# Green Canyon



## Magic236 (Oct 1, 2007)

Our 9th Annual Overnight Trip was a great success aboard the Annie Girl out of Fourchon, La. We caught alot of YFT, raised a Blue, and fought successfullya large YFT for 7HRS and 20 minutes! 

We ran through the night Thursday (8.20) and started fishing a day break in an area that a had done very well on YF a few days before. We caught all the BFT you would want justbefore day break and about 30-35 minutes after sunrise. As we began to troll, we immediately raised a decentBlue Marlin that remained deep and only showed slight interest in our flat linesas the crew worked their magic.About 30 minutes afterwe raised theblue, Capt Mike, said it was time to move, sowe ran another 25 milesoutto a drill ship. As we approached the drill ship, itscaptaintold Mike that we needed to stay away and that he had not seen any Tuna or life in the area for the past 4 days. On our first pass, we picked up two YFT in the 55-60 lbs class. On the second pass another YFT of similar size.Mike said,"This is the best fishing report ever." We picked up a few more YFT, BFT, and Barracuda but the bite was slowing, but plenty of fish were painting at 150'. It was time to move again a few miles, to what I think was a production rig (issue of my memory) to only catch small YFT and Barracuda, so we moved back to the Drill Ship in hopesthat the YFT bite would be on later in the day. For some reason, we never had the late bite, I guess that iswhy we call it fishing. 

Saturday AM, we ran to a rig before day break and are covered w/ Barracuda and BFT so we move quickly to another rig.John Oliver quickly picks up the best YFT of the trip so far.... I would guess an 80-85 lbs YFT










We make another pass and have an explosive bite on the right side of the boat....as we throttle back we have another bite on the left but could not hook it as we had lost our speed.

It is 7:15 and Martin Beasleyis on a large YFT.....










I get a chance to take a couple of cool pictures of a helicopter landing










This has to be some kind of rush










About 1HR into the fight Martin elects to take to the Marlin Chair as it is looking like we are in for a long fight. Martin fights over about 50 feet of line that is probably only 125-150' from the boat for what seems like an eternity.










Martin and I memorized every wrap on the reel and werevery concerned as the line crackled under the Tuna's power against the drag. Around 12:30 (5HRS:15MIN into the fight)it looks like we finally get a break, the fish changed its angle of pulland seemed to be moving toward the surface. It was time for the gaffs and harpoon.










We got a glimpse of the fish and Capt Mike couldconfirm from the bridgethat we had a good fish, but as quickly as we gained the line the same tug of war resumed100-125' or so from the boat and surface. A little after 1PM the crew noticed that we were no longer hearing the crackling from the line and that the rod's angle was not as acute. After some dicsussion we feltthat the drag was weakening 6HRs into the fight.Capt Mike then commented, "Guys this is fishing, we are at a make itor break it point on this fish and win or loosewe have to make something happen." Mike's son "Big Phil," applied the extra drag needed to the reel by thumbing the side plate, whileMike moved the boat from side to side, changing the angle that we were pulling on the fish from, and Martin was digging deep into hismarathon and fishing experience.During a rather intense hour we finally brought to gaff our 7HR:20Minute YFT, the potential Annie Girl record. Yes last year they caught a 700 LBS BFT and a large Mako, but I am pretty sure this fight lasted longer. 










We were all ecstatic, that the long fight was successful. We picked up a few more small YFT, BFT, SkipJack Tuna, Barracuda and Wahoo the rest of the day. The water was the beautiful cobalt blue that we all dream of.

The next morning we return to port and weigh Martin's Marathon YFT. To our surprise the fish tipped the scales at 150 lbs. Everyone, thought we had a much bigger fish. I guess that since we all invested heavily into fight, it only made sense to expect this fish to bigger than it was. Regardless of what anyone can say, this 150 lbs YFT fought harder than anyone can imagine. Martin kept maximum drag on the fish for 5 hrs and once we realized the drag had weakened, it still took alot of skill and finess for over an hour to best this fish. Congrats to Mike and Crew, and to Martin.










Capt Mike, Martin, Brent, "Big Phil" and Nick, 150 LBS YFT Congrats on a great job!

Here's to the gang. Guys I'm looking forward to Green Canyon 2010!










Charles Bottcher, Jay Owens, Jim Owens, John Owens, John Duckworth, Jeff Kirby, Martin Beasley, and John Oliver.


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## whatcon (Oct 3, 2007)

Great report, great pics. Thank you for sharing it with us all.


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## LATERALINE (Oct 2, 2007)

Nice one! Glad to hear someone got to fisht the cobalt!


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## mpmorr (Oct 3, 2007)

Great read and congrats on a stud like that, I dream of a fight like that one of these days.:bowdown


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## Magic236 (Oct 1, 2007)

This is to the guy from Atlanta who called me Monday morning regarding the Green Canyon this past weekend. Give me a call, PM or email as I have the report.


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