Venice 3-13-12

[capt hoop]

Where do I start? WWWwwwOOOoooWWwwww!!!!

Had a father and 2 sons out today. It was the oldest sons 24th birthday. They had done this before. They went deep sea fishing out of Texas. Man were they in for a BIG surprise and so were we. We left the dock in the usual dense fog. On the way out I told Eddie we were going to have a good day because I left my camera home. We had dense fog all the way untill we were within 6 miles of the tuna grounds. We did no trolling, jigging or looking for wahoo or amberjack. Kind of like go directly to the tuna grounds. Do not pass go do not collect $200.00.

As soon as we stopped I started cutting chumm and chunk hook baits while Eddie set up 3 drift lines. It was like we set up right on top of them. First hook up is a 60 pound yellowfin. The action was hot with bonito and kings but we had yellowfin in our slick so I just kept feeding them chumm. Just enough to keep them under the boat. A small yellowfin also comes aboard. There are still good sized yellowfin running through along with the bonito.

Within a 2 minute period we have a tripple hookup. I keep chumming just to keep the fish with us. We are a good bit away from the fleet and have the school. The little guy in the boat makes short use of a nice 68 pound yellowfin all by himself. Here he is standing next to his PB.




His dad and his brother are both getting beat up by the fish they have. After about 20 minutes we see one of the fish. The birthday boy has a hammerhead shark 8-9 feet long. We lock up the drag and get it close to the boat and cut the line. He wanted to get some pictures and asked if we could keep it but we had to concentrate on the fish on the other line. The only shark we will take is a mako. I told him to get some water and rest because his dad was getting his butt handed to him.


We call over our other 2 boats that a part of our group. Both of these captains and I fish for Eddie most of the time. While we are concentrating on the battle I get a chance to clean up the boat. I also get some more bait ready for the next drift after we get this stuborn fish in. Older son takes over then dad again then son again then dad and finally Eddie has to put on the belt and harness. We had it up to 60 feet 2 or 3 times. It is a stud but looks like a big eye because it had no sickels and it appeared longer. Eddie almost handed it off to me to finish but he is afraid because of the back surgury I had in 2008. I am fine but he still worries and would only do that as a last resort. I did get the belt on and was ready. It got to almost that point. At about 30 feet I ditched the belt and the first gaff shot I had it was Game Over! A solid gaff shot in the gill/head area and the hog did not move. Eddie figured this fish at about 185 pounds.

At this point it is still early and we have 4 good tuna. Our party wants no more of a beast like we just landed and if we did get another we would not have any room in the front box of the 36 contender. The ice in the back box was almost used up so we had no choice at 10:30 but to start easing towards home and hit a few rigs for an amberjack or two.

The AJ bite was slow and we only managed to get one. Our other 2 boats each hooked up with studs Lee's hog threw the hook but Mike was able to land his.

At the dock the WOW factor was about to explode. On the radio Mike said his was probably over 200. We got in first and hung ours.



Eddie in 11 years has caught more 190 plus tuna than anybody else but has never broken the 200 pound barrier. In 2004 he brought in a 198.6 and told me he jinxed himself. I was beginning to believe it untill today. We hung a 207.6 hog. We did not get a bunch of fish but we filled 2 120 qt igloos with yellowfin tuna meat.



The story is just beginning

Mike comes in with his fish. Eddie looks at it and does not know what to think. "I think he has me beat". Mike hangs his and everybody gets excited.



The scale was not settled down when I took this shot but the official size for the record books is 237.8. It is #2 in the state The record in La. is 240.




2 of our boats had PBs today and one of them went into the record books. Here are the 2 captains with the trophys.



As the celebrating was going on I told Mike if you are going to beat the boss you did it right with a state record book fish for the company.

Guess I should end this by saying.

Life is Good!
Fishing is not a matter of life or death. It's more important than that.

CAPT HOOP -- OUR FREEDOM