Report submitted by 'Oz'

Nyati Mid-Week Offshore Report North Padre Island, TX August 13-14th, 2009 Tweet

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A mid-week trip was in the works and YT was busy getting a crew organized to take advantage of the flat seas. Eventually a final roster appeared and we were ready to duke it out yet once again. Come Wednesday afternoon we loaded up the boat and the voyage began.

This trip would consists of Curtis, Scott, Kevin, Bumpy, Repo, VRC, YT, and myself. Not exactlysure which location we were going to hit it was decided pretty much at departure. We hit thePackery Jetties early in the afternoon and run on out aways.

Rocked and Loaded, we make our way out.

With the flat conditions, it makes for a calm ride out for YT and Scott.

We run for a couple hours and then put out the spread hoping for something. We trolled on out til sundown with little activity. Come dark we put some nighttime lures out and keep on trucking. Come 5am and after over 12 hours of traveling, we make it to our destination. Not sure if we were going to live bait or not we start jigging. Both Kevin and myself hook up and land a couple Yellowfin as the sun is about to come up. With the looks of it, we would be trolling for the day.

We put out the spread and immedately Bumpy reels in a Skipjack Tuna.

The spread goes back out and we wait for anything.

The seas have slicked off and are like glass. Not much bait on the surface though has us worried.

After a couple Wahoo and other fish, we finally get hooked up on a solid fish. We get Trevor in the chair ready for battle.

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Played very well, Trevor has the fish up to the boat in about 20 min. It is a Blue Marlin, his first!

YT and Kevin leader the fish and get it along theboat.

Trevor hops in for a pic with his fish.

Around this time I get my gear on ready to hop in the water for the release.

The Marlin swam off to the depths while trying to grab a few more photos...

NYATI

We get the spread back out and not long and Bumpy gets another Wahoo to the boat.

... and here is my version of the Wahoo

It gets slow again and we troll around for a while. Then finally Scott puts us on another fish. Before it even hit I saw the Marlin fly across the spread shooting for one of the lures and then picking it up. I set the hook and for nearly a minute the fish is on the surface tail-walking and creating havoc. We get Bumpy in the chair for his shot at a Marlin.

The fight is slow and steady. After a while we get the fish near the boat.

We get our first glimpse at the Blue

Bumpy puts it in overdrive and cranks it in slow and steady.

After a LONG tiring battle, the Nyati releases another Marlin.

Bumpy hops in for a pic with his first Blue Marlin

We troll for the rest of the day and things remain slow other than a 'hoo or cuda. Come dark we pack up the trolling gear and get ready for some Tuna action. But with the lack of activity we are kinda worried but will give it an all out effort.

We banged out some Blackfin but no signs of Yellows. Things are very slow. I began to send jigs down deep and get hooked up on fish. I get it to the surface and ends up being a Big Eye Tuna.

Lit up.. pretty cool

We continue to duke it out and things remain quite slow. Not sure why. After obtaining a stockpile of bait/chum, we decide to chunk baits hoping the YF will find us! Kevin is chopping away and Repo starts chumming. I myself have a live hardtail out for a big Tuna. After a while it gets picked up pretty slow and then cut off. Thinking it were a shark I run in and grab a shark leader and come out and rig up a section of Tuna. As I am dropping the bait down I see a small airplane down below in the lights, still aways down. I am thinking.. "I want that fish!" As I start to reel in another fish picks up the bait. SWEET!

After a short fight I get the fish up to the boat and is exactly what I thought it was...

An Oceanic Whitetip Shark

Almost the size of the one Scott got a couple years ago... very cool fish.

We open the Tuna door up and pull the fish in just enough so we can cut the leader and release the fish. Fortunately this fish is much more relaxed than the previous one.

A couple quick pics and we send her off on her way. Very Cool.

Well back to Tuna fishing.... and it is slow. No flying fish, but I did scoop up this cool looking Trigger for YT's tank.

We duked it out and I crashed around 2:30am. Curtis stayed up and was determined to get his Yellowfin. He chummed for a while with little signs of activity. As a last hope he dropped jigs back down. Low and behold he hooks into a Yellow... but loses it.. LOL Determined, he eventually hooks another one and YT helps him out with encouragement and verbal support. Curtis finally lands his Yellowfin for the night.

Well sun is fixing to come up and we put the Tuna gear away and get out the trolling equipment.

The day is very, very slow. Rain showers here and there, but slow. We trolled for hours picking up only a hoo or cuda or blackfin here and there. Late in the day we get a good fish in the spread... still not sure exactly what it was. YT sets the hook and we get him in the chair.

We were hoping for a Marlin but were prepared in case it was a Yellowfin or a Giant Wahoo.

In this case it was a Giant Wahoo!

We continued to troll til sundown but things were super slow. Come dark we begin to make our voyage back home on the calm seas.

Thanks to YT and crew for another fun outting . We did end up with a few surprises hereand there. Any trip you release 2 Blue Marlin is a good trip in my book. While the bite was slow, I assure you we will find it once again.

Til next time on the open ocean...
- Oz and Crew

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