Big E Tuna Report

[rtran]

how did everyone else do? gimmedeal/dbg/minnow/drifter?

[sjohn464]

Wish I could have made this trip. Looks like a trip that won't soon be forgotten by many. Lot of big fish pictures... But where is the picture of the Ultimate milk crate?

[Minnow]

First day was a sleeping day for me, I slept for more than 14 hours. Big E was so comfortable I thought I was in 5 stars hotel.. Anyway i thought it was a good idea to give these guys a head start LOL . Just kidding guys.

On the second day, I jigged up one snapper and one grouper and off we went to tuna ground. I had 4 yft on OTI popper.

On the third day I jigged up 2 grouper, one snapper and caught 4 more yft on popper.

[DeepBlueGulf]

One funny story about TJ - He had a prototype popper that was the size of a Guiness can... when he tossed it out and popped it, it made such a big splash that about five of us immediately threw our poppers at it thinking it was a YFT!!!

Awesome!

[LEXPRO]

Jigged first night and caught 1 good blackfin and bunch of small blackfin and blue runners? Couldnt catch a bluerunner for bait during the day and then couldnt get thru the blue runners at nite to catch a tuna. Went to bed at 2am...

Second day i got a grouper during the day and jigged some decent blacks and small yellows at nite. Threw poppers but the bite wasnt there at the time. Went to bed 2am and missed the bite.

Third day caught limit of snapper, a big AJ, and bunch of little AJ's till my arms were sore. Hooker jig was getting lots of bites. Went to bed 5pm and set alarm for 2am. Woke up 2am and was really windy and no fish biting so i went back to sleep at 3am.

The trip was one day too long for me. I work a 60 hour week during the month and almost 70 during closeout week so i was tired when i got on the boat but this trip really wiped me out.

Dan

[gimmedeal]

I, for one, had a great trip. Russ, Drifter and I met up with Doug in Houston on Weds at FTU and got in to Freeport late in the afternoon. Checked in at the Country Hearth and went to dinner at Willies Joes at 8 with the OTI bunch, Jep and others. Had a terrific meal there and got to met some of the crowd. Bret showed up to wish us good luck.
Boarded the next morning. Man, I ddin't realize how much junk we had to get on board till I saw it all in a pile. Got a couple to deck hands to help with the larger items. Saw a lot of folks from prior trips but me t quite a few for the first time. This was a really first rate crew. Some of the best fishermen you'll ever get a chance to fish with and learn from.
I had decided to do a lot of jigging this trip. I jigged all the time and didn't try live flyers until the last night. Did some popping when a bite was going but when I was done, I caught every oner of my fish on a jig. I watched others jigging and will try some of the things I saw them (especially Kil) doing.
The trinidad DC project was somewhat of a failure. At times it would cast great but I ended up with some backlashes. These occured most often when my thumb got involved but the rell is also a little sensitive to how the line is laid back on the spool. I'll need more practice with the combo. My best jigging outfit was the 20000 on the Smith 5'2" AMJ. Light and powerful.
By the last day my right foot and swollen up and got a little infected when wounds met up with sea water. I was limping around and pretty sore. Even with that problem this was a hell fo a trip for me, primarilly made great by the crew on board. The deckies worked hard.
I heard it told that crew from the Big E trip won $6600 of the Freeport Fishing Fiesta prize money. If they do this trip next yerar along with the FFF, you'd better sign up early.

Fred

[txseadog]

Short version:
• Boarding took longer that normal due to all the extra stuff (rods, coolers, etc).
• Tried to make bait about 20 miles out with very limited success -- maybe 3-4 pieces.
• Made 1 or 2 stops for bottom fishing on the way to the tuna grounds. Bottom fishing was not my thing on this trip

Thursday Night:
• First cast on the first drift at Gunnison yielded a ~45# YFT on Gunz Tailwalk (thanks Bret). Most of the YFT were all about this same 40-60# grade of fish.
• I had 5/0 singles on the Tailwalk and had a hard time keeping fish hooked. Landed several BFT and 15-20 hardtails.
• Hooked a good size fish about the same time as Fathom's 144 only to have the split ring become disconnected from the Tailwalker. Immediately switched to trebles. Seems I was plagued with tackle failures on this trip.

Friday:
• Highlight was watching Jerry land his big AJ and Kil's marble grouper. TJ and I were fishing on both sides of Kil at the time. Kil got the jumbo, TJ got a nice one and I got zippo even though I was trying to match Kils jigging techique.
• Jigged one 5# rainbow runner all day that became supper.

Friday Night:
• Another 45-50# YFT on the first drift at Redhawk.
• Lots of small-mid size BFT throughout the night and another YFT.
• Micro YFT during the grey light bite at Auger.

Saturday.
• Jigged a few snapper & a couple of short AJs on speed jigs. Strawberry grouper on bait.

Saturday night.
• Hooked a freight train on the first drift at Gunnison that broke off after stripping about 150-200 yards line taking my Tailwalk.
• More hookup problems on a yozuri slider with trebles.
• The top water bite died off early so switch to a live flier only to break off my first hookup at the topshot serving.
• Send out another live for 2 drifts w/o any more takers and sleep though the grey light bite.

Closing comments and observations.
• Overall, it was a tough trip for me from a fish catching and tackle failure standpoint but still very enjoyable overall – company, weather, general BS…
• IMO, loading and unloading was more convenient at the old slip (the Big E switched slips with the Capt Casey).
• Ice was not an issue but the abundance of cloud cover may have played a big part as it helped to keep the temperature down.
• Heard that there may not be any more open party 76-hour trips but there was talk of a charter next year.

[Drifter]

It was a pleasure meeting so many 360tuna members

I did manage to catch 5 YFT - one on a shibuki popper and four on fliers. The shibuki also caught 6 BFT. Many BFT were over 20lbs

76 hours is a long time and I probably slept less than 7 hours during the trip I'll pobably stick to the 52 hr trips unless the 360tuna guys setup something special.

I heard the trip produced winners totaling $6600 for the Fiesta Fishing Tournamant. Not sure of the all the fish and weights but here's what I heard:

AJ – 101 and 91 lbs – won the $1000 1st and 2nd $250 in the Freeport Fiesta tourney.
Warsaw Grouper 67 lbs - $1000
BFT – 26.5 Lbs - $1000
YFT – 80 lbs - $1000 (one guy caught a 140lb YFT but he didn’t register for the tournament)
Barracuda – 20 lbs $1000

[fathom]

Guys,

keep the individual reports coming! It is better to hear everyone's experience !


Kil working the a.m. bite

anxious poppers returning to rig for another drift

[BretABaker]

I had a single hook on the tailwalk at first, but lost a few fish (probably blackfins though) so I switched to Gama trebles. They worked great.

Glad to see everyone got on some fish!