I normaly put up a report and work in the pictures but this time I figured I would be different. Truth is I could not wait to show Y'all this 180 pounder.
I had the Mitchels from Baltimore Maryland inshore yesterday and we did very well with the redfish. He was mentioning to me that he wanted to get some yellowfin and that he had never caught a wahoo. I had minor issues with my Glaicer Bay so instead of running it I called Eddie and we set up a trip with Mike Pittman on Eddie's other boat.
We headed out looking for some shrimp boats. Some of the boats ahead of us could not find any shrimpers and the few that did found boats without any shrimp. We kept moving on looking for some shrimp boats instead of running out to the floaters. Mike noticed a shrimper way out in the distance and we started towards it. As we got closer it was tied to a rig and the crew was sleeping, the water was dirty not blue, and the depth was only 160 feet. The two things that made us continue to it was; 1. after traveling this far with nothing else in the area we had to give it a shot. 2. there was another boat attempting to fish it. As Mike pulled the boat up I threw some chum into the water. There was some bonito on it. A good sign. The second toss of chum enticed some sharks and a blackfin. As I was throwing the third handfull I saw some very large sickles streak thru from under the boat. I yell big one and Mike sees another go by. As he tosses the bait towards it a third one nails the bait and the fight is on. Mitch is a big boy and he gets belted for the battle. He refused the harness so we let him go belt only. The largest tuna he had ever caught before was a 60 pounder.
After about 5-7 minutes he asked for the harness which I quickly put on him. Another boat showed up and he also quickly hooked up. As the battle continued We thought Mitch was going to give in but being a very determined and competitive person no damn fish was going to beat him! After about 25-30 minutes and one totally exhausted man we stick this hog. A second gaff and we haul it over the side. Everybody took a very well desirved rest including the star of the show.
There was no way Mitch could even fight a blackfin after that but we rolled up on the back of the boat again and attempted to find another fish. In our absence one of the other fishing boats must have lured the tuna off the shrimper. All we could find were sharks. Another drift and we decide to see if we could fullfill Mitche's wish for a wahoo. ON our first 2 places we found absolutely nothing. The third rig was a charm or so we thought. First pass we get hit and loose it. Second pass we get a double. Not long before one gets off but the other is on and all we kept telling Mitch to do was reel, reel, reel. As the wahoo swim towards the boat the customer thinks the fish got off and has a tendency to stop reeling. We should have lost this fish but it was still there. Once near the boat the hooter swims around the motors. As Mitch attempts to follow the fish around Mitch accidently hits the drag lever and it goes into free spool. I grab the pole and reset the drag and work the line around the port motor. Mike takes over the rod and gets it free of the starbord motor. He notices the fish only has 1 hook thru the skin on it's nose. I quickly grab the gaff and stick it. Mitch's dream of getting a wahoo has come true.
A 45 pounder is one heck of a way to get started. We made some more pulls before the bite ended and went 1 for 5 on the wahoo bite there. We move to another rig and pick up a blacktip shark on the troll with another following it to the boat. That was our last wahoo rig in the direction we were heading so we went in looking for cobia. We hit 2 rigs and Mitch startd cramping up so he said "Thank you for a nice day and trip but it is time for us to go in. I got what I wanted and more."
If you are only going to get 2 fish they may as well be good ones. 180 yellowfin and 45 wahoo.
Life is Good!
Fishing is not a matter of life or death. It's more important than that.
CAPT HOOP -- OUR FREEDOM
10-03-2012, 10:18 PM
Venice Offshore
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