# Venice Offshore- Behind The Helm



## captain william wall (Jul 9, 2008)

Venice Offshore, Behind the Helm

4:45 a.m., alarm clocks goes off, coffee maker starts brewing and you slowly awake to your surroundings. Pour a cup of coffee and check out what hot chick is giving the forecast on the weather channel. Light up a smoke in the pre-dawn darkness and grab the imaginary pencil and go over the mental checklist, check, check, check. Map out a plan for the day and its time to go. 

Saturday 3/12
Cold ride down river this morning, Isinglass and hot coffee are a life saver. Have Ronnie Farlo and gang on board. Primary target this morning is tuna. A little country music and the thirty minute ride downriver is soon gone. Seas are very calm, 1-2 ft. Clicked right along at 40mph plus for most of the way. First stop out long and the water is stained to say the least. Oh well, time to go. Second stop and the water clears up nicely with a surface temp of 73 degrees. Cool, fish busting, and jellyfish covered with little baits underneath them. Looks fishy. Pulled mirror-lures and picked up two 40lb yellows quick. Made another move and picked up two more but nothing spectacular. Next stop and the water temps are right at 74 degrees. Put out a spread and made half a rap heading for the up current side and the Torsa 40 goes off. ‘Grab it!” I said to my deckhand Michael, I assumed this was a better fish by the way he was taking braid off. I spun the boat around and got the angler on the corner except the fish hasn’t stopped taking line. Nice, I close the gap to full drag and eventually he settles down. This went on for the better part of an hour and I knew then that he was a stud. The Terez rod was performing great and everything held but my angler. After the third guy bow’s out, I took the rod and settled in. This fish was mad and was not budging. A little while later we saw color and after a few tense moments, we stuck the gaffs into a yellow fin that would later weigh 170lbs hit the deck. The boat was quiet for a few minutes. Awestruck I guess. Then everyone started hollering. Not bad for a small set-up and a pink mirror-lure. Hit one more spot and picked up another small fish and lost another to the cuda’s before heading in to pick up a few jacks on the Frenzy jigs. Damn I enjoy a good day with good people.

Sunday 3/13 
Fog rolled in overnight. Thick to say the least, load the guys and off we go. On board are Tim R. and his crew of doctor buddies. Good karma and it seems like it will be a good one. Finally clear the fog some distance off shore and the sun is shining down on cobalt blue water and the birds are looking for their breakfast. Saw quite a few tuna busting in open water. Those little bait fish that hide underneath the man-o-wars catch hell. Hit three spots and not even a blip on the sounder. Seek and go hide hummmm. Okay, made another move which seemed to be the right one. Pulled up and 80lb tuna are going stupid on flying fish. “I think I am in the right spot” I said quietly underneath my breath. The boat barely settles and I run over three people grabbing a popper rod and managed a cast into the carnage that is happening right off the bow. Frenzy popper was too much for Mr. Tuna. Twenty minutes later a fat and mean 80 lb plus yellow fin is painting the cockpit with blood. Set up three rods for chunking shortly afterward and gave the guys the lesson. Was doubles and triples on the chunk for a little over two hours. Everyone got into the groove with gaffing, wash down and ice down. I blew the whistle at 13 yellow fins and almost had to throw a delay of game for a late throw with a popper. Cool day indeed.

Wednesday 3/16

Foggy again, expected with warm temps. Father and son crew today. Bill Lightfoot had brought his son will along. Tip-toed this morning in pea soup. Rocket scientist almost runs over me in the fog in a shark boat. No radar and no brains. Shook it off with a Marlboro and kept on. Fog finally breaks and I nudge the throttles forward and the morning sun feels good. Made bait a short while later, and we set up, Fish on right out the gate. Young will soon land his first yellow fin. Cool deal to share with your dad. Picked up another a short while later and then the lights went off. It was some time before I connected again after loosing several for some stupid reason. We were able to pick up another fish and for some reason they quit. We stuck with it for a few more hours and headed for the barn. Not a lot of fish but for a father and son sharing a day offshore and being able to bring back a cooler full of tuna steaks it was a good day.

Thursday 3/17
Same start, Foggy. Only difference this morning I didn’t have someone try to run me over. Had John Beaugh and his two buddies, Brady and Joe in from southwest La. John had done a lot of smack talking on the phone before this trip for some reason or another. Must be something in the water where he is from. Michael put the boys in the bean bags and we proceeded offshore. Once again open water yellows busting here and there. It was calm enough to run about 48-50mph. Made it to the first stop quick. We were able to make about 150 perfect tinkers in about 15 minutes and rolled out of the stained water. We hit two spots and no love despite 74.9 degree surface temps. Nothing but peanut stuff. 
Stop number three the same so we moved north a few miles. The first bait lasted 3 seconds before popping out the rigger. We set up and the fish is dumping hard on the 50w. Note to self, “give the rod to john! “ We did and needless to say John was humbled and after a group effort we put the gaffs into a fish in the 130lb class. Set up on the same corner and every time it goes off. We put 5 more nice yellows in the boat before the guys said “okay were done.” I made a friend with John that day and can’t wait for him and the boys to come back. 

Saturday 3/19
Foggy start, Temps should be around 80 offshore today. Seas 2ft. should be good. Paradise Outfitters trip today. Charlie and his motley crew, from the southwest corner of the state, and they brought plenty of friends. Bud light, Budweiser and miller light. These boys were ready to have fun! First stop for bait and it looked like dollar day at Wal-mart. After watching boats take numbers for position, we packed up and headed away from the crowd. Next stop and the bait is coming in the boat quick. Made enough to feed a small village and started fishing. Once again rigger goes off and drag scrams on the 50w. After a lot of coaching from the entire crew I settled my angler in and put the rest of the gang in time-out in order not to give the boy a nervous breakdown. 45 minutes later we stuck the gaffs in a solid fish that would later weigh 130lbs. The boats started showing up after that and it got kind of tuff. We managed two more small fish in the 40-50lb range and headed off. Next stop no love except barracuda’s so we made our way north and hit one more spot before heading to the barn. Another nice with cool people, I like my job.

Sunday 3/ 20

You guessed it, Fog! Same drill. Radar 360 and the video game for much of the way. Bob K and his buddy Brett from Ohio Didn’t bother to stop close this morning due to traffic. Again bait was easy but unfortunately the fishing wasn’t. We hooked up in 20 seconds on the Talica and Brett was looking at his first yellow-fin. After that I couldn’t put together a jig-saw puzzle together with gorilla glue. I suppose you are going to have a bad day and that day was mine. Just couldn’t make it happen despite a hard effort. 

As you can tell for the most part the fishing has been solid. We still have big fish around as well as numbers. The bait is plentiful and it won’t be long before the bull dolphin show up. The high river is setting the stage for some awesome rips and I for one can’t wait to pull them. Give me a call to book your next trip in Venice.

Captain William Wall
Pelagic Charters
F/V ALL IN
Venice, La
1.225.454.5365
www.captwill12cox.net
www.pelagicchartersllc.com


----------



## FrankwT (Jul 25, 2010)

Hell I want to go out with you just to read the report! Great fish!


----------



## sniper (Oct 3, 2007)

Very nice post!!!
Your artistic pictures do the poetic narrative justice.


----------



## captain william wall (Jul 9, 2008)

Thanks.


----------



## MSViking (Oct 11, 2007)

Cool pics and post, thanks for taking the time to share the experience.


----------

