Texas Tuna Safaris

[AtTheWall]

Here's a Perdido Trip - headed back into Port A with Captain Tim on DE.

Water was blowing through the window gaskets, deck area in the stern berthing/galley area was awash with water running the deck.

Starboard side engine alarm was running for a bit, with us so pushed over to port, the cool water intake under the starboard CAT, couldn't suck up seawater to keep the engine cool.

Had a few rolls where, the wind held us down through a few swells. Makes you wonder how many degrees she can lean before she passes the "no return" point.

We were 75 miles off of the South Padre Island National Seashore - along the port beam and probably between Port Isabel and Port Aransas equally - when this Cold Front hit us hard. April 3 years ago - on a Blue Fin Tuna trip near Perdido. Didn't get a bluefin, spotted one chasing an 80lb yellowfin tuna but did catch and release a Mako and decked about a dozen Yellowfin tuna.

A lot of juvenile Yellowfin tuna, the 15-25" variety - dozens would leap out of the water suddenly - we knew Big Bluefin and Mako's were on the feed just about 10ft below the surface.

April is interesting but it can bring this scene as well

Gulf of Mexico storm - 75 miles offshore - April

https://youtu.be/i4BSvm2LUYw

[WhiplashTX]

Figured I'd give an update on my delayed trip. I had a lot of luck, both good and bad.

My trip was scheduled to leave Friday but they called Wednesday and moved it up to Thurdsay at 4am because of the weather. This left me scrambling after getting off shift work so I didn't get much sleep before the trip. Thursday dawned cold and windy and we were all wearing heavy gear leaving from the dock. This turned out to be a good thing because we needed the gear that night.

First stop was the Gunnison and it was a long rough trip but calmed down by the time we got there. The blackfin were slow but we managed some barricuda for chunking and that was the ticket for me. I landed three and handed off to two other anglers. Some of the others caught a few on Halcos but they were ignoring the frenzys and poppers. Total for the night was 23 yellowfin that were hard earned.

Next stop was the flower gardens for wahoo. The bite was hot for an hour and we managed to land 12 fish before they shut off. The captain had word from the Buccaneer that Perdido was hot with blackfin and small yellowfin so off we went.

We arrived at the Perdido at 8pm but the bite wasn't as described. While the blackfin bite was better we were still having to work for them. I managed to land two more yellowfin and caught a surprise. I had something small hit my 8oz jig and it turned out to be a 14" squirrel fish. What was it doing in 8000' of water? Even the crew couldn't figure that one out. We managed to add 20 more yellowfin to our tally before the bite shut off completely at 4am. We started heading back and added 2 more wahoo while trolling closer to shore.

Our total tally for the trip with 16 anglers was 43 yellowfin tuna up to 75ish pounds, 14 wahoo, 1 dolphin, some blackfin, and a few barricuda. I will have to say this was a weird trip. We only lost a few fish to sharks and barricuda. Thursday at the Gunnison was so cold I was wearing my overpants and a heavy jacket but Friday night at the Perdido I was in a T-shirt. The tuna were ******, I don't know whether it was the colder water or what but they were pulling like madman. My last trip I could lock them down at the boat on 35# of drag and winch them in. These were having none of that and doing figure 8's while pulling line out at a good rate. I even saw the crew struggling somewhat. Another interesting item was they broke out the AR and started shooting the really frisky ones in the spine before gaffing them. Chunking produced the most fish with Halcos being the runner up. Only one fish was caught on a frenzy and none on a popper.


I mentioned earlier I had a lot of luck good and bad. My good luck was that out of 43 YF landed, I caught 5 of the largest. I also handed off 2 others for anglers that were struggling. I picked the 3 largest and came home with 100 pounds of processed tuna and 15 pounds of wahoo.

My bad luck included losing 2 YF right at the boat, several cutoffs, and 2 line breaks. I was tired while throwing a Halco and somehow manage to hook my lure tray during a cast that was sitting on the front cooler and sent it over the side. Of course the lid was unlatched and the only things I managed to retrieve was a couple of poppers. I also still got a little queasy while taking Kwell's but managed to keep everthing down this time.

Pics are 1st YF of the trip, total catch, and my 5 YF landed (2 are in the can).

[glen]

Good trip

[Killer]

Dang meat haul!

[Slew]

Heck yeah!! Can’t wait till next time!! I’ve got my spinning Rod rigged up but haven’t spooled the conventional rod yet!!

[doug]

Good trip!

Gunnison is a haul! I remember we made a run out there and a bunch of small pilot whales had the fish run off. We had to find another.

[Rock63]

Sounds like a great trip!

[Maui-diver]

Nice!!

[jnd1959]

Congrats. I haven't been able to go for a couple years. I'm hoping that changes this year.

[AtTheWall]

Solid trip and Congratulations!

Wahoo eat so darn good - fun when they are on.