Gulf Coast - Venice in July???

My dad and I are talking about skipping the ADSFR this year and taking the Mako to Venice instead.
Looking for any kind of advice for taking a trip like this. I figure we will try to stay at the marina and rent a slip as well. We are also talking about paying a guide or captian to "show us the ropes" the first day so we would have a clue about fishing the area the next 3 days.

Whats fishing like this time of year in Venice? We'd like to get into some YF Tuna, Wahoo, Maybe some Swords, and a Mako or 2 would be nice as well.

Would like to hear suggestions on making trip like this. We've never done this before. Also we're are not comitted to July thats just a time that would work out well for us.

Thanks,
Mike

Tuna should be good, wahoo if any are usually snakes, swordies possible.

I think I'd pic tuna and go for that. Anything else is a bonus.

I'd be doing overnighters.

And hope the blue water isn't 100 miles out either.

Lots of good Captains. You might be better off to charter a couple tuna runs and maybe use your boat for some snapper grouper in closer. (I see it's an older make but you don't mention single or twins or fuel capacity).

P.S. Be careful running our passes, rocks hurt.

Should be a fun trip.

We've got twin 150 Yamaha's and 150 gal tank. Boat has about 200 mile range but we can take extra fuel.

hows the dolphin bite around July?

Thanks,
Mike

it all depends on the water. the last two july's blue water or even clean green water was 80-100 miles out. we catch tuna in dirty water but not dolphin.

Looks like it is going to be a wildcard this year depending on what the Mississippi River is going to do. It looks like we are going to have a high river at least into late spring, if we get a good loop current into the gulf, we should have some wonderful rips forming. The last two years our rips were wonderful and loaded with fish but they did head south early and went out or range by mid summer.

I agree with ROB, sounds like you are trying to cram a lot into a trip. I to would concentrate on one thing and take anything else that comes as a bonus. If you decide that Venice is where you are going for sure pay your insurance or hire someone to show you the passes, rocks do hurt.

Reel Screamers
Grand Isle

Thanks for the info guys. Chartering a boat is not out of the question, we have talked about that as well. I know our main goal will be Tuna. Maybe we should wait till winter? I hear thats the best Tuna bite? We've talked about going to florida as well so we could do that in july and venice in dec/january. I've been reading all these great reports out of Venice lately and it's getting me fired up for some tuna action.

Mike