Venice Offshore Yellowfin Tuna fishing is *world class*. Not only does the size of these Yellow Fin Tuna make me say *world class*, but the distance to these fish is less than 30 miles from Venice Marina. Combine short distance, huge fish and the very cool visual way we target these fish makes the experience a lasting impression.
OK, so to sum up Saturday and Sunday in this report, let's get started shall we? Both days the charter was made up of "Walk-on" customers, I was able to put together enough each day to have a great crew. Saturday was totally un-expected but also very humbling. The weather, storms and wind had kept me off the water for quite a few days and I did not know if the Jumboz were behind the shrimp boats or not. So we left the dock and really did not know where to find the shrimp boats but as luck would have it, we drove straight to 'em.
I pulled the throttles of the 350 Yammies, back setting the Freeman 33' down behind the first boat. I asked Eric Newman to get some of the totally frozen pogies into a five gallon bucket to begin de-frosting …. He began pulling a few apart and we began running water on 'em in effort to defrost them so when cut they will sink. By this point we had moved bean bags to the front and I had arranged a little tackle and visually checked out my surroundings. I looked at the Furuno 3D depth 'o' meter and my eyes almost popped out at the site of HUGE markings of red…. I said to Eric "WO, Eric look at this, they are here and we are on 'em, here give me some bait". Eric replied "it's still frozen we are working on it but I've cut a few pieces if you want 'em." I took one cut pogie, about 4 pieces and tossed them into the water only to watch a JUMBO come and eat 'em. I grabbed a whole pogie and hooked it gangster style through the eyes and tossed it into the water and walla Jumbo ate, but the bait was completely frozen so the fish spit it out before I could get a hook into it. Oh, well we've been fishing 2 minutes and they appear to be here.
We gather our composure, let the bait thaw and motor back into position. As we begin to chum the bonitos start feeding first and almost every single time we made a drift the HUGE Jumboz showed on the surface. This day when the Jumboz appear in the slick it's 6 up to 10 fish rolling on the surface with sickles all out of the water.. Each HUGE JUMBO boiling as they are in a frenzy and making a show like I've never seen.. I threw a perfect piece about 8 feet from the boat and I think the Yellowfin was lurking below the boat waiting and watching because just as soon as the bait hit the water this HUGE JUMBO sucked it down and it was on!!Hook up!! Break off!! The uni to uni was tied last fishing trip and in my haste I did not check it out this particular morning...
At any rate this type of fishing went on all day we saw an estimated 100 Jumbo Yellow Fin Tuna. Now, just to tell you how stellar that is, on most days we visually spot, watch and see about 10 up to 20 if you are lucky….AND on a bunch of days you will only see 2 or 3 and then some days none at all……. So, now do you see how stellar the visual is? ?
Can you believe we ended with one Jumbo? Yep, that was it!!
On Sunday; day two, different anglers but same game plan. I did however spend most of the night swapping from 30TW's to 50 and 80 wides. I sharpened all the saws and went to bed dreaming about the morning to come. I knew if we only saw ½ what we had seen the day before it was going to be awesome.
We departed Venice Marina and I slammed the Yammies all the way, she roared up to 5700rpm and we were cruising down the pass with a light glow of morning sun at 58mph. as we broke out into the gulf it was slick calm, I never stood up or touched the throttles, we rocked to the same area and we were fishing with the sun just breaking above the horizon.
First boat was the mother load, it was one stop shopping. This time the bait was thawed the night before and we were ready. As we pulled into position Eric threw some cut chum right onto the port side of the shrimping vessel and hollered "There they are, someone get a hook into the water. We had 2 anglers ready, belts had been properly fitted, instructions given on what a bite feels like and what to do when the fish takes off. This time, this morning we were ready!! Sure nuf here they come cruising through the slick, they were large and in charge.
I can't explain the grace of these huge Tuna and honestly I don't think I can convey the feelings and emotions these fish send through your soul. As a fisherman I try so hard to catch 'em the chase is intense, preparation is continuous, thousands of dollars spent, conversations for hours and friends made because of *Fishing*… And it all comes down to times like this. This is the best of the best, it doesn't happen every day.
We doubled up on 'em and even could have tripled up. As the anglers would fight the fish we would continue to chum and watch the graceful behemoths swim through the slick getting the EXACT perfect pieces of bait that they chose. This was a two day stretch that I will remember forever!!
Good fishing-
Captain Mike Gray
www.CajunOdysea.com
