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reallifetexan · Pony Mullet Joined: 08 Jun 2013 Posts: 77

I signed up for the 36 hr tuna trip at Deep Sea Headquarters for me and my two sons. It's supposed to leave this Sat. morning at 6am to go to one of the deep sea oil platforms.

However, with Rafael wandering around the Gulf like a late night partyer that can't find the door to go home, my question to all of you is, will this trip actually happen?

And I guess I should also ask, if it does happen, should we get on the boat?

Let me know your thoughts.

Rebecca of Sunnybrookfarm · Full Grown Flour Bluffian Joined: 01 May 2008 Posts: 3961

reallifetexan · Pony Mullet Joined: 08 Jun 2013 Posts: 77

Didn't realize they would go out in 8-10 ft seas. Not sure how you stand up and cast / fight fish in that. Seems a little unsafe, but maybe I'm just being too conservative...

By the way, were they the ones pictured in the Island Moon posing with their yellowfin tuna?

CaptinAcademy · Posted: Wed Nov 06, 2024 9:29 pm Post subject:

Oh yeah, they'll go in those big cat's in 8-10s..
Captain told me about 12-16s before no problem..
We were in 10-12s on a short nasty muti direction sea once.
That I couldn't handle very well as I'm not near as nimble as I one was.
However, the period and direction is what is important.
In a tropical system you will usually have long, one direction periods which makes it much easier to handle..
Hint: Bring a bungee or two or a long strap or belt
to strap into a bunk if you try to sleep at all..
Me personally, I cannot hang out below deck when it's rough, I have to have line of sight to the swells and I'm usually OK.

Good luck if you go!
It'll probably chill out by the time you get out to the platforms
_________________
Steve-O
_________________
My biggest worry is that my wife (when I'm dead) will sell my fishing gear for what I said I paid for it. ~Koos Brandt

awesum · Posted: Thu Nov 07, 2024 7:38 am Post subject:

I posted to you over on 2cool. If a named storm is in the gulf Party boats insurance will not allow them to leave the docks.

The Scat Cat has already rescheduled their trip for this weekend.

Rebecca of Sunnybrookfarm · Full Grown Flour Bluffian Joined: 01 May 2008 Posts: 3961

reallifetexan · Pony Mullet Joined: 08 Jun 2013 Posts: 77

They finally called today and postponed the trip to next weekend. Fortunately my sons were able to juggle their work schedules, so we're still able to go. Hopefully we can be like Becky's relatives and get some yellowfin. We shall see...

awesum · Posted: Sat Nov 09, 2024 8:05 am Post subject:

Good luck. I just got back last weekend from our annual trip on the Scat Cat. It wasn't a killer trip but was decent.

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Central Scrutinizer · Posted: Sat Nov 09, 2024 11:24 am Post subject:

Seriously, who kept the Chubs???? Shocked

awesum · Posted: Sun Nov 10, 2024 8:09 am Post subject:

ziacatcher · Posted: Sun Nov 10, 2024 7:16 pm Post subject:

Damn those are a lot of fish

reallifetexan · Pony Mullet Joined: 08 Jun 2013 Posts: 77

Results from the trip:

It was a tough trip, but we did well. After the reschedule from the previous weekend, we had 14 total customers, but ended up on a smaller boat (the New Pelican) which didn't have much room on it, but we managed. We had 4-6 ft seas going out, which changed to 8 ft once we started getting near the Perdido rig. Had to spend all night in 8-10 ft seas with periodic rain, which made moving around the boat pretty challenging. Around half the boat was sick much of the night, including my two sons. We managed to catch a number of blackfin early on jigs, then tried chunking (with bait - not the chunking my sons proceeded to do) with not much luck. One of the mates had a chunk rod out that did get hit, and I ended up being right next to him so he gave me the rod which resulted in the first yellowfin landed - in the 70 lb range. A set of 3 brothers got the largest YF on a chunk rod, but then we moved to a nearby drill ship. While at the drill ship, we caught 2 large back to back rogue waves while drifting, and the first one caused me to grab onto the rail with all my might, and as we came down the backside of the first one I looked up in time to see the 2nd wave breaking above my head and it proceeded to engulf that entire side of the boat. Fortunately, no one was washed overboard, but I had to put on a jacket for a couple of hours as wet clothes get pretty cold with a 20-25 mph wind even though it was above 70 degrees. After that, one person caught 2 YFs over the course of a few hours throwing a Yellowfin colored Halco 130 on the front of the boat. After the 2nd one, I realized there was room up front so I grabbed my sons spinning rod, which happened to have a YF colored Halco 130 already on it, and on the next drift threw it towards the drill ship as we drifted by it, and around the 6th or 7th cast hooked another YF. It initially pulled a little, then charged me slacking the line, and I thought I had lost it, so after 10-15 frantic turns of the reel handle, I finally felt something, paused, and then got to experience the YF run as it peeled line off for a little while. That was pretty awesome. This was probably after 4 in the morning at this point, and both my sons stomachs had settled to the point where they could stand up again, so I handed the rod to them and they switched off fighting it, which resulted in our 2nd YF of the trip - again in the 70 lb range. Considering there were only 6 YF landed total, we were very fortunate. The mates were great, the captains tried their hardest to find fish, and those who didn't get any YF got the vast majority of the blackfin, so all in all I think most people had a good time. The total haul was 6 YF, 48 BF (after some were cut up for chunk bait), 2 skipjack tuna, a barracuda and a snake mackerel (? the ribbon fish looking thing hanging in the middle of the YFs). My sons and I took the 2 YF to the Port A fish cleaning place near the boat ramp next to the ferry, and filleted the YF so we could fit the meat into our coolers and take it home that night. Kudos to the city of Port A - that's a nice fish cleaning place. Well lit, running water, good tables, etc. Already had some ceviche and lightly seared another chunk, and it's absolutely delicious. It was completely exhausting, but I can't wait to do it again next year.

CaptinAcademy · Posted: Tue Nov 19, 2024 5:25 pm Post subject:

That's quite the beating yall took on that one..
I just ain't that mad at em anymore lol.
Kinda sucks they put you on the Pelican in that swell..
Glad you were able to pound in a couple good yellowfin tho!
Not much better than fresh fresh YFT!

Congrats!
_________________
Steve-O
_________________
My biggest worry is that my wife (when I'm dead) will sell my fishing gear for what I said I paid for it. ~Koos Brandt

awesum · Posted: Wed Nov 20, 2024 8:14 am Post subject:

Glad you had a good trip (fish wise).

What's interesting is that you caught them on the "Yellowfin" Halco. It's the least productive Halco in my bag. And I've been throwing Halcos since they first became a thing. The only marks on it are from me banging on the side of the boat Rolling Eyes

On our trip poppers and live flyers were the payoff. I got a 90#* on a pink Russellure popper.

*actually 85-90 but in YFT you always use the higher number Wink

reallifetexan · Pony Mullet Joined: 08 Jun 2013 Posts: 77

Great fish. The mates did manage to get a live flying fish late and putting that on a hook resulted in the last YF tuna caught. They were never able to get any more live ones, so that limited our ability to use that method. Worked well, though! Also, I don't think anyone used a popper that I saw, I'll be sure to try one of those next year when we go. I'm definitely hooked on this now that I've done it - it's a blast.