Captain's Journal

Now that our winter season is just about past us. It’s time to move on to the good stuff. Warm weather and livebait tuna fishing. This winter was full of ups and downs. It was either a wide open bite or you had to resort to whatever would bite that day. On some days it was only sharks and kingfish. And then the next day it was a tuna slaughter. With the Wahoo bite we had last year this year’s bite would have some big shoes to fill. We are not getting the numbers we did last year but the average size is up from last year so that makes up for numbers. Like with Jason Gauthier’s crew in from Connecticut. They had three Wahoo that weighed in at 263lbs. Plus all of the topwater blackfin they wanted. Of course as with the rest of the winter, the following day the fishing dropped off. With the blackfin only biting for about forty five minutes then stopping for the rest of the day.  The yellowfin which are everybody’s favorite have played hardball most of the year but when you get them they were all over 150lbs. You just had to put your time in for them. On the days the wahoo and tuna didn’t want to play. The jigging tackle and the jigs I import and sell were brought out and the jacks and other assorted fun fish were caught.

   Here are a few shots from this winter.

Capt. Mike

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gg0cwbYsRBU

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Posted in Fishing Reports

Another series of successful trips is on the books. The fishing is a good as it gets right now. Most days we are done tuna fishing with our self imposed boat limit anywhere from 12-1:00 in the afternoon. I started out this series with a trip like I just mentioned with the James Bozeman crew in from Texas. It was a day nothing could go wrong the herring where more than willing to bite. I think we put four dozen in the boat without moving the boat once. All you had to do is put the sibiki in the water up to the swivel and pull out 2-5 herring. From there it was off to what I thought was going to be a one stop spot. But the porpoise were just too thick. We hooked two and had six or so baits ripped off the hooks so we made a short run to what would become my rig of choice for the next several days. Upon arrival it was on fire. There was not many fish busting but every bait out was just about an instant hookup.[img]http://www.forumpictureprocessor.com/pictureprocessor/images/200071.jpg[/img]

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 It wasn’t insane since I had time to clip the lines in the outriggers but it still very good. We quickly seven yellows in the boat and shut it down early to go chase some daytime swords. You know the bite is good and everyone is happy and it’s 12:30 and the fish are eating everything you put in the water and they elect to go chase something else. No sense being greedy. We made a move to try for a daytime sword but the green eyed sharks would not leave us alone. So we packed it up and headed in.[img]http://www.forumpictureprocessor.com/pictureprocessor/images/2000351.jpg[/img]

   The following day I had James Shaw and crew in for hopefully a tuna slaughter. The day started off not to bad but just enough chop to make the bait difficult to see on the surface. But I soon picked up a pod of herring and we quickly filled the well with more than enough baits for the day. I made a beeline back to where I was the day before and it was on just like the previous day. Except it was just singles at first which was fine since no one in the crew had caught yellowfins before. [img]http://www.forumpictureprocessor.com/pictureprocessor/images/IMGP08101.jpg[/img]

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          But after  two yellowfin hit the boat and everyone had a chance to pull on one. The fish turned on big time and it was doubles and triples until the 8^th tuna hit the deck. It was like work as soon as that 8^th yellow was in the boat there was a sigh of relief that they could finaly go home. They didn’t even go into overtime since it was only noon. If we wouldn’t of lost a few then we could have been done by about 10:30 or so. We elected to not try for the swords and went straight to the house. The next day the weather keep me at the dock and doing boat maintenance.

  The following day the weather was still a little bit of a factor and throw that in with it being a Saturday. I just couldn’t put it together at all. I didn’t go back to where I had been putting a hurting on the tuna since a huge cell was sitting over the rig. So I went to the east only to find dirty water and sharks. Thankfully I had a group that I have fished with several times so it took some of the sting out of a ZERO day. It’s the first blank that I can remember in a long time. It was hard to swallow after being on top of the fish for a few days. But now I am mad at them and they will pay the following day.

   With the poor performance from the day before, I was ready to kill some fish for Butch Cardanes and Travis. The weather was perfect the bait was perfect and the fishing was perfect. We discussed getting a couple of tuna and then spending the rest of the day daytime swordfishing. When we were a half mile from the rig we could see the yellowfin going nuts chasing bait. I put out baits and had a triple of two yellowfin and a dolphin on the popper. We lost one of the yellows but at least we got the other one and the dolphin. We picked away at them for awhile to only put another yellow and a blackfin in the boat along with another nice dolphin. We had plenty of shots but our hookup ratio was not the best. That would all change later in the day as the one fish we needed to catch we did. I was kind of getting antsy to go and search for a sword but we tried one more rig to only find short yellows and cudas. Finaly the word was given to go hit the swords. The JL audio system was turned up and off we went. After getting rigged up the first drop was a immediate swing and a miss on a sword. We repositioned and droped again only to catch a green eyed shark. But the third drop was the charm. As soon as the bait hit the bottom a sword was whacking the bait. After a couple of whacks with his bill the line just went slack. Butch caught up with the sword about four hundred feet off the bottom and the fight was on. It took a little over an hour to get the swordfish to the surface. It wasn’t a monster but it weighed out at 112lbs on the scale at Crypress Cove. But with it being the first daytime sword for me in the Gulf it was more than sufficient. It caused such a stir that the tuna and dolphin were almost left on the dock and forgotten about. Here are some pictures from that trip minus the tuna and dolphin. We tried the daytime thing the following day and had one confirmed swordfish bite but we couldn’t come tight to it. Now for the pictures.

