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| Louisiana's Lumpy Yellowfin |
| World-class tuna magnet! The northern Gulf's Midnight Lump. |
| Mar 11, 2002 |
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By Jason Cannon (More articles by this author)
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For several hours we cut through biting 40-degree air and thick, wet fog. As we leave the mouth of the Mississippi River and enter the Gulf of Mexico, the fog breaks and we spot the Mississippi Canyon 143 rig in the distance. This rig sits 39 miles offshore from Venice, Louisiana, and is just north of the Midnight Lump, an underwater mound rising 200 feet from the surrounding 400-foot bottom. The Lump’s also an angler’s paradise during winter, when triple-digit-sized yellowfin tuna follow massive congregations of baitfish that swarm near upwellings here.
A few miles before the Lump, we see what look like finned torpedoes jumping out of the water all around us. ''Yellowfin tuna!'' Capt. Damon McKnight shouts from the helm of our 27-foot center console. ''Big fish! Get a plug rod ready!'' McKnight’s buddy Capt. Brent Ballay, a Venice Marina charter guide, swipes a rod from the rocket launcher and casts a large popper toward some nervous-looking water. After he makes a few casts with no luck, we see ballyhoo busting the surface a few hundred yards away, followed by more jumpers, so we follow the action. This time, fellow Sport Fishing magazine staffer Scott Salyers grabs a casting rod and launches his plug into the fray. As his popper nears the boat, he jerks the rod tip one last time and pauses before lifting the lure. The popper splashes, then sits still. Suddenly, a 120-pound yellowfin blasts the plug and makes Salyers jump — almost out of the boat — in shock.
''Fish on!'' Salyers shouts, as he struggles to hold the baitcaster with 80-pound Power Pro braided line whizzing off the spool. ''We better get moving ’cause this line’s goin’ bye-bye.''
McKnight throws the boat in gear, and we anxiously trail the tuna as it tries to outrun us. Unfortunately — for the yellow-tipped bandit — the water’s only about 300 feet deep, so the fish can’t reach the bottom with all the line. Salyers cranks most of the line back before the fish holds deep and challenges him to a tug-of-war. A 20-minute battle of wills follows, and then Salyers finally takes the lead for good in this tuna tango. After we gaff the fish and pull it over the gunwale, we notice the plug lodged deep in the yellowfin’s throat — visual testimony to its aggressive feeding nature.
We fought one more big tuna that afternoon before the fish moved on, then we had to call it a day. We didn’t even make it to the Lump, but had whet our appetite for tomorrow’s tuna-town experience. As the Mississippi Canyon 143 rig dissolved into the horizon, I couldn’t wait to see what tomorrow would offer.
A Mountaintop Experience
The Midnight Lump isn’t really a seamount (an underwater volcano), but technically the top of something geologists call a salt diapir, according to Dr. Harry Roberts, director of the Coastal Studies Institute at Louisiana State University. ''It’s a buildup at the edge of the continental shelf that is one of many in the northern Gulf of Mexico,'' says Roberts. ''The whole shelf edge is just one mound or knoll after another. These mounds are created by an underlying layer of salt that pushes up that particular area of seafloor from the surrounding area.''
Think of squeezing toothpaste out of a tube. That’s the way this process works, over thousands of years. It’s called salt tectonics, which is similar to plate tectonics in that these layers of salt under the ocean floor push and pull each other continually, creating hills and valleys. As part of this process, fluids and gases are expelled at the seafloor. Some of these fluids and gases are hydrocarbons, which microbes use as a food source. This interaction causes the ocean floor to harden into limestone. Through time, irregular mounds and ledges form. Reef organisms start to colonize these areas: Some aid in building the mounds, others just use these hard-bottom areas as places to hide. Snapper, grouper and other bottom-loving species find food and protection within these habitats.
Offshore currents hit these lumps, pushing up sediment and small organisms. This sets the food chain in motion, attracting baitfish to the top of the formation, which then draw predators such as tuna, wahoo and sharks, among others. The Lump draws its share of boats, too: The first thing anglers here typically see, especially on a calm weekend day, is another 20 to 50 boats at anchor, their chum slicks stretching several hundred yards behind them. Then, while looking for an ideal place to anchor, visitors are likely to see pods of bait spraying the surface as birds dive for scraps.
As soon as the anchor hits bottom, the mate starts slinging chum, and a free-for-all usually ensues. Cobalt-blue water offers a clear view of the smorgasbord below. Usually within minutes, the scene resembles Bourbon Street during Mardi Gras. Scores of bonito may appear out of nowhere and swarm the chum like revelers grabbing beads thrown from balconies. After that, blackfin or yellowfin tuna often show up, along with a variety of other predators.
When a triple-digit yellowfin appears, its presence — and its hierarchy in the tuna food chain — quickly becomes evident. A piece of chum hits the water, and the bonito scatter as a big, black-backed beast rises like a submarine to the surface. With movements not nearly as jumpy as the bonito’s, the tuna glides through the water with smoothness and precision as it zones in on the free meal. Tuna aren’t boat-shy either; they’ll sometimes come close enough to practically hand-feed over the gunwale.
Once tuna appear, it’s time for the old bait-and-switch with either poppers or dead bait. If using dead bait, hide a 6/0 to 12/0 circle hook inside a whole pogy (menhaden) or a chunk of bonito and cast it over the side on 50- to 80-pound tackle. Ideally, tuna will approach, suck down the bait and head straight down. Here’s where the fun begins: You’ll fight 100-plus pounds of pure power headed straight down, while struggling against another 40-plus pounds per square inch of water pressure between you and the fish. The 50- or 80-pound line should hold up — but your back might not after 15 or 20 minutes in the heat of battle, especially if you lack a good harness. But after you finally raise one of these beautiful giants, the rewards start with a prized photo and don’t end until after dinner.
