine a nice weather window and some great reports coming from the Lindenkohl canyon, our crew of four (Keith Maurer, Capt. Scott Murdoch from Point Pleasant Charter Fishing, Vic and myself) took Keith Maurer's 36' Twin Vee Catamaran, Anticipation offshore. On the way out we stopped by a scalloper who was working on shucking a huge bag of scallops. We started jigging right away. After a few minutes one of the crew on the scalloper said they hadn't seen any tuna for five days, only large black tip sharks. We dropped a few more jig tries and pushed off for the canyon. We arrived just before dark, tied up to a pot and began flinging the meat. Scottie Murdoch, who runs a tight cockpit had four sardines deployed at different depths. Under the full moon, we also deployed the AFTCO Fishing Kite. Man did we have fun with the kite. After the success of using the kite on our last trip (without the proper clips) at the Chicken, AFTCO promptly sent me the Kite Clip Kit, so no more glass rings. To make sure our sardine was fishing well, and staying in the water we used two techniques; 1.) we pushed a one ounce sinked into the body of the sardine to add some weight, 2.) we held onto the sardine as we let the kite out to make sure we had enough line when we let the sardine go. Once the kite was out, we let the sardine go at the boat and the current took the sardine back under the kite. This method helped ensure the bait was fishing in the water. It wasn't long before we saw the kite being pulled North, and again a mahi took the bait. We quickly boated a small mahi and we were on the board for the night. However the tuna were a no show. Scottie chunked hard all night, in between several cans of Monsters, to no avail. But then at 2AM, Scottie's vigilance paid off, as his short line that was down 20 feet began to run. Keith set the hook and Vic tied into the fight. At the boat, thinking shark, up comes a swordfish. I think the concept of tagging had a milisecond of consideration, as the next move was Keith sinking a gaff into the side of the swordfish. This one was tagged for the grill. These fish are amazingly beautiful, with huge iridescent eyes and brilliant shades of dark blue and silver on the body. Then again the kite bait went off and we had another mahi. So at this point it's a lock, that the AFTCO kite is a mahi killer. At daybreak, we went up on the troll hoping for yellowfin. We had one small knockdown then nothing for hours. We trolled by a dragger FV Flicka who was picking to their mid water trawl. Behind the vessel pods of small pilot whales and dolphin played and fed in the wash which was fun to watch. We trolled by several times without a touch. We did mark some amazing bait though, as we came upon some huge finback whales feeding on a bait ball that was one of the largest we had ever seen. See the picture of the fish finder below. The bait was so thick, the fish finder through the bait ball was the bottom. At around 10AM Keith decided to take us offshore in search of marlin once it was clear the tuna were not cooperating. On the way out we had a hit on a green machine, then the blue chugger went down. Scottie picked up the rod, and a nice white marlin jumped in the wake. Then he was gone, shook the hook. This was a bit disappointing because I would have loved to get some video of tagging marlin. The tags everyone has from NOAA can also be used on marlin so this would have been a good example. Next time! The only other event was a moth, that landed on my glasses while up in the tower. He must have needed a break from flying as he stayed with me for a good 15 minutes. I named him Herbie. So with a swordfish and two mahis in the box, we wrapped it up and headed for the barn in calm conditions. While the tuna evaded us, we did come home with plenty of yummies for the grill.

Capt. Scott Murdoch (Left), Capt. Keith Maurer (Right)