Capt. Mike's 12/30 Lump Report

[Captain Mike Ellis]

The lump bite is on now and proving why Louisiana is called the sportsman paradise. I had Trey and Josh from C & T Custom Renovations call and inquire about a trip to the lump on their boat. With all of the hurricane work they are doing and the weather, we finally were able to get a trip planned to fish the lump now that the bite is on. We loaded up with poagies from Belle Pass marina and made the 50-mile run to the lump yesterday. The ride out was a little bumpy but still doable. We got to the lump to find a few boats already on anchor. With not much radio chatter I looked around and found a spot to drop the anchor. Before we came tight Trey threw the first chunk of the day over and it found a nice blackfin. Which happened to be his first tuna ever. Josh was right behind him but ended up with a bonito for bait. I filled the chum churn and shook it a few times, and the scene behind the transom looked like an aquarium after that. We had blackfin, bonito, kingfish, wahoo and sharks. The only bad part was as soon as a chunk went into the water a kingfish would rush up to it and cut us off. We went through about fifty hooks because of them. After about 30 minutes the yellows showed up, at first it was only one. Then a few minutes later it was at least fifteen of them eating everything that hit the water. Well that is, everything the kingfish didn’t steal from them. I hid the hook in a whole poagie and Trey dropped it over the side and we watched as a yellowfin that would pull the scale down to 123 pounds at the marina engulf it. The fish fought in the typical lump fashion up high on the surface. It did make for a few tense moments, as some boats were trolling through chum slicks and threatened to cut the fish off. But everything worked out to our benefit and the boat trolling turned away to avoid running over our fish. All the while I keep chumming the fish. Josh hooked up a tuna after losing a few more hooks to kingfish on baits meant for the yellows boiling behind the boat. Josh’s tuna weighed in at 112 pounds but was by far more of a challenge than Trey’s fish. After gaffing both fish Trey took over chumming and I got the chance to actually put a fish in the boat. I put a chunky 89-pound fish in the boat this was the first fish I have caught for myself after the hurricanes. While I continued to chum, the fish were put into the fish box and a tuna bag. With only three yellowfin and three blackfin we were all out of fish room and it was just 10AM. We had some poagies left over so we kept chumming just to watch the fish. Then one of the biggest Wahoo I have ever seen showed up and wanted to be fed. We had to have this fish so out go the rods again. The first hookup lasted until the reel was put into gear. So I switched to some wire. This went on with the same results; more clipped off hooks. We did manage to completely blow up a rod when he took bait and made a run back at the boat before the rod could be removed from the rod holder. Finally after using a 24” piece of wire we got him on. After a screaming long run the fish turned and ran right back at us only to pass with a few feet of the boat. The fish looked at us and spit the hook. It was not meant for us to catch him I guess. We did manage to put one smaller yellowfin in the boat on a popper. The final tally for the day was four yellowfin 123,112,89 and one about 40 and three big blackfin all fish were caught on Frenzy 7/0 hooks and a one on a Frenzy Angry popper.
Capt. Mike

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[Venice Tunaman]

awesome report. I'm itching to get out. We are repowering boat this week with yamys