I just got back from a week of fishing. I was hoping that the fishing was going to stay hot. But it slowed up and dropped the daily average down some. Our current dropped out and with no moving water the cudas come out in force and the tuna just shut down.
I had Blaire and the rest of the North La. gang down for some fishing on Wednesday. The trip was perfect all the tuna we caught were over a 100 and we were 100% on the bite to the fishbox. Sounds great right well not so much when you consider we only had one tuna bite all day but it whipped everyone onboard a couple of times. Back at the dock it weighed in at 113lbs.[img]http://www.forumpictureprocessor.com/pictureprocessor/images/005_61.jpg[/img] Here is another shot of it and three of the five it took to beat it. [img]http://www.forumpictureprocessor.com/pictureprocessor/images/002_69.jpg[/img]
On this trip if it could of went wrong it did. We had weather thrown in there the rip line which has been there for a week was gone. My sounder wanted to act up and a dive boat anchored on the bait spot overnight. And to make it worse I had a dose of water in my starboard engine 70NM from the pass a filter change saved us a LONG LONG ride home. All issues were worked out on everything else and we were able to salvage a bad day offshore with a nice fish.
The following day I had Tim McGregor and some of his buddies along with their wives. They saw the catch from Wednesday and I told them we would give the tuna a shot but it might be slow. The tuna option was quickly changed as we had a pretty stiff headsea to deal with for the run out to where we have been tuna fishing. So we switched it up and butterfly jigged up some amberjacks to save the day. I tried to finish it off with some lane snapper but the ever so elusive red snapper would not leave us alone. We called it a day a little early and headed in with only our amberjacks.
Now with the fishing being slow and the weather causing some issues I was starting to feel the pressure. But when David Doughty, and his party showed up at the dock. He had a pretty unique gift for me. He had a pineapple he said it was for good luck. Perfect now we will catch some fish. The pineapple was quickly named Wilson and rode out in on of the drink holders on the console. I am convinced it lead us to the fish we crossed a perfect brown to electric purple/blue rip right outside the pass. [img]http://www.forumpictureprocessor.com/pictureprocessor/images/image14_1.jpg[/img]
I started to put out the plastics and didn’t have the entire spread out before the first fish bit on a Makaira Baby Brutus in a special dolphin color. It didn’t stay hooked but it was smoking some line. The next bite cam off of the same side on the Lena out of the rigger. This fish also managed to escape also. Now I am rethinking this pineapple thing alittle and I am having bad thoughts about turning him into a rum drink. And when the third bite happened but this time only to lose on of my Lenas. Mister Wilson’s days were numbered thankfully we had only been trolling for about a hundred yards or so. Any longer and the pineapple was dead. We did manage to convert the next three bites into fish in the box. They were all very solid dolphin in the 15-20lb range.[img]http://www.forumpictureprocessor.com/pictureprocessor/images/image54.jpg[/img]
They didn’t pull like to mystery fish did. But at least the day was looking up. Meanwhile we lost a couple of crew members to the weather. But on the way to the next stop I got a call from Billy as he was coming in from a overnight trip and he still some livebaits and wanted to know if I wanted them. Now with a few dolphin in the box and some prime livebaits the tuna was a good possibility. No sooner than I put out the livebaits we had a double knockdown we missed one and had the other one. Well we almost had the other one. Somehow during the fight the rod man started to feel the effects of seas and decided to look over the side and call Ralph for help. Ralph wasn’t much help as he somehow managed to throw the reel into freespool and pop off tuna. No problem let’s regroup and get back to it. This time only more dolphin would find our remaining livebaits. We ended the day a little early with 7 nice dolphin and a good story about the one that got away.
The last two days of this set of trips was with John Leib brother Howard,Dennis and Frankie all in from Florida. I was still riding on the luck from mister Wilson and I even tried to get him back from a buddy who took him offshore on a overnight trip. But our paths never crossed. We managed to fight off the cudas long enough to put enough live chummers in the well and enough hookbaits in the well. I though it was game on at the first stop as we immediately double up on nice 45lb. Yellows. After that it just died we had a couple of missed opportunities. And I have to take blame for a blown gaff shot on a very big dolphin. I stuck him and he jumped off the gaff and popped the leader. I guess I should have been quicker on the gaff sorry about that one John. We made a couple of moves and picked up two more yellows and a dolphin during the course of the day. The cudas were terrible and took quite a toll on hooks and bait. We ended the day around 4:30 and headd to the pass with four yellowfin and a dolphin for the day.
