It’s pretty easy to forget about the offshore fish willing to bite and put up a fight with all the excellent inshore fishing that so many are experiencing this winter. Anglers looking to graduate from a two-pound speckled trout to a 30-pound blackfin tuna should keep in mind that January through March is the time to be out on the Lump.The very mention of the Lump conjures up mixed feelings in many offshore connoisseurs – terrific tuna fishing and terrible crowds. However, things have been a little different this year according to Captain Rene Rice with Cherece IV Charters (985-787-2200).
“It hasn’t been too crowded,” said Rice. “It’s been a blessing, really. 20 boats is a whole bunch this year. We are getting a lot of Alabama boats coming over, though. Make sure you go with a Louisiana boat if you’re wanting to book a charter.”
Other than being less crowded, the Lump is also a little odd right now because there are fewer yellowfin than usual making their presence known. According to Rice, the yellowfin are there, but they have their good days and their bad days.
“It seems like the yellowfin are more spotty than normal,” he said. “We’re getting a lot of blackfin, but the yellowfin just haven’t been consistent.”
The blackfin that are providing the greater part of the action are running in the range that Rise considers good eating sized fish.
“They’re about 20 to 30 pounds,” he said. “We’re getting a few that are 30 and some change, but the average has been around 25 pounds. There are also a few smaller ones mixed in that are 15 to 18 pounds.”
Rice said that the way he’s catching the tuna isn’t anything special. In fact, he considers what been working lately very generic. His best method recently has been dropping live bait, bonito chunk and pogie down to the fish. However, he did report that he’s sending somebody down to drop a diamond jig over the side just to see if they’ll eat it better.
“The fish have been up some days and down other days,” reported Rice. “If they’re down, we’ll drop live bait down to them. We’re catching them best when they’re up. They were up the last time we went out and we caught quite a few fish.”
While not making up for the spotty yellowfin action, the Wahoo are trying their best to fill the void. Rice reported lots of Wahoo on the Lump. More often than not, they are the byproduct of live bait that hasn’t attracted a tuna. The Wahoo are running anywhere from 40 to 60 pounds and even up to 80.
“Every once in a while we get lucky and land one we hook while tuna fishing,” said Rice, “but most of those fish are biting off before we get them in. You can catch the Wahoo by trolling for them with artificials. Shaker baits are good.”
Rice said that the fishing at the Lump has been best on calm days because, as he put it, “We don’t get our brains beat in.”
