Venice Inlet and the Gulf of Mexico
Capt. Dave Pinkham
August 28, 2007
Venice - Saltwater Fishing Report
Fishing Offshore of Venice Has Been Good
Fishing action out on the Gulf continues to be good with a mix of different species of fish to go after. Right now if you are serious about getting into the larger grouper then you have to plan to run deeper, although there are lots of other fish to catch in closer to the coast.
The other day aboard the Legacy I guided a client by the name of Al Hilado who first fished with me when he was in college over 20 years ago. Al now works as a real estate lawyer and lives with his family in the Orlando area. Anyway Al brought his two sons Mason and Garret out for a 6-hour fishing trip.
With plenty of white bait around we loaded up the live well with pilchards and headed offshore about 13 miles to a big area of hard bottom in 60-foot of water. We anchored over a decent 2-foot limestone ledge and got to fishing.
With all the pilchards we netted packed in the live well, we created a huge fish smell in the water down wind and tide of us and before long we had some big Spanish mackerel, little tunny, and a few 4 to 5-foot sharks feeding up and around the boat.
The bottom bite was good too, and Al and his boys were hooking up with red and gag groupers, mangrove snapper, and white grunts. Most of the grouper in this depth of water are too small to keep, but they did mange one keeper red grouper, and one keeper gag.
I really enjoyed seeing Al, and meeting his sons.
Actually the last time Al fished with me was about 17 years ago. His boys stay involved in soccer so they haven’t had the time for getting to the coast for fishing. I’m sure I will see more of them in the future because as they were leaving, Garret the older of the two told me that today was the best day of the summer
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