When we got back to the dock mister Wilson was waiting for me on a piling by my slip. We can’t go wrong for the next day. We made a beeline to where the best bait was and had to do it quick since they were moving the rig. This day was going to be a race against mother nature since a cold front was coming down. While making bait a few fish were popping around so we cut the bait catching short and tried to get a couple real quick the cudas were just more aggressive than the tuna. We did get a double only to lose one to the other line but we did get John his tuna that we didn’t get the day before. Now this is where mister Wilson’s luck came into play as Howard decides to toss the topwater to a boil and hooks a 80lb or so yellow on the spinner.[img]http://www.forumpictureprocessor.com/pictureprocessor/images/008_56.jpg[/img]
[img]http://www.forumpictureprocessor.com/pictureprocessor/images/009_43.jpg[/img]
[img]http://www.forumpictureprocessor.com/pictureprocessor/images/014_31.jpg[/img] After a few laps around the boat a very beat fish is in the boat for the ride home. [img]http://www.forumpictureprocessor.com/pictureprocessor/images/017_26.jpg[/img]
There are a few shots of Howard’s fish as he was pretty pumped up. Somehow Mister Wilson lost his head in the process and we buried him at sea but his luck kept with us. As we finished the day with a real nice dolphin of which I didn’t mess up the gaff shot this time and another yellow that everyone got a piece of in the 80lb range.[img]http://www.forumpictureprocessor.com/pictureprocessor/images/021_19.jpg[/img]
With three nice yellows in the box and a dolphin we headed to the house[img]http://www.forumpictureprocessor.com/pictureprocessor/images/024_15.jpg[/img]
only to get hit by the front and 25-30 knot winds as I turned into the pass what perfect timing. Thank you Mister Wilson.
Capt. Mike
Here’s how the day went: Since we were supposed to meet Captain Mike of Relentless Sportfishing Charters at 6:00AM we agreed to get up at 4:45 AM. After having breakfast and getting everything we would be taking with us to the boat ready, we jumped in the car. When I start the car and look over at the clock I see that it’s not 5:45AM, as we’re expecting it to be, but 4:45AM. Everyone forgot to set their clock back for the time difference between Florida and Louisiana so we go back in and sleep another hour until it’s time to go.
We were very pleased when we arrived at the boat. The 33’ Freeman was in spotless condition with excellent tackle and the captain and mate were ready to go!
It was a beautiful day around 70 degrees with the sun shinning brightly. The weather would remain like that for the rest of the day and the seas were 2 feet or less. Catching bait on the way out was not difficult so at this point we’re convinced were going to tear the yellowfin up. Shortly afterwards is when we started to realize that things were not going to be as easy as we thought.
When we pulled up to the first rig, 70 miles offshore, we immediately start to mark big fish at the 200ft rage. We setup a slow troll consisting of live bait (Runners) which results in a small dolphin. We continue to slow troll the area while casting out a popper on a spinning rod to small blackfin tuna busting on the surface. We only managed to get one black and decided to try another nearby rig.
The second rig was also holding fish but they where not coming up to the surface. Since trolling wasn’t working the captain decided to change the approach and we start drifting baits in the 200-300 foot range in order to bring the baits down to them. Bingo, we get a bite. We fight the fish for a few minutes but managed to lose the first 4 solid hits we get. 0 for 4 on the yellow fins and now we are starting to worry. This brings us to approximately 4:00PM with no yellow fin on the boat.
Now we have to make the decision of continuing another 20 miles and trying another rig or heading back home and giving it another try on Friday. With the way things were going it was a very tough question but after the captain advised us that the weather may be a little too sporty to go out on Friday the consensus decision was to continue on. We were all determined not to return to Florida without catching our yellowfin and we were not going to take a chance on the following day. Our decision turned out to be the right one because we would not have been able to go out Friday because of the weather as the captain had advised us might happen and we eventually started to catch fish.
We arrive at the last spot of the day and it immediately looks promising. We hook a large dolphin shortly after starting our troll but wouldn’t you guess it, it pulls the hook and add another lost fish to the list. After we give up on the trolling we start setting up our drifts in the same manner which produced the bites at the other rigs. After several drifts without a bite we start to see more and more yellowfin crashing in the area.
These were not small fish. They all looked over 100#s and our hearts where racing in anticipation of hooking one of these monsters.
Finally, Rob breaks the ice and lands the first yellowfin in the 20#s. range. At this point we’re all thrilled to have the first one in the boat when things really start to heat up.
Just as the sun is about to set Alexis gets a bite. It’s a big fish but we’ve gotten awfully close to the rig and the fish is digging down. At the same time a group of 30#s dolphin who had been swimming around the boat each time we approached the rig decided to also start to bite. We lost the tuna but landed three of the dolphin.
At this point we’re convinced our luck had changed and we were correct. Next thing we see is the small yellowfin caught earlier pulled out of the ice and getting filleted. Sweet sashimi time, so I thought, it turned into chunks and they started going overboard. A concerned look on my face was immediately relieved when yellowfin after yellowfin got hooked on the chunks. We hooked and landed every fish after that. We kept the bigger fish weighing in at 145#s, 135#s, 80#s and 75#s.
To say we ended on a high note is an understatement. If you’ve never caught a tuna over 100#s make sure you’re in pretty decent shape before making the trip. These fish will absolutely kill you. We all have sore muscles we never even knew existed.
Fresh tuna at the marina:
Special thanks to Captain Mike Ellis, from relentless sport fishing, for going the extra mile and putting us on fish. It’s nice to fish with a Captain that has as much passion and hurts as much as you do when a fish is lost. His boat was very impressive and comfortable. The fuel efficient vessel was very appreciated especially at the end of the day when you’re settling fuel cost. He never gave up on us when things just weren’t going our way and the results were spectacular. If you would like to charter Captain Mike his contact information can be found on his website: 