Borrowed Technique, Consistent Results
The Midnight Lump has always held scores of tuna during the winter, according to Brent Ballay’s brother Capt. Brandon Ballay, but until recently, commercial fishermen have dominated it. ''You’d see as many as 60 to 70 commercial boats out there 10 or 11 years ago, but now you might see a dozen,'' Brandon says. Many came from as far away as Texas or Florida to take the then-highly-profitable yellowfin. But as prices steadily declined throughout the ’90s, the out-of-state crowds thinned. ''They don’t get the [high] price for tuna anymore, so a lot of them have moved on to other things,'' Brandon notes. As the commercial fishermen depart, recreational anglers take their place.
Brandon gives commercial fishermen credit for beginning the current recreational chumming technique. He, McKnight and other local guides begin the day by stocking up on frozen bait from the marina. Then they look for the shallowest spot on the Lump to anchor. ''We’ll leave the dock with a 100-pound box of pogies, then drop anchor anywhere on top of the Lump at or just under 200 feet of water,'' Brandon says.
A word of caution about anchoring: Before you even turn off the motor, you’ll want to pay attention to where you anchor. McKnight says it’s important to properly estimate where your boat is going to stop when 600 feet of rope tightens as the anchor grabs, or you’ll end up right on top of another boat. ''You don’t want to get too close to anybody because you’ll be losing fish in each other’s anchor ropes all day,'' he says.
After the anchor’s set, Ballay starts chunking. ''We’ll cut it [each bait] in four or five pieces and throw out a handful every 20 to 30 seconds, using a continuous rhythm,'' he says. Typically within a few minutes, the bonito show up. After catching a few, he’ll start cutting up the bonito and chum with them, too. Since the tuna usually position themselves under the bonito, it’s important to get your chunks below the fray. Ballay just keeps cutting bigger chunks of bonito or pogy until they drop through the feeding frenzy. ''Sometimes even a whole pogy won’t get through the masses of bonito,'' he says. ''But if we use a baseball-size chunk of bonito, it’ll get through!''
It’s tough to imagine the crazy scene in a well-oiled chum slick on the Lump. On our trip with McKnight, we took two boats and tied off to each other so I could shoot photos of the action from the back boat, parallel to the chum slick. The anglers on the primary fishing boat spent hours fighting bonito, amberjack, blackfin, yellowfin tuna and even a mako shark.
Takin’ It to the House
Big tuna offer one of the most powerful duels known in fishing. To enjoy success with 100-plus-pound yellowfin tuna — and play it safe — you’ll need the right equipment. McKnight uses anything from 30- to 80-pound tackle. To ensure a quick catch (usually 20 minutes or less), he’ll go with 80-pound-test mono, spooled on a Shimano Tiagra 50LRS or a Penn International 50TW. Instead of using leaders, he just ties a 6/0 to 12/0 circle hook directly to the line using a clinch, Trilene or uniknot.
If the fish are leader-shy or the ice chest is full, McKnight will go down to 30-pound gear or bring out his favorite rig, a baitcaster. He enjoys nothing more than hooking a big yellowfin on a topwater plug. He uses a Shimano 6500 reel spooled with 80-pound braided line, then ties his favorite, a Yo-Zuri Hydro Tiger, directly to the braid, using an 8-turn uniknot or clinch knot.
Regardless of the line weight or reel anglers choose, the most critical element of their tuna gear, according to McKnight, is a high-quality, stout rod. ''The rod is very important,'' he says. ''You have to put enough pressure on the fish. It seems like the longer you fight [the tuna], the less chance you have of getting it in the boat [due to the line breaking or the fish spitting the hook]. The reel isn’t as important as long as everything is working right — the drag and handle are in good condition. You should be ready to go.''
He likes a 6 1/2- or 7-foot Penn Tuna Stick for his heavy tackle and a Penn Mariner in the same lengths for the baitcasters.
McKnight advises anglers to check their line — and even consider changing it — after a trip or two to the Lump. Nicks caused when king mackerel and sharks swarm the chum slick can quickly weaken the line. ''Sometimes I’ll have nicks all the way up,'' he says. One exception is superbraid. Because of its small diameter, a large baitcaster will hold up to 700 yards on a spool. In this case, McKnight just clips off the line above the frayed section, then reties his lure.
Sometimes mako sharks appear in the slick (the odds are better at night). When they do, you don’t want to miss a shot at hooking one of these blue-water beasts. On our trip, McKnight briefly tangled with a 150-pounder before it bit through the 200-pound wire leader and charged the transom. It thrashed around on the outboard prop for a few seconds, then disappeared. For such surprise encounters, McKnight always keeps a 30- or 50-pound outfit rigged with a wire leader and a straight 10/0 hook handy.
If you go to the Lump in winter or early spring, be prepared for constantly changing weather conditions — and go with the hope of seeing some good numbers of big tuna. McKnight describes a trip from last year’s highly successful season. ''A friend and I went one day last year, and we could practically pick which 100-plus-pound tuna we wanted,'' he says. ''We just dropped the bait down, and they’d suck it up. We got tired of catching them, so we just had fun throwing Hydro Tigers and releasing fish. Also, a group of 50- to 70-pound wahoo were suspended in the water right next to the boat, so we hooked a few of them, too. Our totals for the day were four wahoo and 19 tuna.''
My trip wasn’t quite as good as that, but it was definitely one I won’t soon forget. But, then again, that’s fishing on the Midnight Lump. The fish are nearly always ready to give anglers the trip of a lifetime. I know where I want to be on a cold March day (and it’s not sitting in front of the television watching fishing show reruns).
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