It has been a while since my last report. Due to the weather we have only been able to get out six days this month. There have been only about 20 yellowfin caught so far this year at the lump that I have heard of. There was only one good day that the fish were caught.
Yesterday was a crap shoot. Some people came in with a fish and others did not. Overall there was nothing to brag about. We had fish in our slick all day and had no problem getting bonito and sharks. We also got some almaco jacks and vermillion snapper. One of our customers had a blast with a custom fly rod and reel untill he snapped the rod. 2 of 4 were a little green around the gills.
Today we ran back to the lump and had fish on almost at once. Our customers wanted to jig as well as chunk. The first jig dropped produced an almaco jack. I had fish in the slick almost at once. Our day was already better than I had seen in a long time. We had the usual bonito and one of our first fish on the chunk was a shark. It was not long when we had a line start singing that was nothing else than a tuna. We boated a nice 60 pound yellowfin. Soon after we have yellowfin, blackfin, and bonito in the slick right on top almost jumping for the chum as I was throwing it. One even splashed us as it went for my offerings.
Another line starts screaming and it is not long before we realise we have a very large yellowfin on. We are forced to throw the anchor and start to chase this fish as it is spooling our tiagra 50w with jerry brown 130 and izerline 80 topshot. In the mean time we have a 25 pound blackfin on another line. It is put on ice quickly. I get out the harpoon per Eddies request and set it up. We have no control on this fish and after about 45 minutes it gets wraped in the anchor line of a boat that was about 300 yards away. We passed off the rod and he has to start up his motors and take up enough anchor rode to get to the twisted section. While this is going on the others on his boat are landing a small tuna also. He takes about 5 turns around his anchor line and tries to hold the fish as we go around his boat to get the pole back. He wishes us luck and lets us know we have a monster. I grab the pole from him and tell Eddie to chase the fish. the reel is very thin at this time. Once I get a good amount back I give it to the customer. Another 15 minutes and we loose the fish. The air was thick and all went quiet on the boat. A look at the break and it showed some chaffing. We think the fish had swallowed the hook and the battle ended when the fishes teeth even so small fraid the line. From what we figured out we had on a 180 or larger yellowfin on and lost it.
We went back to our anchor and lockly our fish found us again. We nailed another small yellowfin and a nice amberjack. We also picked up a pair of beeliners.
This was only the second positive day this year at the lump but there are signs of a better bite each time out there. It should be hot as usual by Feb. I will keep you posted as usual. The tuna are also at the floaters but it is not worth the ride at this time of year.
On the way in we could not go faster than 12 miles per hour so we trolled and went 1 for 2 on wahoo. We nailed this nice wahoo 9.2 miles from the mouth of the river.
2 other boats went elsewhere and nailed the wahoo. One had 16 and another had 27. They told no one where they were but from what we saw on the way in we have an idea. The whoos were in open water with no structur. Had to be in a temp break holding a lot of bait. It was late and evrybody was cold or we would have played the area.
Life is Good!
Capt Hoop
Our Freedom
Offshore Venice, La.
Besides, makes for good fishin' stories! 
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