Offshore Venice La

[CaptEddie]

I had a fun thursday and friday on the shrimpers again. Headed out thursday in a 30 grady with Mike Vales. the only problem is a lack of fishboxes which came back to haunt us. Ran out to the shrimpers and started picking up blackfins. Couldnt get them to stay with us though as we drifted away the first couple times. Finally we managed to pull the school off of the shrimpers. Started picking away at the blacks and catching plenty of bonito and then I saw some yf darting through the slick. With all the blacks it was hard to get a bait to them but I finally got a 65 pounder to bite. One of the guys put it in the boat and then we saw some bigger ones down. I hooked up on a 115 and was trying to find someone to fight it when they told me too. HMM well I got lucky and it was a lazy fish and I put it in the boat in 15 minutes. Kepy chumming some more and the truly big fish were rolling through our slick now. We had only an igloo cooler left with any space and of course we hooked a stud. We put Monseigneur Nalte on the fish and he proceeded to fight it and fight it and fight it.



While hes fighing that fish we were still chumming for the heck of it and we had half a dozen fish over 150 in the slick right now. I called a couple of captains over and they both doubled up on big yellows and now we were all drifting around fighting studs. Finally the Monseigneur has to call it quits with the fish about 20 feet down and straight up abusing him. I took the rod and moved the fish up about 5 feet in 20 minutes before we let someone else put the fish in the boat. It ended up weighing 168 pounds. We had to take all the blacks out the box and put ice in the live well and then put a 115 pounder in an igloo with its tail hanging out but we got all the fish iced down and headed to the house with our three yf to 168 pounds and a bunch of blackfin.









On friday I had Steve and his friend Huck out there with me on the palmetto. I had Matt along to deckhand for me and I am glad we had him. We pulled up to the shrimper and managed to lead the fish to my boat on the first drift. It was the same as the day before. Only blacks and bonitos for about 45 minutes before the yellows showed up. First yf was about 60 pounds and was tossed in teh box. About 15 minutes later the big boys showed up and we broke off a 150 class on his first run. No worries though as there was another one with him. Steve got on the rod and fought the fish for about an hour before huck took over to give steve a little break. Steve got back on and about an hour and a half after the initial hookup we put a 155 in the box.





the fish had left us while we were fighting that one so we started jumping around on boats and never could pull another school off although we were catching blacks pretty reguarly. We Had one last bait so I pulled up to a shrimper and tossed it in his propwash and we instantly hooked up. Me and huck both saw the boil and thought it was a blackfin until it made a run and kept going and going and going. Hmm not a blackfin. Luckily I was trying out a new technique and had no leader on the rod. Just a circle hook to 130 jerry brown spectra so we could put some serious heat on this fish. Steve fought it for a little while before he was whupped and we put Matt in the harness. Matt's a 24 y/o college student in pretty good shape so we were all glad he was there to help fight this last fish. I bumped the drag up past strike since there were storms on the way and we could already hear the thunder. About 45 minutes after the hookup we put a stud in the box. We hauled butt to the dock and got rained on most of the way.


The tail of the tape showed the big boy weighed in at 188.

[Capt Josh]

I can't believe how long those allison fins are in relation to the size of the fish up there, very cool. Nice job capt those are some dandies!

[CaptEddie]

Thats why I have always thought our fish are not exactly the same as yalls. There is some small difference in why our sickle fins are always very long and yalls fish are bigger.

[brandon558]

I can't believe how long those allison fins are in relation to the size of the fish up there, very cool. Nice job capt those are some dandies!

i agree those damn things are huge! Pretty work on the fine fish capt. Great report!

[SeaBiscuit]

Magnificent catching and reporting captain Eddie, thanks!
If you don't mind telling how deep is the water around those shrimp boats? I've seen the blacks out of Key West in rather shallow water (80 feet or so) just wondering if the large yellowfins will come shallow as well.

BTW the take and fight on a chunk on straight spectra had to be pretty intense! Well done!

SeaBiscuit

[CaptEddie]

Ive been fishing in 300-350 feet of water or so although I have heard of some being taken in less then 200 feet before on shrimpers.

[Angler Systems]

Always love to see & read your reports!

[fightingcouch]

some nice Cows. Those sickles are huge