Texas Tuna 5/23 - 5/24

[BretABaker]

[font "Times New Roman"]Will (high seas drifter), Ben (digidydog), Jared (Jared Chasteen) and myself headed out of Freeport around 11AM Saturday with hopes of tuna.[/font]
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[font "Times New Roman"]The weather was great on the ride out and we stopped at the intersection rigs hoping for grouper. No grouper, just the elusive red snapper and I got a ~40lb AJ or so while reeling up. After a little while we just decided to head out. . Poppers weren’t really the ticket on this trip – all subsurface. I tried a Tady and Ranger and they were OK. I think the Tady would’ve been alright but I switched after getting several cudas and crevalles[/font]
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[font "Times New Roman"]I ended up grabbing the Skagit Lip Slider in Mackerel color and went from there. I was all over the crevalles (this was a theme). Got a couple more early on along with some blackfin. Finally hooked a yellowfin, got it to the boat pretty quick. 40-50lbs, as most were this night.[/font]
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[font "Times New Roman"]Few more crevalles, blackfin and cudas later I had another yellowfin in the boat. There was a bit of a lull then the bite turned on a bit. I had a blistering run only to have the hook pull….would’ve been a nice tuna. A few more casts later I had a nice tuna on. The tuna was very feisty – screamed a ton of line off……I went to slow the spool and it was blistering hot. Honestly I thought this fish was going to be 100+, but it ended up being around 80. The pics aren’t any good, but it was around 55” or so.[/font]
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[font "Times New Roman"]I handed the setup over to Ben…….and he promptly hooked another 50 yellowfin – his first ever (yep, he ate the heart).[/font]
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[font "Times New Roman"]Jared gave the setup a few casts……but I think it was only blackfin that wanted to play. We did get some nice sized blackfin though – Will had one that was around 25 or 30lbs. It was the biggest blackfin I’ve seen in Texas.[/font]
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[font "Times New Roman"]Just as I began to think about retiring the lure…….a cuda stole it. That was annoying. I used a Tackle House Sinking Works the rest of the time which produced a lot of blackfin, big shock there.[/font]
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[font "Times New Roman"]Stopped at the rigs again on the way in…..i caught more crevalles, but ben and jared got into some AJs…..Jareds was over 60” at the fork, really nice fish.[/font]
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[font "Times New Roman"]Luckily threaded the needle through some storms and made it back alright.[/font]
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[font "Times New Roman"]Fun times as always, thanks again to Will and Ben for the invite. It was great to fish with you Jared – hopefully next time will produce many more yellows.[/font]
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[font "Times New Roman"]50lb Tuna Sniper and Stella 8000 were perfect[/font]
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[font "Times New Roman"]Bens First Tuna[/font]
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[font "Times New Roman"]Breakfast of Champions[/font]
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[font "Times New Roman"]Jared’s Big AJ[/font]
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[font "Times New Roman"]Threading the Needle[/font]
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[font "Times New Roman"]Buccee’s Patrons weren’t happy with us[/font]
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[theangler]

Hello Bret,
Awesome report, and pics!!!
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