Monthly Archive

Walter Garner and his group from Grenada, MS, earned it the hard way. To say the action was non-stop would certainly be an overexaggeration. These guys gutted it out two days in a row with much more than flat seas, and were rewarded in the end. On day 1, we didn’t have a single fish in the box until 3 PM. After a double strike or two, we ended up with a pair of nice yellowfin, a handfull of blackfins, and almost a wahoo. On day two, we had more fog and wind, but pretty water was close to the pass so we decided to try some of the closer rigs and see what happened. What happened was it got rough. Someone on the boat must have packed the lucky horseshoe, because in the middle of nowhere, trolling open water along the 100 fathom curve, we got two bites. And what a pair they were- a 76# and a 94.5# wahoo. Interestingly, both wahoos were almost exactly the same length, but look at the difference in girth. That’s a double header that will put a smile on anyone’s face.

Denise and Perry Olson came all the way from Wyoming to check out a few days of Venice fishing. I think they were also fleeing the tail end of their Wyoming winter. Even though the tunas and wahoos eluded us in the morning, I think the Olson’s might have been a little sore from the afternoon bottom fishing. I know I was sore- from releasing big red snapper! We caught big redfish, red snapper, and a few grouper until it was time to go. Here’s a big bull red that might be on the grill in WY tonight.

What I had originally thought would be an honest shot at the wahoo category for the Venice Marina Tuna and Wahoo tournament ended up being a photo-shoot for grouper fishing with Shimano butterfly jigs. Fortunately, the crew was happy with either result. Capt. Dan and his crew from Southside Cafe ended up sweeping the grouper category at the rodeo. After a full afternoon of jigging, we had almost 20 groupers, most of which were nice gags like this one. And if you haven’t yet, I’d check out the cover of the April issue of Marsh & Bayou.