The Louisiana Delta offers legendary inshore fishing opportunities. The Cajun Fishing Adventures lodge in Buras, about 15 miles north of Venice, offers a great launch spot for fishing an enormous variety of bays and creeks, both salty and nearly fresh. Summertime redfishing here means sightcasting for keeper drum or popping corks and artificial lures for bulls.

For three days of hardcore casting — and dodging the ever-marching August rainstorms — I joined a group of fishing writers and industry reps for Z-Man, Skeeter, Huk, LiveTarget, 13Fishing, and Power-Pole. Using the lodge as our home base, thanks to its owner Ryan Lambert as our host, we fanned out in half a dozen shallow-water boats. The groups returned at the end of each day with sometimes-amusing stories of success, some truly tinged with a little Cajun magic.

Lucky 13?

The night before our first day on the water, Jose Chavez from 13Fishing rigged up dozens of Omen Green and Fate Green spin and baitcasting outfits. The company makes rods for saltwater and freshwater fishing.

Nearly Live

A box full of realism: LiveTarget lures in many shapes and sizes, including mullet, menhaden, shrimp and sardine. This particular selection was compiled for my home waters of south coastal Georgia, but I used several of the baits on the Delta.

Backcountry Bronze

Capt. C.A. Richardson, creator of Flats Class TV and a charter captain based in Tampa, Florida, prepares to release a slot-sized red as one of the many ubiquitous summer squalls lurks in the background. Richardson travels to Buras every summer to run charters sightcasting for reds in the normally clear waters of this region’s creeks and bays. With his Hell’s Bay flats skiff, he can pole in significantly skinnier water than most bay boats.

During our first-day trip, Richardson’s eyes were constantly on the weather radar as he deftly dodged the storm cells and led Z-Man president Jonathan Zucker and I to double-digit redfish releases. We were rigged up with Z-Man DieZel MinnowZ on Trout Eye Jigheads.

Richardson poled through small creeks, and we looked for reds along the roseau cane shorelines and in the mats of vegetation just off the banks. Besides reds, we saw dozens of gar fish of all sizes.

Seal the Deal

Z-Man’s Jonathan Zucker with an impressive marsh red that ate a DieZel MinnowZ in a color called “The Deal.”

Guide’s Choice

Richardson keeps a rigged rod tucked into his belt behind his back. He poles quietly through the shallows, and when he sees a redfish that neither of his anglers can get a lead on, he casts to the fish. Cast ahead of the fish and then bump the bait a few times, and the rest is redfish history.

Why Did the Cow Cross the Creek?

We couldn’t quite tell if these cows were just cooling off in the creek or if they were contemplating swimming across. In any case, it was an odd site during a fishing trip.

Bullish Morning

Our second morning, Capt. Cody Obiol pointed his boat to an open bay where birds dived feverishly on small menhaden. Again, we were greeted with a mixture of sunshine and storm cells.

Cork Rig

While birds dived into the water’s surface, redfish slammed the menhaden schools from below, which created significant oily slicks. With the trolling motor down, we started casting to the slicks and ripping our cork rigs back toward us. The cup-faced corks — trailed by a Z-Man MinnowZ — create white bubble trails that bull reds can’t resist.

On the Hook

Capt. Cody Obiol hooks the first bull red of the morning.

Rainy Red

Passing rain showers did nothing to dampen the bite.

Louisiana Staple

Zucker (left) and Obiol admire the first bull red of the day. Although Louisiana waters host abundant bull drum as well as many other spectacular species, one never knows whether the bite will stay on, or whether storm conditions might require a quick exit. Moral: Exult over every fish!

Head and Shoulders

Guessing a redfish’s weight can be tricky. One with a fairly large head and shoulders — like this one caught by Huk’s Chris Ellis — can weigh more than its length seems to suggest.

Neon Bright

When the bull red bite waned, Obiol took us north to some smaller creeks to sightcast keeper reds, like this bright bronze beauty that came home with us for supper.

Double Trouble

On our final day of fishing, Capt. Jude Montet took me and Zucker back to the open bay east of Buras to hunt more redfish slicks. Before we were chased back to the dock by storms, we doubled up on this pair of bulls.

The post Sightcasting and Popping for Louisiana Marsh Redfish appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

Super-Shallow Strealth Mode

The Marls Awaits

You Want What? Where?

