Boy did the nasty roll through Thursday night..I actually got to drive through it twice coming down..the second time my wipers went out..pretty much set the tone for the remainder of the weekend.."Dont forget the Rain-X"..I had Mark Glassmeyer, Shawn, Jacob and Bruce from Houston for the next two days..The Thursday portion was rescheduled with Saturday with Capt. Kerry Milano..We slept in Friday morning wating for the line to pass and fortunately it sucked out all the energy in the Gulf..by 6:30am it had moved off to the east leaving a much welcomed scattered clouds and light winds behind...at 7am we pulled out of the marina..ride out didnt get sloppy until 5 miles from the secret wintertime spot..pulled for wahoos as usual..had a double before we could get the downrigger set..fish 1 got eaten in half..looked to be a 50 pound wahoo reduced to 30 pounds..the second fish pulled off as whatever ate our first fish likley turned and chased it as well.
Pulled around for some time before getting on the blitz..most our action came off the downrigger again..Lump ws good for kings and bonita so we didnt hang around long..took some hunting but eventually we found the blitz I had promised them..had a triple and double and two singles to finish out the day..total of 10 fish 30-75 pounds - well 9 1/2..Awoke to an expected foggy Saturday..we fueled and iced up Friday afternoon and left the dock a little early to avoid the a traffic jam, but found plenty commercial traffic on the river which was unexpected; and worse this included a close call with a crew boat in South Pass..no contact by radio led to a 100 ft drastic collision avoidance measures..needless to say I was a little rattled and still marvel at the balls of some who attempt trips offshore this time of year without radar...anyway diggression..I finally have enough rest to make a decent report so here goes..both Scott, Josh and Hunter also left early..I went to the east to find wahoo where we'd had them on earlier trips the other three went westaward with the flotilla..no luck for me it was a tough morning and the fact that we brought an extra 150 qt icey-tek full of ice made me think we'd jinxed ourselves..hit 6 spots without finding anything..no signs of life, no bait, no strikes and no dots to aggitate and even better no boats..still we hung on the shelf before we made the decision at 11am to run south..and this with the baits out..about 20 miles out we found a nice color change and trolled on it for an hour..with no luck I decided to head south at 10 knots with the wahoo baits in tow..stayed on course for the closest deepwater rig..about 3 miles past the color change I saw a huge hole open up behind the long bait..what puzzled me next was that there was no bend in the rod for another 5 seconds then it doubled over and started ripping..it would all make sense once we gaffed the fish even though we ran through a list of possibilities as the line kept on ripping of the reel..and ripping..and ripping..it was cool..we didnt know what to expect but hoped to see something go airborne..the fish stayed on the surface for another 5 minutes before sounding..at this point we figured huge tuna..the beast would hang tough making two more short runs before settling out on angle..we kept the boat ahead slow while the angler reduced the payout..about 50 feet we could see the fish was large but couln't tell if it were tuna, marlin or wahoo..with 20 ft to go we could see the outline of a huge wahoo..once on baorad it measured just over 6 feet and estimates on weight ranged from 85-100 pounds..as we were pulling it up for picture it puked about a 2 gallons af seawater..
I guess it hit the bait from behind with such force it sent water rushing down its gullet and was still going ahead for a few seconds before registering on the rod tip..I think if we hadnt caught another fish all day it would have been just fine with the Peterson crew altogehter..they have come 4 times now and we haved crushed the fish everytime..in fact Bob and I were discussing this a few minutes before the big hit saying that it was about time for the law of averages to catch up with them..but even at that point we had alot of fishing to do and no one mutinied and I never gave up..about an hour later we arrived at the rig to see bait everywhere..tons of little tunas popping..we kept out the spread and made several laps..nothing..but ooh the dots..plenty of dots.red ones yellow ones and green ones.we decided to pull up and chum..Bob re-rigged and I cut up a half bucket of pogies..first drift yielded a 20 pound yellowfin..then a small skipjack which to the dismay of our guys we cut up to make bigger tuna..on the next drift we had a double another schoolie and a 50 pounder..we made 4 more drifts culling through a dozen sharks picking up 6 more yellowfins..got back a little early..1 wahoo and 8 yellowfins..never saw another boat all day whch was an anomoly for sure... I had already left for home when the other three got back into a pouring rain I heard..Pretty much business as usual on the Lump..Leger went looking for wahoo the first half ofthe day finding nothing..Hunter had 4 yellowfins and 8 blackfins and 1/2 a wahoo..all this by the secret method of chumming on the Lump with red meat - He had the other half of the Peterson crew - Josh had Chef Joseph Olivio of American Catering and in addition to eating well managed to put Chef's dad on a 120# yellow and 5 blackfins for the rest fo the family - Legger had the Loco Ono crew which included a speciial guest appearence by Kip Creed who is the ony Creed I like now..they had a yellowfin and 3 blacks after their unsuccessful wahoo hunt..
Thanks to Capt Kerry Milano for taking my Thursday crew who got a yellowfin out of the deal after the previous days wahoo slaughter with me..hoping to get some pics from Cory, Chef and Hunter Rougeaux but here is a shot I took of the 88.8# wahoo..Thanks to Capt Brandon Ballay for the accurate wt call of 90 pounds alive..pretty impressive educated guess..who needs a scale..Legger was the only boat out today in the Old 36 Twin Vee "Helluva Deal"..this was Capt. Sonny's old ride which we figured we'd never see again..he had the Daumer crew yielding a bounty of 1 yellwofin and 5 blacks..no wahoo again but the guys had a good time with fly rods with the tunas and bonitas..Plenty days to fill, including this Wednesday..Paradise Outfitters - 985-845-8006
