Venice Offshore- Large Pelagics

[customcat]

With everyone still in celebration mode down here over the Saints victory Sunday night it’s only appropriate to add a killer fishing report from this past weekend. Friday afternoon the winds in Venice were brutal to say the least. After a lot of “You going fishing tomorrow?” between myself and a few captains and re-checking the forecast, we all decided after a few cocktails that only the only way to see how rough it’s going to be is to go! Saturday morning rolled around and the winds were 15-20 out of the northwest expected to calm to 10-15 in the afternoon. On board for the morning was, Scott Cloud and his gang. Scott is a boat owner himself and knew the forecast was dicey but we were both willing to check it out. We rolled downriver and once gain, it was very cold! Once offshore we pushed out and found dirty water for about 15 miles and then it changed to beautiful 65 degree blue and 3-5ft. We hadn’t made our first lap and get a serious knock-down. This fish pulled off and we kept the course. A few minutes later we picked up a double on blacks and stayed in the area since we were marking good fish. Next pass and the X-Rap get’s clobbered. This fish took a lot of line on heavy drag and stayed deep for 20 minutes. My initial thought was yellowfin, but when the fish came up, myself and my deckhand both leaned over with gaffs in hand and a stud wahoo that latter weighed 86lbs was in the boat. At that moment clouds came in and the wind picked up to a solid 20-25 m.p.h.. Now the seas were getting angry and several calls over the vhf of captains heading for the barn was barely heard over the wind. We kept fishing and got another knock-down immediately. This was a nice fish in the 40lb class. We re-grouped for another pass and tripled-up. We landed two out of the three with the biggest going 50lbs or so. We put the baits out again and while making a turn, I took a nasty curling wave over the bow along with several hundred’s of gallons of water along with it. I jammed the throttles and opened the tuna door and out it went. The only problem was the baits were still out and we had hooked up during our little dilemma. I drug him for quite awhile until all of the water was gone and we soon boxed him and headed for the pass in seas that were now 6-8ft. Ugly to say the least but the wahoo didn’t care. Super bowl Sunday rolled around and overnight the winds had lain down considerably. Once offshore I was relieved to see 3ft waves that had a little space between them. We started out wahoo fishing and couldn’t beat the big blackfin off. We boxed six of them and moved on. My sweet spot from the day before wasn’t so sweet with the amount of boats in the area. We kept at it right until lunch and doubled up. The first fish pulled off after a long run and the other stayed tight. Every thing was going good and we saw color on a wahoo that was bigger than Saturday’s fish. I guess my angler freaked out when he saw it because he knocked the 30w into free-spool and the fish made one last run and well, you know the rest of the story. It was then around lunch and I made the decision to go tuna fishing. And it would be a good one. After a short lesson in chunking we had the guys going. It didn’t take long for the “chunk-junk” to show up and I was soon donating hooks faster than the government donates money! 30 minutes or so past and we made another move trying to get a large mako that was playing behind Capt. Eddies boat while he was fighting another mako .We started chunking hard for him for about 5 minute’s when we started marking some serious tuna. The first chunk hadn’t gone 20ft when a yellowfin in the 150lb class rolled up and sucked it in and headed for parts unknown! He pulled off after a few minutes. I took the Frenzy 8/0 hooked and re-tied it and buried it in a nice chunk of wahoo belly and repeated the process. We got picked up again and this one stuck. The fish made an initial run of 200yds before he slowed down. My angler was not ready for this one and after 10 minutes he bowed out. I suited up my deckhand Capt. Will Bradford and he fought him for about 30 minutes. This fish was mean. He would make long deep runs and then go straight for the surface, several hundreds yards in front of the boat. I took over shortly after and stayed with him. During that time I went completely around my boat at least 10 times. The fish wouldn’t settle into a pattern. We eventually got color on him as he stayed off the bow right on the surface as we gave chase. We knew this was a stud yellow and just took our time. After another 10 minutes or so the fish settled up and down and started his circles. Will soon gaffed him and I stuck him again. I was relieved to say the least and the size was stupid. Once in the boat I was guessing 200lbs. He would later weigh 195lbs back at the marina. We packed up and cleaned up and left the tuna grounds with a 500lb mako jumping off of my stern that was just hooked up. The fishing is good right now and is following the same time line as last year. The docks Sunday afternoon were filled with tuna and a lot of good karma. We still have a few days left in Feb. and March. Give us a call to book your next trip in Venice. P.S. I put together a video from Saturday. Enjoy. Here is the link


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmocUczDdEo

Captain William Wall
Pelagic Charters
www.pelagicchartersllc.com

[Capt Josh]

Damn dude rough water or not those are some respectable sea kittens.

I was extremely happy to see the Saints pull off that victory on sunday, and i'm even happier to see you boys nailing fish like that! NICE WORK!

[customcat]

Thanks Bro. It was rough but fun. If I would have had another hour out there Saturday to fish I could have busted the wahoo's ass on a serious level! I am going to live bait them on a downrigger this week. 5lb live bonita should do it. Looking for the 100lb hoo. Take care JT.

[SportFishStaff]

Sweet Work in some sporty conditions, Capt. Thanks for sharing.

[Captain Rich Adler]

We are dealing with back to back blizzards up here, thanks for the video. I couldn't see it clearly on the video, what were you trolling, green witches or stretch lures ??

[squirtis]

Thats a sweet haul in trying conditions!!!

Great report nd video!!

[customcat]

X-RAP RAPALA. Swap the hooks to Owner 3/0 xxx trebles and 220lb split rings and you are in business! Squirtis, Whats Up?

[treyfry]

GREAT CATCH!!ARE THEY SHOWING UP AT THE LUMP YET? WE ARE TRAILERING DOWN FOR OUR ANNUAL WINTER TRIP IN A COUPLE OF WEEKS.

[customcat]

No lump action yet. Probabaly won't kick off but who know's.

[Captain Fred Archer]

Cat,

Themersome real gator 'hoos and tooners...nice going!

Downriggers?? Good luck draggin' that lead and them big minners...just be careful of that danged by-catch of big tooners and marlin...and maybe makos!

Thanks for the report.