Fishing Reports Archives - Page 4 of 5 - Relentless Sportfishing

Venice 5/8-10th

Posted on May 12, 2009 by Relentless_admin

The last few days down in Venice have been good. Altough the weather guesser needs to recalibrate his crystal ball. I started off on Friday with Bridgett Heptner and her son for a pre mothers day trip. The goal was to catch some dolphin and maybe a wahoo. We started out trolling a perfect looking color change with the prettiest swimming ballyhoo but there was no body home in the few miles we fished it. We continued to work our way east and trolled some bouys looking for our dolphin. The snake wahoo took a few of our circle hooked ballyhoo. But we finaly manged to get one snake about three quarters to the boat before something ate him. The first part of the request was partially filled now for the dolphin. We only found one lone cow before we switched over to tuna fishing and caught 4 yellows. The tuna bite was good and we could of caught all we wanted but they had enough so we left them biting.

[img]http://www.forumpictureprocessor.com/pictureprocessor/images/039_5.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.forumpictureprocessor.com/pictureprocessor/images/038_6.jpg[/img]

before they called it quits to go and try for some other species. Of which they eluded us. It was a tough day with lots of lost fish we had plenty of bites it was just that our conversion of bites to fish in the box was way down. Overall not a bad day with 4 yellows and a dolphin and plenty of high and low points.

The following day I had the Cody Collins gang in for some tuna fishing and with the bite being good the day before. I went to the same spot and partially because it was just to snotty to run any farther out. We started off chunking the fish and the first bait out got eaten while I was going over the technique. Not a bad way to start at all. We then had a couple dry runs. Then we had a few runs with only sharks. But when we found the sweet spot it was doubles and singles and looking like it was going to be an early day. Then we lost two crew members to the effects of the seas. So now it was down to two remaining crew they kept at it while making fun of the two sick ones. Finaly after the seventh yellow hit the ice they decided to take pitty on the sick ones and head back to the dock early. Here is Mica and Cody with there tuna before the seas took them out.

[img]http://www.forumpictureprocessor.com/pictureprocessor/images/043_2.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.forumpictureprocessor.com/pictureprocessor/images/045_1.jpg[/img]

The next day I had Mitch Johnson and some of his college buddies in to try and catch their first yellowfins. This time the weatherman got it right. Normaly nobody likes the fog but with the thick fog that ment the wind was down and the ride out was going to be good. So on this morning I welcomed it. It was a pleasure to set my throttles and just ride. We got to the bait spot and quickly caught some of the most perfect tinker mackerels I have ever seen. Things were looking pretty good the cudas were only a small nuscience at least for now. After we filled the well with baits we pulled off the rig and set up on a nice showing of tuna on the sounder at 100’. Only to have the first two baits not make it far from the boat before they were blown up by what should have been tuna. But turned out to be only cudas. We regrouped and then put the baits out again and then we had 20” yellowfin eating 10-12” baits nit exactly the size we were looking for. The school I was marking finaly decided to eat and we put three yellowfin in the boat as quick as we could.

[img]http://www.forumpictureprocessor.com/pictureprocessor/images/051_3.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.forumpictureprocessor.com/pictureprocessor/images/052_1.jpg[/img]

It was funny to everyone watching Mitch first get abused by a tuna. Then when it was someone else’s turn suddenly it wasn’t funny anymore. The next bite was Eric’s and was the last one we would have at that spot and it took just about an hour and several rotations of the rod. Everyone was beat so I finished it off. It wasn’t a monster fish but a good solid 130 or so. It was just a real mean fish. [img]http://www.forumpictureprocessor.com/pictureprocessor/images/055_4.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.forumpictureprocessor.com/pictureprocessor/images/059_2.jpg[/img]

With that fish in the boat they said that they had enough tuna and wanted to try for something different. The options were put out for the rest of the day and the amberjack option was chosen. But on the way to catch some jacks I had to pass by one more rig and we still had a well full of bait. We made one more tuna pit stop and immediately caught one a popper and lost a good fish to the cables on the rig. We ended our day with five yellows to 130 and headed for the dock.

