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Louisiana - Venice & the Gulf of Mexico
Capt. Damon McKnight
July 29, 2003
Venice - Saltwater Fishing Report
Billfish and Tuna
This past weekend the fishing was outstanding to say the least.
On Saturday I took out Daniel Barnes from New Orleans. It was just him and me and he wanted nothing but Tuna. We left the dock at 6:00 a.m. and heading out to the spar which was 40 miles out of South Pass but they moved it that afternoon. It took us a while to get our live bait, big thanks to the Amberjack. We made it out by 9:00 a.m. and by 11:30 a.m. we had caught 10 Yellowfin Tuna. Of course letting go 4 of them. We were going to call it a day at 12:30. At 12:15 our bait starting getting nervous again and the starboard flat line took a strike and a miss. I saw the fish and knew it was a big marlin. Luckily for us he came back again, hit the other line, and this time he was on. The fight started out slow but after the first five minutes he was jumping and putting on a great show for us and the other boats out there. We finally got him next to the boat and after an hour fight, we took a few pictures and released him. We estimated the fish to be between 325-350lbs. Not bad for using no leader. We ended the day with our 5 yellowfin between 40-60lbs. and 1 about 20lbs. The 20lber. was the first one and we put him in the box just to be sure.
On Sunday the fishing was just as intense. We had Brennan Moore and his family from Texas and all they wanted was Tuna. We headed out to get bait and it was easy. We caught about 25 hardtails in 25 minutes. We then headed out to the floaters since the spot from the day before was gone. When we pulled up the tuna were busting everywhere. I looked at Brennan and he knew he was about to have his first Tuna on. I could see the excitement in his face. But the Tuna weren't eating hardtails unless they were
tiny. We had 3 smaller than usual hardtails and they ate all of them. The first three fish were lost during mid-fight. This was Brennans first time ever fishing offshore and it started out tough. It was just the beginning of one of those days. The rest of our hardtails were just a little to big so we casted poppers at them and this worked. We fished for two more hours resulting in 10 yellowfin Tuna in the boat. The biggest going 58lbs. At 1:30 we were fighting our last Tuna and we were calling it a day, so we thought. Brennan made his cast out and as soon as the bait hit the water a tuna tackled it. We fought him for about 20 minutes and I was just getting ready to stick the gaff in him and down he went again out of sight. I thought to myself that is one tough fish. Next thing you know we had an estimated 450lb. blue marlin jumping off of our bow. The Marlin ate our Tuna and got hooked by the Tiger Popper. At NO time during the fight could we tell that that billfish was eating our Tuna. We would have never known if he wouldn't have jumped. Two hours later we had him next to the boat, took a picture, and broke him off. We were only using 65lb. power pro with a shimano 6500 baitrunner spinning reel. Luckily he didn't break off until we tightened the drag to set him free. The fishing does not get much better than that. We ended the day with 10 Tuna in the boat.
The weather and the fishing are better than ever right now. Plenty of Tuna are getting caught, not a lot of 100lb. + fish but all the 50-60lbers. you want. The rig fishing is excellent as well. Plenty of Amberjack and Snapper.
Capt. Damon Mcknight/Super Strike Charters
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