Venice La. 8/6 overnighter Fishing Report

[Captain Mike Ellis]

I don’t know where to start. I have been slacking from putting up my trip reports. But with being on the water so much it makes it difficult. I ran an overnighter on august the 6th with Chris Lewis and some of his cobia fishing buddies Tim,Lee,Chandler and John from Destin. When I spoke with Chris the day before the trip I told him to be ready for a marathon if need be. Even though the fishing is about as good as it gets. It is still fishing. And I absolutely hate to return with out a good catch. So here are the details of the trip.

We departed Venice Marina at 1100 or so on the 6th. And headed out of Tiger Pass to look for the bait of choice lately which has been threadfin herring. With all eyes peeled for the bait we were to be denied our threads. No problem only minor courses change and we were making bait of a mooring buoy on the smallest size Frenzy sibiki. The first one the bait was tough but on the second Chris and Lee were on fire. Both of them were pulling in multiple strings of the perfect 4-6” hardtails. After we put about 30 livies in the well I punched in the numbers to the first destination of trip.


While in route to the floater we cam across an open water school of yellowfin tearing the surface up. Everything went textbook perfect as I deployed a single livebait as the boat slid to a stop. No sooner than I turned around it got smoked. Hears where the fish didn’t read the same book because in my version the leader doesn’t pop. So it was tuna 1 humans 0. We tried that school for about twenty minutes with no more action so we were underway to Medusa.


At Medusa things looked pretty dead with only a few fish showing on the sounder. I deployed two livies anyway. But I didn’t have the feeling. Everyone knows the feeling they get when things are just right. And they know fish are going to give their life for the cause. Finally after about 20 minutes or so an undersized yellowfin decided to eat bait. He was no match on the 50W. But it made one less tuna virgin in the world. With a lack of action it was time again for a move.


The next stop was at a new floater to the area it had plenty of tuna on it. But also plenty of monster hardtails that would eat our baits before the yellows could. Not wanting to feed all of our baits to well more bait. We started moving around and throwing poppers to breaking fish. We once again caught an undersized yellow on a popper. And one more tuna virgin down. Time to go to the rig that I intended to stay the night at.

Arrived at this floater which is 80 miles offshore only to find very little action. This rig has never let me down before so I was optimistic about it. From the start the undersized yellow were on us. As soon as a bait was out it would get hammered. The only problem was the fish were small. At least now all on board had caught a yellowfin. I told them we would fish until dark to see if the bigger fish would come up. Well the fish came up but not the targeted species. Blackfins and big ones at that came up. It was a tuna on every cast with a popper. With the fish in the 15-30lb range they were a great warm up.


A short run the east-northeast put us at another floater. This one had the activity I was looking for. The only problem was the only wanted little 1” squid. We fished it hard but at least we managed to put a 50-60lb yellowfin in the boat and lost two others. I then made a decision to break the cardinal rule of fishing. And it is never leave fish to find fish. Since the next rig was a little bit of a run and everyone wanted some rest I 10 knotted it to the final destination of the trip.

Upon arrival at this last rig of the night. I knew it was the right choice. I got the feeling big time. I put out my alarm clock, which is a Frenzy Ballistic flying fish lure. Since everyone was asleep I didn’t tell them what was going to happen until it happened. After about twenty minutes my alarm clock went off. I woke chandler up since he was closest to the rod. He did a great job of putting our second yellow in the boat. No sooner than the fish hit the deck the rig exploded with tuna. In the next two hours we put seven yellows in the boat from 50 to a maybe 85-90lb fish. I think that three fish were on spinners loaded with Jerry Brown 65lb. Solid spectra and Frenzy Angry poppers in glow tied to 18” of 80lb mono. The rest came on the 50w’s and live hardtails on a 6/0 Frenzy ocean camo hook and 60lb. Suffix fluro leader. The totals for this trip are over 200 nautical miles covered with a fuel burn of 133 gallons and 7 blackfin and 8 yellowfin and a large rainbow runner.

[Deep_Sea_Gull]

Great report Capt Mike. You tell the trip better than your anglers did on their home board.
What rod/reel combo are you using with the JB and short mono? What is the best fish you have caught on this combo?
Thanks for the update report. I love to hear about tuna fishing. When you get to catch them on poppers and ballistic flying fish, then the fun starts.

[Captain Mike Ellis]

The rod and reel combo I use 90% of the time is a Tiagra 50W loaded with JB 130 hollow. To the spliced loop in the hollow I use a worm knot to connect about a 100 yards of clear 80lb Momoi Diamond. The current rods that the reels are mounted on are Chaos standup rods two with bent butts and four with straights. They are built on there new Black Magic blanks. As for the best fish on a 50W it has to be a 177 yellowfin. But my best fish of the lump season last year ws a 187 caught on a Tiagra 30W with 80lb JB hollow and 100 yards of clear 50 Momoi Diamond with a 80lb fluro leader and a 7/0 blue Frenzy hook.

[CaboBound]

I think i've seen the 7/0 frenzy hooks.. they are a bit different from the traditional 7/0.. sounds like they are working great.

Great report!

[Captain Mike Ellis]

CaboBound
Frenzy makes a great product. I switched to them after breaking a 8/0 mustad demon circle on a big tuna. Since then I have not looked back. If you send me a address I will send you a sample pack of hooks for you to try. I use the 6/0 75% of the year and other a mixture of 8's-11's
capt. Mike

[Deep_Sea_Gull]

Capt Mike,
Thanks for the answers. Those are great tuna catching setups.
I am well experienced with the Frenzy Tackle line. Thanks to Capt Scott Seaner.
CaboBound, Capt Mike and Capt Scott will hook you up.
Capt Mike,
Tell us about your spinner setups please. I know that there has been some discussion here about using spinners for swords. Inquiring minds...
Thanks for your replys...

[Captain Mike Ellis]

My spinning setups are a Calstar 750M rod with a Stella 20000 loaded with 65lb Jerry brown solid spectra. I also have a Shimano Spheros 14000 on a Shimano Tallus 15-30lb rod also with 65lb JB. At my backup is a 6500 Baitrunner on the same Tallus rod also with 65 JB. I am not afraid to put the heat on a fish. I find that most guys don't put enough heat on a fish. I stick the drag to them hard and heavy from the beginning to the end of the fight. As for knots I only use the Tony Pena knot to connect a short 80lb mono leader to my JB and a uni to connect the leader to my popper. I have absolute faith in this setup that i can tackle whatever swims. I am heading down for a few days of fishing reports to follow.

[Shark Tagger]

Excellent work.

Is this the popper you are using?


These flying fish look deadly!

[Deep_Sea_Gull]

Yes Shark Tagger those are the ones. Them flying fish are deadly on sharks too.

Thanks for the info on the rigs Capt Mike. I love them Calstars Great rods.
Good luck and smooth seas on your charters.