Capt. Mike

Fishing in May is getting good

Posted on May 11, 2009 by Relentless_admin

I know I am a little late in getting my report up. But I was trying to edit some of the pictures to protect the innocent and the few people that might get affended by a little nudity. I haven’t got it finished yet so this report will have to have the pictures added in a day or so. On Friday I had Nicole, Brandon and Charlie out for some tuna fishing. They got exactly what they wanted and then some. It was just one of those epic days with a great crew. I can’t believe I even got payed for it. It started off a little bouncy on the way out not to bad. That was the only downside to the entire trip. The bait came very easy with the cudas leaving us alone we quickly put about three dozen tinkers in the well and headed south. As we pulled up to the first spot there was nothing on the surface. But this is where I ended my last trip off with a strong catch so why not start here. The first bait in the rigger was there for about three minutes before it got ate. The second bait never made it to the rigger. The fishing was pretty much a blur. As soon as a fish was gaffed I would hook another bait and throw it out. It would immediately get eaten. There was hardly enough time for tequilla shots. They did get some sloppy half spilled shots in though. At one point I looked back and we had 9 yellows on the deck flopping around. Well 7 were flopping the other two had thier heartd ripped out since it was Brandon and Nicole’s first yellows. Much to the dismay of the crew on the rig we cleaned up the boat and prepared to head to the house at around 12:30. I look forward to fishing that crew again as soon as possible. The following day I had the Gleason crew in from Georgia. They saw the carnage from the day before so they were pumped up. We had a little diferent luck with the bait we had enough but the cudas were horrible. We had to run from them all day long. The spot from the day before was dead except for the cudas. So a quick move and we picked up one immediately perfect we will now go to work and mow some down. Well we did but they were only cudas. So we just kept moving and moving. We hit just about everything in the gulf. We marked fish at every rig we tried and we caught a pile of undersized blacks and yellows plus way to many cudas. Finaly we were at the point of turning back when we picked up a decent dolphin. That upped the spirits of the crew. I decided to try one more rig and use the last of our bait. Finaly when a reel went off I didn’t just reel in a empty leader and retie a hook. we were finaly on another yellow. The fish decided to bite and we quickly put 4 in the boat up to 80lbs. We were late in the afternoon but persistance paid off and we ended the day with 5 yellows and a dolphin. I had the same crew the following day and with the tuna fishing from the day before and the weather forcast we tried to stick in close but once we left the pass our plans changed. So we regrouped and went to the west and got into calm water so they could drink there beer without holding on. I put out some wahoo baits and they commenced to having a few beers and reeling in all of the 20-40lb jack cravelle they wanted to. There was nothing for the box but they enjoyed it anyway. Sometimes you just have to roll with what is given to you. I will get the pictures put up on here before I go back to Venice on Thursdsay. Capt. Mike Ellis

Venice offshore April 23rd

Posted on April 28, 2009 by Relentless_admin

Finaly the wind let up enough to get back offshore. The unfortunate thing is that it just didn’t last long enough as I was only able to get one of my trips off before it started blowing again. Hopefully the wind will give us a break for the rest of the summer. But on Thursday the weather was just about perfect. The only little thing that could be mentioned about the weather was the light fog we had on the way out. I had Tim, Dave and Bryon along with the Pescadora in from Miami on board for a day of tuna fishing. The tuna started to make their presence known while making bait. So after I had a dozen baits in the well I pulled off the rig and set three baits out. I was hoping to make this a one stop trip. And it looked like it was going to be one. As the first three tinkers were converted into yellowfin. The Pescadora caught her first yellowfin and got to taste the heart. So the day was a success since someone caught their first yellowfin. Then the current slowed up and the cudas came out to play after a few of them we went back and made some more bait. At least I had a little cushion on which to start the day with. The next spot would only give us one more yellow before the cudas found us once again. So it was off to the next spot only to find as you guessed it a triple of cudas now the cuda fishing is getting good. At least they were pretty big cudas. I had one more rig to try that I didn’t hit on the way out and it turned out to be all we needed. The first three baits in the water resulted in three bites but only two joined thier buddies in the fishbox. We followed up the double with two more singles and called it a day with a boat limit of yellowfin it’s a nice feeling to leave them biting for another day. The fish were all in the 30-50lb range and were a little outmatched by the Torsa 40/Super Seeker combo. I had 60 mono on the reels, 60 Seaguar fluro and 6/0 Mustad 39952BL hooks. This is pretty much my standard go to outfit for our summertime yellowfin. I should have taken pictures but when it was happening I didn’t even pick up the camera. There was some pictures taken and when they get emailed to me I will add them to this post. Capt. Mike

