gordo35
08-14-2012, 06:37 PM
If it was April Fool's day I would post as if I caught these off of West Central Florida, but at the risk of losing what little, if any, credibility I have/had the fish were caught on a charter with Eddie Burger in Venice, LA;cool;.
Two buddies, Bobby and Justin, and I left my house just north of Tampa at 5:30AM Friday and after making pit stops in Gulfport, Ms for Raising Cane's Fried Chicken Fingers(someone please open a location in Tampa- I have missed this place since moving here 5 years ago!) and a quick stop at a drive through Daiquiri place in Belle Chasse, La we arrived at Venice Marina around 4:30 local time. Walked up to the dock while checking into our cabin and saw a few of the charters unloading their fish. The bite had been red hot, but seemed to have slowed down the day before. Eddie caught 22 Yellowfin and Blackfin throwing poppers around Whale Sharks earlier in the week, so I was worried that the fishing was going to be tough.
Met up with my old fishing buddy BOOMER that evening. Don was awesome enough to drag his bay boat down to take us trout fishing on Saturday. We talked about the plan for Trout fishing over dinner and beers and decided to get a little later start to let the herd thin out at the marina first thing in the AM. The water was a bit dirty where we were fishing and the other boats we saw weren't having a whole lot of luck. A weather alert came across the VHF mid morning and the sky began looking a bit ominous. After getting caught in a storm a few miles from the marina, we high tailed it back to the marina in time for lunch striking out on Trout but landing several Gafftop Catfish...:rofl: We saw a few of the offshore charters coming in from 12:30-1:00 and the results were mixed. One boat came in with 7 Yellowfin, one over 100#. We didn't get to see CaptEddie unload but he came in shortly after we went back to the cabin with 7 Yellowfin. He also got spooled by a big boy on a jigging rod.
We had dinner with Eddie that evening and discussed the plan for Sunday morning, meeting at the dock at 530. After several drinks we headed back to the cabin and had more drinks:o while waiting for our other crew members to drive in from Lafayette, La. Bed time was a very late 11PM and our slumber was disturbed several times during the night by an accidently armed cel phone alarm clock set by 'Drunky McFreeSpool."
We arrived at the boat on time and headed out to a beautiful mix of sunrise and clouds. We caught some live bait in the River and rolled out to our one and only stop of the day. First bait in the water was an immediate bite, followed shortly by another bite a few minutes later. Both resulted in missed fish but we quickly found our groove hooking up 7 nice 50-70# fish by 915. Only problem was the 70# hooked at 915 was being fought by Drunky McFreeSpool who was doing his best to make fighting this fish a mini series. Ended up landing #7 around 45 minutes later:trout::grin:. We busted Justin's balls saying that he fought the fish so long that we missed out on the rest of the morning bite. The fishing slowed to a crawl, but we were still marking nice fish 150-200' down and still had a few nice schools busting the water for a few seconds at a time.
We switched from live bait to chunks and picked up one more 10 minutes or so into our drift. Contemplated moving inshore to get our AJ's but Eddie knows that we can catch them in my boat at home so he stuck it out for us since we were still marking fish. Eventually, our Pogies died off so we pulled up to the rig and caught a few Hardtails and 1 Disco Minnow and went back to the area we were marking fish. Lines were in the water for a minute and the Disco Minnow got smoked. Number 9 was now in the boat. That plan worked so well we went back to the rig to catch a few more baits but a supply boat was now in the corner of the rig we marked bait earlier. We picked up a few more Hardtails and set back up and got the bite of the day 30 minutes later. This fish was smoking line off of the reel and we couldn't get the rod out of the rod holder and pulled the hook after it's one and only run. All fish were caught on live bait or chunks. We caught a couple of Rainbow Runners and Bonita on chunks but couldn't get a Tuna to sniff our poppers or jigs. We called it a day at that point and headed back to the marina with a very good haul. Each of the 6 of us brought home 7 gallon Zip Lock bags slap full of Yellowfin. We said our good byes and Bobby, Justin, and I drove through the night back home.
Here's a break down on costs and observations/advice from my previous experiences having fished in Venice for a few years before moving and making the journey back 2 times a year. The cost of the charter captains is about $1200 + Fuel and tip. The 6 of us were in it for about $250 before the tip. The cabins at Venice Marina($150/night and sleeps 6) aren't the most luxurious, but I figure that the convenience and being at the marina talking to other fishermen and watching the boats unload is worth it. I ran into a few other THT fishing buddies while I was there. I think the food at the marina's restaurant is very good and the prices are reasonable. I believe it is $2.50 for a domestic beer and $11 for a shrimp Po-boy. The wait staff was actually fairly easy on the eyes this trip:thumbsup: When walking to and from the restaurant or around the cleaning table, watch out for dog shit:grin: I almost stepped in a pile of it. If you are set on getting groceries for your stay, Belle Chasse is basically your last spot to get them but I believe there is a small grocery store in Port Sulphur. The 2 convenience stores in Venice obviously have a small grocery section as well. And finally, do not speed driving through the small towns and watch the speed limit changes.
Any questions, feel free to ask. I highly recommend fishing with Eddie if you are looking for a charter. I fished with him for the first time after Hurricane Katrina and he has helped point me and my buddies in the right direction even when we were out on one of our personal boats. He's a great guy and a hard fisherman.
