Here is the tuna report everyone has been waiting for. I ran a trip on 12/27/05 with Charles and Lucrecia Foster from Katy Texas. Being newlyweds this was to be their honeymoon fishing trip. The request was simple: Charles wanted a yellowfin over one hundred, and it had to have long sickle fins. He hasn’t been able to break that mark so we set a trip up to do just that. I have fished the lump two other times so far this year with only sharks and kingfish to show for it so we hoped the yellowfin would be there this time. At 5AM Tuesday morning not even a breath of wind was blowing. So I quickly iced down the boat and loaded their gear and off we went. Upon arrival at the lump I went to my favorite corner and put out a Frenzy Ballistic Flyer rigged with a 3/0 treble stinger hook and started to look around for some fish. The flying fish didn’t last five minutes before a big yellowfin crushed it. Charles took the rod and went to work on him but the flying fish worked it’s way up the line to the surface and a good for nothing kingfish hit it and released the first tuna of the day. I went a little up current and dropped the anchor and before we came tight on the hook we had two more yellowfin on. One ate a Ballistic flyer and the other a new Butterfly jig from Shimano. Unfortunately, both of the fish made it to the anchor rope and broke off. So now we are 0 for 3 on the yellowfin. Fortunately the blackfin proved easier to land. There was no need for fluorocarbon we just tied straight to 80lb mono and used 7/0 Frenzy hooks. We quickly landed 6 blackfin just as fast as we could get a chunk out. After that the fish just up and left our chum slick for about 45 minutes. To get them back we started chumming heavy and we put 3 more blackfin in the boat. The yellows started busting bait in our slick so Charles tossed out a popper only to get smoked by a big yellow. Just about the same time Lucrecia hooked up with a big tuna. We got her harnessed in and the fight began but it went just like all of the other yellows we had hooked and it got away. With it getting late in the day and being 0 for 5, I was thinking we would not get our yellowfin over a 100 for Charles. So we decided to stick it out for another hour and then try for a wahoo. But our luck was about to change as Charles got a nice runoff on a chunk of bonito. I quickly harnessed him up and cleared the deck so there would be nothing in the way. Everyone wanted this fish badly. Charles handled the fish good and within 30 minutes he was under the boat then he decided to go and see what my anchor line looked like so I dropped the anchor ball and chased the fish down. After about five more minutes of maneuvering the boat to keep him out of the props there he was. I stuck two gaffs in him and we hauled him over the gunnels. Charles had met his goal of a tuna over 100lbs with huge sickle fins. After pictures we picked up the anchor with the intention of putting a wahoo in the boat. We hit a canyon rig on the way back to Fourchon and had one wahoo knockdown and put another blackfin in the boat. With it now late afternoon and the recent reports of boats hitting debris we headed for the pass and hit it right at dark. We had constant action all day the final tally was 10 blackfins and a lone yellowfin that weighed in at 141lbs back at Belle Pass Marina. The bite looks like it is on so if you need a trophy tuna fix now is the time to go.
Capt. Mike
I should be back at it this friday if the weather holds. The larger fish are moving in now and should be here for a few months. So lots of big sickle finned tunas will grace this website.
Capt. Mike
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