Endless Flats

Come to Papa

Fluke Fishing

Looking for a Tell-Tail Sign

Shark Surprise

Release Time

Release Time, Part II

Crazy! Bones on Crankbaits

Runaway Kayak!

Shark City?

Lemon on the Line

Berserk Blacktip

Back at the Dock

Day of Sun and Storms

Jig ‘n Gulp!

Fast Food

One Down, 19 to Go

Bye-Bye Bonefish

Back to the Yak

Dinner is Served

Stunning Sky Fitting End to a Great Trip

The post Bahamas Flats Fishing — the Marls from Kayaks and Skiffs appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

Monster of the Marsh

Fishing “the Ponds”

Surprises in the Shallows

Aggressive Reds

Soft Lure Works Magic for Big Reds

Black Bushwhacker

Obstacle Course

Trout Beyond the Shallows

Weed-Choked Waters

Time to Hit the Offshore Rigs

Poppers At the Ready

Hardtail Heaven

Slow-Troll Takes a Tuna

Twitch-Bait Tuna

The Ubiquitous Red Snapper

Where Kings Roam the Rigs

Monster Jacks

Gulf Potpourri

Day’s Best Cobia

Best Angler? The Congressman Has My Vote.

Visiting Venice

The post Red-Hot Summer Sport Fishing at Venice, Louisiana appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

Gluttons for Grass Shrimp

(Be sure to click through all the images in the gallery above.)

The first of the year’s 70-degree days had us optimistic. The skiff skipped across the surface, and we took a hard left from the channel toward the flats. A colder-than-average April had been a bust, with the only fish around deep and ­uncooperative. We wanted to shake those cobwebs.

Immediately we saw terns diving near a salt-marsh creek. I killed the engine 100 yards from the mouth as tiny baits pogo-sticked on a mirrored surface. Soon there was the distinctive “pop” of a grass shrimp getting sucked down. Game on!

Strength in Numbers

When you pick a grass shrimp, it doesn’t look like much. The delicate, translucent creatures are discernable only by a series of brown-red lines circling the body and two black eyes. Generally they don’t run more than an inch long, but occasionally you’ll find some larger. Grass shrimp are not something you’d think would instigate a serious striped bass feed, or attract large weakfish, but indeed they do. When the shrimp emerge in spring, they occur in great numbers. And in many areas, they’re the first bait to kick-start a season.

A good hatch involves thousands and thousands of specimens. Whether the grass shrimp explosion is an actual hatch is questionable. Available science suggests that grass shrimp spawn throughout spring and late summer. As far as I can tell, there isn’t a definitive season. Still, given the sheer volume of baits, when it goes off, the use of the term “hatch” is appropriate. (Over the years, hatch has morphed to mean a sudden occurrence of massive amounts of small baits.) At any rate, tons of shrimp show each spring in New York and New Jersey waters after a dormant period.

Where are you likely to see such concentrations of grass shrimp?

They don’t call them grass shrimp for nothing. They aren’t exclusive to salt marshes and estuaries — we do see them on the sand flats — but I can say that the largest concentrations of swarming shrimp happen most often near salt marshes. Really, it’s all about submerged vegetation such as eel and spartina grass.

The diminutive shrimp are a very important ­component in salt-marsh systems, where they eat detritus, algae, phytoplankton, small invertebrates and dead-plant material. They serve a critical ecosystem function in the food chain, converting such small organic matter into food for predators. Just about everything that swims, flies or crawls eats grass shrimp.

These shrimp are also structure oriented, and that structure certainly isn’t limited to submerged vegetation. Without a doubt, they gravitate to man-made objects too. I collect shrimp for my saltwater tank by dragging a small mesh net along pilings.

Prime Real Estate

You’re likely to find shrimp hatches in any salt-marsh flat from New Jersey to Rhode Island, but the bulk of such concentrations appear to occur from central Jersey to Eastern Long Island. The darker the bottom (dark bottom exposed to sunlight warms faster), the more likely you’ll find hatches early in the year. Sure, you’ll see grass shrimp in deeper water, but the large aggregations happen in 4 feet or less.

So where are the predators feeding? Every good Atlantic Coast angler knows how to use current, and this is particularly relevant when dealing with baits that aren’t strong swimmers. East Hampton guide Capt. David Blinken correctly notes that fishing shallow creek mouths in the marsh during an outgoing tide is a good place to start. Massive numbers of shrimp will flood out of the creek with the ebbing tide, and stripers and weakfish set up shop picking them off.

