The first day it was Joe, Gary and I. We ran to an area that has a lot of fish. It was a struggle to say the least. The sharks were on us every where we went. We only managed 1 tuna, a mahi and an almaco jack. No bragging rights here.
The second day Scott joined us. This was his first time here and he got his first tuna ever. From there on he was sea sick bad.
We went 3 for 4 on the tuna loosing one deep down in the rig cables. Several sharks also gave us plenty of action.
On the third day I was shocked to see Scott ready to go. The fog was VERY thick. The captain could not get the electronics working as we would have liked but decided to give it a go anyway. At the head of passes which is about the most dangerous the fog was so thick it cluttered up our radar screen and all of a sudden a large ship is upon us. When he hit his horn Joe gunned the engines and Gary got so scared he pulled the plug when he saw the rust on the ship.
We made our way to a tank battery and tied up outside the channel untill the fog let up a little. No fish is worth taking a chance like that. It was still touchy untill about half way down south pass. From there on all systems were go and the seas were smooth. We made it to an area that had fish on with some busting. Water was blue as could be. No fish taking any bait at all. Do not know what they were eating. Tried another one close by and did not mark anything at all. Water had a little darker color. Decided to run about 20 miles to the south west. Got there and found one other boat on it. He had some fish already. We fished it hard but could only get 2 tuna. The second of which had an additude all the way It took 45 minutes to land.
He did not like the gaff in the head and proceded to beat the heck out of my right foot before I calmed him down.
The bite was slow and it was getting late so we hit one more on the way in. Wow tripple hookup on the first drift. Three 6 foot sharks at once. Lets hesd in on that note.
About 10 miles from shore we run across a nice rip. I set up a troll and then we see some birds ahead. MAHI all over the place. I cut off all the jigs and poppers in the spinning rods and put on hooks. Once that is done I get a hardtail I had in the box (why I don't know) and cut it up in small pieces. It only took about 15 minutes to get the boat all bloody and then I told the captain we had enough of them for me to clean. I cleaned the blood off the boat on the way in. Although the tuna look about the same size in the picture they are not. The one in the back is about 80 and the other is only about 50. We also brought in 17 mahi.
Life is Good!
Capt Hoop
Our Freedom
Venice, 3 days on a Contender
Linear Mode
