Mo Azul Sportfishing — Fishing Report

The season is here and will be gone before you know it.  My weekends pretty much gone in July but I’ve still got a few left in May and June. The Mo Azul has been pretty busy already this year with some of the TAMUCC research trips we have been running as well as a few charters.  On Mon April 26th we managed to bag 12 Wee-hoos and a nice 48 pounder.  The blue water is slowly creeping in from the deep but apparently the fish are in front of it.  I just got word yesterday afternoon that a boat out of Port Aransas caught not one but TWO Blue Marlin on a trip they ran yesterday.  It’s that time again….let’s go get some.

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After a brutal winter that seemed to have no end, the sun is finally starting to shine and the phone is starting to ring.  We have begun setting our 2010 schedule for this season so if you haven’t called in or sent an email yet you better get in quick because the books are starting to fill.  The fishing lately has been a little on the slow side but with the SE wind starting to blow regularly it shouldn’t be long until we get some more favorable currents to bring some more favorable fish closer in….There have been some reports of a few wahoo, lots of beeliners and a couple of mad Mako sharks lurking out there as well as a few ling and grouper thrown in the mix.  It’s time to stop thinking about it and start going.   PY

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Well I hardly know where to begin as I feel like I’ve spent more time offshore than on lately (even though I haven’t).  I had a trip on the Aug. 12 with some guys who had never been trolling before. We caught some snapper and proceeded to go the rest of the day without a bite.  It was a slow day but they all had really great attitudes and understand that sometimes the fish just don’t bite. I hope to see them again real soon when this water temperature drops down a little.  Two days later I took some clients that always want to go half meat fishing and half trolling.  We caught a few meat fish and at about noon, we reeled ‘em up and started trolling.  Considering that I had spent the entire day two days prior trolling, I was worried that we weren’t going to catch anything when a blue marlin came up and drilled the left flatline.  It turned out to be one of the best fights I have seen as the fish stayed on the surface the entire time.  Those guys (and girl) are easily some of my luckiest clients as they have caught a blue marlin both times they have booked me.  We jumped off a sailfish that Sat and then caught some kingfish the following Sat as the trolling seemed to trickle off because of the moon or the water temperature or some other factor that if I knew with 100% certainty what it was then I would be a rich man.  The following weekend was the women’s tournament where we went 0/2 on billfish but we caught a twenty pound dolphin, which was nice.  The first Sat. in Sept. we spent most of our trip covering as much of the Gulf of Mexico as possible in search of the illusive four letter word the Tuna, to no avail.  So it has been somewhat of an anticlimactic end to what started out as a great summer, but FEAR NOT, the season as we know it has not come to a close.  There are plenty of days left to get out there and get ours and I am still holding onto the hopes that there will be a massive fall billfish bite right before a stellar Tuna season.  So, for those of you who have already turned your feeble minds to the deer blinds, I would ask that you bear with us a few months and see what happens…the WEATHER HAS BEEN PHENOMENAL  As we have slowed somewhat I will hopefully be able to be a little more on top of the update and I have a trip tomorrow so we will see what happens, don’t be afraid to call me and UNTILYOU JOIN ME NEXT TIME on the adventures of the Mo Azul.    So long  PY

Well as you can tell from my leave of absence, the Mo Azul has been spending alot of time offshore as of late. We finished up late July a couple of charters were we saw jumped one Blue Marlin off between two days of trolling.  The slow bite turned right around on us the next week as we went two for four (caught one white and one sail) and then one for five on sailfish during the TIFT tournament.  One of our anglers managed to land 3rd place angler in the TIFT tournament.  We ran another trip on August 4 where we went one for two on white marlin. Last weekend we fished the Texas Legends tournament. We ran deep the first day and pulled the hooks on a blue marlin and managed to land a sailfish the second day.  The bite has been somewhat streaky lately, but with people going back to school, there should be fewer and fewer boats out there, thus increasing the odds of having a spot all to ourselves.  I’ve got three trips on the books this week so stay tuned for more offshore reports.  In the meantime, the books are still wide open for September and during the week in August.  If you are reading this and not on our books, you need to be as we are in the peak of our season right now.  Tight lines,   PY

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Had a nice trip on Friday, July 3rd.  Caught some snappers and one amberjack before putting the baits out to troll.  The mid day bite has seemed to slow up considerably but we lucked into a thirty pound dolphin or so right off the bat.  The next four hours went by pretty slowly with one decent knockdown.  Most of the crew had just about retired for a nice afternoon nap when we got a solid short rigger hook-up.  We proceeded to lose more than half our line on a 50W in less than a minute and by the time we got the lines cleared we got two good jumps out of a large blue marlin before he pulled the hook.  Oddly enough the lure seemed unscathed so I’m not sure if it was a foul-hook or what.  Overnight squalls on Independence day turned our 1-3 forecast into a rather gnarly 3-5 chop and we had to turn around for the first time ever as we had lost half the crew to sea-sickness.  Stay tuned for reports this weekend….weather ‘looks’ good.   PY

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The ‘09 fishing season is in full effect…if I’m able to update this post every two weeks or so, I will be happy. We got blown out on the 20th and were unable to go due to high winds. We were able to get out there on the 22nd and wound up having a pretty epic day. We started off with a huge short rigger bite that turned out to be a 65 pound wahoo. We caught a couple more ‘hoos and decided to make a move. At the next spot we picked up a couple more ‘hoos and then things started to get slow on us for about four hours. My crew was just starting to get bored and there began the talk of trying something else. Pickett, a couple crew members and I held off the snapper mutiny as long as we could before finally, a huge bite on the left long, Blue Marlin. This little guy put on quite a show including two full gainers or backflips and lots of other jumping around. Snapper thoughts were eradicated (though not completely) with the appearance of the blue man group and we continued to troll for another two hours before hooking another blue marlin, releasing him and taking it to the house. It was a great day and just goes to show what happens when you can really hang in there and let the baits work.