Connecticut guide Capt. Ian Scott Devlin notes that any place you see large concentrations of grass shrimp during the day, extensive feeding is likely at night. He likes to fish structure such as pilings or finger piers. Structure in or around marshes load up with shrimp, and if such an area has current, it’s likely predators will take advantage after dark.

“During the night, I’ll look around those artificially lit areas,” says Devlin, “and then I’ll fish the shadow lines where stripers and weakies are likely to ambush.”

Devlin also focuses on bends in creeks. “As the tide flows, fish can just sit there and sip,” says Devlin. “If it’s a spot where you’ve got artificial light at night, that’s even better.” Culvert pipes or bottlenecks under bridges can be outstanding, notes Devlin.

Sight-Fishing, Sand Flats and Eelgrass

Sight-fishing for stripers is a blast, even more so when you get shots at weakfish. Grass shrimp have a lot to do with this. I mentioned that we see shrimp on the sand flats, but that’s really the result of adjacent eelgrass beds. Being weak swimmers, shrimp drift off the eelgrass with the current and onto the sand flats. This works out well for a number of reasons.

One is that there aren’t tremendous amounts of grass shrimp over sand when compared with marsh flats. In this scenario, you can toss grass-shrimp imitations at cruising fish, and they will eat them.

Two, stripers tend to cruise the edge where the eelgrass bed stops and the sand flat begins. That makes it easy for sight-casters to have a definitive place to look. More important, stripers stand out against the sand. Stripers tend to acclimate their coloring to their surroundings, so they appear darker after spending time on eelgrass beds. When they swim across a sand flat, they’re easy to spot.

Match the Hatch?

There are different schools of thought on how to fish a grass‑shrimp concentration. It’s intuitive that one would want to “match the hatch,” and certainly you may have success with small baits that closely resembles a grass shrimp. Yet, when one of these swarms goes off, there are thousands of baits in the water. So even if you have the best artificial bait in the world, or even live bait, getting noticed among thousands of others isn’t easy.

“Any time you get mass food sources,” says Devlin, “something drastically bigger usually produces.”

Devlin is quick to point out that it really depends on the mood of the fish. Indeed, there are times where stripers roll and sip shrimp at the surface but won’t strike your perfectly placed presentation. When that happens, I try to shake things up to get attention. That means fishing a popper, or anything that’s likely to push a lot of water and make noise.

Striped bass are such aggressive fish that if something is making noise on a flat, they just have to punish it. They simply can’t resist. Sometimes I feel like they aren’t even trying to eat it. During small-bait hatches, you’ll get a lot of tail-slaps, boils and other attempts, but the fish are just “punishing” rather than “eating.” You’ve got to have crazy will power when this happens. That means not trying to hook-strike on a fish after every boil, and letting it sit there for three or four seconds before beginning your retrieve. During such retrieves, stripers will eventually find the hook on that stunned, obnoxious noisemaker.

What Works

Fly-fishers have a distinct advantage for casting to stripers and weakfish during shrimp hatches. For one thing, they can keep a fly suspended longer than with a heavy lure cast using spin gear. Real grass shrimp swim suspended in the water most of the time. Plus, assuming you need to match the hatch, flies generally do a much better job. Take a look at Bob Popovics’ Ultra Shrimp fly — it’s about as close to the real thing as you can get. Furthermore, when the fish seem to be very skittish, laying a fly out on the water is often much less intrusive than casting baits. Keep in mind that any time you fish a grass-shrimp imitation, your retrieve should be very slow and erratic.

As far as attention-getters go, you’ll want something small that makes a lot of noise. I tie a 2/0 Boiler Maker foam popper with a few feathers or bucktail on the back of a 4/0 hook. Perhaps one of the best flies to use during a grass-shrimp hatch is the Gartside Gurgler tied in tan or dark brown. This fly is small and can be tied to look just like a grass shrimp. When stripped through the water and then paused, it makes appealing splashes that attract lots of attention. Grass-shrimp hatches are awesome: Be prepared, know how to fish them, and you will be rewarded.

Create Your Own Hatch

Some tackle shops sell live grass shrimp by the quart.

