Breaking News

Charter boat accident sends three to the hospital, U.S. Coast Guard says

The charter boat Looney Tuna took on water and capsized this morning (July 12) in Southwest Pass south of Venice in an accident that resulted in three people being medevaced by the U.S. Coast Guard, the agency reported.

The report of the incident was received by the Coast Guard about 8:50 a.m., and a Southwest Pass station pilot boat reportedly rescued the six passengers aboard the 36-foot boat, the Coast Guard reported.[…]

Contents

Mack Attack

A drip of sweat somehow traveled along the Neanderthalic eyebrow-hidden bumps of my forehead and passed down the lens of my cheater eyeglasses.[…]

News Breaker

23 billfish tagged, released in 39th New Orleans Invitational Billfish Tournament

The 39th New Orleans Invitational Billfish Tournament was held out of Venice last weekend (June 17-18), and a total of 23 billfish were caught, tagged and released by the 24 participating boat crews.

This tournament is regarded as the tournament that put Gulf of Mexico big-game fishing on the map and inspired the many offshore tournaments being held currently across the region.

The fleet found a beautiful rip-line about 54-miles southeast of South Pass and conditions that were conducive to great fishing.

[…]

Offshore Fishing

Snapper season off to an incredible start

Snapper fishing in the Gulf of Mexico has been as good or better than many anglers can ever remember in the week that it’s been open. Crews are landing 10-man limits of snapper in as little as 25 minutes.

Capt. Joey Palmisano and his son Billy Joe with Cocodrie Fishing Charters have been getting it done like this every day since the opening of snapper season, and he believes the bite will stay this good the entire season.

“Snapper season opened on June 1s, and it’s really just been incredible,” Palmisano told me as we idled away from Trade Winds Marina in Cocodrie earlier this week. “We’ve been fishing every day, and we’re fishing the snapper on the top.[…]

News Breaker

Rig worker lands possible state-record mangrove

Offshore oilfield worker Marty Trahan thought he had caught the fish of his life last summer when he landed a 31-pound red snapper, but Trahan cranked up a fish Monday (June 6)that may propel him into Louisiana’s fishing immortality.

While between shifts on a platform in South Marsh Island 128, Trahan and some other workers decided to kill time dropping baits to the myriad fish in the aquarium-clear water beneath them.

“We were on one side catching red snapper, and I told the guys, ‘I’m going to go catch some mangroves,'” Trahan said.[…]

News Breaker

SKA returns to Louisiana

After a season of offshore fishing lost in the Gulf of Mexico due to the catastrophic oil spill last year, the Southern Kingfish Association is returning with a full schedule of events from Fourchon to Orange Beach, Ala.[…]

Breaking News

Feds propose fall gag grouper recreational season, upping commercial quota

The National Marine Fisheries Service is proposing the setting the recreational gag grouper season to run Sept. 16 through Nov. 15, according to the agency’s newsletter. Public comment on the proposal is being accepted through May 6.

The proposal, announced April 21 in the Federal Register and apparently coming at the behest of the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council, also includes a temporary rule to reset the commercial gag grouper quota and continue the suspension of the use of red grouper multi-use individual quota commercial allocation.[…]