Here is a mid march fishing and best of all catching report. Thankfully there has been more catching going on rather than fishing. The weather has been a huge contributing factor lately with conditions from very rough to as smooth as a strippers nether regions. The lump has been our go to place up until a few days ago. For one reason it as just been to rough to go anywhere else. But the bite has been pretty decent, but with some up and downs in it. These up and downs did cause me to make a not wrong decision but I could of made a better decision for my group that came in from Pensacola. Thank goodness the wahoo bit ok along with a few blacks AJ’s and one lonely yellowfin that joined us for a ride back to Cypress Cove. But we did miss the best lump day of the season so far because of it. But at least we still made a good day out of it.
From that trip I ran in early march the weather has caused me to cancel way more than I should have. The weather man did cost us a few trips with a forcast that was way off. I hate playing weather Russian Roulette. Unfortunately that’s just part of winter fishing. Enough of *****ing about the weather and on to the meat and potatoes of this report. I started off with last series of trips with David Markovich and his wife on Wednesday the 13th.. A yellowfin was on his bucket list and we set off to the lump to get it crossed off of his list. We did a little wahoo fishing on the way out in some not so favorable conditions but doable. I couldn’t find any that wanted to play with us. But we did find some AJ’s that were willing. Little did I know they were going to be almost non stop companions for us that day. After we got to the lump we couldn’t get away from them they ate chunks and jigs and of course our mullet. We did lose one yellow at the boat so at least David got to have the chance at one. It was a very enjoyable day of catching fish just not the target species we were looking for. David if you read this I will get you your yellowfin when you come back this summer that’s a promise.
After the Markovich trip I had Flip Hubbard and his son Tad come in for two days. On the first day I was woke up around 4 AM with the camp shaking from the 25 knot winds. Great not a good way to start out the day. A call was made to meet at 8 and hope the weather guessers were right with it dropping as the day went on. We went out of South pass and went with the seas and did some wahoo fishing as we worked our way to the west and the lump. The wahoo were a no show although we did mark them but I couldn’t figure out the code to make them bite. We set a drift up at the lump and it was pretty steady with a blackfin here and there and of course the ever annoying kingfish and sharks. But Tad did get his first kingfish. Finally at the end of the day we got on a good bite of 60-80 pound yellows and put three in the boat and the call was made that they didn’t want to kill anymore. It was kind of a hard decision to make, keep fishing and catching them. Or head in with happy customers. They won out and we left in somewhat ok seas. The weather guessers did get it somewhat right. On the way in I saw some signs that I needed to see to change up my gameplan for the next day. On day two the seas were slick and with my poagie net onboard we set out to net poagie and live chum the lump. Well the kings loved that but with no current and everyone else around me looking bored we left and went looking. We found what we were looking for and went to work live chumming a mixture of yellowfin and blackfin. We had a few wahoo cutoffs as well. Remember the rig from the day before that they wouldn’t bite on well they wanted livebait. But they wouldn’t touch a livebait on wire. We did keep two yellows one we gave to another boat and one went to a cookout. We hit a little snapper spot on the way home to let them catch some since they have never caught one so we scratched that species off the bucket list. It was a great feeling knowing that cutting chum was over for the year now that the livebait has shown up.
The Stephenson group was next up and with the slick day we had the day before and what the guessers were guessing. It was a susprise when we hit the gulf to find it pretty darn rough. But the tuna were right were we left them and we went to work putting a box of yellowfin and blackfin together. They get so excited and turned on by live chumming that its almost not fair to the fish. We only had two yellows a typical springtime 30 pounder and one in the 70 pound range. We also had a bonus catch of a 10 pound mangrove snapper that ate a bait meant for a tuna. With the group wanting to go hit up Bourbon Street we left early and got there fish cleaned so they could go and party. The next day with the Huelsman group was carbon copy of the day before except that there were more yellowfin than the day before they were the 20-30 pound models but they were very willing. The only thing different about this day was the front that came crashing down on us. Luckily we had our limit of yellowfin and a self imposed boat limit of blackfin and we left a little before 11 to head back to the marina. It was a good run of trips with plenty of fish to go home and happy clients. Until next time catch’em up.

