This took place about 12 years ago. When it comes to the “Outdoor Sports” I have always liked to go fishing more than anything else. We are fortunate to live in a state that has the best freshwater and saltwater fishing that I believe can be found anywhere and I especially like saltwater fishing. My lifelong friend, Rudy Tucker and I have started fishing offshore around the many oil platform rigs that are found around the mouth of the Mississippi River. If you have never been to the delta area I can only tell you that this area is the most beautiful part of Louisiana. The wildlife and scenic views of the Mississippi river delta are breathtaking and it is a very productive area for all kinds of saltwater fish. About a year ago we had worked ourselves up to taking the ultimate fishing trip which was to go out and fish the “Midnight Lump” for Tuna. About 20 miles out of the Southwest Pass of the Mississippi River the bottom drops off to over 1500 feet but there is a small area where there is an underwater salt dome and the depth is only 175 feet. This is one of the best Tuna fishing spots in North America and we were determined that we were going after one of these large fish. We only had one problem and that was we didn’t know the first thing about Tuna fishing. We knew that we had to have large rods and reels, 80 lb minimum test line and large live bait. We caught the live bait by going out to one of the close rigs and catching 2 ½ lb hard tails and this is what we used for our shiners. After looking at the size of the bait, I knew that if we didn’t catch anything we could always take the bait home and eat it. With bait in the live well we were off in pursuit of the yellow fin Tuna. The area of the Midnight Lump is less than one square mile and with between 50 and 80 boats it can get a little crowded. You find a place and drop anchor and the anchor rope can be well over 400 feet long since the anchor has to catch the bottom at a sharp angle since the current can be very strong. You take a huge hook, tie it on to one of the large rods and hook on one of the 2½ lb hardtails and cast it out to drift. With the rods out all you had to do was sit back, catch some rays and drink a beer. (My kind of fishing) We started fishing at about 11:00 AM. By 12:00 nothing. At about 1:30PM my reel started squealing like a goosed soprano and the fish was off for Cuba. After 40 minutes of fighting this fish I came to the conclusion that the neighborhood store sold Tuna and it would be a lot less work than what I was doing. After an hour and a half I finally thought that I turned the fish and it was heading straight back to the boat since the line had too much slack in it. I cranked on the reel as fast as I could and all of a sudden my line popped up to the surface and tied to the end was a quart freezer bag with four red candy canes and a pass to the New Orleans Gold Club with the words written on the pass that said, “Happy New Year, Neptune.” The only thing that kept my jaw from hitting the deck was I was sitting down so it only fell in my lap. To say that I was at a loss was a major understatement. After a few moments to catch my breath, I picked up Rudy’s binoculars and looked at the boat that was about 80 yards to our starboard and I noticed that the four people in the boat were laughing so hard that they were almost rolling on the floor. I wanted to talk to the other boat but they hooked into a large fish and had to pull up their anchor and almost run after it. We caught a couple of small Tuna and still in a state of befuddlement, headed back into the landing. On Sunday evening, Rudy called me and told me to sign on the web-site of rod&reel and look at the day’s message post. There is a charter boat captain by the name of Piece Marvel and his boat is named “The Neptune” and he takes parties out on Tuna fishing trips. He proceeds to recount the story about the line of the other boat (US) getting tangled up with one of their lines and pulling it into their boat, tying it to one of their huge rods and reels and cranking on it and every so often and jerking on the line just for good measure while 80 yards away the guy in the other boat (ME) is fighting and cussing for all he is worth. He was not sure the other boat (US) knew what had happened and he went on to tell about all of the big Tuna they had caught. I posted a reply to his message telling him about that we were the other boat and I had two conclusions about the whole affair: 1) If they had pulled on my line any harder, they would have pulled me in. 2) Anyone that could come up with a joke like that I had to meet. To this day I still carry those candy canes and pass in my tackle box and I have fished this area several times since this happened and I really want to meet this captain because you just don’t stand in the presence of brilliance that often.
Posted on: Sun, 13 Apr 2014 12:51:05 +0000
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