[MrBill]

In the first PIC is the deckhand and others that have been fighting this tuna for 3 hours. Notice the roll of the boat. The fish was hooked in darkness and the strong winds had drifted us over 9 miles from boomvang.

In the second PIC, you will see one of my friends fighting a tuna. Boomvang is barely visible in the center of the skyline. This fish was hooked next to the rig. He spent 1 1/2 hours on this fish. It was nearly impossible to boat him with 10 to 12' seas and 30 knot winds. He made over 15 trips from the stern to the bow on this fish.

The last two are of him still putting Max pressure with little results. That was his forth fish of the night. After these fish were boated the decision was made to run in as the conditions made it to hard to boat a fish in a reasonable time. Capt. Keith was trying to stand next to me when I took these pictures. He told me that pictures never show the seas. So I told him to strap on a life jacket and jump overboard to help show the conditions. He refused.

 

[TeamOso]

What party boat is that?????

 

[MrBill]

What party boat is that?????

Gulf Eagle, Deep Sea Headquarters Port A 11/11/06

 

[MrBill]

Fresh out of the water

 

[MrBill]

This was a nice Dolphin. The tunas hanging were the smaller ones as they were on top of the boat fish box and the deckhands hung them first. Tuna's hanging were around 65 lbs.

 

[MrBill]

These were larger in size. Biggest one was 103. Most in pic are in the 70 to 93 pound range. I'm still waiting for more pics to be emailed to me.

 

[DeepBlueGulf]

Keep the reports coming MrBill! And thanks for the pictures! 3 hours to land a YFT, I would have been dead by then. Finding the cook was funny!!

Tom - DBG

 

[Snagged]

Those seas looked bad to me, I've fished that boat more than once.

 

[SkeeterRonnie]

those seas look FUN!!! Talk about some banged up knees!!! LOL!. Glad yall got your lines stretched! I think I would rather have been a big Ol Mako with a full set of chompers!!! hehe.

Is the deckhand in the 4th pic Tony? He sure knows his stuff. Looks like hes been eating healthy!! LOL!

 

[etan]

I didn't see the pictures. Chuck is bald headed, very outgoing, and gregarious. He was the deckhand on the Waterworld in Port A for a long time. He is a great fisherman and a lot of fun. He caught the large bullshark whose jaws are above the counter at Deep Sea Headquarters. That fish was caught on a private Pelican charter we had about 4 year ago.

 

[etan]

Yea, thats Chuck. He's not that old, just got finished with a bout with colon cancer! I'm glad to see him back fishing hard. Tony is a great deckhand and always fun to fish with.

 

[North Texas Fiberglass]

Yeah, that was Tony alright.

Last year, he told us he works the boat around 200 days a year. Then he gets in another 100 days a year fishing on personal time.

If you ever see his tatoos, almost every one of them is of a fish, and they are all over him.

I've been out on a lot of boats. But Capt Keith knows his stuff, and Chris and Tony are two topnotch deckhands.

 

[MrBill]

Yea, thats Chuck. He's not that old, just got finished with a bout with colon cancer! I'm glad to see him back fishing hard. Tony is a great deckhand and always fun to fish with.

I liked Chuck. When we stopped off at the first rig to make bait, he was nailing them. 4 hardtails every drop. I was standing right next to him doing the same thing but only put two in the tank. His sabiki was white and mine was yellow. Next stop the bait wanted yellow and not white. Therefore, I nailed them and he only got a few.

I fished next to him for a couple of hours on the stern. He couldn't believe that I put them on the deck so fast. He uses a braid belt and harness which has seen some time on the water. He does know how to use it. The whole crew knew him very well as he fishes with them a bunch. We are from the same city. He caught two YF's and was saving energy for the bottom bite the next day which never happened because of the weather.

In fact, 7 of the 13 fisherman on the boat were from San Antonio. 5 were from the D/FW area and one guy from Austin. The D/FW head guy just bought a condo in Port A. He and his group have been fishing Port A for 20 years. They need better tackle. They spent way to long on the tuna. I would guess an avg. of 45 minutes per fish.