Speaking of hanging in there, that is about all we did during the Port Aransas Masters tournament. We started on the first day with a nice white and a nice sailfish, which was a good way to start. But the second day we spent the entire day blanked until about thirty minutes before lines out we got a huge bite on the right short and then hooked a wahoo on the shotgun. I would like to think that it was a blue marlin the blew up the right short as it looked to me like a huge splash and a very large tail…but I was so delirious from all the ‘incidental happenings’ both before and during the tournament that it could just as easily been a nice jackfish (just kidding). Anyway, we had a solid showing at the Masters, it is always nice to be able to attend the weigh in. The weather and the fishing both continue to get hotter. If you are reading this and you are not on our books, then you are definitely in the wrong. Until next time, cuz

There is no doubt that the season is in full swing by now. Unfortunately the SE winds have come back to life and made it a little tougher on everyone getting out there. Hopefully we are just paying our dues for the great May we had and the wind will lay down for the most part of the summer. I took some guys on a thirty hour trip on June 8th and we had some great luck. We caught a half dozen yellowfin tuna in the 30-40 pound range, some really large dorado, some other smaller tuna and wahoo, and an unbelievable thresher shark. Most of the photos can be found on the photo page of this site and there is also a thresher video on this site. Additionally on that trip, we somehow pulled the hooks on a large blue marlin. Which reminds me of the most recent trip we took on June 14. It was a little rough out there but the majority of the crew that day were part of my billfish tournament crew and more or less knew what they were in for. We started off the day pulling the hooks on a pretty good sized blue marlin. It was hard to tell exactly how big he was as he didn’t jump until he was 100 yards away or so, but we managed to get the angler into the chair and most of the lines cleared before he came off. We turned around and caught some nice wahoo, one in fifty pound range, before another blue marlin came up into our spread. We got a pretty good look at this one as he missed the bait the first time and came back for it before we got some hooks in him. But this one didn’t last very long either as he also pulled the hooks before we got all of the lines cleared. There were definitely some things we could have done differently on a couple of the fish that we’ve missed lately, but the ultimate bottom line is that we are big game fishing and that kind of stuff tends to happen in streaks. Sometimes the blue marlin gets away. Who knows, maybe we’ll get lucky and land the next five. I’m just glad to see that we are getting good bites and that the fish are here. Looks like we’re gonna get blown out this weekend but when the weather calms down in the next couple of weeks, it will be time to get down here and get out there. Standing by

PY

The nice rip we fished the past couple of weeks has begun to produce good numbers of billfish.  We caught a small blue marlin with some customers on Sat. May 30 on the rip.  Then on the next day, Sun. May 31, we were fortunate enough to get several shots at some billfish.  We wound up catching two sailfish but pulled the hooks on at least two more and chafed another one off.  Sat. June 6 we took some customers trolling.  For whatever reason, the bite was a little off unitl late (i.e. early afternoon) where we had two seperate opportunities to hook a sailfish but just couldn’t snag him.  The fleet as a whole has had a nice showing with billfish popping up everywhere.  It’s already been a great season and time to take advantage of the nice weather we’ve been having.  See you out there.   PY

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We got up early and left the dock at about 5 and ran a little further south than where we had finished up the day before because I had heard there was a little more action down that way than what we saw the day before.  Additionally the wind had switched around to a more normal direction resulting in choppier seas but a better bite.  The first bait out got eaten by a nice dolphin and we continued to catch wahoo dolphin and tuna the rest of the morning on the troll.  The bite slowed down around noon so we moved out a little deeper in search of something else but were quickly drawn back to the rip after the radio began to light up with reports of people catching billfish.  Back on the rip we had our shot again as a UFO fish or more than one hit about every bait in the spread with great alacrity.  I think it was probably a white marlin or three but you never know.  In any case we finished the day with a nice box of fish and some happy customers.  More trips and reports coming this weekend…see you out there.     PY

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Winter is officially over and there is a really nice rip working offshore right now.  We put some time in today working the rip as well as other areas and were able to put together a nice box of meatfish including some nice dolphin, wahoo, and several skipjack tuna a.k.a. little tunny.  The rip i.e. a fishing spot where two currents come together is both weedline (sargassum grass is bunched up together) and a color change.  A color change is where two currents carrying differing shades of water meet.  Green and murky rubbing up against cobalt clear blue is what you are looking for.  The baitfish, drawn by the plankton bloom typically associated with a rip try to hide in the debris whereas the predator fish use the color contrast as an ambush advantage.  In any case, the rip is there and so are the fish.  Will hit the rip tomorrow and update this post with photos soon…see you on the rip cuz.   PY

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