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Captain Steve Foust Includes His Favorite Tuna Recipes and Tactics He Uses Offshore at Alabama’s Gulf Coast in March

By: John Phillips

Monday, March 23, 2009

Editor’s Note: Captain Steve Foust, of the charter boat, “Aqua Star,” based at Zeke’s Marina in Orange Beach, Alabama, fishes successfully offshore as well as inshore during March.




Question: What will you be catching offshore this month?
Foust: Since grouper season doesn’t open until April, our best trips this month offshore will be for blackfin tuna and scamp.

Question: How are you catching blackfin tuna in March?
Foust: We go out to the deep water on the edge of the continental shelf and fish around the rigs. We use diamond jigs, drop them down about 100 to 150 feet and then jerk-up the jigs and let them fall back. If the blackfin tuna are in that area, they’ll eat them up. March is too early to catch yellowfin tuna. May’s a good month for them. But the blackfins are a lot of fun to catch and delicious to eat.

Question: What else do you catch when you go out to deep water in March?
Foust: We fish for scamp, which are like small grouper. They too are fun to catch and delicious to eat. March is still somewhat early for king mackerel, marlin and wahoos.
But we can have some good fishing out in deep water for the tuna and scamp.

Question: What else are you fishing for this month?
Foust: If we’re fishing inshore, then March is a great month for the Spanish mackerel. They’ll generally start running the beach and can provide productive fishing and catching this month. Although we usually target the Spanish mackerel, we always carry cobia rods with us in case we see the cobia. If we’re fishing for Spanish mackerel on a day that we’re seeing a lot of cobia, we’ll leave the Spanish mackerel and start concentrating more on the cobia.

Question: What about bottom fishing now?
Foust: Our bottom-fishing trips are for vermillion snapper, white snapper, triggerfish and an occasional scamp. And before in March, bottom fishing has been pretty good at this time of the year. So, we have a lot of choices for fishing this month. But my favorite fishing this month is for the blackfin tuna. We can catch a lot of them, and I love to cook blackfin tuna. They are easy to cook and delicious to eat.




Blackfin Tuna Recipes:

Question: How do you cook your blackfin tuna?
Foust: I have two blackfin tuna recipes that I really like.

I’ll cut the fillet off the blackfin tuna and leave the skin attached to the fillet. Fire-up your grill, and place the tuna fillet skin-side down on the grill. Baste the top side of the tuna either with lemon and butter. Let the fish cook until the meat starts to turn white, and then remove it from the grill. The biggest problem with cooking tuna is most people overcook it. So as soon as the tuna starts to change color and turn white, go ahead, and pull it off the grill.

I also like to cut off the fillet and take the skin off the fillet. I soak the tuna fillet in Italian salad dressing for at least an hour or two. Next, I’ll put the tuna fillet on the grill and when it turns white, take it off the grill, and eat it.

I also have a favorite blackfin tuna recipe for leftover tuna. Take the leftover tuna that has been grilled, and put it in the refrigerator overnight. Then the next day break-up the tuna into small pieces, add 2 or 3 tablespoons of mayonnaise to the tuna - more if you like the creamy type of tuna salad – add some pickles, onions and celery that have been chopped-up fine. Mix all the ingredients together to have a delicious tuna salad.

To learn more about Captain Foust, call (251) 747-4761, or email him at aquastarcharters@aol.com.