 |
Venice Inlet and the Gulf of Mexico
Capt. Dave Pinkham
May 2, 2000
Venice - Saltwater Fishing Report
Plenty of west and northwest wind on the Gulf this week. Kept me in Monday and Tuesday, but finally on Wedsday we got out. I was glad we did too, as the fishing was good despite the choppy seas.
The kingfish have continued to be dependable, so I decided to target them first. We trolled king spoons behind #2 planner boards. I won't tell exactly where we were, let's just say in 45' of water over a sunken boat. The reason I troll over this type of structure is that it often holds bait such as sardines. The larger fish are drawn to this food source. Action was quick, with the first pass over the area producing a 15-pound king mackerel. We continued trolling over this area picking up a king on almost every pass. After trolling we decided we would try anchoring the boat over the wreck on the bottom.
Lines were baited dropped to the bottom. We also dropped bait rigs down and started putting some live baits in the well. When anchored down one of my favorite ways to fish is to cast free lined baits out behind the boat. The wreck produced several big breakoffs, and then finally a big nurse shark was dragged to the boat. The live baits fished on top produced the biggest king of the day.
With the spot slowing down, we opted to troll again. It wasn't long and we started hooking into some big bonito. Right in the middle of fighting one the line kind of went slack, and I could see a trail of blood behind the now half fish. Swimming up the bloodline was several sharks in the 5 to 6' range. I had a wire rig ready, so I grabbed the head of the bonito that was left on the hook and re-hooked it on the wire rig. This was attached to a spinning rod and reel geared up with 15-pound line. What followed was a battle that lasted better than an hour. In fact the angle that was hooked up with the shark was so tired that he handed off the fish before the battle was done. Finally an exhausted 6-foot lemon shark was brought to the boat and released.
More Fishing Reports:
|
|
|
|