“For a full tide, you’ll need four or five quarts,” notes Barnegat Bay’s Capt. Gene Quigley.

He recommends anchoring up off of a sod bank or creek mouth, and then “spiking the water” by tossing in eight or 10 shrimp at a time. Quigley uses a bobber system, putting one or two shrimp on a No. 2 or 4 hook, 4 to 6 feet down, and drifting it back in the slick. He also recommends a small, ³⁄8-ounce bucktail, impaling a couple of shrimp on the hook and slowly working it back through the slick.

About the Author Capt. John McMurray is the owner and operator of One More Cast Guide Service (nycflyfishing​.com) in Jamaica Bay, New York. He is also the director of grant programs at the Norcross Wildlife Foundation and represents New York Anglers on the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council.

Gluttons for Grass Shrimp

Gluttons for Grass Shrimp

Gluttons for Grass Shrimp

Gluttons for Grass Shrimp

Gluttons for Grass Shrimp

Gluttons for Grass Shrimp

Gluttons for Grass Shrimp

Gluttons for Grass Shrimp

The post Mid-Atlantic Striped Bass and Weakfish Fishing appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

OMAN

OMAN

THE SEYCHELLES

GABON

VENICE, LOUISIANA

NEW ENGLAND

GREAT BARRIER REEF/NORTHEASTERN AUSTRALIA

PANAMA

NEW CALEDONIA

VANUATU

MADAGASCAR

The post 10 Top Popping Spots appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

Triggers on steroids on Sudan’s “Nubian Flats”

Unlikely Spot for a Fishing Paradise.

Sailfish on Fire for Guatemala Anglers

Try Nicaragua for Big, “Dumb” Tarpon

Big, Dumb Snook, Too?

Schooling Reds in the Clear Winter Waters of Charleston

The Skipper with a Typical Charleston Winter Redfish

Initiate an Instant Release Mount from Anywhere

The post The Traveling Angler appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

A pair of “tailers” — striped marlin at the surface

As we closed on a noisy flock of wheeling terns, I spied our target: striped marlin jumping clear of the water as they pummeled a school of baitfish below. Adrenaline sent tremors to my hands as I pinned on a live mackerel and lobbed it into the middle of the melee. Within seconds I was bit. With a count to five, I threw the reel in gear and set the hook. A 120-pound striped marlin went ballistic. We were on.

This is sight-fishing for striped marlin off Southern California — one of the most specialized, equipment-intensive and exciting styles of angling. It’s not always easy. Yet, when executed well, it can also spell the difference between success and failure, particularly when fish are not responding to trolled lures.

Keys to successfully sight-fishing for these beautiful, acrobatic billfish include teamwork, discipline, good eyes, polarized sunglasses, stabilized binoculars, an offshore boat with a flybridge or tower, specialized tackle, strong casting skills and live bait.

On the Hunt

Sight-fishing for striped marlin builds to a crescendo in the warm-water months of September and October off Southern California when this Pacific species often hunts, feeds, and relaxes near the surface. Yet there are tricks to finding these fish, which average between 100 and 150 pounds.

“We’re always on the hunt,” says Greg Stotesbury, who is national sales manager for California-based Aftco. He has fished Southern California offshore banks from his boat, Kawakawa [ITALICS], a 25-foot Skipjack convertible, for decades. No one knows the technique better than he and his brother, Michael Stotesbury; together, they won the Balboa Angling Club’s Master Angler Billfish Tournament twice (2006 and 2009). The all-release event is one of Southern California’s most prestigious marlin tournaments.

In this winning team, Michael devotes his time to scanning the distant waters with a pair of gyro-stabilized binoculars (see sidebar) for the tell-tale signs of marlin, while Greg usually mans the wheel and looks for fish closer to the boat. They usually have another angler in the boat, whose job is to watch the trolling lures and drop back a live bait if a marlin attacks the spread.

For the person using binoculars, comfort plays a critical role to minimize fatigue and lapses of concentration — factors than can allow marlin to slip by unnoticed. “Michael gets a bunch of pillows on the bridge to brace himself,” Greg explains. “And we have special elevated bucket seats with armrests to support his arms while he’s using the binocs.”

Maintaining an unobstructed view from the bridge or tower is also an important, but often neglected, element. For example, the Stotesburys keep all of the casting rods on the bow lying down with the rail-mount rod holders, angled horizontally so as not to block the forward view.

