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Louisiana - Venice & the Gulf of Mexico
Capt. Damon McKnight
March 21, 2005
Venice - Saltwater Fishing Report
Big Fish in Venice!
This past week down here in Venice has been nothing short of absolutely amazing. There weren't a whole lot of fish caught but the ones that were caught were, well are now records. Congrats. to Scott L., Hunter, and the angler who caught the #1 yellowfin in the state, and to Dr. Henry for catching the number 4 yellow fin tuna in the state. This is no easy task guys.
Our past week started out Tuesday with Jerry McNeil and family. We went to the rigs on Tuesday because of the wind. Plenty of red snapper, lane snapper, and red fish. The weather was horrible but they still made a day out of it. When you drive from North Dakota, it is hard to sit at the Marina all day. We were suppose to fish the next three days, but the weather would not permit. They fished inshore on Wed. and smoked the trout and redfish. Another weather day on Thursday, and we were back to the lump on Friday. Slick calm, beautiful day. It started out Hot and Heavy, first line out resulted in a blackfin tuna, then a small yellowfin, and then about 10 more blackfin. Then the beast hit. We had a huge yellow fin on that just about spooled us. After gaining all the line back I decided to chase him down since we couldn't budge him against the current. We were an hour into the fight and he started to come to the surface. The first time I saw him we were riding along side while he was swimming about 7-8ft. below. Out of gaff range. The first look I got at him my heart started thumping and my mouth dried out. Biggest tuna I had ever seen. 20 more minutes into the fight with his big head turning towards the boat, gaff in hand, the fish did one roll back and the floro. broke. There went that and a few more choice words to myself. This was no doubt the biggest yellow fin tuna I have ever seen. The big boys definately rolled through on Friday. On Saturday we were back at it again with Dr. Tom Mahan and friends. The action started out slow. We moved positions three times, it was rough, not much happening. With some hard work we finally got a good fish on. The drag was burning out and I thought to myself here we go again. With the big fish the day before and all the lines that were broke we played it safe and kept just enough drag on him to wear him out. Well, he didn't wear out very fast. Once I got a good look at him and saw he wasn't as big as I wanted him to be, we cranked down the drag and finally got him in. This one was a 110lb. yellow fin. That was the only fish of the day. It looks like the weather has got us in for a couple of days, but we will be back out on Wed.
Capt. Damon McKnight/Super Strike Charters
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