the 36 hr trip out port fourchon on may 10-11 was a sucess. me and toneyc met jim, ichiban, and fong at the boat around 3pm. we were waiting on the rest of the crew to show up from various places. there were some good ole texas boys, some outlaws from georgia, and this louisiana native to make up this motley crew.
left to right- jim(crazyjigr), anthony, snappergeorge. top-neil, bellyups, toneyc, fong,kidflex, gabriel,dustin, freddy(ichiban).frank(workin) is hiding in the back.
we trolled on the way out and got 2 wahoo in the boat, which was later thrown on the grill. we started off fishing for aj's at some rigs. there were plenty for all. here's one of my better aj's caught on my lucky 420gram red oti jitterbel jig.
fong with an aj
The next rig was loaded with monster amberjacks. I believe all of us got handled by some big aj's. I lost 5-6 aj's in a row, couldnt move them fast enough, even with the boat pulling away from the rig when hooked up. this was starting to get expensive! the bite slowed down as we tied off to the down current side of the rig as we waited to go to the tuna grounds.
After awhile we headed to some floating rigs to try our luck with tuna. by this time the wind started blowin 25 knots and made for a "sporty" adventure.
the blackfins showed up first, which were caught on jigs.later that night some smaller yellowfins were coming to the boat. bellyups throws a subsurface lure and takes a 100+ lber yf in vert short order. glad you got to break in your new stella.
toneyC throws a pink and purple dil*o and hooks into a very nice yf which tested his angling skills.
congrats on a very nice catch my friend.
now it was my turn. i was throwing a tuna hunter popper, and suddenly the water came alive as this yf hit and thrashed around on top for a little while before he staightened the hook. i soon tied another tuna hunter and started casting, wasnt long before i get hooked again. took all of 3-4mins to get him in. the oti 80 is a very powerful rod.
There were yf's chasing flying fish 10 feet from the boat. more yf's were boated, i ended up taking a nap. during the night frank(workin) hooks into a monster yf that made him do a gut check. i woke up three times and thought he had another fish on. ended up being the same fish, i dont know exactly how long he fought it for but it was better than 2 hrs, definitely the meanest tuna of the trip.hopefully one u guys has a pic of that. i woke up early morning to catch the end of what was apparently a very hot tuna bite. there were yf's jumpin everywhere like schools of porpoises. first cast hook into this yf. again only taking 3 min to land on the oti 80. my fish were not as angry as the other ones.
It is hard to believe with all of the hard core jigging and popping guys on the boat that we slept through the hottest tuna bite of the year according to capt tomeny. we headed back to fourchon making a couple of stops at some rigs. more aj's, 1 grouper, and sharks were caught on jigs. heres toneyc with another aj.
i would like to thank jim for setting up this trip. capt tomeny for putting us on fish.this was a great fishing experience with a great bunch of gentlemen that i would fish with any day of the week. It was nice meeting all of you. post pics and fill in what i left out. brian