Thursday and Friday Gray and I had Gary Stegalls crew in Venice to go chase a few fish. Thursday didnt produce like we had hoped. We fished hard for tuna, wahoo and amberjack and at the end of the day I found myself one short of an amberjack limit and that was it. Tough day on the water right there.
Friday, the plan was to "change zip codes"! We started the day off pulling for hooters. I think we did get a hit but no hook ups. We made a run to go get amberjack and what do you know, today they are hungry!! We put a 6 man limit in the boat in no time and we were off to find the tuna! Or so we thought anyway. On the way out to the blue water we made a stop at a rig that was right in our path. Gray told me to stop, I wasn’t going to listen but saw a few small fish bust so figured I had better check it out. We didn’t find any tuna but did manage 2 nice wahoo! You know, the rest of the day, I had to listen to how gray was right about the stop! May never hear the end of that!! Haha!! After a little ice was on the fish, we continued out to the floaters and I was happy to be fishing blue water again. The first stop had nothing. 2nd and 3rd stop both had a few blackfin and only found one small yellowfin. Not what the crew wanted to see but it happens. I would like to think we could have caught more wahoo but the guys wanted a shot at tuna so that is what we went after. Can’t catch them if you don’t go right? It was still a nice day fishing blue water and we did end the day with a good pile of meat in the box. A super nice crew to fish with, the guys were a real blast.
Saturday, we had a bachelor party here from Texas! It was 15 guys fishing 3 boats. They rolled up to the marina in a tour bus, now these guys know how to party. After all of the beer was iced, we pushed off at about 6:30 from Venice Marina. A bit cool today but no fog and the sun was out, made for a fast trip down the river to be greeted by rough seas and dirty water. With the North wind, the plan was to try to fish in protected waters. This plan started out good but by the end of the day, we were rocking and rolling.
First thing, we drop wahoo baits back and I think it was the first pass, we had line screaming from a reel. After finding the gaff, I was able to stick this pig of a hooter! Man, what a way to start a trip. Baits back in the water, bam, hooked up again! Put that one on ice. I look at Gray and we both think that we are about to just nail these wahoo. You would know, we can’t get another bite. Pull the bean bags to the back, rain gear on, we run to find some amberjack. Now, I told you the day before was easy but we go back to the same place and now the current is kicking and 2- 24 ounce weights can’t even keep the baits out of the rig. Took a little work but we were able to find the fish and get them hooked up! We had to pull most fish out of the rig, some of them had marks on them from the rig, the line was that close to being cut off.
After we put 6 nice jacks on ice, we wanted to look for more wahoo. Despite the rough conditions and one sick crew member, these guys were pumped and having a good time. We were in competition with the other boats and they would stop at nothing to win!!
New spot, put baits in the water, good marks on the screen but no luck. Another rig, Gray could see birds feeding, he pointed the boat in that direction, marks on the screen, what do you know, we triple up! Lose one, one is a big blackfin and the other is…..that’s right, big hooter. Oh yeah, now we are really having fun. Make another pass, hooked up, and another and another. At 5 nice wahoo in the box, the crew agrees to one more pull then we are taking it to the barn. In a perfect world, we would have hooked up on that last pass but we didn’t. I told gray, gotta make one more, he did and now we have our fish on line. One guy taps out, put a fresh one on the reel and in no time the fish is boat side!!! Wahooooo baby! Now we have a pair, 6 jacks and 6 wahoo! Let’s go home….
We have Feb 26th and March 2nd open to fish! This is our only weekend dates open til April. We still have week days open and I can always line you up on one of our other boats if I am booked! We also have inshore guides and lodging if you need it!
The wahoo bite should continue through March and the Tuna are starting to show now! Dolphin will start to show up in April and May and the Marlin will be right behind them. Should be an awesome year, we are already starting to see bait.
Give us a call or email anytime, we will be happy to set you up or answer any questions!
Visit our blog at http://deepsouthcharters.blogspot.com/ for all of our fishing reports and pictures. Also our website at www.deepsouthcharters.com for anything Deep South!!
Capt. Josh Howard
225-572-7408
deepsouthcharters@cox.net
www.deepsouthcharters.com
http://deepsouthcharters.blogspot.com/
