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Bottom Fishing Heating Up

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We have been doing some bottom fishing leading up to our June 1st snapper season. Grouper have been the targeted species and we have hit our target every time we try lately. The red snapper also seem to be covering all of our bottom spots we have checked. It is going to be a bountiful summer! On top of good bottom fishing the yellowfin tuna bite has continued to impress. It has been wide open all spring! 

Spring Action Heats Up: Mahi, Wahoo, and Tuna Biting Strong!

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We had a nice rip line form up this week that was loaded with mahi and a few small wahoo. There is alot of sargassum grass around right now. It’s looking like we should have some good dolphin around for summer time to add some color to our fishbox. The yellowfin bite has held strong as we are still catching them consistently. On top of the yellowfin we had some jumbo blackfin show up. It has really been an impressive spring thus far!

Relentless Sportfishing 3/5 report

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This winter/spring has been a rollercoaster for sure. The weather has been all over the place as well as the dirty water. I guess it was a dream to think it would be as incredible as it was last spring. Even with all of the wind and dirty water it still has been a very good spring. Of course some days leave you wondering what went wrong and others left you in shock that it was over that quick. This year the blackfin have been the biggest player on most days. And with no rhyme or reason at the exact same place the following day the yellowfin steal the show. And in typical spring fashion there is a kicker yellowfin in the 60-80lb range on most trips just to keep it interesting. Along with a few wahoo that have gotten a little to clumsy and didn’t clip us off. I have been using the Eagle Claw Trokar TK 4 hooks in 4/0 through 7/0 with good success. I have kept 60 fluro on two rods and straight mono on two others and there has been no difference for me in the bite ratio. The one thing that has changed is that the poagies I was netting and live chumming went AWOL and were nowhere to be found. Thankfully the tinkers have showed up and have been willing players. They are small but fishable. And the best thing about them is they swim away from the boat and not into the props.

wahoo

On 3/28 I have the Breland group in along with their young boys. This trip was perfect with the boys catching thier share of blackfin along with a couple of yellows while live chumming with poagies. But for them the real thrill was the AJ’s that was the perfect way to cap the day off. It’s the best thing when you hand someone the rod and they ask what the bite will be like and the next thing you hear is either a long stream of rather explict language or a loud crack as the rod gets slammed to the gunnel. We kept our limit of jacks and all of the blackfin they wanted and had a great day. On 3/29 I ran a private boat and mother ocean threw a monkey wrench into our plans for the day. The aliens came and took all of the poagies away overnight. No worries the blackfin have been thick and jigging with 230 gram FC labo jigs has been almost a sure thing. We only wanted a couple to chum with but the first drop a wahoo in the 40lb range ate one. With a good fish in the boat right away the day was off to a good start. Now the blackfin are fired up on the jigs and enough was made for chunk bait. Since they didn’t want any blackfin to eat went pushed off offshore. This where it went downhill for us. We got offshore to find out we missed the bite because of the time we spent looking for poagies. So with our tail tucked between our legs we came back in. We hit a rig for Aj’s and it was pretty good the only problem was keeping the fish out of the rig with their jigging tackle. At least the day was looking up. We did manage to boat a couple of them for revenge. The next stop was for our snapper at the snapper factory. It went exactly as one would expect quick and easy as long as you didn’t put a bait below 15 feet. At least we ended on a very fun and high note with the ever willing red snapper.

blackfin

On 3/30 I had the Dykman group with the poagies gone we tried a little chumming but the current was wacky and all we were doing was spinning in circles. So I broke out the jigs and on the first drop was a nice blackfin that started fighting funny. We quickly found out why as a mako in the 350lb range skyrocketed on him and came completely out of the water. That was a cool sight but no video of it. With the current not working for us we just bounced around and fished jigs all day and put together a few small yellowfin a kicker one in the 70lb range and a bunch of blackfin. We also manged to box a couple of big beeliners on jigs as well. On 4/1 I had the Delany group in for what was susposed to be two days. But the weather got us on thier second day which was susposed to be on Wednesday. Monday started out in triple rediculious fog that stayed with us all the way out to about 18 miles offshore and lasted until about 10:30 or so. It was tough trying to wahoo fish by radar but it started off well with a few blackfin and AJ’s. But it quickly slowed down as the kingfish and jack cravelle’s took over and that was all that wanted to eat on the troll. We went to jigging and boated a solitary yellowfin and a handful of blackfin for the day. Not a great day by any means but the boys got the catch some nice fish and a first yellowfin so it wasn’t a total letdown. On 4/2 The Eubanks group got to experience some tough fishing for the first part of the day. But as the day wore on it got better and ended up well. The fog was much better although still pretty thick. The tinkers were a little on the tough side until I found out the exact sibiki they wanted after that it was easy pickings. After bait we ran and checked every rig that we had been fishing and had fish on them. With the radio traffic pretty gloomy we kept pushing on. At the last spot of the day and guys leaving from there with nothing or very little in there boxes. We tried it anyway right off the bat the tripled up on small yellowfin. About time it was 12:30 and nothing in the box. We stayed there for a little longer and picked up a couple of blackfin. When that small bite died we went a little farther north and finished the day picking away at the blackfin and beeliners fishing live tinkers on weights until they had enough. The weather had me at the dock until 4/6 but the forcast let me get the Stowers group out. This day just didn’t have the feel to it that it should have. There have been a few tough days but at least it was a slow pick of fish but this day it was just dead. All we could manage was one yellowfin a couple blackfin two beeliners and an AJ. Some days you’re the windshield other days you’re the bug. From what I gather there were a lot of bugs that day. Of well that’s what rum is for to drown the sorrows of slow fishing.

