Another dense fog run. The boat traffic in red pass was terrible. This pass is very narrow and commercial sharking season is open now. The 8 mile run through it was a reel nerve wracking on the way out. We are used to running in dense fog before sunrise and our radar is tuned in well but I am always on edge under those conditions. You have all sences alert and fine tuned. Once in the gulf we are still running with fog but we can relax a little with more room to run. The good part of this is we have had 2 days in a row without high seas. Don't know how to act with calm conditions.
We get to the tuna grounds and set up for a full day of chunking. Aftre the record day and double Personal best catches we knew we had used up all our luck for the week and maybe for a long time to come. Our first drift had us in some action with a small yellow, a blackfin, some bonito, and the ever present kings and sharks. We got several hits but the customers were not agressive enough to get a proper hook set on the bite. We had one big fish that fought like a tuna but after a while it threw the hook. We had another that we lost due to a knot slip. With all the kings and people tieing on hooks no telling who tied it. I know I did not because all I did was cut bait and chum most of the time. There was a lag in the action about 11:00 and it got very boreing. The customers were loosing interest in fishing. We had a few blackfin, small yellows, and some beeliners or mingos.
Eddie took a Torsa 40 with 100 pound Jerry Brown and 60 pound Frenzy floro and started running out a very small piece of chunk bait trying to get a beeliner or something. The day was turning into a long boreing day. We went from 4 driftlines to 2 because it was hot and the excitement of the day was going out of the customers. It was now food and drinks time. The little setup with the small bait cets bit. Here comes a fish to break up the boredom. Nope this fish does not want to come in. We do have a good fish. A short time into the fight we know it is a good tuna. The fish is dumping the torsa and as Eddie gets behing the throttles I have the other drift lines come in fast. After 2 guys and an hour and a half the fish decides to get a sun tan. It comes to the surface as a lot of big tuna do but it does not go back down. The customer reels in the line as Eddie drives the boat towards and alongside the cruising fish. It was just swimming around near the surface without a care in the world. Once along side the tuna does the death circle a few times and game over.
Even though a deadly gaff shot this fish decided to go balistic on the deck and I had to straddle it to keep it from doing damage or hurting somebody.
Once it calmed down the 2 that fought it had thier moment of glory with pictures.
On our last drift we picked up a good sized amberjack. We ended up with the big fish of the day, for the second day in a row, and a mixed bag to put up on the board.
A 150 yellow and 4 others along with 4 blackfin, 3 beeliners, and 1 amberjack.
Life is Good!
Fishing is not a matter of life or death. It's more important than that.
CAPT HOOP -- OUR FREEDOM
03-15-2012, 08:40 AM
Venice 3-14
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