bertram31.com

When speaking of Charter fishing in Orange Beach or for that matter in South Alabama...MV Seaspray is considered Top Gun. My son, some of our friends and myself have chartered Bill several times for overnight Tuna trips a hundered miles out into the Gulf........we have never been disappointed.

Take a look at Bills latest trophy caught off of the Louisiana coast.

1149.5 pounds! ! !

Harry



[/img]

Harry

Nice fish. Must have been a great experience for the guy that caught it.

Harry,

Heard about Seaspray's Mako, a heck of a job with a rod-reel, just before there was a 722 brought to Venice on a center console.

http://www.bloodydecks.com/forums/louis ... owfin.html

But here's one for you...might remember without a rod-reel just pass Penscola Beach while Cobia fishing with the girl Capt.


http://www.bertram31.com/newbb/viewtopi ... highlight=

Doug
I remember the shark story you are refering to.......as I remember the story, the shark was actually caught on the north side of Santa Rosa island......not even in the Gulf.

That's amazing

Harry

i just wanted to say a mako that large has to be a female full of pups just think what you doing! a person with half a brain would furfill his million to one dream by fighting the fish to the boat why kill her? she has at least a dozen pups in her did you also want to kill the last buffalo! much more furfilling killing people like let them loose from the cuban prison then hunt them down and shoot them now that a sport.

Bob,

Totally understand and agree with you on such a large mako, but the angler has to make that choice for him or herself.

Personally I wouldn't want the damn thing close to my boat to begin with...alot damage could occur with her next to the boat if she went wild on ya.

Now a 1000# + Blue Marlin would have me thinking real hard, but I'd have to tag her than drag her back to dock...couldn't put her anywhere on a B31.

DQ

as a captain thats my first though this mako will be green for hours putting her in my cockpit causes me untold reponsibility thats uncall for.she only becomes alive when that idiot fare put his ankle close to her mouth.man it ain`t over till it`s over with a big mako.

I beg to differ....the only good shark is a dead shark.

UV

I agreed with Bob on both points. But killing the fish is up to the angler on a charter I suppose.

That fish would be a no brainer for me- DEAD

As a rule most things with a bill get released.

Below are pretty much the guidelines on our fishing ethics.

Bob- your still looking for a big bass, would you kill it if it were your best ever? Think about the number of eggs it would produce. Unfortunately there ain't no 40lb males.

Swordfish- In a tournament they die, I'm not to keen on the taste so it would be up to the crew otherwise. A real slob would get the flyer because we just don't see that many big ones.
White Marlin- only get killed when money is on the line the fish is measured first to be sure its big enough to place.
Blue Marlin- During a tournament if the fish makes minimum or if it comes up dead. The last given is if the fish is over 1,000 lbs its going in the boat (Good news is these fish taste awesome, blackened or smoked yum!) And for the record I'm looking forward to killing one.
Mako- Any and all that are of legal size, the majority of the fish we see are under 200 lbs locally.
Striped Bass- In the spring its fish cake season so its generally game on until the freezer is stocked. After that its only exceptionally large fish. We are in an all season tournament so we would weigh and release anything under the minimum before killing it. However anything over 50 would be a personal best and certainly come back to the dock.

But I also like venison, duck, quail, pheasant, goose, rabbit, dove and many other furry loveable type critters that some would say should be coveted for their own selfish reasons.

Bottom line- throw the gaff or squeeze the trigger do what you want. But for the safety of the sport make sure your legal when you do it.

JP,

Let me set the record straight now, what your holding on the cockpit deck of your boat in the other thread is a no brainer for the fryer or grill, Wahooo!, Oh-No's, best damn eating fish besides a scamp or grouper in my opinion.

Now for tournament fishing with dollars riding on the big boy or girl, Blue Marlin, he/she going to the dock for sure, if he/she looks like a winner. If not taggum and let put more babies into the system. Now whities and sails are catch & release only for most tournament on the Gulf Coast, so they don't count down here but tag points. Swordies if they meet the size requirements, they are going in the cooler.