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Posted in Fishing Reports

Tagged: tuna fishing, venice fishing

     This will be an easy report to write as just about every day was the same.  I started out on the 12^th and ended up on the 23^rd. The trip on the 23^rd with the Scarborough group was one of the couple of trips that was different. And it was so due to no fog and the 4-6’ seas not the 2-4 the weather guessers had it at. I could only do 13 knots and not pound to bad. It took over two hours to make it to a very close in spot for some yellows. It started off pretty good with livebait coming easy. The only bad part was the sharks were there in force along with the tuna. They wouldn’t eat a livebait they would wait until you hooked a tuna and then bum rush him like he was on the wrong street in the city. We got lucky on the first one the second tuna we only got half and the next two we lost everything. You had to keep both engines in gear and the waves would still push you backwards several feet with every wave. With the nasty seas and shark army we ran north as best we could and got on the troll since we couldn’t run. And picked away at the Wahoo, jacks and blackfin on the troll. We ended the day with salt in our ears and noses and a very good box of wahoo, yellowfin, blackfin and jacks to show for it. Even though the wahoo fishing was stellar we paid the price to catch them.

    Now this next trip sticks in my head not because of how good we did but because it shows how much a bad decision can cost. So I will take the blame for this day. I had Scott Winkler and crew in from North Louisiana for this one. The bait came very easy and I was thinking it was going to be rum drinks early today. Well on the way to the spot of choice we hit the dirty water that pushed out overnight. First mistake didn’t look at the water charts. Ok now problem we will just switch to plan B. We ran down the break looking for any open water fish while heading to plan B. Now here is where I make the wrong move. About three miles from our destination it is north of the dirty water line. (Later found out the clean water was a mile north of the rig)So I had no choice but to run LONG to get to some fish. We finally pulled up to the backup stop to the backup stop. The bait was a little bigger out there so we got a few more and was not that worried as it was a full moon and the bite is generally a midday bite. And it was we picked one up about 60lbs right away and then we had to wait for the next bite. With the day picking away and only one fish to show for it. I decided to get more bait and live chum the fish and make them bite. While making bait for the third time some fish came up and we pulled out and got a bite from a 75-80lb fish right away. Perfect they are going to turn on right, well not so much. Then to add insult to an already tough day. I got line in my wheel and had to jump in and take my prop off sixty something miles offshore. I don’t pray much except in situations such as this one. But someone must have been listening because it went as smoothly as possible. After that I tucked my tail and ran for the barn with our two fish at least they were solid fish. Rum drinks didn’t come early this day but they still came to ease the pain and frustration.

     Now the rest of the days during this string were pretty much all from the same mold. We would wait until we had a little bit of light to maybe catch that stray log that the radar missed. Then we would run through the fog which had been the worst of the year. Once we got offshore it was the same fishing as in the summer. We would make bait drop the riggers and livebait fish the tuna. The standard setup was 60lb mainline and 60lb fluro. I did change out my hooks and have been using the Eagle Claw L2004 5/0 circle hook. It’s a bronze hook and once it’s in them it doesn’t come out. We didn’t have one pulled hook in a bunch of hookups. The downside to this hook is you have to use pliers to get it out. It really hooks and holds. The arrival of the first livebait of the year has to be the happiest time of the year.  No more nasty cutting board and chum cutting just good clean gentlemanly tuna fishing. The tuna cooperated just like they should. A lot of people got to catch there first yellowfin and then catch them till they said no more. It’s a great feeling when your customers for the day look at you and say lets go home we have more    than enough fish. There is something very satisfying to leave them snapping. This is how it went for eight days perfect weather and perfect fishing, Life is good. The only deviation to this schedule was a couple of blue marlin that tried to see what the fuss was all about. None were landed only a very brief hookup with a topwater lure on a 350 plus. Probably a good thing the hooks didn’t hold. I did end one day with a very accomplished fly fisherman  Bo Mason that has fished all over with a flyrod but doubted you could catch a snapper on a fly. After I told him about the IGFA records set on my boat on them he wanted to give it a shot. So on the way home we made a pit stop and gave him the drill and well, the snapper ate the fly as good as the tuna ate livebait that day. It was a very good string of trips. And I should be back at it after the little blow this weekend.

Capt. Mike

Posted in Fishing Reports

Tagged: tuna fishing, venice la fishing

   This report is a glimpse into the life of every charter  fisherman in Venice right now. This story started out as a simple run down to Venice to do some routine maintenance on the boat. It turned out  that I would not get home until eight days later. Once I arrived at Cypress Cove it looked like someone had kicked an anthill. There were satellite trucks all over and media crews from all over the world were running around with cameras and microphones wanting a story. Well we gave them a story but it has now come back to bite us in the ass. We were all scared of what could happen if they closed our fishery. How would we pay our house and boat notes and feed our family and send our children to school. So unfortunately we gave them the story they wanted. With the threat of not having a source of income coming we all started running media trips to take them to see oil boom and different rookeries. Meanwhile as the stories started to hit the TV paper and newspapers around the world. The phone calls started to come in not to book charters but to cancel. Some of my cancellations were all the way into August. The story was the same thing we are not coming because of the oil, we can’t eat the fish,fishery is closed and any number of other oil related excuses.

