Tuna fish are moving farther in toward mouth of the Mississippi River during their spring migration
It’s Midnight Lump season again, and Capt. Andy Cook with Captain Cook Charters said fishing there should be better in the months ahead than it has been in the past few years.
Inclement weather kept Cook from marking big tuna numbers at the Lump on Saturday (Jan. 19), forcing him to move farther out.
“We caught four tuna on Sunday, and went way out again on Monday,” Cook said. “I saw a few boats come in with tuna (from the Lump), so it seems to be turning on a bit. The weather should be great for next week.”
Fishing the Lump is a pretty basic process if you anchor on it. Some anglers believe that anchoring to the Lump disturbs the fishing, but Cook said it doesn’t hurt anything.
“You can do a lot more when you’re in a stationary position. You can sit and try everything,” Cook said. “We’ll chum, fish live bait under a kite, drift with dead bait and put weights on to the bottom.
“You just have to feel the fish out.”
Cook likes to use king mackerel, bonita and blackfin for chum and bait.
“The Lump hasn’t been as good for the past few years, but I’m seeing people come in from the Lump with some good fish,” Cook said.
Cook had to go past the bottom feature situation just off the mouth of the Mississippi River for his tuna this past weekend but the weather has calmed down, which may have caused the tuna to return to regular patterns.
“Every year is different, but usually the tuna will move farther toward the (continental) shelf between January and April,” Cook said.
If tuna don’t cooperate on the Lump or around the floaters, jigging for amberjack at floaters has been rather consistent, Cook said.
Cook has also caught a few wahoo in his past couple of trips.
When trolling for wahoo, Cook uses Bomber CD-30s. He usually runs at 6 knots to keep the bait at a 30-foot depth.
