Mako Madness

By Al Rogers Rodnreel.com

If there were any doubts in the mind of Scott Avanzino about what rules the top of the food chain in the Gulf of Mexico, he has no doubt now. Capt. Avanzino and five guests on a bachelor party fought a 160-pound yellowfin tuna, only to see it devoured by a toothy beast at the side of their boat.

The story takes place at an increasingly popular area about 19 miles off the mouth of the Mississippi River – the Midnight Lump. The base of this underwater mountain, or ancient salt dome, rises from depths of about 600 feet to a peak at 200 feet. The Midnight Lump is a veritable sanctuary for many pelagic species including wahoo, grouper, blackfin tuna, red snapper and amberjack. But it is the monstrous yellowfin tuna that packs more than 150 boats to an area that is less than one square mile.

Some say big tuna can be caught here year-round. But the “run” on these migratory creatures here is usually from February through April. The sight of a 160-pound tuna being pulled over the side of a boat is truly awesome. But what Avanzino and his party witnessed this week was a bloody sight they say they’ll never forget.

Most of the offshore anglers off the southeast Louisiana coast know that the yellowfin tuna are here. The fishing can be hit or miss – but in the right conditions, the action can be frantic. The other side of the coin is that giant mako sharks love yellowfin tuna more than a Japanese chef. And with the vast numbers of tuna at the Lump, so are these toothy monsters of the deep.

“The makos are always here with the tuna,” said Avanzino. “I believe they migrate with them up the east coast, then back here in the late winter.”

He compared it to the Great White Sharks following the pods of giant bluefin tuna.

One of the biggest makos caught off the lump came last year when Dan Luke, Father Christopher Nalty, Jim Owens and Frank Donnewar picked up an errant line, reattached it to one of their reels. After an hour and a half of cranking – during which they filled the reel to capacity twice, requiring them to cut the monofilament, strip line from the spool and then re-splice, then put two flying gaffs into a 702-pound mako shark.

Although it bested Louisiana’s record by 290 pounds, it cannot enter the IGFA rule books that specify that angler cannot pass the rod to others in order to catch the fish.

This week, Tim Murphy of Houma was fishing for amberjack with a 40-pound Trilene Big Game Mono line when he hooked up with a monster mako. Murphy handed the rod off to Capt. Timmy Couvillion, and embarked on a 90-minute battle with the leaping giant.

After examining tissue samples, Louisiana State University researchers say they believe it to be the largest male mako shark caught anywhere.

“These sharks are not afraid of anything – they’re at the top of the food chain,” Avanzino said.

Avanzino and his five-member bachelor party had a great morning caching blackfins and amberjack. So they rode over to the Lump to hopefully catch a big yellowfin. Shortly they hooked into a big tuna, estimated at 160 pounds.

This big guy took the rod first,” Avanzino said. “He must have been 6-foot, four inches tall and weighed about 285. He fought the fish for an hour. Then another guy took over – he lasted about 30 minutes.”

Visions of sashimi danced through their heads as they continued to battle the big tuna. Finally Avanzino took over the rod and started cranking.

“But all of a sudden the tuna took off like a bat out of hell,” he said. “He ran straight ahead in front of the boat. We had no idea that a big mako was after it.”

Suddenly the monster tuna turned and ran back parallel to the boat. But suddenly it became tangled in running gear at the stern of the boat. And the blue-green waters changed to a gut wrenching purple-red.

“We saw everything. The tuna actually ran into the boat,” Avanzino said. “But when we saw the blood we knew what had happed.”

The crew was able to retrieve only the forked tail of their big yellowfin tuna.

But the real excitement had really just begun. The mako, estimated at 400 pounds, began circling Avanzino’s 305 Albemarle. The captain instructed the deckhand to prepare a bonito to hopefully coax the shark over to the side of the boat.

“First we tried squid, and he didn’t want any part of it” Avanzino said. “But came right after the bonito.”

Waiting with a flying gaff, Avanzino planted the detachable hook (connected to a rope cleated off). Soon two other gaffs were planted into the shark and it was pulled aboard.

Veteran offshore anglers know that makos can cause grave damage even after they are considered dead. The crew cut out the shark’s heart and other vital organs. They then began to idle back to the Midnight Lump.

“Twenty minutes after we gutted him, he started kicking and banging everywhere,” Avanzino said. “It’s like he came to life. There were blood and guts everywhere. This thing was 9 feet long – it took up my whole cockpit.”

Avanzino admitted some guilt about killing such a big creature, but he said none of it went to waste. Back at the marina he cut up steaks for the crowd of 50 who had gathered to see the catch of the day.