Two buddies, Bobby and Justin, and I left my house just north of Tampa at 5:30AM Friday and after making pit stops in Gulfport, Ms for Raising Cane's Fried Chicken Fingers(someone please open a location in Tampa- I have missed this place since moving here 5 years ago!) and a quick stop at a drive through Daiquiri place in Belle Chasse, La we arrived at Venice Marina around 4:30 local time. Walked up to the dock while checking into our cabin and saw a few of the charters unloading their fish. The bite had been red hot, but seemed to have slowed down the day before. Eddie caught 22 Yellowfin and Blackfin throwing poppers around Whale Sharks earlier in the week, so I was worried that the fishing was going to be tough.
Met up with my old fishing buddy BOOMER that evening. Don was awesome enough to drag his bay boat down to take us trout fishing on Saturday. We talked about the plan for Trout fishing over dinner and beers and decided to get a little later start to let the herd thin out at the marina first thing in the AM. The water was a bit dirty where we were fishing and the other boats we saw weren't having a whole lot of luck. A weather alert came across the VHF mid morning and the sky began looking a bit ominous. After getting caught in a storm a few miles from the marina, we high tailed it back to the marina in time for lunch striking out on Trout but landing several Gafftop Catfish...:rofl: We saw a few of the offshore charters coming in from 12:30-1:00 and the results were mixed. One boat came in with 7 Yellowfin, one over 100#. We didn't get to see CaptEddie unload but he came in shortly after we went back to the cabin with 7 Yellowfin. He also got spooled by a big boy on a jigging rod.
We had dinner with Eddie that evening and discussed the plan for Sunday morning, meeting at the dock at 530. After several drinks we headed back to the cabin and had more drinks:o while waiting for our other crew members to drive in from Lafayette, La. Bed time was a very late 11PM and our slumber was disturbed several times during the night by an accidently armed cel phone alarm clock set by 'Drunky McFreeSpool."
We arrived at the boat on time and headed out to a beautiful mix of sunrise and clouds. We caught some live bait in the River and rolled out to our one and only stop of the day. First bait in the water was an immediate bite, followed shortly by another bite a few minutes later. Both resulted in missed fish but we quickly found our groove hooking up 7 nice 50-70# fish by 915. Only problem was the 70# hooked at 915 was being fought by Drunky McFreeSpool who was doing his best to make fighting this fish a mini series. Ended up landing #7 around 45 minutes later:trout::grin:. We busted Justin's balls saying that he fought the fish so long that we missed out on the rest of the morning bite. The fishing slowed to a crawl, but we were still marking nice fish 150-200' down and still had a few nice schools busting the water for a few seconds at a time.
We switched from live bait to chunks and picked up one more 10 minutes or so into our drift. Contemplated moving inshore to get our AJ's but Eddie knows that we can catch them in my boat at home so he stuck it out for us since we were still marking fish. Eventually, our Pogies died off so we pulled up to the rig and caught a few Hardtails and 1 Disco Minnow and went back to the area we were marking fish. Lines were in the water for a minute and the Disco Minnow got smoked. Number 9 was now in the boat. That plan worked so well we went back to the rig to catch a few more baits but a supply boat was now in the corner of the rig we marked bait earlier. We picked up a few more Hardtails and set back up and got the bite of the day 30 minutes later. This fish was smoking line off of the reel and we couldn't get the rod out of the rod holder and pulled the hook after it's one and only run. All fish were caught on live bait or chunks. We caught a couple of Rainbow Runners and Bonita on chunks but couldn't get a Tuna to sniff our poppers or jigs. We called it a day at that point and headed back to the marina with a very good haul. Each of the 6 of us brought home 7 gallon Zip Lock bags slap full of Yellowfin. We said our good byes and Bobby, Justin, and I drove through the night back home.
Here's a break down on costs and observations/advice from my previous experiences having fished in Venice for a few years before moving and making the journey back 2 times a year. The cost of the charter captains is about $1200 + Fuel and tip. The 6 of us were in it for about $250 before the tip. The cabins at Venice Marina($150/night and sleeps 6) aren't the most luxurious, but I figure that the convenience and being at the marina talking to other fishermen and watching the boats unload is worth it. I ran into a few other THT fishing buddies while I was there. I think the food at the marina's restaurant is very good and the prices are reasonable. I believe it is $2.50 for a domestic beer and $11 for a shrimp Po-boy. The wait staff was actually fairly easy on the eyes this trip:thumbsup: When walking to and from the restaurant or around the cleaning table, watch out for dog shit:grin: I almost stepped in a pile of it. If you are set on getting groceries for your stay, Belle Chasse is basically your last spot to get them but I believe there is a small grocery store in Port Sulphur. The 2 convenience stores in Venice obviously have a small grocery section as well. And finally, do not speed driving through the small towns and watch the speed limit changes.
Any questions, feel free to ask. I highly recommend fishing with Eddie if you are looking for a charter. I fished with him for the first time after Hurricane Katrina and he has helped point me and my buddies in the right direction even when we were out on one of our personal boats. He's a great guy and a hard fisherman.