For anglers using their naked eyes, polarized sunglasses play a critical role, with top anglers carrying at least two pairs: one with amber lenses for cloudy skies and another with gray tint for sunny conditions. These help pierce the glare and allow anglers to see underwater, for not all marlin signs occur above the surface.

Sometimes you see a subsurface color spot such as a streak of blue, flash of silver or just a dark shadow, according to Gerg These are usually marlin that have turned and given away their locations.

Still, gyro-stabilized binoculars are more effective than the naked eye, particularly with marlin far from the boat. “My brother finds twice as many fish as I do,” Greg admits. “He’s seen fish as far as 3 miles away, and at 18 knots it takes only three minutes to get there — half the time, the fish is still up.”

Boat Tactics

When searching for striped marlin, the way you skipper the boat can improve your ability to find fish. The idea is to tack down-sea and down-glare, according to Greg “Tack back and forth down-sea as you’re trolling about 9 knots with sun behind you,” he explains. “This allows you to clearly see the backs of the waves, and that’s where the marlin often show themselves, tailing down-sea, especially in the afternoon.” Avoid trolling straight down-sea, as that causes the boat to go too fast, decreasing the chances that you will see a fish, he advises.

The Stotesburys network extensively with other marlin anglers in the days leading up to a trip to pinpoint the best offshore areas to focus their efforts. This might lead them to areas as close as an area known as “The 279,” 12 nautical miles off Dana Point, or the Mackerel Bank near San Clemente Island, 48 nautical miles off the coast.

Once they reach an area, they’re looking for more than just marlin. They’re also looking for signs of marine life — indicators that give them the confidence of finding striped marlin in the area.

“We’re looking for things like a flash, a swirl, a bird that dips suddenly, or a spray of baitfish,” Greg reveals. Another prime indicator is a sea lion that jumps in a tight arc known as “rainbow jumping.” This means the sea lion is feeding a tightly packed school of bait that California anglers call a meatball, and there could be marlin feeding on the bait as well.

As in most offshore fishing, birds serve as key indicators of fish. Off Southern California during marlin season (July through October), three species closely associate with striped marlin: terns, black gulls and jaegers. A dipping jaeger, in particular, is an almost-certain indicator of marlin.

“If I see any sign, you can bet I’m running straight for it,” Greg says. At this point, sight-fishing for marlin becomes a run-and-gun affair, as it is imperative to get to the action as quickly as possible. Often, the trolling lines are left out, the lures skipping behind, as the boat hustles to the action at 18 to 20 knots.

Greg is emphatic about turning and running on any sign, even something as small as single jumping baitfish, and then casting a bait to it. Sometimes it pays off with a blind strike from a marlin. If not, Greg marks each spot of activity on his Simrad GPS/chart plotter; this helps graphically define what he calls an “area of events.”

Once Greg finds such an area, he likes to stick with it, even if he hasn’t actually seen a marlin, betting on the assumption that the stripers will eventually show themselves. So after tacking through the area, he turns the boat up-sea and charges back to where they started, then spins the boat around and resumes the search. “Marlin cycle through the area in the same way,” Greg believes. “They turn around and swim back underwater, then begin tailing again once they’re in the life zone.”

Marlin Modes

Of course, sometimes you actually see marlin. In the gray light and calm waters of early morning, for example, fish are sometimes found hovering near the surface with their back and upper lobe of their tail out of the water. These are known as sleepers, and they often react negatively when presented with a live bait, as if perturbed that you woke them for breakfast.

Later in the day, when the breeze picks up, striped marlin like to surf the waves while hunting. It’s known as tailing, as you often see the upper lobe of the tail slicing through the backside of a wind wave. This behavior allows them to conserve energy while looking for prey. Tailers usually respond well to a frisky live bait such as a Pacific mackerel.

You also might see a free-jumping marlin, sometimes unleashing four or more jumps in a row. Jumpers, as they are known, move fast, and it’s tough to catch up and present them a bait, though sometimes they settle down and begin tailing.

Every once in a while, you’ll come across one or more marlin, as described earlier, attacking a school of baitfish. You can usually spot feeders from afar, as the lit-up fish often jump out of the water to pounce on the meatball from above. The commotion generates white water and usually attracts a bunch of birds. These fish rank as the most aggressive of all. Usually, casting a live bait anywhere close to feeders is like rolling a wine bottle through a jail cell — it gets picked up quickly.

