Offshore Venice LA

[capteddie]

I have a bunch of good trip stuff from Venice this weekend including a mondo yf caught by my deckhand while he was running a private vessel. I started out with a night trip on friday night where I finally got the right weather to go the distance and get some fish. We started off by making bait which was a cinch then rolled on out to a shelf rig. Saw some small fish there but nothing that was worth catching so we headed south to the floaters. Soon as we pulled up we saw some quality fish busting but no takers. The bite started off a little slow as we started catching some small yellowfin on live bait and finally pulled a 65 pounder on a hardtail. At that point I started marking a few fish so we started chunking and picked away at the fish until about 530 at which point we had 4-5 yf in the boat all around 60-70 pounds. We went back to livebaiting at that point and proceeded to start doing excellent with the live bait and by night I think we had 11 yf in the box. The fish were starting to bust under the lights then so my deckhand Will throws out a popper and hits a yf on the head while I chunk off the back and hook up to another yf. We land that double of yf then start chunking again and instantly hook up another double to finish off our limit of yf at 15 fish all between 60-70 pounds.

I had a trip to run on saturday as well so we left out about 615 in the morning and headed back to the same spot. One of my deckhands Lee was running a private boat trip I had him booked on that day as well so he followed me out. The first live bait in the water that day was taken out of my hand as I was letting it out and we broke the ice quick with a 60 pound fish. I live baited for another 45 minutes with no success so we decided to chunk and the first drift we doubled up on yf. I figured we might be on to something here as we got a single yf on the next drift. At this point we had 4 hits and 4 fish in the box for a pretty good ratio that would only get better.

At this point Lee started chunking and hooked up.

We made three more drifts and had three straight doubleheaders to bring our total to 10 yf. Lee is still fighting his fish at this point and was now about a half mile from the rig. We decide to make one more drift and we get a single yf in the boat to go 11 for 11 on the day.

WE then go over to harass Lee for being on the same fish for 2 hours at that point when they request my presence on the boat as they think the fish is close to being landed. They were wrong. I ended up taking over the rod for a little while and remember why I dont like fighting big fish. They really put a hurting on you. I got the fish to color and passed it back to one of Lees guys and they went to work on it. This was one mean freaking fish. It took about 30-40 minutes from getting color on it to getting it close enough for me to stick a gaff in the biggest tuna I have personally ever gaffed. Lee got a second gaff in it and we pulled it over the side and dumped her in the box and headed to the dock where we proceeded to weigh it in at a whopping 210 pounds.









The final picture is Lee with his personal best yf.

[Ali]

Nice cow dude!

That's a great mess of Tunas.

Kickin ass and taking names down there still...

[lilharcher]

Venice is awesome, always kicking out quality fish.

[Ron Mexico]

Nice Job Eddie. I didn't catch the name of that rig?

[lite-liner]

Yep, that's me in the orange shirt........
I guess nobody put up the bloodydecks salute shot....
tight lines
-Brian

[fdengine13]

Captain Eddie,
I am glad to see things are back to normal (at least as far as fishing goes). My one and only time to your region was following Hurricane Katrina. I am a firefighter and spent 30 days in Slidell. Our temporary home was the Big Branch Wildlife Refuge in Slidell. It was heartbreaking to see all of the devastation.
It was also a shame the way the media portrayed the poeple of the South.
I was so inspired by the character and warmth of the people who had literally lost everything. They were so very grateful to have our group from Southern California.
I would love to get back there one day and see it the way it should be.
Even through all of the tragedy I could tell it was a beautiful place.
Take Care,
Paul Lepore
Battalion Chief
Long Beach FD, Ca.

[daniel-neill]

Nice fishing down there, how long in the tuna season?

[Ron Mexico]

Originally Posted by daniel-neill

Nice fishing down there, how long in the tuna season?

Dan,
<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com<st1:place><st1:PlaceName>Northern</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType>Gulf</st1:PlaceType></st1:place> we just fish for them in different areas using different techniques depending on the season other than that the only thing that changes is the average size of the fish. <o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
Jan-March we generally chum the might night lump.<o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
April-May is a transition period were the fish are moving of the lump and on to the deep water rigs<o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
June-Sept/Oct the fish are generally on the floaters live bait is the most widely fished method, hard tail (tuna crack), bar jacks, cigar minnows, herring and small tuna are my choices fished from the tip, with an egg sinker, or off a kite. We also fish poppers, swim baits, jigs, flying fish, troll baits (ballyhoo), shaky baits and chum.<o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
Oct-Nov fish can still be caught at the floaters but they move to the shallower rigs and open water. This is a great time of year because of the size fish and the fact that they a blowing up on live mullet.<o:p></o:p>

[Keta]

I've only been to Venice once, a month long stay, but I noticed that the fishing was about the best I've ever seen, including the 15 years I lived and worked in SE Alaska. The majority of the people down there are first rate too.

[capteddie]

Looking forward to seeing yall this spring.