Another report from earlier in the year...
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The gist of the trip is that I left Houston around 7PM on Friday to make the 430 mile drive to Venice. After getting to New Orleans and taking 90 and not business 90, I found myself in the slums of NO. The abundance of porch-drinking, jaywalking and boarded up windows gave me the sense that this was not the correct way. I hadn't remembered this from last time :eek: I stopped in a Waglreen's for directions, only to realize the cashier and all patrons were virtually useless. Not only had they never heard of the road "23" (they said they didn't do numbers) but they also couldn't show me where we were on a map of New Orleans. Baby steps...after they told me what road we were on - I was back on track. Made it to the dock by 3AM.
515 comes early in the back seat of a pickup. got out, met everyone and started loading the boat. I'd guess we left the dock around 7AM. we stopped to make bait......though i have no bait making rigs so i just threw a hammered diamond jig. cuda.....first jig lost.
i had another small bar jack that was bit in half by a cuda, and the other guys picked up a few blue runners.
moving out to bluewater, they wanted to slow troll live baits. there was an early hit from a mahi that didn't take. I tried casting some while slow trolling but wasn't able to get anything. Picked up a baby mahi on the troll. Trolled over to another rig, but it was too fast to cast.
once we got to the next rig we were jigging right next to the rig. i think there was another bait or two caught, i got an almaco, small yellowfin and lost another jig to a cuda.
moving farther from the rig the other guys started chunking and were rewarded with a 80lb yellowfin. a short while later, another chunk got hit and i took over on the rod from evan and pulled in the tuna shown earlier.
not a ton of action for a while, lost more jigs to a cuda, all the while trying to cast while slow trolling. Not much happening, then line got sucked into the prop. long story short we werent sure if it broke the seal, so we made the call not to run the one engine for fear of burning it up. obviously, the trip would be cut short but we decided to stay for another hour.
fishing picked up pretty well. I hooked a very nice yellowfin on a jig, it made a huge run but the leader broke. i think my drag was too tight for the 80lb line i had. stupid mistake, still kicking myself for it.
A few more were picked up on the chunk, they were really biting the chunks for a little while there. no monsters but good 50lb fish. I put the jig down and decided to start casting. I saw some fish busting and went for it. Got a small yellowfin - and lost more lures to cudas. The last one was a big disappointment.......cast...reel reel reel - big blowup.....pop. cuda. ugh.
made it back to houston by about 6PM on Sunday. Nice weekend and very good fishing. I think had we stayed there wouldve been a lot more tuna caught.
thanks to marty for the invite, hope to do it again soon!
