60hr fishing trip Pelican

Finnaly, just got my 60 hr trips in the books for te "New Pelican" this season. The departure dates will be 6pm ... Dec 17-20, 2017, Jan 7-10, 2018, and Feb 4-7, 2018. You need to arrange your schedule to be flexible enough to leave on these range of dates. It is the only way we can have the best chances to get out for that long, with our winter weather patterns. Price is $1000 per person, and you get to bring your own food and drink (18" tall coolers max) we have a propane grill, microwave, and coffee pot available for use.

The Dec trip will be yellowfin heavy with trolling at the gardens for wahoo, and grouper fishing near there. The January trip will be a moderate yellowfin trip, with more time spent at the gardens for ajs, wahoo, and grouper. The February trip will be full on gardens area fishing for wahoo, ajs, grouper, and freightliners.

15ppl will be the maximum load on all of these trips. They are designed for advanced anglers, but novice are welcome as well. Feel free to contact me directly for information.

Capt. James Wheeler
Deep Sea Headquarters
361-749-5597

Here ya go Chuck!

Wish I could afford it.

James - will you be doing more 12hr shrimp boat trips starting in August other then the one on Wednesday?

Every wed and sat 12 hr august until the boats disappear will be full on tuna if it's on the pelican. Should be me barring schedule conflicts

Every wed and sat 12 hr august until the boats disappear will be full on tuna if it's on the pelican. Should be me barring schedule conflicts

Nice haul.

80s rock band Foreigner fans sing along...

I've been waiting....for a trip like this....to come in to my life....




Let me see what my finances are...I might be close...

Bobby, If you wait until you think you can afford it, you'll be too old to fish! You're not exactly getting any younger ya know....

I'm trying to decide between December and January.

And No, I cannot afford both.

Don't remind me Chuck .... LOL

I tried to scrape up the money for the April trip earlier this year. I had a plan.

I went over every day for over a week during spring break and stood on the busiest street corners in Port A with my sign.



I think over 10 days I collected $9.63. Spring breakers weren't very sympathetic.

Let me check my lottery tickets and get back to you.

"will work for tuna fishing"....... Love it!

Tiff .... something to ponder while you are deciding.

In December Wahoo should be good but would likely be better in January. On the other hand it has been my personal experience that tuna fishing is better in December than in January.

Pick your poison.

Maybe James will be along to add to or take away from that.

I'm wanting to jump on the December trip but January is better timing for work.

Capt. James,
I would like to sign up for the January trip. Do I just call the front office to make payment?

Your spring break approach was a good effort but the idea was all wrong. If you had worn a thong and been giving ice for donations I think you would have made out better!

Carefull Chuck ....Bobby in a thong pimping out his ice is not something you can just UN-SEE !!

Just make it sound like a medical condition and put up a GoFundMe page.

You've been diagnosed with "pecunia opus" (need money in latin) due to an inflamed "necesse est piscantur" (need to go fishing in latin).

Isn't that the truth Jim. I'd make the Port A South Jetty paper with that!



Hold that thought Tiffany

December will probably be better for the larger grade yellowfin, however I'm not 100% sure the Wahoo will be. Stacked yet... however we should still be able to get a mess of grouper. If they are not.

Typically, in january, the yft numbers start to thin, but I imagine we should have. A shot at. Some, especially since the late bite produced so well this past 2 years. I am fairly, confident the Wahoo will be available, plus well have our amberjack.

February will be all wahoo, aj, and groundfish.


Chuck, all you need to do is call and ask for brenda, mac, or. Me. Probably won't get me this time of year.

How do you fish for wahoo? I assume your not fast trolling. I just need to know what type of setup to use.

Any way we can!... but seriously, most of it is the slow troll with ballyhoo, marauders and divers.

We've been experimenting, locally, tuning up our high speed game, and have had some success and heartbreaks. I'm not confident enough with it yet to drive at 17kts around the flower gardens all day.

I still feel we can get a slide bite going on jigs and bait, if the conditions prove correct

Just got off the phone with Brenda....I'm on the boat for January!! Let's kill em!

I'm definitely interested in wahoo. It has proven to be an elusive fish for me, which may not be good for the boat..unless it is. In any event, and just to be safe, I'll leave the bananas at home

Update... Dec is full, we have 6 spots left for Jan trip, and 9 spots left for feb trip. The govt has closed amberjack until August 2018, so that won't be something we can bring home this year, although we will probably catch lots on accident.

How is the January trip looking?

