Offshore Venice La

[CaptEddie]

I ran a few trips in teh last week. Most on the contender but one on the cat. We started out fishing the lump and ended up fishing the lump. I had Karl Wagner and his nephew out there for new years day and the 2nd. The first day was a little slow as the current was really ripping. We quit the lump around noon and went searching for hooters. First pass around the rig was a double on hooters. We had one that went around 75 pounds. We then started jiggin for tuna and picked up a few blackfin on a gold williamson jigs.

Day two was a different story though. We got out to the lump and the first fish in the boat was a nice yellowfin. We never even saw a bonito that day but we did end up with three good yellowfins and one blackfin. The nephew was nicknamed squid boy and he put a whuppin on a 140 pound yellowfin. The fish hit a half a pogie on a frenzy 9/0 with frenzy 80 pound flourocarbon.



On friday I had a couple in from Tn for the sugar bowl game. They had a wonderful watching LSU kick leprachaun butt and on friday we took the cat out and nailed some yellows. Susan Cathey fought Mal de mar all day but her husband Sam got in on the action. He caught his limit of three yellowfin using bonito for bait. The first fish was about an 80 pounder and was dwarfed by the 2nd fish. He hooked it on a 9/0 blue frenzy and the fight was on. I dumped the anchor pretty early in the fight and we chased the fish for about about a mile and the fight lasted around an hour and a half. It was so muddy we couldnt even see the fish till his head was out the water. My deckhand Hoop and I sank two gaffs in the fish and lifted him into the boat. Highfives all around as we got back on anchor and caught our third fish and called it a day.



On saturday we had a nice foggy day to head out in with Jim, John, and Kevin. We started out hot with three yellowfin in the boat in the first 30 minutes out there. Then it kinda slowed for an hour and then we figured it out. Up popped about a 300 pound mako. I stuck a slab of blackfin on and threw it out and we had a hookup. Fish took a ton of line and put on a heck of a show with five back flips. After all that though the hook just pulled and the shark got away. They are beautiful creatures for sure. After the mako was gone we picked through blackfin the rest of the day and ended the trip with 7 blackfin and three yellowfin.

[isitreel]

Nice fish in deed..

What does a trip like that cost to charter???

[CaptEddie]

This time of year its around 1050 on the 26 glacier bay and around 1400 on the 36 contender.

[DeepPR]

Nice fish! Congrats. A question for you Venice fisherman. How far out (NM)from Venice Marina do you go to get to the lump and to the RAM Powell/Petronius rigs? Thanks a lot.

[CaptEddie]

The lump is about 44 miles from teh marina. I dont go fish over towards ram very often but its about 65 miles offshore.

[Boboe]

The Ram Powell is probably closest to the ports of Biloxi and Gulfport, Mississippi, and the Petronus is closest to Mobile. The Petronus may be equidistant from Mobile and Biloxi, at best.

I've fished those rigs many times on multi-day trips, leaving out of Destin, FL. The Ram Powell is pretty consistently good on good tuna years. The Petronus may be good, it may be bad, and it may be covered up in sharks. The latter happens very often, with shit eaters eating up all of your chum and every bait that hits the water.

The Ram Powell has 4 large yellow cylindrical legs. It's a floater. The Petronus is driven all the way down into the bottom, 1800' (or is it 1200'...I can't remember) below. They're both very large rigs, but the Ram Powell is very much the bigger of the two.

Not far from the Ram Powell (the last time I was out there) is the Marlin Rig, which has 4 red/orange cylindrical legs, and is just about the exact same in appearance otherwise. It seems to be about as good as the Ram Powell most years.

Other rigs they put out there and move about from time to time...and some times after just drilling for a month or so:

Deep Water Nautilus, Ocean America, Noble Jim Thompson, and several huge drill ships.

The largest floater I think I've fished is the Nakika. It's a monster, and very gorgeous as well.

Distance in nm from Destin, FL to the aforementioned rigs, to the best of my recollection

Petronus: 89
Ram Powell: 115
Marlin: 105
Nakika: 180 <<<way closer to Venice than Destin!!
Deep Water Nautilus: was 120 back in '02, but got moved to who knows where
Ocean America: ~110 in July '05, but then moved by August
Noble Jim Thompson: ~110, similar to above.

[DeepPR]

Thanks for the info guys. Its quite a run to get out there to those spots. Im sure with the great fishing, its all worth it. I began fishing offshore out of Pensacola, FL first and then out of Morehead City, NC. Out of NC, the run is about 40-50 miles. Now here in Puerto Rico, you have nice deepblue water usually less than 8 miles offshore. Sometimes even less, but we sure dont get the concentration of fish like where the lump is. I am seriously considering a trip to LA and will charter with one of you guys. Thanks again!

[Certifiable]

Capt Eddie,
Send me a pm with your contact info. A few of my fishin buds are talking about a trip to venice for some BIG tuna. We fish out of Ft.Pierce, Florida and the largest Yellowfins we will see around here will top out at 80-90lbs. We normaly make spring trips to the Bahamas, but thier new fishing regulations just killed that option. No way are we dropping $4k for a 4 day weekend with a 2 fish per person "posesion" limit (not even a 4 day fish agregate allowed on the boat).
We would rather keep the $ in the good ole' USA, and contribute to a local economy that could use the cash. Besides, I love creole cookin'.

Your method of chumming and baiting is new to us. We have no structure to work, so we just run and gun and pull lures around the schools. Would hate to waste the time setting up a chumline and bait spread and watch the school run by 1/2 mile away !!

BTW- What type of terminal rig do you use for drifting the baits, circle hooks and breakaway leads ?

Hoping for a reply,
Ray