The most common surface behavior is tailing, and different anglers have different methods for presenting baits to these marlin. The traditional method is to parallel the fish, placing the boat to right side of the marlin (assuming a right-handed angler). With the fish in the 9 o’clock position, an angler on the bow casts a live bait underhand so it lands just in front of the marlin.

Greg however, likes to split the difference. For both tailers and sleepers, he tries to place the fish in the 10 o’ clock position (2 o’ clock for left-handers) with the fish a boat’s length away. “All of my ‘castaleros’ throw the bait underhand for minimum splash on sleepers and flat-water tailers,” he explains.

“I keep the boat moving as the cast is happening; I don’t stop the boat,” Greg says. “We always double-bait a fish, as marlin almost always travel in groups, and double hookups are not uncommon.” If they don’t get bit, the casters walk back to cockpit to slow-troll the bait.

Live Act

This kind of fishing requires lots of live bait, but not just any bait. A 6- to 8-inch Pacific mackerel (known locally as a greenie or greenback) ranks as the most effective live bait for Southern California marlin. Second choice is a live Pacific jack mackerel (known locally as a Spanish).

Most marlin fishermen catch their own live bait using Sabiki rigs, sometimes stoking cavernous, cockpit-mounted livewells days ahead of time. It’s not unusual to find a big sport-fisher carrying 100 or more live mackerel for a long weekend of fishing. Most marlin boats also have a smaller livewell on the foredeck, as many anglers cast to marlin from the bow.

The Stotesburys bridle their baits through the nose ahead of time for casting. Bridling helps keep the bait as lively as possible, a key factor in attracting the attention of striped marlin. Their favorite light-tackle hooks are 6/0 to 8/0 Owner Aki nonoffset J hooks. Greg says they almost always hook marlin in the roof of the mouth.

Light tackle is the order of the day for the Stotesbury team, which casts with 12-, 16- and 20-pound-test monofilament main line with 60- to 80-pound-test fluorocarbon leaders. A Bimini twist to a Uni-knot splice connects the main line to the leader, with a Spro barrel swivel tied in with Uni-knots about three feet above the hook to keep the leader from twisting as the bridled bait swims in the livewell.

Live-bait rods for marlin possess distinctive traits. Most are 7 to 8 feet in length, with a parabolic action and Fuji 18- or 20-size ring guides and an Aftco Roller ring tiptop that allows knots to pass through unfettered when casting. Greg prefers a Shimano Torsa 16N for light-tackle marlin fishing.

Setting the hook on a marlin when fishing live bait is also a unique experience — a collaboration between angler and skipper. Once a marlin grabs the bait, the angler notifies the skipper that he’s bit, but keeps the reel in free-spool. After a five-count, the angler puts the reel in gear and points the rod at the fish, while the skipper briefly accelerates the boat. If all goes right, the line draws tight and begins peeling off the reel, indicating he fish is hooked.

Marlin anglers in Southern California rarely back down on fish. Instead, the angler usually stands up to fight the fish from the bow pulpit, while the boat follows it going forward. Alternately, the angler may stay in the cockpit, but remains standing, while the skipper keeps the fish at the 10 to 11 o’clock position and follows bow first.

For the end of the fight, an angler on the bow often makes his way aft to make it easier to leader and tag the fish, and get one final sighting — and a few photos — before the release.

The post Sight-Fishing for Southern California Striped Marlin appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

The post Southern California Striped Marlin appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

Navigating the Marsh

First Blood

Alligator Surprise

Handle With Care

A Pain in the Grass

Making for a Crab Trap

Here’s Lookin’ at You, Kid

Locked and Lipped

A Double Handful

Working Magic

Old Black Gets Into the Act

Face to Face

Ready for a Long Ride

Sabikis Down

Tuna Candy

Hanging On for Dear Life

Comin’ Back!

Big Tuna Proves a Handful

Primary Target Acquired

Monster FAD

.

Ready to Throw

Tuna on the Twiitchbait

Reason to Smile

Ready for a Big Cobia

One Big Jack Deserves Another

Face TIme with a Cobia

Off Limits and Omnipresent

Return to the Marsh

At the Edge of the Gulf

Hooray for Spinnerbaits

Dodging Freighters

Ominous Drum

Working a Pond

Weed Whacker

Crankbait: Nailed!

