Master Plan Charters Fishing Reports

This past week was slow, slow, slow…  We had a full moon and just a bizzare seize fire from the fish.  It was a real problem for me not knowing how I was going to get the fish rallied for my customers.  I had a charter and we will call him Fred, that stayed in touch with me for about a month prior to his trip.  Of course it was all glorious until his day to fish.  The full moon was on us, and I hadn’t seen a real fish in several days.  So, I told Fred our best options for the day and we carried out the plan of the day to perfection..  We picked up some really nice Kingfish and limits of Amberjacks.  We had a few critters trolling but, nothing to brag about.  The cool thing is that on a day of slow fishing because of Fred’s good attitude and his groups energy level we were still able to make a good day out of not so good conditions. 

Now, it is almost perfect conditions, flat calm seas and I smell Blue Marlin in the air… I have a dry weekend, and there is nobody to fish.  I truely believe this weekend with the coditions as they are fishing would be just right for the big Cahoona.  If your serious about Marlin fishing and are waiting for a sign.  Its time.  I will be putting the odds in the customers favor from here on out.  Just bring the good mojo and the positive spirit old Fred did and I think its on us…  

Yesterday we went one for three on really nice sailfish. We were cruising along shaking bonita off the lines really looking for something to change our luck. We trolled upon an amazing color change that looked like something from a postcard. The water color inshore has been a nice aqua blue and we found about a three square mile area of water that looked like it should be in the Cozumel or something. It had an obvious line and literally looked baby blue. We started to work the area but, having caught about fifty bonita in the past hour everyone had kind of forgotten that there are other fish out there. We had a knock down from our outrigger and I was the only one that saw it. I flew off the bridge and tried to work the lure a little to see if something wanted to play. Sure enough, there was a nice sailfish behind it whacking away with his bill and lit up like the fourth of July. I played the game for about thirty seconds and he took off. About twenty minutes later we had a nice one come up and slam our Shotgun rig and with help of a nice drop back from the deckhand, I was yelling BILLFISH ON…… Oh yeah, he did the dance, the tail walk, the whole show. It was great. We released him and got lines back in the water. As I approached the wonderful color change BILLFISH, BILLFISH, BILLFISH…….. We had a wild Sailfish ripping around through our spread. My deckhand was working him like a champion, following his every move but, after about a three minute tango he was gone. That was one of the longest Sailfish battles I’ve seen. Fortunately my charter was watching the whole show from up top with me and it was awesome. I don’t know how long it will last but, they are being caught pretty regular now and if you can get out on a calm day a make some time inshore, your probably going to catch one.

With TIFT being cancelled we had to go out into the deep blue and see what would have happened.  One of the local fishing piers had a small local tournament for anyone really interested or nostalgic for TIFT.  There were no billfish caught but, the Master Plan took the tournament with a nice Wahoo, and a big Dolphin.  We were also fortunate to pull up two nice tuna.  The water has recovered from the Hurricane perfect and the fishing that we all really like is now here.  Snapper is unfortunately no longer an option in federal waters but, with the new options of Tuna and Dolphin being plentiful you really cannot miss the Snapper.  Come on down and enjoy the beautiful waters it only gets better from here on out.  Wahoooo!

Sad to say it but Texas International Fishing Tournament has been cancelled. Although the damage from the hurricane was not to tremendous there just isn’t enough time to set up such a massive event with all of the repairs going on right now. Good news, fishing is still good, probably better, and we are available for charter this weekend. South Padre Island received power late yesterday evening and Port Isabel the day before. Some of the hotels on the Island are still doing repairs and cleanup but, if you contact our office number (956) 761-6301, Jackie Barber our booking agent can arrange nice accommodations for your travel. So, you heard it from the Captain we are up running and available for charter as of today.   

We were very fortunate and had very little damage from the storm. The Master Plan is still very much intact and ready to fish. However, South Padre Island and Port Isabel are still doing a little catch up. I would honestly say come on down but there is still no electricity. In about five days we should be powered up and I think the clean up factor will move a little more swift. The water is very dirty inshore with all of the debris and churned up sand. That only leads me to believe there are probably some incredible color lines and weed lines. I honestly don’t even know how long it will take the Shrimpers to get out and operational but, it won’t be more than a week. E-mail with any questions concerning fishing trips in the near future and I will give you a personal report. Remember, August 3rd Snapper closes so if that’s your gig better get in quick.  

The boat in the photo is not the Master Plan!

Thank God it’s that time of year again. Trolling has been real slow and the bottom fishing is still the same (AWSOME)! The shrimpers are now scraping the bottoms getting the fish all Greedy and fat… I cannot wait to see what will be happening over the next few weeks. We have TIFT (Texas International Fishing Tournament), Shrimp Season starting, and the Swells falling to nothing. The fishing only gets better from here on out! Wahoo, Dorado, and Tuna. We are so lucky to have this not far from the beach. Get to work shrimpers……
And for those of you who do not understand the importance of Shrimp Boats. The shrimpers aggravate the bottom surfaces of the Ocean floor while retrieving their catch. Shrimp boats are likely to drag around natural and artificial subsurface structures. Having a rich ECO system in the vicinity would provide fat healthy shrimp. While trawling for their catch they will activate feeding frenzies from the nearby subsurface structures. In general, they activate the feeding period for fish in this particular region. Which makes finding the fish you really want to catch a lot easier.

