Had a great trip to Louisiana with some friends to fish the fabled "Midnight Lump" otherwise known on the charts as the Sackett Bank. It about 20 miles south of the mouth of the Mississippi River . Its an underwater salt dome [ called a "diapir" by geologist types] that rises from 400 Ft depths to 200 Ft. It creates a constant upwelling condition and is a very fishy place. The action was constant with the first fish [ 70+ LB Amberjack] on a bottom rig hooked within minutes of dropping anchor . We were chunking and kite fishing for the tuna , two very interesting techniques . Chunking is the magnum version of chumming ,with literally hundreds of Lbs of cut bonito and menhaden going into the water in the course of a day , and kite fishing is a kite/helium balloon on a short rod with a release on the line [ I guess you could call it an "uprigger"] that has your live bait dangling at the surface [ attached to its own rod] ,causing a commotion, and getting bit usually by the bigger fish . It a very effective and exciting technique as you get to see the bite .It also gets the bait away from the boat and there is no visible line in the water for the fish to see.
We left the dock 5 a.m. Superbowl Sunday on a 65'X23' Resmondo , built on Perdido Bay just above Orange Beach Al. The boat was very comfortable for all 10 fishermen with a bunk for all , 2 heads W/ showers ,and a great galley/salon with tracking satellite TV. One of the great things about the Alabama captains is they almost all have "Big Green Egg" grills built into the boat . That makes for some great meals aboard . We started a Boston Butt after breakfast on Mon a.m. and after the lines were in we had a great lunch of BBQ Pork and Sashimi !The boat has a high capacity ice machine and huge fishboxes to load em in . And we loaded em....
Day one fishing was started with the big A.J. and the blackfin tunas started biting as well . A blackfin is native only to the Gulf and Atlantic and is a smaller tuna . On the lump there are some pretty big ones in to the mid 30LB range . They are excellent table fare and on a blind tasting it would be hard to tell fresh blackfin from fresh yellowfin. They pull hard and are alot of fun on conventional or tough spinning gear. Later in the day the first yellowfin bit and it was in the 40-50 Lb range with 2 more came aboard before we stopped for the evening to watch the game .The bottom fishing was active in the afternoon with 2 gag groupers at about 25LB and 3 or 4 more A.J.s to 50 lbs.We also caught beeliner [ vermillion] snappers all day long in the 2-4 lb range . The beeliners would come up into the meatslick for a free lunch .
Day two fishing started at about 6 a.m. with our early morning mission to replenish the bonito supply . They were cooperative and we filled a couple full size trash cans . We were catching them for the boat's following trip as well as for our morning fishing . While we were catching bonito the blackfins showed up and the frenzy began .At least one angler was hooked up to a tuna for the next few hours. The kite was getting bit regularly and the chunk rods were starting to go off regularly as well . Then the first big yellowfin appeared in the chunk trail at the transom . It was big , in the 150 range . It didn't bite and disappeared . Then another one hit on one of the chunking rods and the big fish of the day was on . That fish ran Todd, the angler to the bow and with the help of the really great crew was kept from wrapping the anchor rode with about nine passes under and over the line . After about an hour struggle the fish was harpooned from the bow , walked to the stern and landed . It appeared to be about 120lbs and the bites kept coming on 50 to 90 Lb fish. We ended the day with 4 yellowfin and 8 blackfin and another couple A.J.s .
Then the bite quit, as it will eventually do, I was first to the shower, then to the cutting board with a blackfin cuttin up the prime parts for the sashimi plate and some loins to sear on the grill with some good ,spicy, genuine cajun seasoning called "Slap Yo Momma". A complete tuna adventure kit should always include wasabi,soy sauce and a good knife, don't leave port without it !
Marc Grove
We left the dock 5 a.m. Superbowl Sunday on a 65'X23' Resmondo , built on Perdido Bay just above Orange Beach Al. The boat was very comfortable for all 10 fishermen with a bunk for all , 2 heads W/ showers ,and a great galley/salon with tracking satellite TV. One of the great things about the Alabama captains is they almost all have "Big Green Egg" grills built into the boat . That makes for some great meals aboard . We started a Boston Butt after breakfast on Mon a.m. and after the lines were in we had a great lunch of BBQ Pork and Sashimi !The boat has a high capacity ice machine and huge fishboxes to load em in . And we loaded em....
Day one fishing was started with the big A.J. and the blackfin tunas started biting as well . A blackfin is native only to the Gulf and Atlantic and is a smaller tuna . On the lump there are some pretty big ones in to the mid 30LB range . They are excellent table fare and on a blind tasting it would be hard to tell fresh blackfin from fresh yellowfin. They pull hard and are alot of fun on conventional or tough spinning gear. Later in the day the first yellowfin bit and it was in the 40-50 Lb range with 2 more came aboard before we stopped for the evening to watch the game .The bottom fishing was active in the afternoon with 2 gag groupers at about 25LB and 3 or 4 more A.J.s to 50 lbs.We also caught beeliner [ vermillion] snappers all day long in the 2-4 lb range . The beeliners would come up into the meatslick for a free lunch .
Day two fishing started at about 6 a.m. with our early morning mission to replenish the bonito supply . They were cooperative and we filled a couple full size trash cans . We were catching them for the boat's following trip as well as for our morning fishing . While we were catching bonito the blackfins showed up and the frenzy began .At least one angler was hooked up to a tuna for the next few hours. The kite was getting bit regularly and the chunk rods were starting to go off regularly as well . Then the first big yellowfin appeared in the chunk trail at the transom . It was big , in the 150 range . It didn't bite and disappeared . Then another one hit on one of the chunking rods and the big fish of the day was on . That fish ran Todd, the angler to the bow and with the help of the really great crew was kept from wrapping the anchor rode with about nine passes under and over the line . After about an hour struggle the fish was harpooned from the bow , walked to the stern and landed . It appeared to be about 120lbs and the bites kept coming on 50 to 90 Lb fish. We ended the day with 4 yellowfin and 8 blackfin and another couple A.J.s .
Then the bite quit, as it will eventually do, I was first to the shower, then to the cutting board with a blackfin cuttin up the prime parts for the sashimi plate and some loins to sear on the grill with some good ,spicy, genuine cajun seasoning called "Slap Yo Momma". A complete tuna adventure kit should always include wasabi,soy sauce and a good knife, don't leave port without it !
Marc Grove