The post Sizzling Summer Fishing in Venice, Louisiana appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

web_tout_CR

(Be sure to click through all the images in the gallery above.)

While there might be better ways to hook the really huge yellowfin tuna — as in 300-plus pounds — that patrol the eastern Pacific, I don’t think there could be any more-exciting way to hook any tuna than casting poppers into leaping, blitzing schools and cranking ’em back at high speed. The combination of the visuals (big yellowfin crashing your lure) and the physical (arm-wrenching strikes) definitely makes these “yee-haw!” moments.

That’s why, after a morning of little activity as we trolled, watched and waited 10 to 15 miles offshore of the lower Osa Peninsula off southern Costa Rica, we all jumped when the call came over the VHF. “Get those lines in!” Manfred, the mate aboard the Crocodile Bay Resort‘s Strikefisher 33, said. “They’ve got dolphin pods about two miles north!”

He didn’t have to tell us twice.

Finding Flipper

We knew of the well-established association between pods of dolphin (as in porpoise, of course, and not dorado/mahi) and yellowfin. Find big numbers of dolphin, and you might find feeding tuna.

While that “might” loomed large, and there are no ­guarantees when fishing the Pacific, it always pays if dolphin are spotted to see if they are traveling with an escort of yellowfin.

Our skipper pushed the throttles ahead hard, while Manfred tied circle hooks to the end of a couple of outfits. Hunter Cole and I opted to go with large poppers. Cole, senior marketing manager for Pure Fishing, handed me a Penn Spinfisher V with 50-pound braided line and a Sebile Splasher. He armed himself with the same, and we headed up to the bow.

| |Many tourists in areas like Costa Rica are interested in whale watching. For those coming to fish offshore, it’s all about dolphin watching. Skippers sitting up on the bridge while under way are constantly on dolphin recon — particularly the right species of dolphin. Courtesy National Marine Fisheries Service (3)|

There was no mistaking the dolphins — the sleek, dark mammals as much out of the water as in it, leaping high into the air — as well as the birds wheeling in the area. At first, I saw no sign of tuna and grew disheartened, until we drew near enough to see the silver bullets exploding from the surface sporadically among the dolphin.

Wanting to avoid the frustration of throwing short, I forced myself to wait, heart pounding, as the boat eased closer. Cole heaved a Splasher into the fray and just after, my own Splasher was on the heels of his. I glimpsed a commotion behind Cole’s lure, and suddenly his rod arced and bounced as he yelled, “I’m on!” Shortly after, a detonation under my lure knocked it high out of the water. With shaking hands, I cranked the popper the rest of the way to the boat — and then grabbed my camera to record Cole’s battle.

In the company of several other resort boats, we spent at least the next couple of hours running and gunning, trying to stay on the dolphin and tuna, until the yellowfin left or perhaps went deep. Most anglers had hooked tuna in that time, and some had brought several fish to the boat.

Best of all is that running and gunning for tuna means nonstop activity: If you’re not actually hooked up, you’re casting into fish or standing on the bow, ready as the skipper gets you into position. There’s never a dull moment.

At least that’s true when the yellowfin are feeding. If the tuna bite among the moving dolphin turns off, it might be only a matter of time until the fish start whacking bait again. “I had an angler out who really wanted a tuna on his popper. We stayed with a load of dolphin for four hours before the tuna went on a feed,” says Todd Staley, the resort’s fishing director. “Just before sunset, he ended up boating the 180-pound yellowfin that slam-dunked his popper.”

Fast Cast with a Jig

Southern Costa Rica offers — as we saw — good hunting grounds for tuna on top. In fact, the eastern Pacific from Mexico south into at least Ecuador can mean prime run‑and‑gun tuna activity when the timing is right.

For Crocodile Bay boats, that tends to be a crapshoot. “You can catch tuna any day of the year, just not very predictably,” Staley says. “We may find yellowfin out there for weeks at a time but then not see any for just as long.”

While he says there really is no tuna season, run-and-gun fans might have their best shot at finding tuna feeding late spring and late fall, with the fish more numerous then, but also smaller, as school fish dominate.

An effective alternative to poppers, metal speed jigs also have the advantage of tremendous long-distance castability, and when breezing fish are moving very fast or happen to be particularly spooky, only out-of-the-ballpark casts will make it to ground zero.

