Wicked Tuna

All the scheduled Texas Pelagic trips were cancelled this year because of low participation. That hurt because I was counting on those trips for birds, lots of birds. I needed a back up plan. I found a company that does long range tuna fishing trips that go off the continental shelf in to pelagic waters from Port Aransas. I was about to go when Hurricane Harvey hit at the end of August and slammed right into Port Aransas. I gave it a couple of weeks and the September trip I thought looked good was already full. I booked the next 36 hour trip and put out a call online for others to join me. Bob Friedrichs decided to go also and we were set.

South Polar Skua
Photo Bob Friedrichs

We met the boat at 3:30 am on Saturday morning. I was having trouble with my scopolamine patch for seasickness adhering but I could feel the dry mouth sensation that says "I'm working" We bordered a little after 5 am and were off about 5:30 am. Bob and I hit the bunks and slept until about 7:30 and first light. Almost immediately we had Royal Terns in about 120 feet of water. Swells were expected to be very low but when we woke it was rougher than the 1.5-2 foot swells expected, I'm guessing about 3 foot.  Manageable but the bow was just too wet to be on. We positioned ourselves on the stern and kept watch.

Brown Booby
photo by David Sarkozi

At about 9;50 we spotted the first pelagic species, a Cory's Shearwater in about 500 feet of water for Year Bird 485. We ground on. At about 10:20 am we crossed the 600 foot mark and started "down" the slope of the Continental Shelf. I was out of Bob's sight when a Pomarine Jaeger flew by and I missed it at about 11:00 am. About 12;30 I was barely keeping my eyes open and we were on a large stretch of nothing on the bottom in about 3000 feet of water. I decided to take a nap. I asked Bob to wake me if I wan't back in 90 minutes. about 80 minutes after I hit my pillow Bob had a Bridled Tern sitting on the some trash. At 90 minutes Bob got me up because he had just seen a Brown Booby. When I got up on deck the booby was still there chasing flying fish.

Somewhere along the way my patch came off. I was flying without a net. I did take a dose of Bonine about 5 pm, but other than that I did well with motion sickness and had no problems

Sunset 150 miles offshore

About 4:45 pm we arrived at our destination, a floating rig in about 5000 feet of water 156 miles from Port Aransas. Bob and I spotted some birds over the rig, We soon realized they were Peregrine Falcons. We spotted another, and a another. We eventually had a firm count of 8 Peregrines and an Osprey on the rig. We trolled for fish for a while and fishing started in earnest about sunset. Tuna started coming on-board, some bit in half by barracuda. I lost one that felt like a good fish. Bob landed 2.5 Black-finned Tuna. I fished with no luck until midnight. The meds making be drowsy. I decided I needed some sleep and hit the hay for 3 hours and joined Bob at 3 am. He had had no luck. I fished with no luck until 5:30 am and thought they must be about time to head back and decided to sleep until sunrise. Right after I went below Bob hooked a big one, it took him 30 minutes to land a 56 pound Yellow-finned Tuna. Worn out he came below.

We both set alarms for 7:30 and slept through them, but we both made it on deck about 8 am. It was much calmer now and we took up posts on the bow. At 9:30 Bob called out a bird flying right for us. It passed close and I got glass on it and initially thought jeager. Bob managed some good photos and we reviewed them getting more excited. This was a skua and we later confirmed South Polar Skua for Year Bird 486 and a Life Bird for both of us!

Masked Booby
Photo by Bob Friedrichs

At 10:30 am Bob spotted a bird right above the horizon and called Audubon's Shearwater. I got on it and saw there were two birds, and I concurred with Audubon's Shearwater for Year Bird 487.

At 11:30 am Bob spotted a Masked Booby right by the boat for Year Bird 488. It was also chasing flying fish and we could see it dive and go at least 6 feet underwater next to the boat in the clear blue water. This booby was one I was afraid I was going to miss which made it sweeter.

No other birds after that, We crossed back onto the shelf at about 2:20 pm. By my count we had 7 pelagic species. We got 13.5 hours birding in deep water by my reckoning. A standard 12 hour Texas Pelagic trip makes about 3.5 hours in the deep water and has been costing about $200. This trip costs $400 and you get almost 4 times the birding time in deep water, so hour by hour its a pretty good value. The berth is nothing special dark and I have to say pretty darn dingy, but I had no trouble sleeping and being able to do that was a great relief on a trip this long. An you could end up with a lot of tuna! Want to see where the trip went, click here for a map. There are 4 more 36 hour trips scheduled by Dolphin Docks this year I might have to try again!