This 36 hour offshore fishing trip by the partyboat Capt. John out of Galveston's Pier 19 was run with 36 fishermen aboard. Unfortunately, that cast of unwanted characters, "Breezy & Bumpy" showed up as Capt. Tony Langston was heading the Capt. John's twin hulls in a southerly direction. Also aboard was Capt. Rhonda Cummins as the second captain on this extended length trip.

As they progressed to the BoomVang Spar platform, 127 miles to the south of The Island in 3,450 feet of water, it was becoming apparent that "Breezy & Bumpy" were growing and had brought a couple of other nasty friends with them. Several drifts were made from near BoomVang to downwind and current with some blackfin tuna action and no yellowfin tuna sightings or hookups. The trip's most unusual catch was an Atlantic pomfret that hit a Shimano Butterfly jig at about 500 feet. James Ferguson wound it up and over the rail. The pomfret is a deep water fish that's something of a rarity. With tuna fishing being on the slow side, partially due to increasing wave heights and wind that were making drift speeds increase, a move was made during the early Sunday morning hours to the West Cerveza platform. This production platform is about 82 miles south of Galveston in around 900 ft. of water. The rest of overnight fishing was done while tied off to this platform. Diamond jigs, butterfly type jigs and sardines produced a few more blackfin tuna, rainbow runner, barracuda, amberjack, etc.

After sunrise, a move farther inshore was started with "Breezy & Bumpy" still in attendance. Stops made, while working the way home, were over some rocks in about 180 ft. of water, 73 miles offshore at Stetson Rock (no kingfish) and at another production platform in 170 ft. of water, 68 miles SSE of The Island. These stops produced vermilion snapper, a ling, rockhind, scamp and yellowmouth groupers, lane snapper, etc. The trip's total catch was made up of:
?Ģ 27 blackfin tuna to 18 lb.
?Ģ 108 vermilion snapper to 3 lb.
?Ģ 20 lane snapper
?Ģ 1 almaco jack
?Ģ 4 amberjack
?Ģ 1 horseeye jack of 14#
?Ģ 7 barracuda
?Ģ 10 triggerfish
?Ģ 2 rainbow runner
?Ģ 9 bluerunner
?Ģ 2 rockhind grouper
?Ģ 1 scamp grouper
?Ģ 1 yellowmouth grouper
?Ģ 1 Atlantic pomfret, 28" total length

Mike Lentz, Moore, Oklahoma - 18 vermilion snapper, 2 lane snapper, 2 blackfin tuna.
Larry Levern, Norman, Oklahoma - 2 blackfin tuna, 15 vermilion snapper.
Aaron Hardin, Texas City - This 9 year old fisherman had amberjack, barracuda, triggerfish and vermilion snapper.
Al Calloway, Katy - 4 vermilion snapper, 1 lane snapper and the 14 lb. horseeye jack.
Rita Baumann, Texas City - 1 blackfin tuna, 18 vermilion snapper, the yellowmouth grouper.
Peter Letts, Dickinson - 3 bladkfin tuna and 18 vermilion snapper.
James Ferguson, Bellville - vermilion snapper, 4 blackfin tuna and the Atlantic pomfret that hit his Shimano Butterfly jig at 500 ft. while fishing near the BoomVang Spar production platform.

This 36 hour trip was indeed an adventure, considering the deteriorating weather conditions. Winter offshore always has the possibility of changing conditions that aren't in the forecast. Wave heights were forecast to be 3-4' Saturday and 3-5' Sunday. That's all part of that phrase "That's why it's called "Fishing", not "Catching". Bouncy conditions do at times affect the fishing and the catching and this could have been one of those times, you never know. With sea conditions similar to this trip, more tuna, etc. have definitely been caught.

To book your spot on one of these 36 hour trips by the partyboat Capt. John, give the Pier 19 office a call at 409-762-8808 or 713-223-4853. Several are on the schedule through April 2008, call and make your reservations and bring the Blessing of the weather Gods with you - every bit helps...hopefully the weather forecast makes an accurate contribution too.