Winter Rehab- Pelagic Charters

[customcat]

With a little over a week left in March it seems our winter is drawing to a close. I won’t speak for everyone else but I can sum it up in two words, cold and rough! Oh well, none worse for wear and the tiny blooms on the trees is a sign of good things to come. Our “big” fish season started off with a bang with some true studs pulled off the shrimp boats right up until mid December before the fleet made for parts unknown. The amount of big blacks this year on the boats was staggering, making it impossible at times to get a bait to the yellowfin below. There were days with multiple fish in the 150lb range and days when you only got one. In addition to the boats, the bite at the floaters in early December was jam up and live bait was still abundant if you knew where to look. Fish in the 90-120lb range were the norm. January came and with it several arctic fronts that brought snow to south Louisiana and temperatures that were way below average and a high, cold river with a surface temp of 41 degrees. I did really well on the wahoo early on in the month but the weather kept me off the water more times than most. In fact, my best day on wahoo in January was probably the coldest day I can remember fishing, with the high that day a brisk 43 degrees. Buuurrrrr!!! February rolled around and the fishing kicked into full gear. The tuna had settled into a pattern as well as the wahoo. Chunking was the name of the game at the time and my biggest tuna for the month was 198lbs respectively and wahoo was 91lbs. Trolled stretch baits and Islander/ballyhoo combo’s off the downrigger seemed to work the best for the wahoo but the day to day changing conditions made finding them a challenge. But, I can honestly say there were more good days than bad in the month of February. In addition, it seems my mako has eluded me this winter for some reason. Early on, giant mako’s were seen, hooked and caught all around me but no love.The mako gods have punished me for my actions the winter before. This March has been trying to say the least. Good days and bad days at least for me. Nothing really to right home about but the good thing is, it is drawing to a close and a new chapter is about to open. This summer should be a good one and I for one can’t wait for it to get here! Enjoy the pics.

Captain William Wall
Pelagic Charters
Venice, La
F/V ALL IN
1.225.454.5365
Pelagic Charters, LLC

[Robja]

Nice report and pics.

[Capt Josh]

Awesome Will...you guys have had one hell of a consistent winter season. Big wahoo, big tuna, nothing to shake a stick at amigo!

I'm looking forward to more reports! Good luck out there boys.