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Craig, Keith, and Mr. Johnson all had 150# yellowfin on their minds when they booked their trip for the Midnight Lump. They got much more than just yellowfin. A full-on Lump mixed bag was their reward for travel from Tulsa, OK and Dallas, TX. We caught several blackfin, an amberjack, and the one yellowfin early in the day. Then about midday the sounder lit up: not from tunas, but from beeliners. As I’ve always said, my favorite fishes are the ones that are biting. The Johnsons got cancelled on their second day, but they went home with plenty fish and they’ve got at least two goals for their next trip: less wind and big tuna.
When I told Ralph Wells and his friends from Jackson, MS, to cross their fingers for the last bait, I thought they were supposed to hope for the luck to get one more bite. The luck they ended up needing was to not get spooled. This big tuna smoked the last bait we threw out just as it got out of sight. And it never stopped to look back. By the time we got off the anchor ball and started to chase her down, three quarters of the spool was gone. We chased the tuna for a mile and a half, and then drifted a ways farther fighting it. By the time we gaffed the fish we were closer to WD152 that to the Lump. The scale read 184# at the dock. This tuna was a brute and there’s a reason Ralph’s whole crew is in the picture. They also had a little help from the crew.
Pierce shows off a nice 68# wahoo he caught last week on the KRAKEN. We had some awesome weather during the week, with three back to back slick-calm days. The tuna fishing slowed a little, but the wahoos were there to pick up the slack. Pierce’s wahoo was one of four nice wahoo we caught last Wednesday with Mark McGavok and his crew from Water Valley, MS.
Mitch, Toni, and the rest of the crew from Regency Homes of Gulfport, MS, get the award for the most cancellations so far for 2007. These guys had to reschedule at least seven times just to get one fishable day, but it paid off in the end with several nice yellowfin tunas, wahoo, and blackfin. Mitch was the only one to not catch a yellowfin, which means that he’s due back the soonest.