There's 3 spots left for the January trip right now. I am planning on looking at the books when we get back from next weeks 60 and posting updated availability along with trip report

To change the subject a little, how are things looking for this Thursday's (12/14) 48 hr yellowfin trip (I'm scheduled to go on it), given the recent cold front and the 20 mph winds in the forecast for later this week?

do you ever run across Mahi?

Max, You going on the Pelican? From my maps it looks to be pretty nice all week.

Good luck guys and gals! Have a good trip. I'm looking forward to the report!

Any reports from the 12/14 trip?

Yes! reports please!!

They should be coming back in from the 60 hour today. I'm not sure what time they're due in though.

We got the first 60hr down under our belt this morning....

All in all it was a. Tough trip....


We left Port Aransas at 530pm Sunday afternoon with 13 hungry anglers!....

We made terrible speed on the way out and made Boomvang at 345am... once we got there, there were no surface signs of life and we weren' marking much. The 2nd drift though the few marks produced our bigeye on a halco, and we lost a nice yellow(?) On a halco right after... 3 more drifts and no more bites other than a half bft and a couple cudas.... moved to Nancen, and lost a nice yellow first drift.... no more Bites (other than big cudas) for 2 more drifts... at 620, it started DUMPING rain, and there were 40 or so cudas following boat, so i decided to forego the morning troll and head to the gardens ...

About 15 nm north of Nancen, we found the "rogue" bouy that has been reported.... we stopped about 3/4 nm awaw and deployed the full starter Wahoo spread (3 ballyhoo, 2 divers , 2 marauders)... as we passed the bouy we were marking tons of bait and 4 rods went down.... for 4 more baracuda....[damn they are on everything].... I gave it 8 more passes (every manor compass point), and had no more bites.... but the current was cranking, as it was a 10th nm E every time we came by!

We arrived at the W gardens around 950am.... deployed the wahoo spread and began trolling the ridge that produced so well last Feb. While we marked some real good baot, all we got captured for our troubles was 7 cuda 2 bft and a king, in 90 minutes...we then ran to the E gardens, and proceeed to get into the BFT pretty good... looking for the weather bouy [gone!!!] We got one small hoo on a rip....

After 90 more min of trolling for some more bft and a. King.... we went to anchor on a 220 ft hump for bliners,, grouper, and almaco.... not much was happening, but we got 15 or so respectable almaco with 3 scamp and a few bliners....

At 5 pm, after the bottom fishing proofed fairly uneventful, I decided to head on to Gunnison.... when we arrived at 7ish pm, I did not mark a speck on the bottom machine on any side of. The rig.... there was no wind and it took Me 3 drifts to figure out the tide....

On the 4th drift, as I placed us on the [slightly] upcurrent side of the rig because of a troll stop... all he'l started to break loose.... we hand Fed 2 yft chunks, while 2 clients hooked up on halcos....we wound up boating 2 of those.... I reset the drift, as the wind was picking up, and 4 clients hooked up on frenzies, while another 2 hooked up on halcos, and we. Hooks 3 on chunks.... as the boat was stuck in the up current eddie, I spent most of that drift in the wheelhouse...but I think we hosted 5 of those, before drifting out of the school....

The next drift, I set up on the same line....but the fish were gone, and we were moving through alot faster, with 25kt SE winds... that. Was around 9pm...

We tried all sides of the rig and the 2 supply vessels standing by, to find all the bft and a few yft were hanging on one of the supply vessels.... whole the bft there could have been wfo... we were all looking for yft bites, and would get a shot every 3rd or 4th drift by that one supply vessel or the uptide side of the rig...

From 3am to daylight, we probably went 4 for 12 on yft bites with some real heartbreaks mixed in....

At daylight we had 4 troll stops, all for multiple hookups, but luck still wasn't with us, and we only hosted 4 more before the bite died....

We left gunnison and arrived at Getter bank around noon.... trolling produced nothing, and 5 different spots only produced 2 scamps, 5 durgens, and alot of night sharks....

Leaving there at 4pm, we caught a different current and made it home at 730am....


All in all it was a very tough fishing trip with some big heart breaks.... makes you happy for the good times!

Capt James

so what is NEW about the pelican???

I got on this trip. Originally scheduled to leave on Sunday afternoon, the leave time may be pushed forward a day or two from what I've heard.
Good times with good friends. Capt James and John and the rest of the crew are a bonus.

David, in case you haven't checked your email it's looking like Monday 6 PM

Good luck!

I've done this trip with the guys down the street from you, few years back. 16hrs out before we ever dropped a line, took another 17hrs to get back to the dock, we did catch fish . The ride out and back in was tough..