March fishing report

Posted on March 24, 2009 by Relentless_admin

I know it’s been awhile since my last report. I know I have been slacking on the reports. But now that my daughter is old enough to want hang out with daddy all of my spare time when at home is devoted to her. Just about all of the last several trips have been fishing with the rest of the fleet on a hump out to the east of Venice. Some days it has hard to stay and deal with the multitudes of kingfish and sharks but by the end of the day you would be rewarded with some yellowfin and blackfin in the box. The only good thing about the kings and sharks is that you got to go through your entire stock of hooks and get rid of any slightly rusty ones. Once the kings get real thick we would switch over and cast Braid wahoo bombs at them to pass the time and to restock the bait pile. But the real reason was to get some sweet revenge on them after them taking so many hooks. I have to say that doing that was kind of fun on a 8 to 1 Avet reel with 40lb line on a 6’3” Cape Fear. Most people enjoyed that more than the grind of chunking the tuna. We did have several trips that stood out from the rest of them. The first one that comes to mind is the bachelor party for Derek Fliener and crew. The group was big enough to need two boats so I had Billy Wells run the second part of the group on Wild Bill. Day one started out a little on the bumpy side but not to bad at all. We both started out wahoo fishing only I had no interest in what I was trolling Billy managed to find one. So now with some pressure on me from the bachelor group to not be outdone by Billy. I decided to make a far run to the east to get into undisturbed water. About halfway there I see a fin and yelled out mako and told everyone to hold on and did a 180 as quick as I could. Thankfully I had a couple of kingfish in the box from the day before. So I cut a big chunk of king and drove the boat to the mako but he was making it easy by coming to see what just did a 180 at 40MPH. The mako rig ( 30’ 600lb cable windon to straight 130 Jerry Brown) was quickly put out for the perfect jaws type of hit. It was a quick zip followed by a few clicks followed by her just swimming away slowly until I hit her with the hooks. Dustin was the closest to the rod so he was the one to get the thrill of fighting him.[img]http://www.forumpictureprocessor.com/pictureprocessor/images/Dereks%20b%20party%20021.jpg[/img]

The fish was fairly tame until close to the end and then he did his best marlin impersonation and tailwalked in a huge circle before giving us a couple of jumps[img]http://www.forumpictureprocessor.com/pictureprocessor/images/Dereks%20b%20party%20086.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.forumpictureprocessor.com/pictureprocessor/images/IMG_0556_4.jpg[/img]

. After that I got the flyer in her and a tail rope on the biting end and the tail end[img]http://www.forumpictureprocessor.com/pictureprocessor/images/Dereks%20b%20party%20038.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.forumpictureprocessor.com/pictureprocessor/images/Dereks%20b%20party%20026.jpg[/img]

Now what it was to early to quite fishing but it would be a shame to waste the fish. So we made the call to fish a couple more hours and then head in and weight he mako. We stopped short and tried the hump with only a few kingfish to show for our efforts and with the building seas. We decided to get back on the troll and fish towards the pass. We didn’t get to far before we had a good knockdown on a brown to clean green color change. At first the fish was acting like a real nice wahoo. And my angler was doing a great job on the fish until we saw what we had. As soon as the fish was ID’ed as another mako he kind of freaked out a little.[img]http://www.forumpictureprocessor.com/pictureprocessor/images/Dereks%20b%20party%20065.jpg[/img]

A call was made to Billy who was fishing the same line as we were. To come and get the rod since we already had a mako onboard. By this time it was rough not just bumpy but flat out rough. You can see how rough it was in the picture.[img]http://www.forumpictureprocessor.com/pictureprocessor/images/Dereks%20b%20party%20084.jpg[/img]

We successfully handed off the flyer and the rod with the mako hooked to it without incident. [img]http://www.forumpictureprocessor.com/pictureprocessor/images/Dereks%20b%20party%20078.jpg[/img]

They fought the fish for about 20 minutes or so and got some jumps out of her before she rolled up in the leader and broke off. Trying to judge her size from the jumps she would of easily been in the 200lb or so range. Back at the dock our make went 302lbs. And filled every ice chest they had.[img]http://www.forumpictureprocessor.com/pictureprocessor/images/Dereks%20b%20party%20110.jpg[/img]

The next day was just as fun since we had enough meat and the wind was howling we out out west and had a sheephead roundup. I think you could of sunk the boat with them. The fishing was as simple as it gets a 1/2oz jighead with a small piece of shrimp on it. No fluro or anything fancy at all. We had pompano,redfish,Spanish mackerel and red snapper as bycatch.

