OB offshore tourney
 

( the island replacement for the old monster shark tourney)
This is the second year. (blue water classic) I think they had about 30 or so boats in it . It is pretty much a canyon event. Had a lot of fun and some excitement. Some great guys fish this. A couple white Marlin, one mako, lots of YFT and mahi were what we caught but others had Bluefin wahoo and BE and big blue marlin. All the action now is at Oceanographer and Gilbert. We fished hydro, noname and welker. 2 days + night. Had one event that was a bit disconcerting...ran over some ghost gear that was dragging 200' of 1" rope(s) about 3-4' submerged ... got it wrapped and twisted in one of the props and rudder when we passed by to see if any mahi were home...then the ball and high flier started to approach the boat as we drove away. Lots of cursing followed. We were not that close to the gear either. Had to don a mask and cut it free off the shaft and prop hub. It took several attempts. The water was almost 80 deg and the vis was spectacular, I swear I could see 200' underwater it was amazing. I never wanted to swim out there but it is beautiful when you get in. I looked around for life and saw nothing but deep cobolt blue and a few tiny little creatures below me. I think were were in about 700-800' at the time. BTW tried the big Bubba blade it was worthless on that rope I made 4 trips and it only scratched the rope...took out a serrated dexter and in 3 passes it cut the rope. Always carry a mask on your boat and maybe a hockey helmet. The boat was heaving in the waves and it hits you in the head when you are under it, I came up covered in blue bottom paint when I was done.

Can't wait to go again.

Nice story, seems at some point every boat has a diver down to clear something...

Great story.
I had to swim not once but twice on our last canyon trip when I got too close to a high flyer. A large mahi shot out and grabbed the lure and shot right back into the flyer. I Panicked and put the boat in neutral to keep the line from wrapping the pot, figuring he might come out. With the tide ripping hard, our entire 10 line spread got dragged right around the flyer. Ughh! Now what. Backed up to the flyer to untangle our spread and promptly ran over the painter buoy. Well after untangling all but 1 lure and cutting ourselves free of the tangled mess I had to don the wetsuit and clear the prop. That was easy enough. Crystal clear warm water, no biggie. I told Buzz to watch for tiger sharks lol.
Anyway once I had the poly ball painter cut free I decided to return the gear to its owner and go tie it back up to the high flyer, plus i wanted my 20 dollar joe shute jighead back from the flyer, so that's what we did......Then I promptly ran it over AGAIN! back in the water! Again!.

I always have the wetsuit and mask on board. The hockey helmet is a great idea too.
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Yup, my Myerchin Safety knife makes short work of everything, including the spreader bar left hanging a bit long off the rigger we put into the wheel the previous trip... Of course, we had forgotten the mask... oh well.

Some of the guys were setting 'traps' out there, as they were sick of people tying off to fliers at night. We hit one a few years ago, #^&#^&#^&#^&ty move, but we haven't seen in set in a couple of years....