This report will cover the past couple of weeks. It has definitely been a strange summer so far. Strong thunderstorms, dirty water, and unusual west winds have all contributed to some tough conditions. Snapper and amberjack have remained easy pickings but the tuna have been somewhat difficult at times. Thankfully things seem to be getting back to normal with the clean water slowly creeping back in. When everything finally straightens out the tuna fishing should bust wide open. As a matter of fact it might have already happened after what I saw last week. Unfortunately I forgot my camera down in Venice so I only have pictures from the past three days.
Up until this past week I have been staying close and grinding out 2-4 yellowfin a day and catching easy limits of amberjack and snapper. The two most important things to have fishing like that are herring and patience. Some highlights include snapper over 25 lbs and a nice mako while swordfishing.
This past week I couldn’t take the grind any more and with Tom Steed and his crew fishing with me for three days I knew I could afford to roll the dice so we went LONG and it was rewarded. We finally made it to our destination around 1 PM and the tuna were jumping around as we pulled up. Within two hours we were heading in with a nice boat limit of two yellowfin per person. Could have done it a lot faster but we missed a bunch of fish, guess I was a little rusty. Day two we got to the rig we caught our fish on and they were still there, there was just one problem they wouldn’t bite. The tuna jumped around us all day and we didn’t get a single bite. Talk about frustrating! We tried live herring, pogies, mullet, and hadrtails all in vain. We even tried chumming. Guess it just wasn’t meant to be two days in a row. The last day of their three day stretch Tom wanted big Mangrove snapper which happens to be one of my favorite fish to catch. It was non stop action on amberjack, crevalle jack, sharks, red snapper, and big Mangrove snapper. Our two biggest fish went 11.7# and 11.3# and our ten biggest went 99.2#. Unfortunately I don’t get many requests for Mangrove fishing but that first pull of him trying to rush back into the rig is addictive.
As the water clears up the fishing should get better for tuna. The amberjack are so thick we caught one before we could even let the line down, it just came up and bit on the surface before we had a chance. Red snapper season lasts almost a month longer and they are as plentiful as ever. Mangrove snapper fishing is usually at its best in August. With a list like that how could you not want to go fishing?
Give us a call.
Capt. Billy Wells
Mexican Gulf Fishing Company
(504)329-7451
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