Corpusfishing.com

[NaplesJohn]

OK, so after a long fish processing session followed by reel cleaning, real food and a good nights sleep, followed by a day at work, and the second to last gear cleaning session resulting in ready to go rods, I am now ready to complete the story of the "El Mundo Perdido" or for us gringos the Lost World. No better name for that lonely rig floating rig Perdido.

In a search for a little more about this I found that Perdido is the deepest floating oil platform in the world at a water depth of about 2450 meters (8000 feet) operated by the Shell Oil Company in the Gulf of Mexico. Pretty cool video with some history on oil, and some interesting gouge on the Perdido https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMX8BEWMtlw#t=23

The Perdido is located in the Perdido fold belt which is a rich discovery of crude oil and natural gas that lies in water that is nearly 8000 feet deep. The platform's peak production will be 100,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day. At 267 meters, the Perdido is nearly as tall as the Eiffel Tower.

So a couple weeks ago there appeared to be a possible opportunity when the stars would align for a Tuna Trip in my future. Generally unreliable weather forecasts began showing a weather window that would favor being offshore in something smaller than a super tanker. For those that follow the reports on tuna trips originating out of Port A, you know they weather cancel a lot of trips due to weather deemed too bad to be offshore...seems that cancellation policy revolves around really crappy weather with gale warnings about all that stops the quest for our "local tuna"...you know at places as far as 160 miles from port.

I finally booked when there was only one spot on the Gulf Eagle, and the weather was predicted to be 3-5 seas and 15 MPH winds out of the NE on Friday, and switching to 2-4 seas and 5-10MPH out of the SE. It was looking good, and I began MY final preps for the trip. I was loading for bear, and was pretty sure I had everything I needed to make it a successful trip at least as far as the things I could control.

Rods and Reels - Calstar Rods that Gary of Buddhahead Custom Rods built for me:
770XH w/ AVET HX/2 Raptor 100 braid/80 topshot
Baby Boomer w/ Avet ProEx 100 braid/60 topshot
6480 w/ AVET HX/2 80 braid/50 topshot
700H w/ AVET LX Raptor 65 braid/40 topshot
6470 w/ AVET HX/J Raptor 65 braid/50 topshot
800H with a Narrow Newell 533 65 braid/40 topshot.



Gear bag with jigs, plugs, flouro, hooks swivels etc. Groceries to keep me fed for 48 hours I am ready!

Arrive at the boat at 0500 for A 0600 departure on Friday 27 December, along with a mixture of people including a father with three sons, a retired firefighter, Rick from Port A Outfitters, a truck driver, a rugby player, and six others all chomping at the bit to get offshore.



As we depart we received a safety brief, and a game plan, and we are off to Perdido, 160 miles south with an ETA of around 1800. So off we go on our quest for tuna at "El Mundo Perdido". As we depart we received a safety brief and a game plan and we are off to Perdido, 160 miles south with an ETA of around 1800.

As we clear the jetties it becomes readily apparent that the weather guessers may have missed the forecast, as it is sloppier and windier than they predicted. Our course conspires to have give us an uncomfortable ride as we have the pleasure of a combination of rolling, and up and down motion that took its toll on a few. I am usually not prone to seasickness, though I had a short bout as that course and sea condition combo and I don't get along well. We continued south throwing heavy spray and an occasional buried bow for the next 12 hours. At some point we pass the Scat Cat also on the way to the Promised Land they too looked to not be riding all that comfortably in the 8+ foot choppy and confused seas and 20+MPH breeze.

Finally we can see a glimpse of Perdido far in the distance, as they were flaring. The excitement builds, and soon we have the trollers in, and begin our first pass around the massive semisubmersible oil platform. I don't remember if it was raining at that point, but through our trip we had intermittent rain on top of wind and a sloppy sea condition. Not long after we started trolling we picked up our first tuna.



I start out fishing a bait, and hook a Mahi of about 25-35 pounds, a few jumps, and I am on the board with a smile on my face. It was not a great challenge on the 770XH and 80 topshot and 60lb flouro, but I was gunning for YFT's!



Around 9PM a few tuna start to come aboard, and I continue to fish a mix of bait, poppers, and jigs with no success except for a couple blackfin destined to become chunk bait.







