Well the last couple weeks have been a fish blood blurr. Here is the synopsis: Tuna, wahoo, amberjack, grouper, Sac-o-lait, brem.
Seriously though, the wahoo did not show up like I had hoped on this moon but we did manage to catch some everyday except for one. Whereas I would expect to find them piled on one specific rig I ended up catching one here and one there all week. I don't think I caught two wahoo at the same rig on the same day all last week. In the 15 years that I have been chartering full time this is probably the first April moon I have had to run around so much. They made me work for them. Almost all of the wahoo and some of the yellowfin came on the pink Bomber CD30. The tuna on the hump were all for me working as well. They seemed to not really want pogies so I had to cut about 100 bonita and kings over the course of the week. No problem though, the chunks paid off in some nice yellowfin and plenty of blackfin. As for the reef donkey and grouper, I caught the bulk of them on the Bomber Jigs in cotton candy or blue. The day before grouper season opened, I caught 5 gags in the 30lb class while jigging for jacks. All of the released well and I am planning on seeing them again soon! The red snapper have been real pests as well. I am sure they are endangered somewhere but here in Venice there are so many 20+lb snapper it is insane. I am looking forward to snapper season.
The sword trip did not go well. The current was a lot harder than it had been and we could not get baits down with even 36oz of weight. I had to start drifts way off my spots just to be able to get baits down in time for them to be set before passing over. I like it when I have about .5-1kt and our drift was steady at 2.3-2.5kts. We got one bite but didn't even feel the fish on before he spit the hook. In the morning we ran over and caught some AJ and yellowfin so the trip was not a total wash but I was really looking forward to catching some swords.
I took the last part of the week off to spend some time with my 6mo pregnanto wife. We fished for sac-o-lait and bull bream every single morning till about 1pm. It was awesome. It was nice to paddle a Geenoe through a Cypress swamp and catch fish on a jig pole. It was beautiful. I am blown out for the next couple days so I am going to be back on them.
This week I have a couple trips booked to fish mangroves and grouper. This time of year it is not unusual to catch limits of mangrove in the 8-10lb class and the grouper are thick around the same rigs. I usually have 2 people drifting lines for mangrove and one or two jigs going down for grouper at the same time. Capt. Daryl fished them yesterday and had 20 very nice ones.
I shot some video last week that I am going to try and get up in the next couple days. I am also speaking at the CCA River Parishes fishing seminar next week on the 11th and the New Orleans CCA fishing seminar week after that on the 19th. Come out and see me.
Give me a call and let's go fishing. I have dates open and I am chomping at the bit! God bless, Good fish!
Capt. Peace Marvel
504-858-TUNA (8862)