The next trip that comes to mind is the Harvey and his girlfriend Nicole trip. The weather was picture perfect of the trip. We started off with a couple of wahoo coming unglued but you could tell it was going to be one of those days so it was no big deal. We got into a area with blackfins showering ballyhoo and a few yellows mixed in. So out went the circle hook rigged ballyhoo and one plug for the stay wahoo. The blackfin loved the ballyhoo and we quickly went through all that I had rigged. [img]http://www.forumpictureprocessor.com/pictureprocessor/images/P3130086.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.forumpictureprocessor.com/pictureprocessor/images/P3130079.jpg[/img]

The hookup ratio was pretty good with the circle hooks. I was pretty amazed at how well they swam. I think that if I stopped the boat they would of kept on swimming past us. After the blacks went down we moved over to the hump and started chunking. The first bait was a big kingfish which we put to use as bait instead of a blackfin from out of the fishbox. The very next bait was a real good yellowfin which beat Nichole after a pretty long fight. Harvey stepped in to finish it off. [img]http://www.forumpictureprocessor.com/pictureprocessor/images/P3130123.jpg[/img]

After pictures and a short cleanup we moved back into position for another drift.[img]http://www.forumpictureprocessor.com/pictureprocessor/images/P3130141.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.forumpictureprocessor.com/pictureprocessor/images/P3130130.jpg[/img]

We had a couple of malfunctions with backlashes when yellowfin ate right at the boat. I was not able to get a one out without breaking off the fish. But our luck changed with Harvey on the next chunk in the water. The yellows came up on a handful of chum and got one of the pieces with a hook in it Harvey whipped the fish pretty quick along with himself also. With all the fish they needed we decided to leave them biting and headed to the house around noon or so. [img]http://www.forumpictureprocessor.com/pictureprocessor/images/P3130148.jpg[/img]

The next trip was with the Southern pipe crew this trip was memorable not because of the size of the fish but because they were just fun to fish with. We started off and jigged a limit of Aj’s and then on the the hump to try for some tuna. The blackfin had taken the place of the kingfish we we put a hurtin on them. I don’t know how but two yellows managed to beat the blackfin to the bait. We ended the day early with two yellows a limit of Aj’s and a full box of blackfin. It is nice to know when it’s time to quite killing fish. They threw in the towel just before I was going to mention that they might not have the icechest room to hold the fillets. It was a perfect day back early with the boat and fish cleaned and sitting down to a extra thick steak and cocktail by 5PM.

The last trip I will mention was my last trip was with the Bradshaw family. The weather was susposed to be on the rough side but the bouy was reading 1.3’ at 4 seconds so the call was made at the dock to try the tuna. Well that was the wrong call I think I should of done some metrological form of math as it was nowhere near the prediction from the bouy. With Ms. Bradshaw out for the count due to the seas so I wasn’t going to go any father offshore. We decided to switch gears and use butterfly jigs to see what would bite. We quickly got a limit of Aj’s using a mixture of different jigs. The OTI jigs and the Shimano’s were neck and neck. But the OTI’s beat them out on price since we lost quite a few of them. Well that is the human wrecking ball A.K.A. Bob did along with a reel. I wouldn’t let him quite I just tied another jig on and told him to drop it. If we made 75 drops I bet we didn’t have 6 drops that came up without a fish. We could never even hit the bottom due to the jacks. We ended the day with everyone having sore arms from the jacks. We lost a few UFO’s we couldn’t stop on 80lb braid and a SevenSeas jigging rod. At the end we had a limit of jacks and a lone blackfin. The fishing is pretty good right now somedays you just have to settle for whatever the weather throws at you.

