Venice Inlet and the Gulf of Mexico

Capt. Dave Pinkham
March 15, 2002
Venice - Saltwater Fishing Report

Get Ready I'ts Time For The Spring Run of Fish

The weather has finally turned in our favor and the Gulf is simply gorgeous. The cold front that passed over the state this weekend was a mild one so it looks like clear sailing for offshore fisherman over the next week or so. With the weather warming up we can expect some good angling action as the Gulf continues to warm up.

Grouper fishing has been not been to good inside of 90' foot of water so if you want keepers you'd better plan on a full day of fishing. I'm really not sure what's going on with the grouper population but it seems to be in trouble. Mangrove snapper have been filling in the gaps on some of the bottom ledges when the grouper come up short. The trick to catching the snappers seems to be keeping the rigs light as possible.

Sunday due to the north wind of the passing cold front we opted to fish in close to the coastline. As we ran the beach we spotted a flock of pelicans diving in the surf. Out of curiosity more than anything else we eased in for a closer look. Sure enough the long beaked clumsy birds were coming up with mouthfuls of white bait. With castnet in hand we nosed into the middle of the diving birds and let her fly. The net came back full of white bait. The locals call this stuff shiners or pilchards. No matter what you call it this stuff is like candy to the fish. Since conditions were a bit bumpy for my group of aging anglers we decided to anchor over a piece of hard bottom in 20' of water about ¾ of a mile off the beach. No sooner than the anchor was set and the live baits were cast off the back of the boat then the action started. For the next 3 hours we caught fish. The bite started out with bluefish. Although not the greatest eating fish these guys put up a mean fight on light spinning tackle. Then the Spanish mackerel moved in. Big mackerel too! To top it off we hooked up with an occasional cobia. Anyway, this was more than we could have hoped for as we were just a few minutes outside of the pass.

I would expect with the Spanish mackerel on the beach now we can expect their larger cousins the kingfish to show op offshore any day now. These same live bait tactics will also work for the kings too. Although you may have to switch to wire leaders to avoid cutoffs.

We'll that about it for this week. I'll tell ya what, spring has sprung so if you're waiting for the weather to get nicer and the fishing to break loose it just did! Get out and go fishin cu'z it's good fer ya! Oh yea, and remember what Captain Johnny Walker always says," Take a kid fishing, and maybe someday he'll take you.

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