Photos The Forgotten Gulf Coast

The Forgotten Gulf Coast

By Marlin Staff

May 16, 2012

Stretching from Florida to Texas, the Gulf of Mexico has, for the past 40 years, offered up unequaled access to some of the best fishing on the planet — including one of the most prolific blue marlin fisheries in the United States.

John Felsher

Oil rigs dot the Gulf of Mexico, providing feeding stations for game fish of every species and targets for intrepid anglers. John Felsher

Big blue marlin abound in the Gulf’s warm, blue water, with fish over 1,000 pounds being a possibility no matter which port you leave from. Barry Carr’s 1,054-pound blue came from Biloxi, Mississippi, and is the Gulf’s biggest to date.

Herman “Dutch” Prager founded the New Orleans Big Game Fishing Club 51 years ago. Courtesy IGFA

Mississippi may get a lot more press for its thriving casinos, but it also hosts some of the most successful and big-money billfish tournaments on the Gulf Coast, like the Mississippi Gulf Coast Classic. Alaric Lambert

John Felsher

While blue marlin get all the press, there are plenty of large bigeye tuna, yellowfin and giant bluefin tuna to make your arms ache well into the future. Louisiana boys even cast plugs to tuna on spin gear.

Henry Yap’s creation, the Yap, was one of the first lures to gain wide acceptance in the Unites States —its first catches came in the Gulf. Dave Ferrell

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