Well guys,

It seems like my head just hit the pillow and Bobbie and I are now up and ready to head out again.

Below is long winded but I feel it is a good story.

The trip started by rushing around wednesday night to pack (always last minute with me). Woke up at 3:30 and headed to Hartford. Bobbie and I meet Rv6 and Scupmaster at the airport, chatted and started our flight.

Our connection in Atlanta was delayed due to something leaking from the plane.
Quickly changing planes we took off and were on our way to NewOrleans.... had a great meal in the city of crab cakes, fried catfish and some other fried stuff.

The meal was filled with anticipation and discussions about the fish that we may be catching, describing to young scupmaster the joys of tuna fishing and the potential of the fishing down here..... Capt Hoop would not disapoint us.

We arrived at Hoops house and meet the capt and Joann, we were also meet with a full pork roast dinner including mash potatoes, corn, ect! Wow!

The accomadations here could not be better, now to the fishing!

Woke up every hour with anticipation, out of bed at 4am and was greated to a full breakfast, ham, eggs, pancakes, muffins... wow!
A quick eats and we are off to the boat!

Arriving down at Venice Marina the fisherman in me really starts to come out.... the buzzing of people loading boats, sounds of ice pouring into fish lockers... no one is really talking, just loading their boat with rods and gear.

We load up and head out into the great Mississipi River and head south. A quick ride to the mouth of the mighty river and we are into the Gulf, Captain said not long to go... I am looking and the muddy waters that are only 56 degrees and wondering how far we actually have to go....

Not more than a few miles out the water starts to change color, the water temp is rising 2 degrees per mile and the first oil rig is spotted.

Over the next several miles the water temp jumped to 68 degrees and Hoop spoted the rig he wanted to fish.

It was funny, in the morning all of the rigs looked the same, but by afternoon, we could start to see the differences between each one!

Hoop told us that the lump was off producing a few larger fish (we saw a 143 hanging at the end of the day) but nothing in quantity and we would be waiting for that one bite. With young scupmaster never hooking a tuna, we agreed that this trip should be quantity, not that one quality 125+ pounder.

The top water action here is amazing, the tuna are flying out of the water and seem to be focused over certain areas. I have seen tuna break surface like this before offshore, but nothing spreading over such a large area. The schools are huge with yellowfin and blackfin mixed in.

The school will pop up, bust bait for 1 -3 minutes then go down. You just need to be in casting distance to ensure a hookup with the popper.

But dont be mislead, blind casting yeilds some pretty good hits too!

I could actually see the tuna nail the lure, come unbuttoned, quickly kicking the retrieve into high gear brings him instinctivly back to hit it again!

Well, it is 5am now here and we are heading out again today.

We are again faced with the quanity vs quality.

We will let you guys know!

Tim