Fishing the “LUMP”

I had the opportunity to fish in Louisiana this weekend . It was an enlightening experience . I was on a boat based out of Orange Beach ,AL. called Necessity [ www.necessitysportsfishing.com ] . It is a 62′ Resmondo and is captained by Ben Fairey. First of all I would like to say it was a very well run boat with a superb crew and I learned alot about the fishery in La. We were after big yellowfin tuna and the style of fishing we were employing was “chunking”.That is done with lots of chum going over the side on a constant basis to attract the fish to the boat . Well the big yellowfins didnt bite with exceptionally clear water but we were able to catch one 30# YFT on a light spinning rig . That was a great sporting challenge . We also caught 5 nice blackfins in the 20 -25 # range ,most of which were also caught on the light spinners with swimbaits . Those are the very lifelike rubber shad with the head inside the rubber body . They are used extensively on the west coast for Albacore and Yellowfin . They work here as well . The most unusual occurence of the trip was a White Marlin . It was caught on one of the bigger chunking rigs . That was very unusual for Feb. Another highlight was a 250# Mako Shark eating a hooked Blackfin at boatside . We tried to hook the shark with a bonita carcass but he was probably enjoying his sashimi meal and was temporarily full and ordering hot sake.
The weather was unusually warm and clear until 3 P.M. when a wall of yankee cold air desended upon us and whipped up the seas and dropped the temps about 25 degrees in 3 minutes . At that point we were commenting that the 31 footers looked small for the ride in . There were 53 boats on the lump by captain’s count and about half of them surely got their asses kicked on the way in . Then there was the radio call from a small boat with one engine down . They were about 17 miles out and were in very real danger . We ran to them and let them follow on one engine for about 10 miles . Then we saw flares and heard a radio call that the other engine failed . We quicly tied top them and started towing them in . Their boat was awash and bouncing like a cork the whole way in to Grand Isle and they were very scared and very lucky . They probably still have their life jackets on .
All in all it was a great adventure with great friends and great crew . Ill be back for more as soon as I can .
Marc Grove