# Horn Mountain,Sevan Louisiana,Discover Deep Sea 5/17 and 5/18



## catdad100 (Nov 17, 2009)

Got late start Saturday fishing with my wife and friend/forum member Ga.Boy and his wife and made it as far as Ram Powell about an hour before dark and trolling in dirty water til dark then tried jigging for blackfin with no luck then proceeded to the Horn Mountain(green water) which was loaded with boats including Get Shorty who was still there the next morning.Lots of folks trolling with live bait,chunking and jigging and we jigged for several hours with no luck and didnt see anybody catching fish so pulled away to get some sleep and was back at just after 4am, and started chunking and within 5 minutes picked up our only yellowfin then no bites so started trolling at sunrise with no luck and again didnt see anyone catching so proceeded to the sevan louisaina(blue water) and picked up two blackfin then to discover deep sea(blue water) for two more blackfin and then trolled along the huge weed lines in that area for miles with no luck then back to horn mountain and chunked with 2 good bites but missed the hook then called it quits and headed to fort morgan.Was first trip on our recently purchased world cat we purchased from friend/coworker/forum member Buck Wild cover 244 miles(3 of it drifting) and burned 183 gallons and rode well. In 3rd pic notice the j hook broke off in his head if you lost one out there it might of been him. Was hoping for many more fish but am just happy for the one yf and glad to have something to bring home for the table.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jIU6PT5K28


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## Cap'n Davey (Mar 26, 2014)

Sounds like a fun trip and super info in the report (trip distance, fuel consumption etc). Food looks great. Now I'm starving LOL!

Thanks!


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## Scruggspc (Mar 20, 2013)

Nice trip


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## Captain Woody Woods (Oct 2, 2007)

Looks like a bigeye


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## catdad100 (Nov 17, 2009)

*Big Eye*



Captain Woody Woods said:


> Looks like a bigeye


 Thanks Captain I argued with GaBoy that it was likely a big eye but he didnt believe me. When he hit the deck he had the color of a big blackfin and the fins were yellow but only on the edges and after it died it just didnt look right. What did you notice to make the id?


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## SnapperSlapper (Feb 13, 2009)

Bigeyes were thick at horn mountain and deep seas this weekend. We caught 5 and pulled hooks on several more at those two rigs. It is easy to tell the difference when you have yellowfins and bigeyes beside each other. Big eye has coloration more like a blackfin, and if it has stripes they are dark instead of light like yellowfins. They are thicker than yellowfins. They have yellow finlets but their Allison fins aren't as completely yellow as a yellowfins. Basically it looks like a cross between a blackfin and a yellowfin.


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## Captain Woody Woods (Oct 2, 2007)

catdad100 said:


> Thanks Captain I argued with GaBoy that it was likely a big eye but he didnt believe me. When he hit the deck he had the color of a big blackfin and the fins were yellow but only on the edges and after it died it just didnt look right. What did you notice to make the id?


I've caught a BUNCH of them in the gulf, and pretty regularly at night in the area you mention. When they come up, many have stripes almost exactly like a wahoo-pretty exaggerated. Only true way to tell is the liver, however. But it does look a lot like a bigeye at first glance...and like Richard mentioned, they are much shorter and fatter than a yellowfin of same size.

notice my word usage "looks like a bigeye," as at this point, there is no way to tell and no sense in arguing on this thread. Great fish though, congrats.


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## PELAGIC PIRATE (Oct 10, 2007)

Saw you guys there : Great boat you have there :

I fished a worldcat 27TE for 4 yrs and a 33 for an additional 4 years:

Puts stacks of fish in both boats: Sea worthy as all get out too.


Horn was tough : marked tons of fish but i think they were full of squid or some small minnows : We had them bust right next to the boat several times and they would not hit anything. I caught one Yellwofin there on a hardtail at dark , and one giant blkfin on a popper.


See you out there : call us 16 next time you see me for a report.


