While two-thirds of the Canyon Runner crew was down in Cape May at the Mid-Atlantic $500,000, the rest of the Canyon Runner crew lead by Capt Mark DeBlasio with mates Capt. Tom Kelly, Capt. Evan Millas, Chris Hempstead and Ty McGowan held up the fort in Pt. Pleasant getting in three overnighters and just crushing the fish with 5 Big-Eyes and 50 Yellowfin and Longfin during those trips.
August 24-25 - Capt. Mark DeBlasio had the Richard O'Day charter out with mate Chris Hempstead and Ty McGowan Friday to Saturday and ran right back to his number from the day before to try to get another big-eye before the night bite. He started trolling at 7pm and by 7:15 he was hooked with three of them with one on a Canyon Runner blue/white jet and two on a ballyhoo blue/white moldcraft chugger combo. He burnt one off at the boat, pulled the hook on another but boated the third that was right around 170 pounds. He set up down the line a little from the Toms towards the South Toms in 600 feet of 78 degree water for the night. He had over 20 bites at night both on 60 and 80 pound flouro and our hammered diamond jigs. In total the charter chunked 12 yellowfin through out the night releasing a few. These yellowfin were all nice size fish in the 40-70 pound range.
August 23-24 - Capt. Mark Deblasio ran to the northeast corner of the Toms Canyon with the Paul Pedretti charter on Thursday morning and put her on the troll looking for the big-eyes that have been biting their heads off since Sunday. He found them when 5 came up and ate ballyhoo and Canyon Runner purple/black spreader bars and green machines. The fight lasted some 45 minutes and he decked 3 of them in the 130 to 150 pound class. The big-eyes were there and so too the bait so why leave. He set up right there for the night and chunked 30 yellowfin through out the night with constant action all night long. Live squid and sardines produced best but so too did anyone working a hammered diamond jig whenever the fish came thru. Just before daybreak he put out a couple spinning rods to play with the tuna on and don’t you know a 125 pound sword eats it instead. They had it within 10 feet from the harpoon when it broke off.
August 19-20 - Capt. Mark missed out on the biggest big-eye bite in decades by only a few hours as the Jenny Lee and the Pepper both out of Manasquan Inlet boated 15 big-eyes between the two boats. They called us in but since Mark was doing a turn around overnighter Sunday to Monday with the Mark Hable charter he did not get back out to the Toms Canyon until 7pm but by 7:15 had one on. He put the 130 pounder in the boat caught on a ballyhoo and then went right to the chunk. It got nasty at night which hurt the fishing a little but they managed to pull 6 nice big yellowfin on the chunk. Sardines and squid were the bait of choice.
These pictures are from trips a week earlier (I don't have the camera off Mark's boat yet as he has been fishing back-to-back since Thursday).
Canyon Runner Reports - 8/19-25 (5 Big-Eyes & 50 Yellowfin) 
