# Offshore Venice, La.--Super Strike Charters



## Super Strike Charters (Apr 22, 2011)

We fished the Krieger crew from Plantersville, TX. for the past two days and it was productive. They booked for two days and they wanted one day of Blue-Water Fishing , Tuna being the main target and one day of rig fishing with Mangrove Snapper and Cobia being the main target. Tuesday was one of the nicest days I have been offshore in a while. It was slick calm seas and you could go anywhere you wanted in these conditions. We started out about 40 miles offshore, the water was blue-blue, almost purple and upon pulling up we were greeted with Tuna busting all over the place. We had a live-well full of live bait and we were ready. However, it hasn’t been as easy as you would think lately, and with the amount of fish all over us I was hoping that it was going to be our lucky day. Busting about 70 yards away on all sides of the boat, the tuna were everywhere. Two lines out with live bait and we waited for the first strike, 30 minutes later, still waiting. The tuna are busting all around us but no strikes. Finally, about 40 minutes into it we got our first fish on and it was about a 35lb. Yellow fin. Got him in fairly quick and we had some meat in the box. We had plenty of Tuna around us, but they weren’t feeding on what we had. Now this isn’t that uncommon when it comes to tuna fishing because most days they are feeding on certain species and that is all they want. They have been feeding on minnows in grass patches, about half the size of your pinky finger, not much more to them than a sparkle in the water and way to small to use as bait. Usually, when you find a school of Tuna busting like this they will eat most live bait presented to them. Most of the time you can wait them out and eventually they will eat what you have or you can go and find another spot and hope that they are feeding more aggressively there. So we reeled our lines up and ran another 20 miles out and pulled up to more Tuna fishing busting the surface and eating those same small tiny fish. We gave them an hour and tried a few different techniques that usually works but no takers. We then went back to where we started and the fish were still going crazy. We made a couple of drifts with no luck. As we are sitting there with the baits out, I look over in the water and there is a huge brown stain in the water with what looked like a bunch of jelly fish in it and other tubular shaped marine species. It basically looked like something big had taken a dump or vomited. Five seconds later a big school of chicken dolphin and rainbow runners were darting to the platform and usually when this happens there is a Marlin in the area. Sure enough something big crashed on the surface. We didn’t get a chance to see what it was but figured it was a big billfish or big Tuna. The guys casted a surface popper in that direction and sure enough about a 300lb. lit-up electric blue Marlin smacked the popper and stayed hooked. We had him on for about 5 minutes, made a huge run and pulled the hooks. We go back to Tuna fishing and about 15 minutes later we got a solid Tuna to eat, which weighed in at 105lbs. We gave it another 45 minutes and no takers so the crew decided they wanted to put some Amberjack in the boat since it was getting late and we went 2 for 9. They were just mouthing the live bait we had and weren’t really smashing it like they usually do. We couldn’t keep them hooked, so we had a little action on that and called it a day. Day Two: The crew wanted to try something different, this was their first time fishing for any of these species so they decided they wanted to go after some of our reef fish species. Fishing for Mangrove snapper has somewhat of a learning curve to it because they can easily run you into the pipes of the rig breaking you off. After a lot of trying they finally got the hang of it and put a few in the boat, they were also able to catch their limit of Cobia using the same technique, so they finished up with 8 Cobia and 8 Mangrove Snapper. They had to get on the road for a 12 hour drive so they decided to call it day. So for a group of guys that have never been fishing in this area, they went home with three 120 qt. ice chests full of fish. They had the marina cook up a few slabs of Tuna the night before that they had caught and said they had no idea how good fresh tuna is. I am sure they will say the same when they cook up the Cobia. 

Here is the situation right now offshore out of Venice. We’ve got plenty of fish and they seem to be just about anywhere you go in the Canyon. However, they aren’t feeding that great on the bait that we usually get them on. It could change tomorrow or it may be another week before they start eating like they normally do. Most important thing is to be there when they decide to eat what you have. The fish are all sizes right now and they have anything from 40-50lbers. To 150+lbers. So, we’ve got plenty of Tuna in the area. The Mahi Mahi have been showing up one day and gone the next. The rip lines really aren’t forming up that great, mostly just big grass patches. As soon as we get some current out there we are going to have some huge rips that should be holding plenty of Mahi-Mahi, Wahoo, and Marlin. So far there have been a lot of Marlin caught and it is only mid-May.. It is shaping up to be a great summer for that. Around the rigs, all the action you can ask for. Red Snapper season opens on June 1 and you can catch them anywhere you go and they are going to be big ones this year. We caught and released a few yesterday and we never fished deeper than 20ft. All of them were over 10lbs. So the avg. weight of the snapper this year will most certainly be up there. Cobia, Mangrove Snapper, and Grouper are abundant as well. The cobia are really here in big numbers, yesterday we had them thicker than ever. The weather has been great and the fish are here so if your looking to get offshore and fish now is the time to go.

Capt. Damon McKnight
Super Strike Charters
1.800.318.1720 

http://www.superstrikecharters.com
[email protected]

Here is a link to a video that some of our customers made from their fishing trip on May 5, 2012. https://vimeo.com/41883603


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