Texas Tuna 5/23 - 5/24

[BretABaker]

Will (high seas drifter), Ben (digidydog), Jared (Jared Chasteen) and myself headed out of Freeport around 11AM Saturday with hopes of tuna.

The weather was great on the ride out and we stopped at the intersection rigs hoping for grouper. No grouper, just the elusive red snapper and I got a ~40lb AJ or so while reeling up. After a little while we just decided to head out. . Poppers weren’t really the ticket on this trip – all subsurface. I tried a Tady and Ranger and they were OK. I think the Tady would’ve been alright but I switched after getting several cudas and crevalles

I ended up grabbing the Skagit Lip Slider in Mackerel color and went from there. I was all over the crevalles (this was a theme). Got a couple more early on along with some blackfin. Finally hooked a yellowfin, got it to the boat pretty quick. 40-50lbs, as most were this night.

Few more crevalles, blackfin and cudas later I had another yellowfin in the boat. There was a bit of a lull then the bite turned on a bit. I had a blistering run only to have the hook pull….would’ve been a nice tuna. A few more casts later I had a nice tuna on. The tuna was very feisty – screamed a ton of line off……I went to slow the spool and it was blistering hot. Honestly I thought this fish was going to be 100+, but it ended up being around 80. The pics aren’t any good, but it was around 55” or so.

I handed the setup over to Ben…….and he promptly hooked another 50 yellowfin – his first ever (yep, he ate the heart).

Jared gave the setup a few casts……but I think it was only blackfin that wanted to play. We did get some nice sized blackfin though – Will had one that was around 25 or 30lbs. It was the biggest blackfin I’ve seen in Texas.

Just as I began to think about retiring the lure…….a cuda stole it. That was annoying. I used a Tackle House Sinking Works the rest of the time which produced a lot of blackfin, big shock there.

Stopped at the rigs again on the way in…..i caught more crevalles, but ben and jared got into some AJs…..Jareds was over 60” at the fork, really nice fish.

Luckily threaded the needle through some storms and made it back alright.

Fun times as always, thanks again to Will and Ben for the invite. It was great to fish with you Jared – hopefully next time will produce many more yellows.



50lb Tuna Sniper and Stella 8000 were perfect

Bens First Tuna

Breakfast of Champions

Jared’s Big AJ

Threading the Needle

Buccee’s Patrons weren’t happy with us

[Sea Draggin]

Great report Bret. I'm glad to hear of your experience with the tuna sniper. I have been wanting to invest in a good popper and have been looking for unbiased reports.

[swell rider]

Nice report Bret...Love to see those YFT ones..Ken

[BretABaker]

Great report Bret. I'm glad to hear of your experience with the tuna sniper. I have been wanting to invest in a good popper and have been looking for unbiased reports.

i like the rod a lot. it says 20lbs max drag but i had more than that. as long as you fight the fish properly its not a problem.

there are other rods id like to try as well to compare but im very happy with the choice.

[paul708]

nice report bret.
good looking fish.
should be starting up here soon..
i hope we can get out.

the tuna sniper are nice.
i just got 2 in stock to play with..sweet.
i will be getting the blanks very soon. lets see what happens with them

[Pipeliner2]

Great Report Bret. Well done on the yellowfins. We could only manage a couple little yellows the other night. But we did run into some fatty blackfin at Nansen and Diana Hoover. Not much bait around. Only saw a few flyers, but each place was loaded with houndfish and cuda.

[BretABaker]

im surprised you guys didnt do better. i dont think i can go out this weekend but they should be around. we'll see how people do.

was anyone trying jigging at around 200-250'?