   With the oil not hitting the beaches the media started to get antsy and started to get real pushy wanting the story of doom and gloom. Which simply wasn’t there all I managed to find was a little light sheen on the surface. Now after several days of this it started to get kind of old and stressfull being at the center of this with no information. It was time to go fishing. The 20-30 knot winds that had been hammering Venice finaly let up and dropped and we had mirror calm conditions. Perfect right, NO the clients I had canceled out. So here I am stressed out and perfect weather and no clients. A couple of other charter operations got out a put a whipping on the tuna. So the scramble was on to call some of my regular customers to come and get in on the great tuna fishing. I only had to make a couple of phone calls. Before Jared and his brother Schawn and Bret from Texas said were on the way. I rounded up Scott a hunting buddy from Mississippi to finish off our crew.

    I don’t think I have ever been more excited the day before a trip than I was this time. I iced the boat heavier than normal in anticipation of the slaughter that was to come. I went over everything. Then the ultimate oh s_ _ t I have no tackle down here. Remember this started out as a simple routine maintenance trip. But I was able to borrow some gear then I spent more time going over it and changing line and tying new leaders and hooks. With Scott’s help and a special guest appearance by the captain himself, Captain Morgan the rod work was done before the alarm clock went off.

    Finaly here is the story I have been building up to. Arrived at the marina and loaded the rods and the crew.  The conditions could not have been better. [img]http://www.forumpictureprocessor.com/pictureprocessor/images/DSC04660_1.jpg[/img]

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           There was no horizon the surface just melted into the sky. We were on the lookout for oil slicks so the livewell pickups could be shut down but we never ran over a drop of oil.  We ran across several weedlins loaded with chicken dolphin. We didn’t bother to stop to pick any up since we had a date with the yellowfin. Once we got to the first rig the tuna were going nuts on the surface maybe they were jumping out of the water to escape the oil they heard was all over the gulf. We quickly made bait and pulled off to try our luck with them. After several perfect shots at them with poppers the livebaits went out and the first fish of the day was soon in the box. This was Schawn’s first yellowfin ever so the trip was a success. [img]http://www.forumpictureprocessor.com/pictureprocessor/images/IMG_1340_4.jpg[/img]

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With the fish being very picky there we picked up and made an18 mile run to the southeast where we quickly picked up two right off the bat on live baits. [img]http://www.forumpictureprocessor.com/pictureprocessor/images/me%20&%20sean.jpg[/img]

           Then the key to the fish was found and we put it to good use. The only problem was we had to make more bait since we used exactly what they wanted up. Back to bait fishing: Luckily this rig had the absolute most perfect red tail scad on it. Here is a shot to show you how thick they were.

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This rig would be our final stop the yellows were marking real thick on the sounder and the lack of man-o-war jellies and the small bait under them were no where to be seen. I forgot to mention it but this rig is about 15 NM from where the Horizon was anchored. The first fish came as I was letting it out and the second fish hit as I was putting it in the rigger. With them biting like that I didn’t even bother putting them in the riggers. We just fished them on flat lines. Before we knew it we had 13 yellow fin in the 35-60lb range in the box around 3PM so with 80 miles to the dock we cleaned up and headed north. The best part was when I had Scott throw the rest of the bait overboard it all ran under the boat and when we took off they had nowhere to hide and the tuna went nuts destroying them on the surface. On the way in we ran across another group of animals that didn’t know they should not be here because of the oil and it was a pod of whales. Not what you would expect in an oil polluted gulf. The amount of life right now offshore is amazing. Every rig we checked had yellow fin and there were open water schools of tuna from well offshore all the way to the pass. Every charter that has managed to put trips together has been able to box at least 10 yellow fin a trip. So people PLEASE DON’T CANCEL YOUR TRIPS YOU TRUSTED ME AND THE OTHER CAPTAINS YOU BOOKED SO CALL AND TRUST OUR JUDGEMENT NOW BEFORE YOU JUST CANCEL.

Capt. Mike

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Posted in Fishing Reports

Tagged: tuna fishing, venice fishing