I was reminded of this the next day while fishing with Patrick Sebile. The yellowfin were on top but not feeding with quite as much abandon as they had been the day before. Sebile opted to forgo the Splasher and instead tied on one of his Fast Cast metal jigs. He cranked it hard and fast so it skipped along the top, looking indeed like a baitfish trying frantically to escape.

His jig was slammed repeatedly, and I became an instant believer in small metal jigs for schooling tuna at the surface.

| |Dave Underwood|

Sails and Roosters

While fishing offshore of the Osa Peninsula can be a good bet for yellowfin, billfish are always a big blue-water draw. During our June visit, sails were few and far between — not such a surprise, since that’s usually a slow time for sails — but seasonally (January into May), sailfish can be swarming. Anglers after marlin have their best shots at black marlin and striped marlin in July, August and September, and blue marlin November through mid-January.

Plus, of course, this peninsula has earned a reputation for producing roosterfish. We tried our hand and weren’t disappointed. The beaches along the open southwestern Osa coast proved slow, but closer to the resort, around the southern tip of the peninsula, the default live bait — blue runners — found some willing takers. Roosters have a tough time passing up slow-trolled runners near shorelines, though they’re not shy about snatching up other live-bait offerings, such as a moonfish that the mate quickly bridled up and put over the side.

We spent some time jigging, but other than a Pacific red snapper, a bright-red scorpionfish and a small fortune jack, we couldn’t find a lot to show for our efforts. But I have seen photos of excellent jig catches.

As outstanding as the waters of southern Costa Rica can be for many species, I’ll take tuna on top any day for sheer adrenalin-pumping action.

Commercial Fishing: Successes and Setbacks

| |Doug Olander|

As is often the case these days, recreational-fishing ­interests in Costa Rica have enjoyed both successes and setbacks as far as commercial overfishing is concerned. Longliners, tuna seiners and shrimp trawlers have all posed problems. In the past year or two, large shrimpers have been working the coast around the Osa Peninsula hard, says Todd Staley. Licenses were issued without the requisite environmental-impact studies, Staley says, which is the crux of a pending lawsuit by a number of entities against shrimpers.

Some successes against longliners fishing nearshore (they are supposed to be operating at least 30 miles out) have produced impressive results, Staley says, but there are still problems, as with purse seiners, who can deplete a large area of yellowfin overnight. The Federacion Costarricense de Pesca (FECOP), the “sport-fishing and responsible-fishing lobby,” says Staley, is working to move the tuna seiners 200 miles offshore.

“FECOP is also working closely with the Minister of the Oceans, Jose Lino Chaves, who oversees activities in the ocean, including fishing,” Staley says. “He’s a no-nonsense guy and aggressively goes after lawbreakers. We had a problem with longliners illegally fishing live bait on their lines here for sailfish. He personally came down and pressed charges against 14 longline boats, and stayed on them until they gave up. The result has been some of the best fishing we have seen in years, with 15 to 30 fish in the spread a day more common than a rarity as in the past few years.”

Planning a Trip to Crocodile Bay

| |Courtesy ­Crocodile Bay Lodge|

Logistics: You’ll fly to San Jose, served by many ­international airlines, and then transfer to the nearby smaller regional airport for the 45-minute flight to Puerto Jimenez. (Note the 25-pound baggage limit unless other arrangements are made.) You might need to (and/or want to) overnight at a hotel in San Jose coming and/or going, depending upon time of year and local flight schedules.

Timing: Between offshore and inshore (Golfo Dulce) ­opportunities, any month of the year might offer good fishing. Some of the best months for billfish and tuna are noted in the text of this feature. Summer can be intermittently rainy, but the heaviest rains usually hold off until October. December through April is generally dry and sunny, and can be breezy as well.

Besides fishing: The pristine rainforest covering the Osa Peninsula lends itself to a variety of activities that falls under the “eco-tour” umbrella. These include kayaking, surfing, snorkeling, rainforest hiking, canopy tours, zip lining, bird-watching, biking, horseback riding and so on. All this makes the destination an appealing one for the angler who wants to combine some serious fishing with a variety of family activities.

For more information or reservations: Visit Crocodile Bay Resort’s website; for general information, go to visitcostarica.com.

_To see more photos and exciting video from this trip, visit our Costa Rica Tuna Fishing channel._

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