We just completed a 48-hour Marlin trip from Port Aransas, TX.  Our original destination was the Noble Homer Farrington Floating oilrig 83 Nautical Miles offshore in 3500’ of water, after several phone calls to Noble drilling in New Orleans I learned it was no longer located within our reach.  We soon formed a new plan that included a few extra barrels of fuel and the floating oil rigs named Boomvang and Nancen over 140 NM miles from Port Aransas.  We were set on getting the first Blue Marlin of the year from our home Port and getting into to some hot Yellowfin Tuna Action.

 We headed out at 11:00pm Friday April 25, 2003 on our quest with 4 anglers, Jay Landingham (boat owner), Beth Priday, Milton Cooke Charlie Mahalik and myself Capt. Scott McCune of fishntexas.com.  The weather wasn’t quite as nice as the NOAA forecast predicted (as usual), however it was still fishable.  As we headed out I found 73 degree plus water 30 miles out and 74 degree water at the South Baker Rig 42 miles offshore, as we progressed towards the new Falcon Rig and the 100 fathom curve the temperature was as low as 72.2 degrees.  I was a little nervous since I was really looking for a good temperature break in the 75 degree plus range.  We finally saw a warming trend at about 6:00am that morning 90 Nm offshore, just past the East Breaks.  We arrived at the Transoceanic Richardson, 3 miles from the Boomvang Rig in 3,500’ of water at noon after having trolled for 30NM to save fuel.  On our second pass of the Rig we had a triple Yellowfin hookup and three 70# Yellowfin in the boat.  As we were putting out the baits I believe a Blue Marlin smacked our shotgun but no hookup, shortly afterwards workboats were all over the rig pulling anchors and that scattered the fish.  We talked to several supply boat Captains who said they saw plenty of Yellowfin busting the water earlier that morning which made overnighting at the rig a unanimous decision.  Unfortunately the Tuna must have smelled their Yellowfin Buddies on the Bar-B-Que that night because they seem to have left the area, we did manage a fun night of spinning gear and fly rod action on countless Blue Runners!  After a restless night we started trolling at 6:00am, no takers so we headed back to Port Aransas on the troll.  Things were really looking bad the water was murky, 73 degrees and weeds every 2 feet.   I tell you it was starting to get tough to stay awake; we were just past the West end of the East Breaks and still 75 miles from home.  Then, like always, when you least expect it I looked around in time to see a Blue come up and hit our Texas Terd trolled on the Starboard rigger.  This fish jumped at least 20 times, tail walked and then greyhounded off, one hour later on 80# standup we brought the fish up from sounding and leadered it at the boat.   We got 3 quick pictures, revived it and then watched him swim off.   We accomplished our goal! 

By the way we made a few passes on the Falcon rig with no takers.  We dropped a few baits down on South Baker Rocks and didn’t have much success there either, I wasn’t even marking fish, strange but maybe the weather had the bite off and the fish holding tight.

 Summary:

 Date:  April 25, 2002

 Boat:  Perseverance a 40' Hatteras Tournament Sport Fisherman

 Where: 

Marlin: West of the East Breaks

Yellowfin: 130 mile Semi-Submersible at 90 degrees from Port Aransas Jetties

 Captain: Scott McCune, Port Aransas, TX

Anglers on trip:

Jay Landingham, Houston, TX

Beth Priday, Corpus Christi, TX

Milton Cooke, Houston, TX

Charlie Mahalik, Austin, TX

Anglers with big fish:

Tuna: Jay Landingham, Houston, TX

Tuna: Beth Priday, Corpus Christi, TX

Tuna: Milton Cooke, Houston, TX

Marlin: Jay Landingham, Houston, TX

Lures:

Yellowfin: Pakula Sprockets

Marlin: Mold Craft Standard Wide Range

Group Picture:

In the picture left to right is Capt. Scott McCune, Jay Landingham, Milton Cooke, (trip)

 Capt. Scott McCune (USCG Master), FISHNTEXAS.COM