Venice La. 12-15th report

[Captain Mike Ellis]

This report was written by my clients who fished with me this past weekend. They described the trip as I would. I thought it would be good to have a report from a clients point of view. So here it is.
This trip started with a flight from West Palm Beach, with my brother-in-law Darrell, to Venice, LA. for some Yellow Fin and Snapper fishing. What we thought would be fun turned out to be one of the most incredible fishing trips we've ever had. After arriving in New Orleans at around 10:30 am we went directly to meet Mike Ellis of the Relentless. We left the Venice Marina around 1:00 pm and set out in search of Yellow Fin on an overnight fishing charter. The first fish came and many more followed. We started at a floater that Mike said was doing well and it turned out there were too many boats and too many black fins at that location. So, off to the next stop, another floater. We pulled 2 Yellow Fins there, both from 70 - 80 lbs. Not bad for our first few hours! Our captain, knowing the area exceptionally well, made the decision to move to the next rig. We arrived at that rig late that evening and started casting poppers. We got a few short strikes from Yellow Fins but, none of them were takers. No shortage on the black fins though, lost count on the number of those we caught but, they weren't what we were after so, those we caught and released. After a few unsuccessful attempts on the Yellow Fin we changed gears and decided to try our luck at Swordfish. Drifted for a few hours, lost one hard tail so, I'd call it 0-1 for Swordfish. Did catch a pretty good cat nap during our drift! Our captain then made another good call by suggesting that we go to the Elf for the morning bite. The run from our current location to the Elf was approximately 40 miles. So, we decided to take advantage of the down time and catch another nap while Mike got us there. We arrived at the Elf and noticed 3 other boats. Captain Mike said that this was the spot to be in when the sun came up. He was right...there was definately no "shortage" on the Elf! All hell broke lose early a.m. Mike had one of his smaller Shimano's out with a Frenzy Flying Fish that he calls his "alarm clock". When the alarm clock goes off it's GO TIME! During the next hour to an hour and a half we limited out on Yellow Fin...all on poppers. That was the signal to the end of our overnight charter. Day 2: Went back to Fins & Feathers to clean up, grab some food, take a decent nap, visit the infamous Drive-Thru Daquiri stand (God, wish there was one of those here), watched a little TV and turned in to get ready for an early morning charter with Captain Mike. Day 3: We were on the boat and heading out at 6:30 a.m. on our hunt for some Snapper and Grouper. During the ride we found acres of Thread Fin, pulled out the Sabiki's and caught a bunch. Pulled up to the first rig to start the chumming and the mangroves were VERY cooperative, along with a nice size unsuspecting Cobia. Unfortunately, those fish caught on pretty quick so we were off to the next rig. Caught a few more Mangroves at the second stop and decided to eat lunch. On to rig #3. Mike had devised a devious plan that we were unaware of...he rigged a 4/0 with 16 oz of lead, 5 ft of 200 lb leader and a 15/0 circle hook...then said "Here...drop this down about 100 ft." Next thing we knew it was Amberjack time! This was, in my opinion, was nothing but cruel and unnecessary punishment. After a night of being whipped by Yellow Fins this was just WRONG. But, our captain seemed to enjoy watching the torture. 3 Amberjacks later, off to the next rig. That rig was the "deep drop grouper" rig. We had several large fish on that continued to pull the hook and caught 1 very nice Skamp. After we wore that out we went and caught some true red snapper and called it a day.
We had an incredible few days of fishing with a "Relentless" captain. His expertise and ability to find fish was truly awesome. Mike's knowledge of the area allowed us to not only catch fish but, the fish we were looking for!

Mike is a one of a kind captain that loves fishing as much as he enjoys watching you fish. He cares about the fishermen that he takes out and wants to ensure they get exactly what they came to LA for. His goal is to gain your loyalty and desire to come back to Venice for another amazing trip on the Relentless...not just to collect a check.

Thanks for the amazing trip and the memories that came along with it! We had a blast!

http://www.relentlesssportfishing.net/