Venice Fishing Boat

On 4/7 the Denmark crew had a day as easy as it gets. It was a day that you couldn’t do anything wrong. We didn’t miss a yellowfin and only had one get away from us. We had another susprise wahoo with the Trokar TK4 hook. I thought it was a white the way it ate slow and went for the surface. It was giving the Shimano Tranx reel a workout but we got him. The yellowfin wouldn’t let us get our line in the rigger clips before they were taking them. We ended up with a real nice box and hit the bait rig up for more bait and the best tuna fishing of the day. Everything we put into the water was eaten immediately with poppers and livebaits getting hammered ten feet from the boat. We ended the day on a high note and added another kicker fish of about 80lbs or so to the box. We threw the towel in around noon and headed to the house with happy anglers. I will be back at it as soon as this little blow passes and as we move into late spring and early summer it will only get better. Until next time catch ’em up. Capt. Mike

Mid March report

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Here is a mid march fishing and best of all catching report. Thankfully there has been more catching going on rather than fishing. The weather has been a huge contributing factor lately with conditions from very rough to as smooth as a strippers nether regions. The lump has been our go to place up until a few days ago. For one reason it as just been to rough to go anywhere else. But the bite has been pretty decent, but with some up and downs in it. These up and downs did cause me to make a not wrong decision but I could of made a better decision for my group that came in from Pensacola. Thank goodness the wahoo bit ok along with a few blacks AJ’s and one lonely yellowfin that joined us for a ride back to Cypress Cove. But we did miss the best lump day of the season so far because of it. But at least we still made a good day out of it. From that trip I ran in early march the weather has caused me to cancel way more than I should have. The weather man did cost us a few trips with a forcast that was way off. I hate playing weather Russian Roulette. Unfortunately that’s just part of winter fishing. Enough of *****ing about the weather and on to the meat and potatoes of this report. I started off with last series of trips with David Markovich and his wife on Wednesday the 13th.. A yellowfin was on his bucket list and we set off to the lump to get it crossed off of his list. We did a little wahoo fishing on the way out in some not so favorable conditions but doable. I couldn’t find any that wanted to play with us. But we did find some AJ’s that were willing. Little did I know they were going to be almost non stop companions for us that day. After we got to the lump we couldn’t get away from them they ate chunks and jigs and of course our mullet. We did lose one yellow at the boat so at least David got to have the chance at one. It was a very enjoyable day of catching fish just not the target species we were looking for. David if you read this I will get you your yellowfin when you come back this summer that’s a promise. After the Markovich trip I had Flip Hubbard and his son Tad come in for two days. On the first day I was woke up around 4 AM with the camp shaking from the 25 knot winds. Great not a good way to start out the day. A call was made to meet at 8 and hope the weather guessers were right with it dropping as the day went on. We went out of South pass and went with the seas and did some wahoo fishing as we worked our way to the west and the lump. The wahoo were a no show although we did mark them but I couldn’t figure out the code to make them bite. We set a drift up at the lump and it was pretty steady with a blackfin here and there and of course the ever annoying kingfish and sharks. But Tad did get his first kingfish. Finally at the end of the day we got on a good bite of 60-80 pound yellows and put three in the boat and the call was made that they didn’t want to kill anymore. It was kind of a hard decision to make, keep fishing and catching them. Or head in with happy customers. They won out and we left in somewhat ok seas. The weather guessers did get it somewhat right. On the way in I saw some signs that I needed to see to change up my gameplan for the next day. On day two the seas were slick and with my poagie net onboard we set out to net poagie and live chum the lump. Well the kings loved that but with no current and everyone else around me looking bored we left and went looking. We found what we were looking for and went to work live chumming a mixture of yellowfin and blackfin. We had a few wahoo cutoffs as well. Remember the rig from the day before that they wouldn’t bite on well they wanted livebait. But they wouldn’t touch a livebait on wire. We did keep two yellows one we gave to another boat and one went to a cookout. We hit a little snapper spot on the way home to let them catch some since they have never caught one so we scratched that species off the bucket list. It was a great feeling knowing that cutting chum was over for the year now that the livebait has shown up. The Stephenson group was next up and with the slick day we had the day before and what the guessers were guessing. It was a susprise when we hit the gulf to find it pretty darn rough. But the tuna were right were we left them and we went to work putting a box of yellowfin and blackfin together. They get so excited and turned on by live chumming that its almost not fair to the fish. We only had two yellows a typical springtime 30 pounder and one in the 70 pound range. We also had a bonus catch of a 10 pound mangrove snapper that ate a bait meant for a tuna. With the group wanting to go hit up Bourbon Street we left early and got there fish cleaned so they could go and party. The next day with the Huelsman group was carbon copy of the day before except that there were more yellowfin than the day before they were the 20-30 pound models but they were very willing. The only thing different about this day was the front that came crashing down on us. Luckily we had our limit of yellowfin and a self imposed boat limit of blackfin and we left a little before 11 to head back to the marina. It was a good run of trips with plenty of fish to go home and happy clients. Until next time catch’em up. Edit Post Reply Reply With Quote . ——————————————————————————– + Reply to Thread Quick NavigationGeneral FishingTop . . Quick Reply FontSize