Sharks are not my bag so I don't care if I ever catch one. But are tasty from what I understand, (Mako's). But they are a part of the eco system, not good just to be killing for no reason. But each angler has to make that choice.

DQ

jp eats everything he kills even if they fly

jp a 35 pound bass is one of a million of the only species of fish that is of heathy numbers on the other hand a 1000 lbs mako is quite rare of a species that is really dropping in numbers lately.some tournaments produce 1 or 2 over 125lbs on long island. becoming damn near extinct i helped pull a 368lbs on board some years back .i for the life of me can not imagine pulling a 1000 pounder over the gunnels and into the cockpit.you have some crew with huge muscles that all i can say.

I once heard that the unique thing about a southern zoo is that under the animal name is the species and phylum and the local recipe....

I have eaten shark on several occasions......delicious! ! ! !

I'm only here for the beer!!!

Harry

Bob- Bringing a 1000+ Mako over the gunnels may take guys with huge muscles, but from my experience, with even huger balls. Walter

Here's an article on it.

JR

http://www.houmatoday.com/article/20090 ... /903039923

I let a real nice size Mako go some years ago and I still regret it. It's one of the few fish I enjoy eating and would have made a nice picture to hang on my wall, instead of the one picture where I have it tail wrapped.

All due to a moment of insanity as my buddies wife was balling her eyes out that we shouldn't kill it and just let it go...they are divorced now and I still have an empty spot on my wall.

If its a record, touranment winner or meat we are going home together.

last year in the hudson canyon we came about 100' from two sharks finning on the surface.we cut the engines then use one engine to idle close to them we were within 5 ' of two hamerhead sharks .one was 12' and one was about 9' .they never moved so we through a pitch bait to them and they didn`t even react apparently they were ready to give birth.i could have easily sunk a harpoon in the large one. i though about it but the hammerhead shark is extremely rare in the norteast .we watch and took pictures then back off and went tuna trolling .i am not sorry i was on a 31 bert that pulled a 368 mako over the gunnel .damn near inpossible and went this monster plocks down in the bertram cockpit it was like having a alligator in the cockpit .don`t go near that head till we get back to the dock and if the water turn bad that would be reel bad . like the post above with 11 men taken that monster thru a tuna door .i stand my ground i don`t belive 3 men can pull a 1000lbs mako over the gunnel and if god came down and plop her in the cockpit the tail would be in the cabin.back in 1978 we release a 740 to 780 lbs bluefin tuna off block island . captain haab and our crew took 20 minutes to revive her and we let her go .i caught a 496lbs a week before and we had a gin pole to bring her in the boat.quite a feat.this was a 43 hat.don`t kill what you can`t use!!!!

Last week I saw the report about the 722 and the 1148 being caught and I said good maybe the YFT fishing will be better on the Lump. I was going to rig up because I have always wanted to catch a big Mako. We were fishing a Jr Lump 31nm out of the mouth of the river day before yesterday. It was 4:00 after a full day of fishing and a few beers, 4 YFT to 120lbs a few large sharks, kings, and lots of bonita. We were going to make one last drift and who comes to check us out, a BIG mako, we guess 12ft as she was a little less than 1/2 the size of the boat ,26' Pro Line, we could see her tail on one side and her head on the other side of the boat, she kept bumping the prop with her snout, guess she wanted to figure out what the rumbling was? I jumped up, grabbed the shark rig put it on the 50W and then thought, I don't want to hook this thing NOW. It was blowing about 25 and if we headed home now we just might beat dark. I am all for fighting fish the bigger the better but it just did not seem like a good idea plus if, IF, I did get it to the boat I then had it to deal with and I was not sure I wanted to kill it. Like I have heard you never know what you will do till you are in that spot. It was an incredible sight!