Capt. Mike

Venice winter wahoo wonderland

Posted on February 10, 2009 by Relentless_admin

I am finaly just getting my thoughts together after a picture perfect weekend in Venice. I had Chris Ashoff and Jim Scarletta from Avet Reels and Seeker Rods in from Cali. Jim brought a whole arsenal of tackle he put together after several lengthy phone conversations about the way we fish tuna and wahoo out of Venice. Jim’s rod choices were perfect for the way we wahoo fish. To perfect since I now have to call Seeker and place a order. The model numbers for the blanks were Super Seeker SS 6470 And the SS 6463. The rods had the perfect amount of tip with all the backbone you need for wahoo trolling. Chris was a spinning rod type of guy and once again the Super Seeker spinners along with Quantum Cabo reels were the weapon of choice. In fact the first fish of the trip came off one of the spinners and it worked out very

well. Jim on a wahoo and the results of the fight. [img]http://www.forumpictureprocessor.com/pictureprocessor/images/DSCN0321_1.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.forumpictureprocessor.com/pictureprocessor/images/DSCN0317.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.forumpictureprocessor.com/pictureprocessor/images/DSCN0318_2.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.forumpictureprocessor.com/pictureprocessor/images/DSCN0319_10.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.forumpictureprocessor.com/pictureprocessor/images/DSCN0324_5.jpg[/img]

We started out on Thursday with the weather man being wrong about the seas but in our favor. It was the perfect way to wahoo fish. We had two rigs with dry runs then we started to pick one up here and one there.[img]http://www.forumpictureprocessor.com/pictureprocessor/images/fishing%20004_18.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.forumpictureprocessor.com/pictureprocessor/images/fishing%20015_3.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.forumpictureprocessor.com/pictureprocessor/images/fishing%20005_17.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.forumpictureprocessor.com/pictureprocessor/images/fishing%20022_2.jpg[/img]

Which makes a trip last the entire day instead of what we had the following day. So after moving around a little we got into a good bite from a different species. Every pass by the rig and it produced at least a double on nice sized amberjacks. With it getting late in the day we made one more move then our mojo must of worn off during the ride. Because at the next rig we missed the first four bites and lost three lures. It was just the thin to put a little downhill slide in a otherwise perfect trip. And it made the next high spot and rig we fished so much sweeter.[img]http://www.forumpictureprocessor.com/pictureprocessor/images/Venice%20Fishing%206feb09%20040.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.forumpictureprocessor.com/pictureprocessor/images/Venice%20Fishing%206feb09%20037.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.forumpictureprocessor.com/pictureprocessor/images/fishing%20006_7.jpg[/img]

I made the call to pull in the lures and make the final move of the day. We were about 300 yards or so from the next rig and we doubled up on real good fish one a little over 80 and one about 60. From that point on you couldn’t set a bait out without it getting hit before you got it set. I even tried to leave the fish and troll over the high spot but I couldn’t closer to a ¼ mile from it. Going to it we got spooled on a spinner with 400 yeards of line on it and we lost another fish on a Avet can’t remember the model that just never slowed down before it came off. We ended the day with 9 wahoo with two over 80. More than enough fish for Chris and Jim to ship back to California. Actualy they shipped back on one trip what they wanted to get out of three.[img]http://www.forumpictureprocessor.com/pictureprocessor/images/Venice%20Fishing%206feb09%20063.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.forumpictureprocessor.com/pictureprocessor/images/fishing%20010_5.jpg[/img]

The next day we got a late start due to what I was told was a alarm clock issue but I think it was just plain old worn out. I was watching all the other boats leave out and I was a little worried but I was going to make a beeline for where I left them the day before. We finaly got away from the dock sometime after six. The Freeman was in high gear as every rig we passed all had boats on them. We arrived at the scene of the crime from the day before and the first pass a quad on wahoo. [img]http://www.forumpictureprocessor.com/pictureprocessor/images/Venice%20Fishing%206feb09%20046.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.forumpictureprocessor.com/pictureprocessor/images/Venice%20Fishing%206feb09%20012.jpg[/img]

We only managed to get three in the boat then we made another pass with more of the same. So we quit and switched over to throwing Tady and Raider jigs at them and picked up one that way on the first cast. We were not keeping fish this day unless they were hooked to deep. But you know how that goes the first four had to go into the box to pay off some favors I had to take care of. After that it was get them to the boat and shake them off.[img]http://www.forumpictureprocessor.com/pictureprocessor/images/Venice%20Fishing%206feb09%20067.jpg[/img]

I don’t remember how many we caught that day but it would have been a lot more than my boat limit of ten wahoo. We headed back to the dock pretty early to get the grill fired up for some wahoo steaks and drinks. We kept four wahoo on Friday just enough for a few fresh meals for the dockhands.[img]http://www.forumpictureprocessor.com/pictureprocessor/images/Venice%20Fishing%206feb09%20071.jpg[/img]

The final day of the trip was susposed to be pretty rough and with more than enough wahoo killed we decided to do a little deep dropping. The weather man was right it was rough. At least he got one day out of two right. The bite was pretty slow well at least at the one rig we tried. Instead of running around in the rough stuff all day everyone opted to just head in with only a couple fo fish in the box. It was kind of anti climatic after the last couple of days but a nice way to end it. I will be back at it after the Maimi Boat show and a short trip to the Bahamas.

