Venice Inlet and the Gulf of Mexico
Capt. Dave Pinkham
November 14, 2006
Venice - Saltwater Fishing Report
Approaching Cold Front Turns The Bite On!
With the approach of the most recent cold front the fishing action out on the Gulf busted wide open. This is to be expected this time of the year, but with the continual reoccurrences of Red Tide I was concerned that the fall run may be a major let down. With the appearance of a large amount of fish just west of the coast some of those fears, at least for the short run have been laid to rest.
On this particular day Capt. Ed was running the Legacy for me and Kelley was working the deck. These guys are a couple of pros and if they can’t get it done than nobody can. It’s somewhat unusual for Capt. Ed to call us between trips, but on this day the bite was so stellar that the Captain called us just to tell us what an exciting morning trip they had.
From what the crew told me they initially started trolling about ten miles west of the coastline. Right from the beginning the bite was red hot. It started out with big Spanish mackerels in the 4-pound class. After a while of yanking the Spanish, the action picked up and the next thing they knew some nice sized kings started hitting the trolled spoons.
What more could you ask for on a half-day fishing trip, but not long after that was things started getting interesting. As Capt. Ed swung the Legacy around for another pass through an area that was producing a lot of fish, one of the rods took a hit that seemed to pull much harder than anything else that day. The next thing they knew a tarpon in the 100-pound range was flying out of the water with their king spoon and planning board trailing behind.
Honestly in all the years I’ve been fishing out on the Gulf, I’ve never hooked up with a tarpon when trolling for mackerel. This is not to say I haven’t seen them because I have. Usually around this time of year it not uncommon to cross paths with a large fast moving school of tarpon. Generally in the autumn the huge silver fish will be migrating in a southward pattern, rolling at the surface and swimming like they are in a race.
When tarpon move this fast they generally are not thinking about feeding. That’s because there internal clock is telling them to move south and that’s just what they are doing.
All I can believe is that either this particular tarpon that the guys hooked up with broke off from a migrating school of tarpon when it saw that big silver spoon pass by, or because the Gulf’s water temperature is so warm there’s still some tarpon milling up and down the coast. For whatever reason the big tarpon hit the spoon, one thing is for sure the tarpon thought the trolled spoon was a fish and was trying to eat it.
After the tarpon jumped a couple of times and made a few hard runs it was brought alongside the boat. At that point Kelley wanting to help with a getting a good photo of the fish but not wanting to hurt it attempted to lip-gaff the tarpon as the boat was bumped forward. Kelley did get the gaff in place but just as he started to put pressure on the fish, the tarpon leaped out of the water. In the excitement the gaff was jerked out of Kelley’s hand and lost overboard and the tarpon took of to parts unknown.
In Kelley’s defense, here’s a guy that can snatch a 5-foot barracuda up with one hand, and can do over and over again all day long and make it look easy! Anyway, I’m sure just the excitement of the catch was worth losing the gaff.
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