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Venice Inlet and the Gulf of Mexico
Capt. Dave Pinkham
May 2, 2002
Venice - Saltwater Fishing Report
Preperation, and a Keen Eye Reward Anglers
Last week in this column we touched on some basic principles that can be applied to fishing. Using simple time proven fishing techniques on a consistent day to day basis will produce fish. Sounds like a bunch of jargon you say? What does all this mean in plan English? Well, for one thing this means the more time you spend out on the water fishing, the better you will get at it.
For an example of what I'm talking about let me share a recent personal experience. Over the weekend I ran a couple of half-day fishing trips. By a half-day trip, I'm talking about a 4-hour trip. This is not a whole lot of time to get out and back, and somewhere in the middle catch some fish. Because of this I start looking for any tell-tell signs of fish the minute we clear the pass and get out on the Gulf. Back up a minute, I actually start looking as soon as we leave the dock. A pelican diving along the edge of the ICW could be a dead giveaway to a school of baitfish below. These same live baits quickly castnetted up and dumped into the live well could make the difference between success and failure. Anyway keeping a sharp eye peeled often will pay off big time!
On Friday we left the dock at 8am. As we eased offshore a couple of miles we spotted some bait working the surface that appeared to be threadfin herring. These herring make great live baits, so we stopped the boat and quickly put some sibiki rigs out. The sibiki are comprised of four or five small unbaited gold hooks with or without flies attached. You can tie your own sibiki, or purchase them at most area tackle shops. The effort paid off with a couple dozen herring and some blue runners. To top it off while we were catching the bait we noticed some big Spanish mackerel jumping out of the water nearby. With the live well stocked up with some frisky baits, the sibiki rigs were quickly stowed below. Trolling spoons and planners is a quick way to hook up with Spanish mackerel, so out came the pre-rigged trolling poles. Within minutes we were flipping big Spanish mackerel into the boat.
Let's back up a little bit. Notice when we ran across the bait, we had poles pre-rigged with sibiki rigs. And when we saw the jumping mackerel, once again we were prepared with pre-rigged trolling poles. Many species of fish are constantly on the move. When you see them, you better be prepared to put some sort of bait in front of them before they slip away.
With plenty of big Spanish mackerel in the cooler box, we put away the trolling poles and headed toward one of the local artificial reef sights. Now that the water temperature has hit 80 degrees, schools of barracuda have made an appearance on these man-made fish attractants. The idea here was to finish up the day by doing battle with a big barracuda. This is where the live baits were to be used. Cuda can be somewhat cunning at times, so the key here is to keep the rigs light as well as simple. We try to keep two poles rigged up with stinger rigs. A basis stinger rig is made out of piano wire and two hooks. The front or nose hook is usually a single hook, and the second hook is a treble hook. As with sibiki rigs you can tie your own, or you can by a pre-tied stinger at most tackle shops. These stinger rigs work great for barracuda as well as kingfish.
Two live threadfin herring were quickly attached to the stinger rigs, and run out behind the boat. It's didn't take long and we were hooked up. The surprise came with a 50-pound cobia on the end of the line. Once again simple fishing techniques used on a consistent day to day basis had paid off. Of course, a little good luck never hurts.
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