Capt Mike Feb 17-18 Lump

[Deep_Sea_Gull]

Here ya go folks...

This is a LONG report. BE WARNED. I go to this length to contrast Venice and Port Fourchon fishing experiences.

We departed Georiga about 6:45AM. We enjoyed light to moderate traffic and made good time until we reached Slidell, LA. There was a wreck on the I-10 bridge over Lake Pontchartrain. We experienced work delays on I-610. We also had a brief delay on US-90 due to the Mardi Gras floats that were heading south for a parade on Sunday down LA-1.



The floats made some nice rubber necking. I should have schooled my son on picture taking from a truck before hand. All in all, he did a good job of getting it figured out while riding down the road.

Some folks will tell you that there are parts of LA that are speed traps. Well I'll just share that we saw 20 plus sheriffs deputies in Lafourche Parrish. Several had folks on the side of the road.

We saw sugar cane fields that had been burned off in anticipation of the new spring crops. Cattle ranches dotted the landscape. Most farms were feeding hay still due to the type of grasses planted. Citrus groves were few and far between unlike the ride down to Venice. There are many shrimpers and other boats that use the canal/ditch between LA-1 and LA-308 that run parrarel towards Port Fourchon. Ethan was amazed at the many draw bridges we witnessed. They were all down except one. There is a thriving industry of boat repair in the region. We saw many dry-dock shipyards in passing through.

Port Fourchon itself is an oil town foremost. There is still a reminant of the fishing industry that helped esthablish the region. It is dwarfed by the support and maintaince businesses for the offshore petroleum and natural gas rigs.

We arrived at Belle Pass Marina to find Captain Mike Ellis awaiting. The other two members of the charter, Whitecap from Pensacola fishing forums and his brother Tab had arrived before us. They left Georgia Wednesday afternoon to do some sightseeing on the ride down.

After introductions and talk about our fishing plans, Ethan and I unloaded our gear into our cabin at the marina. We found a sparse room. Two bunk beds dominated the room supplanted by a small table and a couple of plastic chairs. Additionally, there was a full working head. I was happy to find that the water heater was sufficient that 4 folks could take a reasonable shower without running out the hot water.

We wanted a light supper and tried to eat at the deli at Kajun Sporstman. Unfortunately it was very full and our group decided to dine at the truck stop where seating was available. The buffet varies nightly. We sampled their burgers and pizza on different nights. The food was acceptable. Service was truck stop. I mean that you don't just sit there and expect the waitstaff to refill your drink. They have a soda machine for that. Get your own silverware from the end of the buffet bar. Do not wait for the check, walk to the cash register and pay. I wish that I could give a report on the other available eats. Capt Mike tried to put us onto fish so hard and long each day that we just got back too late. It turns out that if you get into the marina too late that the truck stop is about the only option available. I would rather fish than eat so I was not bothered.

Capt Mike decided that we would not try to leave early Friday morning for the Lump. The weather and sea was forecast to improve during the day.

We departed the marina loaded with fuel and tackle. Capt Mike had decided that we should leave the heavy gear behind. Black fins were dominating the recent catches. Capt Eddie Burger had brought down pogies from Marvin in the Butte, LA area so we had 100 pounds of bait. I'll mention in passing, there were many freshwater river shad in the menhaden mix. (I'll be netting, brining and freezing some local baits this year.)

There was patchy fog and several workboats that shared the ride out. The waves were close, steep and narrow backed. The waves limited us to about a 20 knot run to the Lump. Mike tried to keep the Yamahas on his Glacier Bay in the water and not burping. We made bait on a couple of rigs enroute to the Lump. We secured several hardtails for the livewell.

Once at the Lump, we motored around looking at the returns on the fishfinder and noting how the boats were sitting on anchor. We had plenty of returns on the plotter. The boats at anchor made it plain form looking that there was a lack of current. They lay at every angle available.

We chose a spot and dropped anchor. We had bonitas in our chum slick almost after starting to chum pogies. We boated several bonitas before the kingfish started eating in our slick. Lots of cut offs.


Here's Ethan with his first chunk caught fish. He did all the work on this bonita.

We caught about a dozen bonitas, several kingfish, an almaco jack, 4 bee liners and had both black fins and a couple of yellow fins briefly in the chum line.
We could not get a tuna to chew on 40 lb f'carbon. We went slow trolling with live bait after we ran out of pogies for chum. After a trip and half around the Lump we made the run to some nearby rigs, found and trolled a weed line on the way with no success. Trolled a couple of rigs in the 92 block for wahoo. No takers. We then tried to get an AJ bite on a hardtail. Ethan and Mike could not buy an AJ. We did get a decent strike at a 143 block rig. Ethan made a rookie mistake and perch jerked a circle hooked bait. Well, no fish there. We headed for the barn on smoother seas. We unfortunately got back a little too late. We were second in line for fuel when the marina closed. Yes, I said closed. With customers in line for their services. Closed. Shut the pumps off and left. Oh yeah, did I say? Regular customers.

Saturday morning we departed the marina after a late start. Capt Kevin of Peace Charters did the group a favor and placed the order for pogies when he returned and refueled Friday afternoon. My thanks for the assistance Capt Kevin. That was a really nice gesture. Some regulars were left without bait.

Our ride was foggy. Radar was necessary. We were surprised to find that there was a jack-up rig that had stopped a short ways outside the pass. Radar painted it well in its unexpected anchorage. We did experience a smooth ride out. The fog turned out to be patchy and burned off before we made the Lump.

We eased around the Lump looking at the bottom plotter and how the anchored boats were floating. The current was stronger as the boats were facing in the same direction. We found an open area and dropped the anchor. We were chumming before we came tight on the anchor string. We had a decent current that was allowing easy chunking. There just were not any fish in the slick.

Capt Mike pulled the anchor after another boat dropped their anchor about 40 feet (maybe) from where ours lay. A simple radio call on the channel 68 went unheaded. The boat was transmitting on channel 68 Friday before and when they caught a Mako...

We made a voted on the decision to leave the Lump and go visit some of the floating rigs. 30 plus miles later we were at the Mars rig in 2940 ft of water.


We made about 4 drifts trying to bring the fish we were marking towards the surface with no luck when we were told that the support rig tied off to the rig had divers underwater. We left headed towards the Jim Thompson oil rig.



We arrived to find Capt Eddie Burger already fishing the rig with his crew. They were trolling Stretch 30s and Rapalas. We quickly tied on some swiming plugs and joined in trolling. We caught some small black fin tunas and saw larger yellow fins busting the baits around the rig. We tried chumming up the tuna with little luck. Loads of current made chunking difficult. We tried jigging and met with some success. Several small black fins. The current and continued surfacing tuna lead us to try flying fish and poppers. That was our key to the fish.


This is one of the yellow fin tunas that fell to the lures we pulled.

We would have fished longer with continued strikes.... Alas, we had a strong cold front that caught up with us offshore and made us run for port. What a run it was! We were expecting an inshore run with following seas. Kinda a walk in the park after fishing offshore all day. NOT! We had to run into a cold blowing angry sea. It takes an eternity to get back to port running 20 knots in the wet from 80 plus miles out.

We arrived safe in the Marina about 8:30PM tired, wet and cold. I was thankful that Capt Mike chose to wait until the next morning to clean our catch.