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## Captain Woody Woods (Oct 2, 2007)

Not trying to take attention away from your thread, but check out these fish we caught back in 2009 that are the state records for Louisiana. The fish in the picture with me and the young kid is 173, but notice the stripes. We had caught some yellowfin earlier that day in the 150 class, which were much taller (when stood on their noses for pics) than the big eyes. We conservatively estimated the bigeyes at like 130 pounds. We weren't even sure they were bigeyes at that point. The two larger fish on the dock were 197 and 194, respectively. A 200# yellowfin, when you stand him on his nose, to the fork of the tail, is almost always over 72 inches. These fish were nowhere near six feet tall.

The fish in the first pic is a 218# yellowfin. I stand about 5'10, and that fish was way taller than me. The guy in the pic with me is 6'6. Way taller than the near 200# big eyes.

Anyway, sorry for the derail.


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## catdad100 (Nov 17, 2009)

Thanks for taking the time to post the pictures and information Captain Woody and Snapperslapper. We picked up some tuna livebaiting at horn last july we assumed were big blackfin(20-24lbs) but now I believe were small bigeyes. And Pelagic Pirate(Mike) Buckwild told me your fishing two upcoming tournaments so good luck and I will be sure to get up with yall next time.


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## SnapperSlapper (Feb 13, 2009)

Rule of thumb for me, and I may be wrong. If it looks like a blackfin, but has yellow finlets, it is a bigeye. Big blackfins and small bigeyes look the same in body and coloration, but the bigeyes have yellow finlets and blackfins have black/brown. When they get over 80 pounds they are also easy to tell. Yellowfins start getting long sickles, and bigeyes sickles stay short. At 30-60 pounds they are tougher for me to tell apart, but the bigeyes have the shorter thicker body and the darker coloration like a blackfin. And if they have the brown stripes like that big fish Woody posted a picture of it is a dead giveway. But not all have the stripes. If you have a 50# fish of each beside each other the difference is more obvious. In my limited experience it also seems like we catch bigeyes on a full moon, and not so much the rest of the time. I think they live deeper than yellowfins and the full moon brings them up. And almost all of them come at night. The guys on the trip this weekend wanted to know what was better, bigeye or yellowfin. I told them that honestly to me they are the same, I can't tell a difference eating them.


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## Captain Woody Woods (Oct 2, 2007)

SnapperSlapper said:


> At 30-60 pounds they are tougher for me to tell apart, but the bigeyes have the shorter thicker body and the darker coloration like a blackfin. And if they have the brown stripes like that big fish Woody posted a picture of it is a dead giveway. But not all have the stripes. If you have a 50# fish of each beside each other the difference is more obvious. In my limited experience it also seems like we catch bigeyes on a full moon, and not so much the rest of the time. I think they live deeper than yellowfins and the full moon brings them up. And almost all of them come at night. The guys on the trip this weekend wanted to know what was better, bigeye or yellowfin. I told them that honestly to me they are the same, I can't tell a difference eating them.


Pretty spot on. A yellowfin here in the gulf around 90# or so starts growing crazy long sickles, usually that bottom one first. Depending how youre fishing, without giving away too much info, if you're jigging deeeep (200-450+), pretty strong chance you'll get into the big eyes. Blackfin usually stop the jig much shallower than that. Daytime I find them on the temperature breaks. I've said too much. As far as value, I know the bigeye usually fetches a lot more per pound than the yellowfin. I don't know if I can tell the difference between the meats (been awhile since I've had both side by side), but bigeye is delicious and usually has a much higher fat content (which helps ask the higher price per pound) and is garbage if cooked past medium rare. There are a LOT of bigeye in the gulf, way more than you hear about. The methods for targeting them though (at least the way I get mine) are much different than yellowfin.


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## SnapperSlapper (Feb 13, 2009)

This past weekend after we caught the first fish after dark, Brian walked out of the wheelhouse and asked "is it a bigeye"? He couldn't see the fish details from the wheelhouse. But from the moon and how we caught it, he was suspicious that it was a bigeye. And it was.


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## catdad100 (Nov 17, 2009)

*Big Eye*

Ive always heard that the Bigeye bring more money than yellowfin and all I can say is Ive ate it seared last two nights and its been absolutely off the chain good and I plan on having it again tonight also the ones we caught last july were late at night so that makes sense to me.


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## sniperpeeps (Mar 5, 2011)

Nice report! Glad to see you got out there and congrats on the new sled!


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