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Eleven of us took a Thursday start to beat the weather window. Turned out to be a good decision. I met a couple of guys from this board. XS Tackle, and Fishhead56. I enjoyed time with both of them as we got along just fine. Both really nice guys. I might have met another from this board but I'm not sure. If so, speak up. I talked to everyone so if I didn't know who you were, it's because I've never met anyone before this trip.
It's a 197 mile trip to Noble's Clyde Boudreaux. We left on time at 6am. Seas were only 3-4. Along the 11 hour trip, we went from 3-4s to 5-7s to 6-8s and back to 3-4s upon arrival at Boudreaux around 5:30pm. Everybody was trying to bed down knowing we were going to spend all night fishing. At one point the bunk I was in was really making some creaking sounds. We must have hit a rouge wave because I was air born and heard this cracking sound.
Fishhead56 was in the bunk under me and another guy was above me. Fishhead56 told me not to move as he noticed the weld joint next to him had broken. More into that later. Overall the seas didn't affect the Gulf Eagle and it kept up it's pace. The boat is heavy and cuts the seas fairly well.
Upon arrival we started trolling and picked up a couple of nice dolphins. When he set us up for our first drift, I started throwing a shibuki (swim bait) off the bow pulpit. After catching two baby yellowfins I stopped. I hate killing a little YF for chum. Jigging blackfins was no problem and the chunking started.
I got hit right away and put one in the box. Reloaded another chunk, hooked up and put another in the box. Reloaded again, another hookup and the third in the box. This all happened very fast (first hour). These were nice sized tuna and mad. They all fought hard. My arms were burning as I like to use heavy drag settings.
I sent off another chunk and hooked the fourth fish. XS Tackle was next to me and told me "Looks like your going a little lighter on the drag this time". I turned to him as said "Watch this". I know he didn't mean it, but took it as if I was being called a Pussy. I pushed the lever to full drag and parked the grip on the rail. I had the fish to color but I couldn't move him even in low gear. I was using 50lb high test big game and line popped before they stick him.
The Capt was on the upper deck as I lost the fish near the bow pulpit. He barked out something about to much drag. He told the deckhand to check my drag and the replied to the Capt that I was using 60 to 70 pound of drag. Well that's not right as a Tiagra 30 can't produce that much. It kinda pissed me off so I went into the cabin. Next thing I know the Capt came down to have a chat with me. He hates loosing fish which I understand, but at that point there was only four fish in the box. We shook hands and I decide to pull out the biggest tackle I brought with me. My weakest link was a 130lb windon. More on that later.
To shorten this up, the bite slowed down real fast. It was never utter chaos and there was some inexperienced guys that thought they could fish two lines at once. It was one tangle after another. I lost three wind-ons because they had to be cut off. The tuna never showed us a topwater sign. I only saw two bust the surface all night. I should have some time jigging. Two big YF's were caught on jigs by mistake on a noodle rod setup. The deckhand was using a medium weight trevalla to catch blackfins for chum. Twice he hooked up on 100 pound size tuna. He passed the noodle stick off to customers, and the very, very, very long battles took place.
All the tuna were of good size but it was not a hot bite all night. You had to work for them and when you got a hookup, it was a battle. I saw numerous battles go on for an hour or more. Four people caught 80% of the fish. Sometimes you just can't find a bite. It's happened to me before and it happened to others this trip.
We had 21 or 22 yellowfins after 12 hours of fishing. I saw 6 that were 100 pounds or over. Fishhead56 had the biggest one. Before he cut it up we put the tape to him. He was 57 inches from his nose to the fork in the tail with a 41 inch girth. That's a 127 pound fish. My biggest taped off at 106#s.
Overall it was a fun trip. I had a good time and the seas were nice to us for fishing and the long ride home. Here's some pics.
It's a 197 mile trip to Noble's Clyde Boudreaux. We left on time at 6am. Seas were only 3-4. Along the 11 hour trip, we went from 3-4s to 5-7s to 6-8s and back to 3-4s upon arrival at Boudreaux around 5:30pm. Everybody was trying to bed down knowing we were going to spend all night fishing. At one point the bunk I was in was really making some creaking sounds. We must have hit a rouge wave because I was air born and heard this cracking sound.
Fishhead56 was in the bunk under me and another guy was above me. Fishhead56 told me not to move as he noticed the weld joint next to him had broken. More into that later. Overall the seas didn't affect the Gulf Eagle and it kept up it's pace. The boat is heavy and cuts the seas fairly well.
Upon arrival we started trolling and picked up a couple of nice dolphins. When he set us up for our first drift, I started throwing a shibuki (swim bait) off the bow pulpit. After catching two baby yellowfins I stopped. I hate killing a little YF for chum. Jigging blackfins was no problem and the chunking started.
I got hit right away and put one in the box. Reloaded another chunk, hooked up and put another in the box. Reloaded again, another hookup and the third in the box. This all happened very fast (first hour). These were nice sized tuna and mad. They all fought hard. My arms were burning as I like to use heavy drag settings.
I sent off another chunk and hooked the fourth fish. XS Tackle was next to me and told me "Looks like your going a little lighter on the drag this time". I turned to him as said "Watch this". I know he didn't mean it, but took it as if I was being called a Pussy. I pushed the lever to full drag and parked the grip on the rail. I had the fish to color but I couldn't move him even in low gear. I was using 50lb high test big game and line popped before they stick him.
The Capt was on the upper deck as I lost the fish near the bow pulpit. He barked out something about to much drag. He told the deckhand to check my drag and the replied to the Capt that I was using 60 to 70 pound of drag. Well that's not right as a Tiagra 30 can't produce that much. It kinda pissed me off so I went into the cabin. Next thing I know the Capt came down to have a chat with me. He hates loosing fish which I understand, but at that point there was only four fish in the box. We shook hands and I decide to pull out the biggest tackle I brought with me. My weakest link was a 130lb windon. More on that later.
To shorten this up, the bite slowed down real fast. It was never utter chaos and there was some inexperienced guys that thought they could fish two lines at once. It was one tangle after another. I lost three wind-ons because they had to be cut off. The tuna never showed us a topwater sign. I only saw two bust the surface all night. I should have some time jigging. Two big YF's were caught on jigs by mistake on a noodle rod setup. The deckhand was using a medium weight trevalla to catch blackfins for chum. Twice he hooked up on 100 pound size tuna. He passed the noodle stick off to customers, and the very, very, very long battles took place.
All the tuna were of good size but it was not a hot bite all night. You had to work for them and when you got a hookup, it was a battle. I saw numerous battles go on for an hour or more. Four people caught 80% of the fish. Sometimes you just can't find a bite. It's happened to me before and it happened to others this trip.
We had 21 or 22 yellowfins after 12 hours of fishing. I saw 6 that were 100 pounds or over. Fishhead56 had the biggest one. Before he cut it up we put the tape to him. He was 57 inches from his nose to the fork in the tail with a 41 inch girth. That's a 127 pound fish. My biggest taped off at 106#s.
Overall it was a fun trip. I had a good time and the seas were nice to us for fishing and the long ride home. Here's some pics.
