T.O.O. assisted charter just docked in Port Aransas.
45 or so Blackfin Tuna running 12 to 20+ lbs.
Shrimpboats deep were the ticket.

night or day?.....

or both

Day

sweet! you and I both know what that means for the floaters these next few trips are gonna be fun for your clients!!!! I cant wait to read the reports!

just hope the folks have good,fresh line spooled and good drags

Yep,we now have folks scrambling to get on short notice trips, as the tuna have seemed to been located, hope they stay around for a while.
One of the customers told me he saw a "Big" tuna, lot bigger than the Blackies they were catching. Asked how big, he said "huge, like 5-6 times as big as the tuna they could see", and lighter in color. He asked how big the Blackfins get.
Didn't mention it to him, but makes me wonder if it was a...............?

Barracuda?

LMAO!!!!!!!!


seriously, blackfin are a ball to catch all day, especially if you're matched on tackle. I hope we get some pigs on the tff trip, cause they eat just as good as YF!

Imagine what the newbie's on this weekend's trip said after catching a big Blackie on a party boat rig! Comments were too much;
"the ****ing fish pull too hard", "I'm hurting", "I needed a beer after that one", "Do all the fish out here fight like that?", "you didn't tell me I'd be fighting one forever" and "They don't get any bigger, do they?"
My favorite, "Hell yeah I'm doing it again!"

Oldie, not barracuda, but wondering if he was imagining things.

How close do Blackfin come in TX? We would get some really close back in FL and occasionally someone would pick one up on a beach front pier. I know they aren't found like that here but how far out do you have to venture to find footballs over here? 20 miles? 25 miles?

I cant speak for everyone, but the closest I have ever seen one caught in tx waters was about 35 miles out of port oconnor fishing next to a bouy that floated away from something...

On a trip out of Port A on the Gulf Eagle with Fred Hedeman a few years back we pulled up to a shrimper to get some cull at about 23 - 25 miles out. We were in 125' of water. We decided to drop some baits down and ended up pulling about 15 - 20 Blackfins out from under the shrimp boat.

Capt. Fred wasn't real surprised they were there so it must not have been that odd.

PC, general rule is 180'-200' from "those that know" but then you get a post like Awesum's, so go figure?

Now I know ole Awesum, he's spent enough money fishing offshore to buy one of those DSH boats, and if he says it was that depth, it was so. That is shallow from conventional Blacky fishing thoughts, but the only sure thing offshore is that nothing is 100% sure.

From Freeport down to SPI, like the Special One says, 30-35 miles is usually about right to look for Blacky's. But they can be closer than that obviously.
Saw a post from etan that the tuna have been spotty out of Port Aransas so far, guess we've been fortunate, three day trips we put together in October nailed them, 45, 29 (6 pack charter), and 32 (6 pack also) BlackFin Tuna, but no YFT hooked up, darn it.
I'll be doing a Wednesday DSH 12 hour trip in the next few weeks when weather is nice (nicer), looking for tuna. Boss made it clear tuna was needed. Offered to buy some from HEB, got the "nope, fresh".

Always feel bad when offering to buy frozen tuna instead of doing my job and fishing for fresh tuna.
Well... just a little bit bad..........for a little while at least........ maybe 30 seconds.........OK, I don't feel bad about doing it.

willy.. wanna run to venice in feb???

so say you are out 20- 30 miles of port a and you catch up to a shrimp boat... what sign will you have of football activity? does the shrimper have to be working? what do you throw at them?

It's pretty much luck of the draw.. they are either there or they are not. You will usually see them flash by quickly just under the surface but it could just as easily be Bonita. Blackfin and Bonita are most often together so you will need plenty of bait because the action can be fast.

The best thing is to find one culling their nets and just pitch weightless/ free lined Ice Minnows/ Sardines around the shrimp boat. We have caught them while they were running/pulling too. It's the same free lined baits but you have to keep pulling up to them and drifting back.

You just have to keep hitting shrimp boats until you find them, but there will usually be several boats working not too far apart in the better areas.

Bazz