Venice - Mid Winter report

[customcat]

First of all, I would like to personally thank Mr. Weather man for screwing up the forecast the last two weekends. Whoever you are, you are truly a toolbag. Ok, done with that for now. It's late January down here in Venice. Duck season has recently ended and the marina is a ghost town for now. It was a great season. The only thing I won't miss is the sound of an airboat going by at 4:30 am that sounds like they bolted a rocket from the space shuttle on the back with open exhaust. Seriously though, the fishing in the past few weeks has been good and not so good for the most part. The bigger model yellowfin haven't shown yet but I don't believe it will be long. The pogies have showed up and the temps are right, along with clarity. Sunday's wahoos had pogies in their stomachs, so they can't be far. The wahoo have been playing cat and mouse. One spot one day and gone the next. Size right now is really varying. I had one fish at the beginning of the month that was 75lbs and one this past Sunday that was probably right at 70lbs. The rest seem to be in that 35-40 class. Stretch baits are a good way to cover alot of water right now but a livie on the downrigger should get you a bigger fish. The bottom fishing is very good right now. The deepwater species such as snowys and yellowedge are really thick along with a few golden tiles. The broomtail fishing is also good on the jigs. Last Saturday I had the Banks gang from Georgia. The original plan was to fish two days but the forecast for Friday was king crab weather so we opted for Saturday. There was a ripple on the pond, as I left Venice marina Sat. morning. "Its just a slight breeze" I said to myself as I drank coffee and idled out of the marina, confidently sure that the weather man had not purposely messed up the forecast of 2-3's. It was chilly rolling down the river. I have recently broke in my new 300's and they rock by the way. Right before I cleared the pass I noticed the canes laying over sideways from the wind. He got me again! Damn you weatherman!!!! Shortly after clearing the 200ft mark I came off a wave and my downrigger politely came off the bracket into the gulf. All I could say was, "thats nice" and pressed on. We wahoo fished for most of the morning with no love before making a decision of taking it to the barn for eggs and bacon and get out of the 4-6 ft seas with the occasional 7ft. We did catch possibly the ugliest amberjack that I have ever seen. His jaw was seperated all the way up to his eyes. Apparently something had gotten him and the weird thing was, it had healed over. Fitting for the day. That evening I had Scott Could and his gang from Lake Charles. That night we cooked up steaks and deer sausage and discussed our strategy over a few cocktails. In the past, I have nicknamed Scott, "Black Cloud", due to his strong magic to make a 2ft forecast turn into 6ft. The next morning we left early, I was sure that Scott's magic was far greater than the weatherman. As we cleared the pass it was less than 2ft and we rolled to the grounds at 50mph. Fist stop baits in the water for less than a minute. 30lb blackfin on ice. We caught six and lost three more and decided to go find some hoo. We moved another twenty miles and found beautiful water and no love. We eventually made our way back to the tuna grounds and set in for chunking. We fished for three hours and nothing but trash. After 150lbs of chum and loosing about 423,021 hooks we headed off to find a late afternoon wahoo bite. We picked up two big blacks right off the bat. After that it was nothing for about 45 minutes. I made one last pass on another rig and wham. Port long goes off. Finally, I was fishing a Talica 16 with 80 jb and the little reel was smoking. A short while later we boxed a solid 65-70lb fish. We reset and next pass we doubled up. Pulled the hooks on one at the boat and boxed the other fish that was 35lbs. We called it a day and was back at the marina at 6:00 pm. I am looking forward to a strong Feb and March. I still have some primo dates open. Also I recently have had alot of upgrades to the boat. I pulled the 250's and now I am running the new Yamaha 300's. Very impressed so far. the midrange is incredible. Totally changed the performance as well as handling for the boat. Total new refurbish on everything except electronics. Take care and never trust the weatherman.


Captain William Wall
Pelagic Charters
1.225.454.5365
www.captwill1@cox.net

[CaptAnthony]

Woe!

Crazy Aj. He survived til he met you!