[Drifter]

Paradise Outfitters
Captain Bill Delabar
Jan 11 & 12

We just arrived back in Austin but here’s a short report with pics to follow tomorrow. We canceled last week due to high seas but managed to get two days offshore this week. Gimmedeal, Safisher, Drifter, Johss, and Wayne.

Day one – rough seas, no blue water at the lump and no fish. We headed further out until we found better water. We hook up with a small YFT and a Mako takes him right at the boat! We rig up with wire and the fight is on! Took about 45 minutes but the Mako was ours. We estimate it weighed about 125 pounds. At least we didn’t get skunked!

Day two – seas were calm and the lump had blue/green water. It didn’t take long for the bite to get hot!
Gimmedeal – 115 lb YFT
Drifter – 105 lb YFT
Wayne – 80 lb YFT

Wayne caught 3 Amberjack to about 70 lbs and I caught a fourth. Nick fought a fish for over 30 minutes that turned out to be a huge shark – well over 100lbs. After that, we kept catching Bonito and sharks so we left in search of Wahoo.

We’re trolling and Wayne gets a hookup. As we’re reeling in the other two lines, Gimmedeal gets hit while bringing in the lure and the fight is on! Turned out to be a 75lb Wahoo.

3 YFT
4 Amberjack
2 Wahoo
1 Mako

It was a good trip!

We enjoyed fishing with Bill and hope to charter with him again.

 

[SpecialK]

Thats a nice day of fishing!!!
YOu got some good variety of eating ahead of you. Hopefully after this coming weekend I will be arriving back in Austin with similar reports!

 

[gimmedeal]

We had a great time. Friday was sporty to say the least. A cold front had blown in at 1 am and we had low pressure, wind, and sloppy seas. We would have got skunked but late in the day Louis fought and landed the mako.
Saturday we had a decision to make. Capt Delabar said he could take us deep to floaters but he thought we might be okay at the lump. We opted for fishing the Lump and Delabar made some passes checking the area for fish and set us on anchor. We ended up on anchor with maybe 30 other boats. We chunked in the traditional manner and Delabar put a Frenzy kite up for live mullet. Chunking accounted for two of the YF and the kite got Louis' fish. We had a great time and both Louis and I got personal bests on YF and I got my biggest wahoo.
The Lump season has started, it wasn't red hot yet but the YF are there. A weirdness, we didn't catch a single blackfin all day.
If you ever get a chance to fish with Bill Delabar, give him a try. He was hard working, personable, and knowledgeable. I think we had the hot Capt on Saturday, other boats came in and didn't do near as well.
Wayne and I both got a chance to fish our new BarBar Super Seekers and they performed great.
We stayed at the trailers and Venice Marina and Nick and my cabin didn't have hot water ( even in south Louisiana this was poor), but we ate like kings and drank too much. It was a good trip with pics to follow.
I was bound and determined to fight my YF without a harness and did so. I got SPANKED in the process.


Fred

 

[Drifter]

Here's a few pics.

Group Picture
View attachment 2494

Gimmedeal
View attachment 2495

Drifter
View attachment 2496

Wayne
View attachment 2497

Drifter
View attachment 2498

 

[SkeeterRonnie]

good lookin fisheseses!! good job guys!

 

[Bellyups]

Great job guys!! Nice variety of very good fish!

 

[Bret]

Man, glad yall got to get out both days!! Nice mess of fish..

 

[Ragman]

Great report and pics! Thanks for posting!

This is the first I remember reading of AJ's on the lump?

How were they caught?

 

[gimmedeal]

The AJs were really a gimme deal. They rigged a bent butt rod amidship on the port side so that it wouldn't interfere with the chunking or kite. Send down a live mullet and crank up an AJ. They didn't have a rig to run to. I think Wayne would still be cranking em up if it wasn't for limits and regulations and like that.

Fred

 

[fonz]

Nice Pictures!!!

 

[Earl]

nice report and catch! Earl

 

[gimmedeal]

One more thing, and it wasn't a small thing. Another Capt named Josh decked for us on Saturday. In the past I've seen LA hands gaff all over the place. Our hand didn't make one bad gaff all day that I was aware of. Always in the head, never in the meat. It made a big difference in the quality of the fish.
Spoke to Scott this morning and he said Sunday turned into 6 foot seas. He got 5 YF around 80 and was top boat at the dock two days running.

Fred

 

[Bazztex]

Very Nice report and Photos...

Anyone heard from LiteLiner/ Brian??

Bazz

 

[Gunsmoke]

Did any of your party enter the Venice Tuna Kahuna Rodeo? I think it runs from Jan 1st to the end of March. I believe it's $20. You have to be fishing with a registered guide to win. I bet you were hustled by your Capt. The winning fish has to give the guide 25% of the winnings.

 

[gimmedeal]

Yeah, Bill mentioned it but didn't push it. Top prize was $30,000 or so I think. I'd guess that they'll start pushing it as the lump turns on, kinda hard sell with the numbers that've been coming in so far.
Yeah, Sat night after our fishing was done, we figured we'd go over and be good neighbors and try and keep Brian and his crew up as late as possible knowing that they had to get on their boat at 5:30. Nick brought a bottle of wine and him and I ended up drinking it. I spoke with him on Sunday night and he said that the seas built on them during they day and got pretty rough. Eddie took them to the Lump and I think they did okay, catching YF and wahoo but I can't remember the numbers.

Fred

 

[lite-liner]

It was interesting/sporty to say the least! posted w/ pics over on Eddie's thread. it was nice to fight an AJ w/out worries of a break-off.
It sure was nice to meet Fred, Nick(SAfisher), & Juan(gigabyte)
great pics by the way..
We''ll fish together soon I hope..
tight lines
-Brian

 

[fonz]

I thought gigabytes name was Loius????

 

[lite-liner]

My bad! it was Louis! Tried to memorize 9 new names in 24 hrs!
sorry Louis!

 

[gimmedeal]

I feel your pain Brian. As I get older I have a hard time remembering my own sometimes.

Fred