Winter season is underway

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I am done with the winter sailfish charters I had out of Palm Beach. And hunting season is winding down. The time not spent in Florida and the woods. Has been spent in the very windy and not so fishing friendly winter in Venice getting Relentless ready for our winter big tuna and wahoo season. I have also spent considerable time in getting the daytime swordfish dialed in and will offer daytime sword trips this summer as well. Now that all required boat work is done we are itching to get out there and hit the usual winter time spots. It’s looking as it will be a good Febuarary as the yellows are on both of the humps we generaly fish in the winter. Although they are around the wahoo have taken the stage for right now with some very good fishing for them. Speaking of the wahoo I have been working closely with Eagle Claw to come up with the ultimate replacement hook for the plugs that we use for them. I should be getting the prototype hooks in a few days. Depending on the number they send me. If you shoot me a email I will try and get a few handed out for people to try. We will need good feedback before the final production run comes out. They should fix a lot of the 1 or 2 for a bunch of bite days. And allow you to increase the fish caught to bite average. I will be updating my website on a weekly basis and you can also go to the VideoFishingReports channel on YouTube for a weekly video update. Until then catch’em up a d if you ready to go fishing so are we. Capt. Mike

Tuna gone wild report

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     This will be an easy report to write as just about every day was the same.  I started out on the 12th and ended up on the 23rd. The trip on the 23rd with the Scarborough group was one of the couple of trips that was different. And it was so due to no fog and the 4-6’ seas not the 2-4 the weather guessers had it at. I could only do 13 knots and not pound to bad. It took over two hours to make it to a very close in spot for some yellows. It started off pretty good with livebait coming easy. The only bad part was the sharks were there in force along with the tuna. They wouldn’t eat a livebait they would wait until you hooked a tuna and then bum rush him like he was on the wrong street in the city. We got lucky on the first one the second tuna we only got half and the next two we lost everything. You had to keep both engines in gear and the waves would still push you backwards several feet with every wave. With the nasty seas and shark army we ran north as best we could and got on the troll since we couldn’t run. And picked away at the Wahoo, jacks and blackfin on the troll. We ended the day with salt in our ears and noses and a very good box of wahoo, yellowfin, blackfin and jacks to show for it. Even though the wahoo fishing was stellar we paid the price to catch them.

    Now this next trip sticks in my head not because of how good we did but because it shows how much a bad decision can cost. So I will take the blame for this day. I had Scott Winkler and crew in from North Louisiana for this one. The bait came very easy and I was thinking it was going to be rum drinks early today. Well on the way to the spot of choice we hit the dirty water that pushed out overnight. First mistake didn’t look at the water charts. Ok now problem we will just switch to plan B. We ran down the break looking for any open water fish while heading to plan B. Now here is where I make the wrong move. About three miles from our destination it is north of the dirty water line. (Later found out the clean water was a mile north of the rig)So I had no choice but to run LONG to get to some fish. We finally pulled up to the backup stop to the backup stop. The bait was a little bigger out there so we got a few more and was not that worried as it was a full moon and the bite is generally a midday bite. And it was we picked one up about 60lbs right away and then we had to wait for the next bite. With the day picking away and only one fish to show for it. I decided to get more bait and live chum the fish and make them bite. While making bait for the third time some fish came up and we pulled out and got a bite from a 75-80lb fish right away. Perfect they are going to turn on right, well not so much. Then to add insult to an already tough day. I got line in my wheel and had to jump in and take my prop off sixty something miles offshore. I don’t pray much except in situations such as this one. But someone must have been listening because it went as smoothly as possible. After that I tucked my tail and ran for the barn with our two fish at least they were solid fish. Rum drinks didn’t come early this day but they still came to ease the pain and frustration.

