Bluewater fishing has been just short of superb. Sid Rice aboard the Marlin Hunter took his friends to the Steps late Saturday and returned at 2 Monday morning. The Steps is an area southwest of John's Pass. It's a stretch of 130 miles that traditionally holds bluewater species.
This trip was no exception.
Our trolling speed was 8.5 knots. We deployed six and seven lines and the hottest lures were jet heads with dark colored skirts that produced all but two of our fish. By Saturday's sunset, we picked up a couple of blackfin tuna about 15 miles west of the USF weather buoy and spent the rest of the night running out to the Steps.
Early Sunday we came across a white marlin in the spread but did not get him to feed. Instead, we hooked a 50-pound bull dolphin, which gave us a tough fight.
We spotted three more white marlin tailing on the surface. We had one blue marlin in the spread but were unable to hook it.
We boated another blackfin tuna, which wasn't easy. Miker Hubbard had to fight it for 45 minutes. Then the wahoo started to beat up the baits. Our biggest wahoo was more than 50 pounds. Most were caught on jet heads trolled on the way way back line. The WWB is trolled 400 yards off the transom.
Barracuda and bonitos then began to mix it up as well. Action was heavy. They kept us jumping in the pit.
As we embarked on our return to port near sundown, we stumbled across a nice sailfish, a small wahoo and two tunas to end the day about 80 miles from shore.
Dinner on the return trip home was excellent, fresh tuna steaks and lots of stories about a great day in the Gulf of Mexico.
- Larry "Huffy" Hoffman charters out of John's Pass, Treasure Island. Call 727 709-9396 or e-mail him at huffyl@tampabay.rr.com
