Relentless Sportfishing's 5/13-5/18 Venice report

[Captain Mike Ellis]

Heres a recap of how the fish have been treating me the last few weeks. I started off on the 13th with the Troxler group from Mandeville. The weather could not of been any better for the trip. The fishing could have been a lot better though. We made our way out of south pass looking for threadfin herring for bait. Of course when you are looking for them in the morning they are not in the same place as they were the day before. Even without livebait I decided to make the long run south and try to make bait along the way. On the way we came across the nice weed patch and caught some throwback dolphin so that the youngest crew member could say that he has now caught a dolphin. The next spot I stopped for bait we made the prettiest tuna bait all summer so far. We pulled off of the rig and put two out. They didn’t last long as we had a cut off and caught a throw back yellowfin. I put back two more baits for a repeat of the first set. Needing to find some fish for the box it was off to the next stop where finaly among about a hundred rainbow runners eating the baits out of your hand we managed one yellowfin in the 60-70lb. range also caught by the youngest member of the trip also his first. On the way back to the dock I was wondering what I could of done differently. But to find out there was only one other tuna on the dock that I saw. I know that a few more were caught but I was relived that everyone else had a tough day and not just me. I am guilty of not taking pictures on this trip. I was reaching my redline with frustration on not finding enough fish to make everyone happy.
With the lousy tuna report the day before and some wind in the forcast. I was able to talk James Colborn and his family into some bottom fishing. We decided to head to the west side and try there for a shot at a cobia along with some snapper. About half way there everyone onboard was glad they made the choice to go bottom fishing. It was nonstop action from the first bait in the water to the last one. I had the red snapper chummed up on the surface and was able to pick out the ones we wanted to keep. We quickly made a five man limit of 3-6lb red snapper in a couple of hours. If you let your bait go to the bottom the bull reds were on it before you could put your reel into gear. Everyone had their turn at catching them. It was then I decided to make a move to another rig. If I only had stopped there first. The red snapper were much bigger but we already had our limit. So we were content with letting 8-15lb snapper go. The saving grace at this stop was the some big mangroves were mixed n with the snapper and beating them to the bait. We put 8 or 10 of them in the box. With a almost full fishbox and the seas getting to everyone we called it a day and was back at the dock in time for lunch.





My trip for the 15th was scheduled for a tuna trip with the boys from Mitshibushi in Baton Rouge. This trip has been booked since the lump and put off three times already so it was going to be a go no matter what. But with the wind blowing like crazy and the results the day before, bottom fishing. It was a nobrainer to hit the snapper holes. I made a beeline to the last stop I made the day before. Well it was as much of a beeline as I could make in the solid four foot headsea. We managed to get tied to the rig and start fishing. Before I could even throw the first handful of chum we lost one crew member to seasickness. The snapper were chewing pretty good just not the size of the ones the day before. We managed to put a four man limit in the boat in a hour. They were not big snapper but snapper from 18” to the biggest about 9 or 10 lbs. With one crew member very very seasick Jon made the decision to head back to the dock.







The next few days I had Kevin Barber from Bossier City La. He booked the trip for his son’s graduation party from high school. The first trip was to be a tuna overnighter but once again the weather was not cooperating for us. So since we were ready to fish I decided to make a afternoon run for some snapper. It was two stop shopping. The first rig only gave us one snapper but the biggest of the day at around the 8-9lb range plus all of the bull reds and oversized jack cravelle you would ever want to catch. The bait of the day was fresh threadfin herring obtained from the poagie boats. I six pack got us two dozen livebaits and a five gallon bucket of dead ones. The next rig held enough snapper for a six man limit plus some catch and release fish once our limit was reached. Oh yea it also held even more bull redfish than the last rig. The key to not catching them was just to freeline your bait. We were back before dark but just in time for the noseeums to be out in force. The fish were transferred into a couple of ice chest to wait until the next afternoon to be cleaned. The next morning we headed out looking for some tuna it was pretty rough and scheduled to build so we set a course for a close in tuna rig we got there only to find sharks. It was not going to be a pleasant 40 mile ride farther offshore to hit the next rig we decided to head back in and hit some AJ spots. We caught Mike back to back AJ’s before they shut down they were not monsters but nice 35-40lb fish. But they were all he wanted. From there we went inshore looking for mangroves. We only managed to catch about a dozen before they got wise to 60 fluro. So I dropped down to 50 still nothing until I got to 30 fluro. Then it was a fish on every piece of bait but with the light leader they all made it back into the safety of the rig. We called it a early day since I still had a bunch of fish to clean from the day before. Finaly the weather was good enough to try our hand at some tuna. We had plenty of perfect boat. I know they were perfect because each and every cuda and shark that ate them thanked me by taking a hook from. So now it was a tour of every floater in the gulf looking for some fish. Finaly at the last place we found some tuna. They were not big but they were tuna and Mike got to catch his first yellowfin and blackfin tuna. It was as fast of fishing as you could want except the fish were small. We only manged to box two yellowfin in the 25lb range and two blackfin of the same size. I had a good run of trips during this stay down in Venice. The tuna bite was not as good as it should have been but the bottomfish took up their slack and provided the basis of some future fish frys. My clients have already put up my next two days fishing reports up on the internet. So I will cut and paste them on a sperate post.