     Now the rest of the days during this string were pretty much all from the same mold. We would wait until we had a little bit of light to maybe catch that stray log that the radar missed. Then we would run through the fog which had been the worst of the year. Once we got offshore it was the same fishing as in the summer. We would make bait drop the riggers and livebait fish the tuna. The standard setup was 60lb mainline and 60lb fluro. I did change out my hooks and have been using the Eagle Claw L2004 5/0 circle hook. It’s a bronze hook and once it’s in them it doesn’t come out. We didn’t have one pulled hook in a bunch of hookups. The downside to this hook is you have to use pliers to get it out. It really hooks and holds. The arrival of the first livebait of the year has to be the happiest time of the year.  No more nasty cutting board and chum cutting just good clean gentlemanly tuna fishing. The tuna cooperated just like they should. A lot of people got to catch there first yellowfin and then catch them till they said no more. It’s a great feeling when your customers for the day look at you and say lets go home we have more    than enough fish. There is something very satisfying to leave them snapping. This is how it went for eight days perfect weather and perfect fishing, Life is good. The only deviation to this schedule was a couple of blue marlin that tried to see what the fuss was all about. None were landed only a very brief hookup with a topwater lure on a 350 plus. Probably a good thing the hooks didn’t hold. I did end one day with a very accomplished fly fisherman  Bo Mason that has fished all over with a flyrod but doubted you could catch a snapper on a fly. After I told him about the IGFA records set on my boat on them he wanted to give it a shot. So on the way home we made a pit stop and gave him the drill and well, the snapper ate the fly as good as the tuna ate livebait that day. It was a very good string of trips. And I should be back at it after the little blow this weekend.

 

Capt. Mike

Venice winter recap

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With the winter season that was not the typical winter season starting to wind down. Well I say winding down it never really got started to wind down. There were a few flurries of big fish and some scattered ones to be had. The best way this winter season could be described as, fun fishing. Plenty of small yellowfin were to be had to make up for the lack of there older bigger brothers and sisters. My last group put it perfectly with the quote; I have never bass fished for yellowfin tuna before. Pretty much all winter I shifted gears and went with what mother ocean had decided to throw our way. I made some adjustments in tackle and lures and pretty much fished for the tuna the same way you would fish for largemouth bass chasing shad. It definitely made things fun since it was hands on. When a fish was lost there was no accusing looks. It was man I should have waited to set the hook or I knew I should have sped the retrieve up. The lighter tackle was just much more fun to use. Some days we could have caught a few more fish by using more standard methods and did so. But quickly switched back due to the fun factor which is what it’s about anyway. My trip with Matt Paulk brought the fun factor into things. We went on a big fish search that was not to be. With the onslaught of kings and sharks that day. We switched over to topwater lures and jigs and fished for the fun of it. Suddenly even kingfish became fun instead of just a nusicence. When they are in the 20-45lb class it’s a fun fish. It makes a perfect target for throwing topwaters at. After that trip I fished my next seven or eight trips the same way. Well except no kingfish we just made more runs to the floaters and beat up on the smaller yellowfin and on most days had no problem with getting a nice box of the smaller yellowfin and a few blackfin along with tons of released blackfin I told you I switched out my tackle to better accommodate the smaller fish. I went with 30-50lb braid on Quantum Cabo 50’s. On 20-30lb. spinning rods. Never once were we undergunned or felt at a disadvantage with the light line and tackle. I do have a shameless plug for some gear that I got to use while filming an episode of Addictive Fishing with Blair Wiggins. We used Blair’s line of rods and reels from Wright McGill. The rods were powerful light and had great action. I was very impressed with them. So much that I went to ****’s to try and pick a couple up. The jigging tackle was pretty standard with 300 gram rods and 160-270 gram flutter jigs color didn’t make a difference. But they kept the fish coming in when the yellows went down. Also on thing that helped the catch is a lure I discovered last year before the spill. It perfectly matches the hatch right now. The lure is a Japanese import from Tackle House and it’s called a Flitz it’s pretty small but can still be cast a mile with traditional topwater rods with heavier braid. The other lure is the new Shimano Waxwing and a DOA swimming mullet lure they really seemed to like those three the best. Now that the cold weather should be behind us the tuna should fall into hopefully an early summer pattern. We have had a springtime pattern for about two months. The one real exciting thing is that the tinker mackerel have stared to show. They are a little to small to fish right now but at least they are here. It shouldn’t be long until they become the goto bait. Capt. Mike