# Venice trip



## Hendrik (Aug 18, 2008)

I was mouthwatering over the tuna reports last Sunday and checked the weather forecast. Adding these together made me throw a little lure at my wife which she took. A 3 day trip was born and it didn't need a lot of convincing to get my buddy Keith Lee to go with me.
Keith, not really used to a trip like this, showed up Tuesday around 11 am with 3 things: a bag of hamburgers, a bag of buns and himself.
Fortunately I did some prepping the day before and we left the dock at our house on Fish River around 11 with 2 coolers with food and drinks.

From here it was smooth sailing to the east side of the Mississippi delta, except for the $3,79 a gallon for gas at Fort Morgan Marina.

Cruising at 40 mph we got to the delta in about 2.5 hrs. Instead of taking the regular pass to get to Venice I noticed a short cut through, I think, main pass. Beautiful sight, birds everywhere and WHAM, plowed right onto a sandbar with 40 mph, fortunately we didn't get hurt but we stopped abrupt about 50 yards from deep enough water to float the boat. The darn boat was stuck, stuck and stuck.
After pushing and pulling this 10,000 pound sucker that hadn't moved an inch we decided to let the motors work a little.
This seemed to work, tilting the motors to dredge and then back up a couple of feet to repeat this action. About 20 minutes later were floating again and decided to take the know deep pas this time. Passed Venice and left Tiger pass while watching pink and white flamingos in the delta.

I forgot to mention that all lodging in Venice was fully booked the first because of a trout contest and the BP Circus being in town. The only place still having rooms available was Rickie's Motel in Grand Isle.
Arriving right after dark at Grand Isle it was a bitch to say least to find this motel. After being on the phone for numerous times with the lady in the motel we had to agree with her that she didn't have a clue how to get there by water. An hour and a half later we finally found it just to run aground again in the middle of the marina. Later heard from a local that people would just walk out there for floundering. While checking in we asked the lady where we could get some food and drinks, she just pointed at the vending machine in her office. I guess the burgers came in handy after all.

Next day off to the shrimpers on the lump. Not being knowledgeable on how to fish these shrimp boats we started trolling a current line with extreme blue water on 1 side and dirty green water on the water. Never saw such an extreme tide line before. Picked up 1 blackfin and jigged a little around a rig to pick up some AJ's. Time to head in to Venice through the South West Pass.
This was the third time form me navigating the mighty Mississippi in the dark and believe me, it stays interesting. Arrived at Cypress Cove around 8.30 to find only 1 spot open for the boat. We quickly found out why because there was a busted piece of steel T bar with a faucet on it. Since this bar intended to scrape the boat the rest of the night Keith started jurking and bending it into a favorable position. "Keith, you're going to break it!" Too late, the faucet came off and the water started to shoot high into the sky, putting us in competition with BP to plug the well. After pugging it enough to our satisfaction we found out that the restaurant closes at 9 (it was 8.59 now) so quickly ordered some shrimp poo boys to go. Fortunately the bar stayed open until 9.30 so we got us some very deserved scotches.

I guess the school system in that area was dismantled after the spill because we saw school bus after school bus picking up BP workers.
Left the marina around 6.30 during a beautiful sunrise while cruising the Mississippi. Left South Pas and headed towards Mars and Ursa. Eddie Burger had told me that these held tons of schoolie tuna. Stooped at a right to pick up the perfect live bait, 3 to 4 inch blue runners.
Trolled both rigs but no activity and no serious fish on the finder. Lost a big wahoo and another big fish due to tackle imperfections and picked up a small wahoo. After messing with at least a zillion barracudas and picking up some almacos on the troll we decided to slowly had back to Alabama around 4 pm.
We were 135 miles from Fort Morgan an another 30 to my house at Fish River.
Stopped at a rig on the way back and there they were, finally...............
While trolling Keith got his 80 pound yellowfin and while freelining the livies we got another couple of smaller ones.

Got back at the house around 11pm and needless to say we were pooped.

Great trip, great company and great fishing!


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## MSViking (Oct 11, 2007)

Man oh man I got tired just reading your post! whew that's a lot for one tuna! I am going to try and do at least one Venice trip this year. Cant decide on whether to take the boat (36 YF) over on it's hull or on trailer? Leaning towards trailering now. Thanks for posting, enjoyed the read.


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## Hendrik (Aug 18, 2008)

Yes, we ran 653 miles in 3 days, however would do it again in a heartbeat.


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## Eastern Tackle (Jul 6, 2009)

Sounds like quite an adventure. Thanks for sharing.


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## ateupwitit (May 26, 2008)

I prefer to trailer versus boat the entire trip. gives you some time to mingle with the locals and get some tips on the hotspots and navigation tips for the passes. not to mention that fog is manufactured in Venice and pumped all over the world so those navi tips help!! Sounds like a good trip though.


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## jdhkingfisher (Aug 6, 2010)

sweet yft.


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## Chris V (Oct 18, 2007)

Great report, thanks for sharing


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