 

[DeepBlueGulf]

I was at the office all day thinking about that 3-hr fight on one YFT... and I was wondering if the boat couldn't have been used to help end the fight sooner. I'm guessing that the speed of the boat's drift was really making it hard to bring the fish in, and wondered if that really was the case? And if it was, could the boat have "nosed up" to the fish to get it in faster? Not trying to be critical of Keith in any way, just thinking about strategies. Three hours is a really long time, and I wondered if the other anglers were still able to keep hooking up, or was everybody just sitting and watching.

Just wondering.

Tom - DBG

 

[MrBill]

Tom,
The guy from Dallas hooked the fish at 5:15am at Boomvang rig. Others hooked up as well but the fast drifting of the boat was a big factor. The guy also had a 7' rod with no beef to the stick. The sad thing is that the top water actions was just starting to happen. Tuna were starting to bust the surface after flyers.

I think there was three hooked up at the same time. I felt a little guilty and didn't even put out a bait on that last drift. I'd already put to many in the box. My friend in the above PICS spent about 1 hour getting his fish. He's good and never let up. The third fish broke off as the angler pushed the drag lever to full in frustration of not being able to gain line on the spool.

Tony was getting very frustrated after two hours as was all others awake at the time. The fish was handed off to all five of the Dallas guys and they never gained ground until Chris (deckhand) and Tony started double thumbing the line for more drag.

I told Keith to chase the fish. He said he would drown those guys on the pulpit. Ten minutes later, he had the boat in gear aiming toward the fish. That helped capture about 100 yards of line while getting the people on the bow very wet in the seas. I almost went out and cut the line several times. One of my friends kept telling me "What if that was your fish." I replied "I don't fish with bass gear."

We were just sitting and watching as we were told that after that one fish got to the boat, we were headed to bottom fish. After the fish finally got gaffed, Keith had the safety meeting and I think he made the right call to go to port. There was no way we could have tied up to a rig to AJ fish.

 

[MrBill]

Yeah, that was Tony alright.


If you ever see his tatoos, almost every one of them is of a fish, and they are all over him.



Pic was before cold front arrived. About 90 degrees.

 

[MrBill]

Someone sent me a PM wanting to know what a floater looks like. The floaters actually float in the water. They are very deep water, 3000 feet and deeper. The single cylinder coming out of the water is around 450 feet deep and is filled with water to stay stable. Big chains run down the sides of the cylinder and are anchored to the ocean floor. Pipes run along the ocean floor to a network of other floaters carrying gas and or oil. About 40 people live on the floaters year round. Here's a pic.

 

[semipro]

Hi Guys
I am a new member and i have been reading the side last 2 hrs at work,Who is going to pay me???
I am going with Big E Dec 8-9-10 first time,Iam trying to tie some leaders 80 pound flore carbon on #4 owner,How long leader do i suppose to cut,2 feet or ??can I use snap swivel or just swivel
I know I am semipro but i need a help,thank you

 

[Minnow]

Hi semipro,

Welcome to 360tuna

I use 3-4ft fluorocarbon leader if the sea is calm and water is real clear but I straight tie to circle hook most of the time.
JMO

 

[MrBill]

Hi semipro,

Welcome to 360tuna

I use 3-4ft fluorocarbon leader if the sea is calm and water is real clear but I straight tie to circle hook most of the time.
JMO

I agree with Minnow. At night chunking, fluorocarbon really isn't needed. It does help durning a daytime bite at a anchored shrimp boat. I caught two on this trip by tying 50 pound Berkely Big Game in Electric Blue right to a 6/0 Super Mutu. By the time the chunk of bait is beyond the lights of the boat and has sunk to about 20 feet, the tuna don't seem to care.

It's more important to have a fresh chunk of bait than fluorocarbon. I change out bait every other free spool of the drift. When the bait starts turning white, I toss it overboard. I also like big chunks. A 2 1/2" x 2 1/2" size is ideal. Those little 1 1/2 x 1 1/2 size chunks don't produce as welll as the bigger ones.