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  Can anyone guess what’s in the 32oz cup in my hand. Anyway that’s a wrap up of the last several days down in Venice.   

Posted in Fishing Reports

Well with a few days at the house due to a sick lower unit and the weather. I have the time to give a recap of the past few weeks of fishing. I started off with a tuna flyfishing trip of which we were successful. [img]http://www.forumpictureprocessor.com/pictureprocessor/images/WE7Z8283-21.jpg[/img]

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           One of the highlights of the trip was our third sailfish of the summer. Even though not on fly it was still nice to get a billfish in some pretty green water. [img]http://www.forumpictureprocessor.com/pictureprocessor/images/WE7Z8246-21.jpg[/img]

          The tuna fishing has been just about as good as it gets. Even with it being very good there are still days you have to fish for them.

   On one such day I made a huge loop throughout the gulf with a great group of guys in

          from south florida. We tried everywhere only to double up on 80-90lb fish on the last two baits at the very last spot of the day. Needless to say it was pretty nerve wracking trying to get both fish in with guys that have never caught them before. But Jesse,Matt,Russ and Dan managed to get them both. I had to add everyone since it took everybody to get them. [img]http://www.forumpictureprocessor.com/pictureprocessor/images/Johnny%20Lawyer%20Trip.jpg[/img]

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             The only other tough day we had was with Scott Leif and Jeff in from California. We only got two yellows also on a double at the last spot of the day. But the majority of the day was spent on a real decent blue caught on 50lb mainline and 60lb fluro with a threadfin. We capped off the day with our snapper.[img]http://www.forumpictureprocessor.com/pictureprocessor/images/th_0807091827a.jpg[/img] Here is Scott with the blue and the following picture is Scott after the blue.[img]http://www.forumpictureprocessor.com/pictureprocessor/images/th_PICT1749.jpg[/img]

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           Other than those couple of days the norm has been my two per person boat limit of yellowfin. Or either the clients saying no more. The upside is the topwater bite has been pretty good if you have the patience to wait for your shot.

  There is a couple of  days that I have to talk about on Sunday the 9^th I had the Carter Benton crew for the Fishing to Hear Rodeo. Only Jim and his father made it in the morning as the rest of the crew came down with a case of food poisioning.  We only caught one tuna but the father son team put the screws to a 83lb tuna good enough for first place. [img]http://www.forumpictureprocessor.com/pictureprocessor/images/100_1766_2.jpg[/img]

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         It  was only one fish but the way in which we caught it was rewarding. And on the way in we picked up our four snapper. OnWednesday the 12^th I had Cooper,Cutler and Johnny in from Ft. Lauderdale in for a tuna slaughter. At first the weather was a non issue but by the time we loaded the well with four dozen or so threadfin. The long run I was palnning on making was out of the question. And with thunderstorms boxing us in. I went to the only clear spot I could find. It was divine intervention as we pulled up to tuna going berserk. We would double up and then retreat under the rig due to the lightning and 47 mph winds. As soon as it cleared we would ease back out and either double or triple up. It was as fast as it gets. Without the weather. I am sure we could of caught the 15 out of 19 in less then a hour instead of quitting at 11:30. I am waiting on the guys to put together the video with some killer underwater footage and send me a CD with the pictures. On all my trips the rigging is pretty simple 50-60 mainline and 60lb Seaguar fluro. The bait is coming off of number 8 Mustad sabiki’s. And as long as you find the threadfin most days the fish will commit suicide for you. Until the next report catch’em up.

Here are a few assorted shots.

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Posted in Fishing Reports

July in Venice where do I start. I took some family time off for the 4^th of July. And after that it was back down for pretty much the remainder of the month. At first the tuna bite was pretty slow so the main target was snapper,grouper and AJ. As everyone knows we had a summer of no current and dirty water out well past the Flemish Cap. So the bottom dwellers took up the slack for the tuna. It was just about three weeks of slim tuna fishing befor the tuna wanted to play again. But when they did it was like a light switch. We went from working like crazy for a couple to an average of 8 tuna a trip. I had the Peter Bondi group in for there annual week long trip. They are a group that no matter what is happening it always works out ten times better than anticipated. The first two days were spent bottom fishing with a twist we were doing it with flyrods. Peter managed three world records on fly. Only one will be accepted since someone cleaned the other two. We beat the Red Snapper 16lb record by a pound and a half and we shattered the two mangrove snapper records by over 6 pounds apiece. Peter wanted tuna or nothing on the third day and this was the day that kicked off the return of the tuna. We caught ten and a couple of dolphin for good measure. After that the tuna got back into their normal cycle and we are on an 8 tuna average now. The other high point was another flyfishing group comeing in to get a yellowfin on fly. We only manged to get one on fly but at least we manged to get the goal accomplished. There was also a green water sailfish to our credit. Most of the sails I have caught here have been little 30 to 40lbers but this was the biggest sail I have ever caught here. I am still waiting on the pictures of it. The rest of the trips consisited of solid tuna catches. I set a few other standards with the youngest angler to catch a tuna on my boat at 10 years old and the oldest at 72. It started out as an ok month but quickly switched over to a great month with the solid tuna bite. As long as August is half as good as July then a lot of tunafish are going to die. I have pictures coming in I just haven’t got them yet. It was fun just fishing and not worrying about posing for pictures or anything like that. It has been stick them with a gaff and get back to work.

Capt. Mike

Posted in Fishing Reports