One of the deckhands (sorry horrible with names) was hooking and handing a few YFT's all on Frenzy Flyers, a realistic silicone replica of a flying fish, similar to a Yummy Flyer. http://www.affordablefishing.com/proddetail.asp?prod=FrenzyFlyingFish07

Of course it is the one thing I don't have in my bag of tricks, and had no previous experience with. Hat in hand I ask if he has a spare...he responds with a "sure do" and goes in the galley and returns with one, and gets me set up, and my fortunes quickly change, as I put three tuna on the boat in the next couple hours boat...a few money shots. No doubt I will have them the next time!!!









The bite on the flyer is nothing but exciting, as the tuna eat it, and in every case for me the 45-65LB fish were air born as they came from below after their prey - game on baby!!! I had my three fish legal limit by about 2300, and started sneaking in a nap during repositioning moves. At some point I caught a fourth. Took a good lil nap from about 0130 until about 0400. Not much going on but I wanted to be "ready" if we got an early bite. The early bite never materialized, so the trollers went back in around 0730. Didn't take long to get a double on the troll, and as we slowed down I pitched another Frenzy flyer, and nailed my largest YFT for the trip around 65lbs. This was the toughest fish of the trip and acted more like a left coast fish, pulled some string and got his head down. Love the two speed LX Raptor drop to low and game over though took a little longer then the night time fish.



We finished that drift for nothing added beyond the two troll fish and my fish. The two troll fish were I believe the largest of the trip, with one probably in the low 80's. We then began trolling around looking for jumpers or other life though that never happened.



About 1100 we shut down and "waited" for the afternoon show, though had some live baits out and a few diehards still out in the rain (yup raining again or was it still...?). Saw a few fish blow out on baits, though never hooked another. We got back on the troll about 1600, and had one hookup that came unglued. YFT's never bit though for us, though unsure if the Scat Cat or the El Pesca had any luck. We caught a few more blackfin and about 1930 caught a last YFT. We pulled the plug on the trip at 2000, for the long ride home with a 0700 0730 ETA. The weather finally improved, and the ride home was nice with no real wind and fairly flat seas...hey we got our weather change just 36 hours too late.

I woke up about 0500, and broke down rods and reels, and gave the reels a good soapy freshwater wash, and got rods bundled and rest of my gear ready to go for offload.

This sunrise was the only sun we saw the whole trip. Funny as night fell each night, and morning came, it simply went from dark grey to dark, and then back to dark grey. The only color in the sky was the awesome flare on the rig. Dante's Inferno came to mind, as did other post-apocalyptic images, and maybe the news coverage of the burning oil rigs of the Gulf War all pretty surreal.



Back at the dock and we all get the gear off the boat and into the multitude of trucks, and a quick run across the street for a big hot cup o' coffee that was Heaven after Dante's Hell. Crew quickly unloads the fish and gets them up for the dockside money shot.



We ended up with 22 Yellowfin Tuna, and 50 or so Blackfin Tuna, and two Mahi. I felt fortunate catching five of the YFT's and the larger of the two Mahi. Time spent at the rail combined with a quick lesson by the crew on the Frenzy Flyer paid off.



With a little help!

[jas027]

Nice Fish.

Perdido Topside was built here in Ingleside by Kiewit.

[landlocked beachbum]

Dude,

EPIC trip and great story and pics!!!!
_________________
Dave


"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has it's limits". Albert Einstein

[EatUrKill]

Wow! I've been wanting to go on one of those trips! I need to start stocking up on gear. Congrats on a great trip.

[ltorna1]

Great trip Naples!!!! One of the best reports I have read in a while. Thanks for sharing it with us.
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...if my boss ever finds this forum I'll be unemployed...

[Tyler]

Awesome though the ride out in sloppy 8 footers would have been rough! Thanks for the great report, John.
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[peskador]

Looks like fun!

[FishLady]

WOW, what a trip and report!
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FishLady

[lifeaquatic]

Righteous!

[landlocked beachbum]

Just goes to prove two things, as always:

Weather predictions don't mean squat, and planning trips around weather predictions is like throwing darts blindfolded......... While bashing through 8 footers!!!!!

What it boils down to is, plan a trip and go! it's offshore on the Texas coast, rarely smooth going.
_________________
Dave


"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has it's limits". Albert Einstein

[Razorback]

Sounds like a great adventure!
Enjoy the sushi and grilled YFT... yummy!

[NaplesJohn]

[want2fish]

Great read. Thanks for the report. Some day I would like to make the tuna trip

[landlocked beachbum]

[NaplesJohn]