The chum had barely touched the water as the blue water came to life. Dozens of black fin tuna were already in a feeding frenzy. Every hand full of chum I threw barely made it 6 inches under the clear blue water. Captain Scott Sullivan spotted the big yellow fin first saying, “There’s our boy!” Sullivan hooked the biggest fish in the chum pile (a 12in flounder) and pitched into the ruckus. Out of no where the giant yellow came to the surface, slurped the bait and seemed to wink at us saying, “Let’s get it on!”
Cold fronts signal many things to outdoors men. For deer hunters, they know that it time to get in the woods. Trout fisherman get ready for big specks to move into the marsh. Tuna fisherman in south Louisiana feel those cool breezes and they look for shrimp boats and triple digit tuna. Every year deep water trawlers work the waters south of the Mississippi River (150 to 400 feet) for the large deep water shrimp. This fishing coincides with a run of gargantuan tuna that pick up easy meals behind the shrimp boat from the by catch. As literally tons of unwanted by catch is shoveled overboard, hundreds of tuna(black fin and yellow fin) will follow these boats for weeks.
We had an incredible first evening, fully enjoying our stay at the Venice Sportsman Lodge in the Venice Marina. Captain Dan Skermetta had laid out a 5 star meal, and some incredible fishing reports to go with the feast. Before supper, our crew enjoyed cocktails on the top deck of the Venice Marina bar. Every boat that returned that evening unloaded tuna that needed assistance from two and sometimes three grown men. The largest one weighed that day went 203 pounds! Between the fish we saw, the food we ate and the fun we were having at the Sportsman Lodge, very little sleep was had by the crew.
The next morning, we were fishing on the INNOVATOR, a pristine thirty-nine foot Sea Vee with triple 350 hp Yamahas. Fishing reports were all good, Captain Scott Sullivan of the Mexican Gulf Fishing Company had been picking fights with big yellow fin tuna all week long. Pass Christian, MS native Andrew Williams of Point Eight Power was our host. Williams had 4 of his co-workers and clients on the boat, I would be playing deck-hand/chum boy. I had done this type of fishing several times in years past, but never have I seen this many big yellow fins in one day.
Sullivan controlled the monster 39 foot center console with ease. The veteran captain would beg, borrow or barter with the shrimpers for hundreds of pounds of chum. The chum consisted of: croakers, crabs, flounder, shrimp, eels, ribbon fish, white trout, and some other fish no of us could name. Captain Scott would expertly put the bow of his boat on the stern of the shrimpers. He would call for a few hand fulls of chum to be tossed. We would then drift away from the shrimper, pulling the feeding fish to our chum line. Every single shrimp boat we chummed, held countless black fin and monster yellow fin. Sullivan would watch the cadence of the feeding fish, paying special attention to the giant yellow fintuna. He would have the largest bait hooked and ready, all the while calling for a steady stream of chum to be thrown in. If and when the larger baits made it through the feeding mass of black fins, the yellows would inhale them.
Since these fish are so charged up with the hundreds of pounds of chum in the water, tackle can be “beefed up.” Sullivan used custom J&M custom rods, along with Shimano Tiagras. His reels were spooled with 80lb backing, and 100lb top shot Seagar FluorocarbonLeaders. All black Mustad 6/0 circle hooks were used with the larger baits. Keep in mind, all of this is done 2 to 20 feet away from the boat, on the surface. Seeing that many big fish feeding, right next to the boat, will blow your mind!
If an when the yellows disappeared from the chum, we would grab a black fin or two. Earlier that morning, we filled the live well with a pile of palm sized live hard tails, on sabiki rigs. Sullivan would simply hold a hooked bait barely on the surface of the water next to the boat. I think the longest a bait lasted was 3 seconds. The larger black fin would come clear out of the water, inhaling the frantic baits. If we wanted to, we could have sunk the boat with black fin tuna.
This season has been one of the better trawl boat tuna bites the Venice fleet has ever seen. Consistent numbers of 125 to 175lb yellow fin have been hitting the docks for weeks now. Several 200 plus pounders are being seen on a daily basis as well. The black fin tuna are considered somewhat a nuisance this time of year. The black fin far outnumber the yellow fin and are very aggressive. Some days they make it nearly impossible to get a bait to the big yellows. If you ever wanted to nab a tuna on a fly rod, there is no better time than now.
Late in the day with the fish box full of tuna, Sullivan pointed the boat home. We had gotten in several fights with some of the hardest fighting fish that swim. Some of the fights we won, an others went to the tuna. All of us were beat up, sore, but enjoying the last bit of our time on the water. Since the boat cruised at 45mph the run had took relatively no time at all. The Sea Vee had more speakers in it than a KISS concert. With the tunes cranked up, most of us sang along with the satellite radio the whole ride in. Back at the dock, every boat that went out, returned with loads of tuna and stories of the big one that got away. Later that night, while enjoying some very fresh sushi, our host Andrew Williams was all grins. With a drink in his hand, and chewing on some fresh caught sushi, he glanced at me smiling and said, “Good Day.” I could not have agreed more…
Captain Sonny Schindler
Shore Thing Fishing Charters
Bay St Louis, MS
228-342-2295
www.shorethingcharters.com