Gulf Coast Fishing Report - 5/26 - 5/29

[Captain Mike Ellis]

Ihad a couple of days off before my next trip. So, since my next trip was for marlin, I needed to head up the road to the tackle shop for some supplies and a little rest and relaxation before working again. Well at the tackle shop I ran into Charlie Jones who asked me to ride along with him on a overnight tuna trip. So it took me all of about two minutes to agree to go. So back to work I go. Got back to Venice Marina at around 5PM. We loaded the boat and off we went. Our plan was to run long.

We ran so long that we passed George Clooney and Billy Tine on the Andrea Gail. We arrived at the Noble Jim Thompson floater to see the yellowfin doing what they do best. And that is busting flying fish on the surface. We just sat and watched flyers get up and fly only to be crushed as soon as they hit the surface. Enough looking at the fish it was now time to get down to business. Two Frenzy glow poppers go flying off of the bow and two yellows are hooked up. From that point on it was a blur as fish after fish were hooked and lost or landed. After the smoke cleared I did a count and found we were one short of a 4-man limit. So out goes a glow Frenzy Ballistic flyer. It took about two minutes before it got crushed. So we went off in search of a marlin with 12 yellows from 50-85 and 11 blackfin in the boat. The best part is I didn’t have to cut one piece of chum all night.

On Saturday, I had Mark Olson and his family onboard Relentless for a day of marlin fishing. The rip that had been a 10 was now a 4. We did pass up a nice log and picked up a decent wahoo along with a few dolphin and tripletail. The highlight was for Spencer, Mark’s son, when I gave him a mask and he went swimming with the dolphins, wahoo and other assorted fish. After about thirty minutes or so we got back on the troll picking up a few more dolphin. At this point our rip just died. So now it was time for a different game plan. The option of rig or tuna fishing was put out. There was no definite answer. So, I pointed the bow south and ran for tuna. We arrived at the floater NaKikka. Only to find an armada of boats fishing for marlin since there was two billfish tournaments in progress. We were not to be denied our tuna. We managed a skipjack and a blackfin tuna along with a dolphin on a Freny Ballistic popper. Now it was Robin and Mark’s turn for the day. As they both caught a double header of yellowfin in the 50-60lb range. The tuna were caught on chunks of blackfin tuna on 50lb fluroleader and 5/0 Freny ocean camo hooks. We missed one more yellowfin as it was getting late in the afternoon. We then headed in to find an amberjack. We were denied our AJ along with our marlin for the day. But we ended up with 2 yellowfin and 9 dolphin and 2 nice tripletail and a wahoo. Overall, we ended the day with an offshore meat grand slam.

On Sunday, I had Jay Watkins, Harlon Coleman and his son Justin onboard for some snapper fishing. The weather was 180 degree’s opposite from the day before. The wind was howling and it was rough and rainy. We hopped all over the gulf hitting all of my dependable rigs looking for fish. They were there but too small to make it in the box. We had a few big fish break us off in the rig but the rest of our bites paid off. Justin had the big fish of the day with a 50lb AJ caught while we were tied up to the rig. He also managed a decent gag grouper. The total catch for the day was 5 red snapper from 15-24lbs a 50lb AJ and a bearded brotula. The calm water of the river never felt so good after being in a washing machine all day long.

[Shark Tagger]

Hey Capt Mike I may be contacting you in the winter to do a trip. I'm glad I found you, I hear Venice is on fire in the cold months. Yellowfin over 100lbs?

Catch em up!

[Deep_Sea_Gull]

Great reports Capt Mike...

Have you been fishing lately? Do you have more recent reports?

[Captain Mike Ellis]

Shark Tagger I am looking forward to fishing you and getting you a yellow over 100lbs. You can go directly to my website at relentlesssportfishing.net to view some pictures from last winter and get all the information you will need to make a booking. For you Deep_Sea_Gull I have been so busy with fishing I have slacked way off on posting reports. I do have a three days before my next trip so I will put some recent pictures up and post at least one report from a overnighter I ran on sat/sun. Which we put about 24 yellowfin in the boat. Altough that souds like we killed them, except all but 10 were only in the 5-15 pound range. The ten we keep were in the 65-92 pound range. We caught half of them on poppers and the rest on live hardtails. We also had about 8 15-30 pound blackfin to fill in the cracks between the yellows in the box.
Capt. Mike

[Shark Tagger]

Catchin yellows on popper eh? That sounds like a blast.. What's up with those Frenzy Glowing Flying fish.. are they any good? I would think they would be ideal for your night fishing... I'll look out for the next report.

[Captain Mike Ellis]

They work great as does there entire line of tackle. I always have one dragging along behind the boat at night as I move my clients into position to cast poppers on the tuna as they come up. The only thing I do to the flyer is to add a stinger hook. You can see how to do this on the Frenzy website. It is just a 3/0 Mustad Triple Grip treble tied to a very short piece of 100lb. mono and connected to the main hooks eye. I usualy put around three fish a night in the boat on the flyer.
Capt. Mike

[CaboBound]

Sweet Job Capt. Looks like a fun time. My brother is getting married next January, and this might be the perfect bachelor party.. I'll be in touch. Thanks for sharing.