Let’s go deep sea fishing the next time your on South Padre Island.

I have to give it to the Dallas/Fort Worth folks you guys like to fish. I have had some great trips since my last blog. We got another Sailfish, and some really nice Wahoo. Wreck fishing has been reel good too! We had a nice Warsaw Grouper in the 40-pound range along with some hefty AJ’s. Fishing is always good this time of year…. We had our first good rain 4th of July weekend so the weather offshore had been tricky.
It was raining like hell, the seas would rise and fall but the fishing was still good. My latest crews were all from the Fort Worth area and I give them credit for taking the ride. I do not like to fish when its rough but, if you do it right it can be a pretty smooth day. I am glad to see the variety in fish right now. We saw a free jumping Blue Marlin in the 500-pound plus range. I caught a 30-pound Dorado the day before yesterday and lost one twice its size. We released a 40-pound Sailfish on our last deep-water trip. I am happy to say that I have been busy fishing. There are a lot of options out there right now and I recommend at least the ten-hour trip to anyone who is serious about deep-sea and offshore fishing. There has been a lot of activity in the thirty plus mile range. We need time to work that area. Tuna trips in about two weeks. Get your reeling arms in shape….

Today was one hell of a fishing day. I had an amazing family from Dallas aboard and everything just seemed right about them. They came to the boat the day before, we discussed fishing and what Justin the father of the crew really was looking for. He wanted more than just a fishing trip; he wanted something he and his family could reflect on as a positive family experience. Oh, and he also really wanted a Wahoo! That’s respectable. I have seen a few, missed a gaff on one, and wrapped the tip on a monster but, I had not landed one this year. So we had to catch a Wahoo. I brought out the big guns, Black Bart’s, Incredible Natural baits/(FLYING FISH), and of course I threw in a few Islanders with Ballyhoo. We hauled ass out to the Canyon for a semi-early morning bite. We had a Blackfin Tuna on a Softhead within minutes of laying out the spread and about an hour later somebody decided to crash the spread. My deckhand wasn’t real aggressive at first but he did tell me something knocked a flat line out of the clip. I was on the bridge gabbing away with four kids under the age of twelve and the really cool dad so, I’m glad he was doing his job. The other flat line snapped and the outrigger line got knocked down. I told him to send that line to Sweet Mary and he grabbed the right reel, did an amazing drop back and hook set…. FISH ON!!!! I was impressed to have him as my deckhand for the day, Good Crew is hard to find. What was it? A Wahoo of course. I think the fun stuff is thicker out deep. We chugged around the Canyon for about an hour but, we all knew we had our fish for the day. I cruised in to slimmer water and did some fun fishing with the kids. Amberjacks and Snapper are great for kids! Our only Sea-Sicker of the day, a cool little girl that stuck it out: caught an Amberjack and was cured. So we had Tuna, Wahoo, Amberjack, and Snapper. I cruised in with everyone onboard sitting next to me on the bridge happy with the day. My deckhand and I also shared dinner with the family at Blackbeard’s. If you read this Dallas Crew, Its really comforting to know people like you are out there. Wahoo…….

Yesterday I got the biggest Kingfish I have ever seen in person. I had a really cool group out and we were doing some drift fishing for snapper and amberjack. Trolling is still slow for me so we were deep dropping live baits over some hard bottom. My crew wasn’t quite being aggressive enough so I had to do a little motivational drop while we were over the spot. I dropped a live perch on mono with a 5 oz. slide weight about three feet above. As soon as I hit bottom and clicked over the reel my line took off. I did one big hook set and passed off the rod. Mark fought the fish for 16 minutes before we saw that it was a Monster King. I was freaking out thinking state records down the drain; we had this fish on straight mono. With the help of my trusty mate John, we were able to land this 55 pound monster. We didn’t get the weight on an official scale but we did however peg a good fifty-pound scale to the bottom, of course adding five pounds for a gimmee. This fish was 58″ from the tip of the snout to the fork of the tail. We also caught a few amberjacks and the limit of red snappers.

My crew came aboard for a good time and we did indeed have one. We swam in 160′ of water; we caught good fish and had them cooked at Blackbeard’s restaurant. Good Stuff……. Summer time when the living’s easy!

I have still been stuck inshore, no billfishing but, we had a great week.  Trolling was extremely slow in several days we had nothing but, bonita and kingfish which is not really my favorite.  There were some amazing weed lines but, in the wrong water and there is some really pretty water not far from the beach but, the summer slam hasn’t taken place yet.  Shrimp boats will be back in a few weeks thank God…  

I did however do some wreck fishing this week for Snapper, Amberjack and Cobia which was very sucessful.  I had three Cobia in the 25 pound range one day this week and an amazing six in the 30 pound range the following day.  So, that is really good.  Amberjacks were boiling on top as well.  That doesnt last forever but, I think I have located a good neighborhood.  So for this week I will say the fish to play with was Cobia and they are offically here.  Good stuff.