765LB Mako!

This picture was taken last week in the Gulf around the famed Midnight lump, a submerged offshore mountain off the Southeastern coast of Louisiana . This new Louisiana State record hit the scales at 765 pounds and 11 feet long! Makos do indeed get bigger but few fisherman have boated such monsters; I believe the all-time world record is somewhere around 1200 pounds. The reason I am posting this, other than my fascination with just about anything that has to do with or comes out of the ocean, is that the Captain on this particular charter was Capt. Kevin Beech who charted my first tuna fishing experience almost a year ago down in the Gulf. He's a hell of a guy and a hell of a fisherman as you might have guessed. Here's a guy (second from the left) who was nearly done with an engineering degree, but abandoned that undertaking to pursue a life on the water and I really can't say as I blame him. This picture doesn't really do the 11' fish justice, but hopefully they will add some dock pictures soon which I will add to this post of course. The story behind any great fish is usually just as extraordinary as the trophy itself, and this catch was no exception (scroll down for sharkbait's 1/12/06 entry). Congratulations to Captain Kevin and the crew of "The Salty Duck" that day on their awesome catch!

A blurry, underwater picture on the shark's second pass

January starts the BIG yellow fin tuna season in the gulf which runs through March. It is possible to catch big YFs in the gulf year round, but late winter is the best bet. I am disappointed that I am not going this year, but that's life. If you have never gone fishing offshore I highly suggest you do so before it's all said and done. And I'm talking off-shore, not the half-day cattle cruises where you stand shoulder to shoulder with 20 strangers and vertical fish for snapper and grouper for a few hours. No, that is for tourists and old men. I'm talking about an excursion out far beyond the sight of land or the muddy haze and smoke stacks that hover over it. Even past the many shallow-water oil platforms and buoys, out where the water is cobalt blue and menacingly remote. Do not get me wrong, a few oil rigs can be found out in the 5000'-7000' water mark, but they are few and far between. A resolute calm comes over the newly initiated when fishing in mile deep water along with the sublime realization that you are at the mercy of the ocean and the integrity of your equipment. There is little time for worry however what with so much to see and do. If the sea might seem like some endless wasteland of water to you then I highly encourage you to actually experience it and then reconsider. The ocean is quite alive, with things just waiting to be discovered. There is the very small like the flying fish that dart along the side of a speeding boat only to break the surface of the water and spread their winglike fins and fly a hundred yards in front of the bow; and then there are the leviathins like the Mako above or the iridescent Blue marlin I saw feasting on barracuda last year just below our boat. I have seen endless schools of snapper and barracuda and meandering thatches of sargasso grass and jellyfish collected by unseen upwelling ocean currents. I have seen tuna leap out of the water after baitfish and Black-tip sharks cunningly strip hooks of their bait. I could go on forever on all the different creatures I have seen out on the ocean and I have only been twice; I can't imagine the stories a salty dog like Capt. Kevin must have.

If you would ever have the hankering to fish offshore Louisiana I would have to recommend the guys at Reel Peace Charters, and ask to go with Captain Beech. Oh, and if you want to get on his good side, bring along some CDs to listen on his boat because he gets tired of listening to his. Merle, GNR, Pearl Jam, Johnny, Hank Jr., Buffett... you know, anything good.