Pretty good week of fishing this week..we were able to get out 5 times and experienced some increadible yellowfin tuna fishing. I had the crew from Capital Valve and fitting a week to the day . Did alot of boat riding until we got on a bite - no fish in the boat until 2pm. It was frustrating but we never know what to expect after a week of weather cancellations. It wasnt for lack of trying though, but we were able to pull off the 4th quarter win and save the day with some fast action, finding 5 yellowfins on 8 bites with the largest at 75 pounds. We tried to bag a jack or two early in the day before making the run but were eaten alive by jacks and cudas. In fact we had caught 2 big sharks and several baracudas earlier in the day while tuna fishing and just as many slimey cudas on wahoo baits. Crew consisted of Savoie, Boudreaux, Gravouia (there's got to be T on the end, Rogers (Reaujeure), and Thibodeaux.
 Acadiana represent!
Friday was the legal counsel trip from Leake-Anderson in New Orleans. Another fun day with good weather and crew two days in a row. Had Dean, Stan, Lou and John from Iowa. The action was fast and furious for these young lawyers. We had 15 tuna bites in 3 hours putting 13 yellowfins in the box. We then pulled a while for wahoo then ended the day looking for cobia and found a school of 10 twenty pounders hooking one but losing him to the rig. Got home early.
Bill had Ted Farmer and crew and ran the seas..they covered some ground today and found a limit fo aj's and 2 nice yellowfins. They lost 2 monsters on mullet. Saturday should have been a weather day but two boats went for it. Scott L had Scott Gautier and Bill had the Francetic family. Three guys on each boat and they came in with one yellowfin for each guy, the largets 90 pounds. The Scott's did some deep dropping and landed 3 snowy groupers to go with thier 3 tuna. Wind would blow Sunday leaving Monday for us.
 I had just two guys on the boat that day; Aaron Burris and John from Jersey. We headed out east and found good water about 12 miles out. Pretty quick bite today as both of our first two baits were snapped up by school fish seconds after deployment and our guys went to work. Action was fast for the next two hours and the schoolies were fatter than normal and about 6 inches longer than previous trips. Guess they are growing as the avg size was 25-30 pounds. No real big ones today though we actually thought they these were bigeye tuna.
Lots of fun on light tackle and they cool quickly making for some increadible sashimi or poki. My kids and I have been tearing them up in the last 2 weeks. Had planned to do alot of running since conditions were nice for it, but there really wasnt any reason to leave these fish and it really didnt take long to make our anglers tired. Capt Scott Leger even reeled in some sushi fish. We kept 9 and tagged and released another 7 before noon. We even deployed the kite for the last three, just to make it sporting. You know you are having a good day when the weather is perfect and you are toying with the fish, it truley makes up for the slower days.
 It's always exciting to watch a pack of tuna beat the hardtail around like a pin(y)ata. For the afternoon portion of the trip we tried fishing a deep wreck (410ft) and with no current we figured it would be another burner. We never really moved more than a 1/4 knot given wind, current and sea or lack of all three forces. Bad news is we didnt get a single bite. But something was down there cleaning the bait off the hooks, we made two drifts before moving on. The next stop would give more action. We were using 15/0 hooks to cut down on bycatch of red snapper but still we did release 3 red snapper around 10-20 pounds and all three swam off but who knows how many made it past the cudas.
Between the snapper taps we did put decent snowy grouper on ice and we got owned too by losing 5 other larger fish. Definitely not snapper and figured they were huge jacks, grouper or sharks. We had a good time kidding Scott L about his knots, worth the price of admission to see everyone turn on him even though it wasnt his fault. I grabbed the rod once before a break off to help put the brakes on a big one but escaped ridicule after the rock off and no luck jigging iron other than one break off. Looking forward to the next run of weather later this week. Looks real probable that we'll get out tomorrow (Friday) and Saturday. Plenty open dates this time of year and fewer fisherman.
Call us anytime to arrange for a day - Paradise Outfitters - 985-845-8006 |
