Venice Offshore- Summer Tease

[customcat]

This past weekend I had the pleasure of fishing with Jim Ciuffetelli. When I first met him I quickly figured out that he had fished everywhere a man would want to fish. His 'operation" consists of a 96ft mother-ship along with a 36ft Contender that has kept him for the most past in the Bahama's exploring the tuna and wahoo bite in and around the islands. He had never been to Venice and wanted to check it out after reading countless articles and reports. He had his crew tow the 36 down to Venice and the plan was to fish five days depending on conditions. Saturday morning we headed out with plans of strictly tuna fishing. The conditions were marginal to say the least but we pressed on in a 3-4ft sea in dirty water and upon arrival in blue water the seas were 4-5ft. We marked tuna immediately and scored a fish right off the bat on the chunk. A nice fish in the 50lb range. We stayed in the are for quite awhile because of the amount of life. Skippies were busting along with yellowfin and blacks. I admit I was excited to see a yellowfin bust in the air because of our long winter that had just past and I hadn't seen it in awhile. We moved about twenty miles and marked fish again. This time I set up naked ballyhoo off the rigger and was ate immediately. We boxed two fish in the 35-40lb range. I pinned two more ballyhoo and we pulled the same path only to have a small white come up and swat the bait and despite a drop-back didn't take it! Did I say summer is almost around the corner? The water temps were hovering around 70 degrees at this spot and cobalt blue. We stuck with it for a little while longer and pulled another yellowfin in the 30lb class before heading north. It was good to see the fish setting up for the summer pattern. All we need is for the live bait to come and it would be on. Note- We fished for livies in three locations but no love. About 9 miles from the pass we blew a lower gearcase on the center motor and limped back in at a much slower pace. I was able to use for the first time, a Flir system that he had installed on the boat to guide me in the pass. Impressive indeed. Early the next morning I dumped my boat in the water and set up everything for the day. We headed back to the same location as the day before except the sun was shining and the seas were beautiful. Shorts were the order of the day. Upon arrival I set up two Torsa 40's on jigging rods with ballyhoo setups to make it fun. We got ate in 30 seconds. For the next four hours it was non stop. We ended up going 15 for 19 on small yellows in the 25-40lb class. Not big, but alot of fun on the smaller gear. Bigger fish are definitely in the area and you can bet a marlin isn't far with the amount of life. In the two days we did not see a boat which was nice. We had to call off the rest of the trip due to the wind increasing Monday- Wednesday right up to the point of stupid. Summer is almost here and there is push of 80 degree water that is not far off that I would bet the bull dolphin and billfish are in for sure. I might make the run next week to check it out once it comes close. The guys on board took pics and I will post them as soon as I get them. I have a few days left in May as well as June. Give me a buzz if you would like to make a trip to Venice.

Captain William Wall
Pelagic Charters
Venice, La

[squirtis]

Where's the pics Will

Keep the reports coming..maybe I will make it down eventually..

crazy busy, Panama next week, Baby in June, etc. etc.

[paul708]

great report.
jigging those yellow sounds like a blast.
pics would be great