Capt. Mike

Venice wintertime tuna report

Posted on February 2, 2009 by Relentless_admin

I am finaly getting warm after getting back from several days down in Venice. The lump has yet to kick off this year. So our fishing is based on wahoo fishing. But with all of the crowds of people doing the same thing it makes for some crowded fishing. And our customers wanting tuna we have been running to the Green Canyon for tuna. Of course it is not an every trip type of thing as the weather has to be perfect to make it that far. But on the trips that you can make it the fishing is still summertime fishing. And on the days when you can’t then the wahoo amberjack and grouper have to fill the void. Now for the recap of last week.

I started off with the Adams group in from Tampa for some tuna fishing. I was having drinks with another captain at the marina and we were trying to figure out what to do the following days we decided to go to Green Canyon. A call was made to Robert to increase the speed my 20 MPH to get here for the 4AM departure. To my relief no fog in the morning and best of all no wind. We quickly loaded up for a four hour run through the dark to the canyon. It felt just like summer with the water being a very nice 77 deg. Flying fish were everywhere along with a few open water schools of tuna. At first the bait was a little slow until we figured out how deep they were then the cudas figured out that we figured out how deep the bait was they were taking more than their fair share. So I made move to another rig a couple miles away and caught all the bait we needed in pretty quick order. The baits didn’t last long once they were in the water and the first fish of the day was on. Robert started it out and Mike B. finished it up. [img]http://www.forumpictureprocessor.com/pictureprocessor/images/100_0237_10.jpg[/img]

The fishing went on like this until we hit our boat limit of two yellowfin per person. [

We ended up the day on a double with Robert and Mike L. getting the fish in with no assistance. The best bite of the day was when a group of tuna came up close to the boat and I threw a Yo-Zuri sashimi slider at them and a 100 plus yellowfin found the lure. Mike B just happened to be the closet to the rod so he got to fight it[img]http://www.forumpictureprocessor.com/pictureprocessor/images/100_0241_15.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.forumpictureprocessor.com/pictureprocessor/images/100_0242_6.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.forumpictureprocessor.com/pictureprocessor/images/100_0240_11.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.forumpictureprocessor.com/pictureprocessor/images/100_0257_10.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.forumpictureprocessor.com/pictureprocessor/images/100_0259_8.jpg[/img]

. We hoped to another rig just to check it out on the way home. I wish I would of started there the fish were larger and the dolphin were pretty thick as well. We put one dolphin in the boat since no one on the boat had ever caught one before. It was a great day with six yellows in the boat from 80 to a little over a 100 and a bounus dolphin.[img]http://www.forumpictureprocessor.com/pictureprocessor/images/100_0266_6.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.forumpictureprocessor.com/pictureprocessor/images/100_0282_3.jpg[/img]

We went 6 for 9 on tuna not a great average but still pretty good with the better fish at the

last spot and nobody wanting to reel in another tuna we headed for the house.

The next day was with the same group and with the icechests full we decided to do a half day of deep dropping for grouper. We caught a couple of snowy in 30-40lb class along with some of the biggest breaded bratoulas I have caught this year.[img]http://www.forumpictureprocessor.com/pictureprocessor/images/100_0288_4.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.forumpictureprocessor.com/pictureprocessor/images/100_0287_8.jpg[/img]

We called it a day and came back to the dock with two grouper and six bratoulas oh and a rosey for a little color.[img]http://www.forumpictureprocessor.com/pictureprocessor/images/100_0298_4.jpg[/img]

The following day Saturday proved to be my toughest day of the year. I had the Justin Smith group in for some wahoo fishing. I just couldn’t find them to save my life. I drug ballyhoo on the downrigger over every knocked down rig that I knew of only to come up empty handed on the wahoo. In the process we managed to find every oversized jack crevelle the gulf has. We switched gears and since the wahoo didn’t want to play at least we had something to pull drag I think we caught a couple dozen of them. We ended the day with some Spanish mackeral and a couple of almaco jacks. Not the kind of catch we were hoping for but we tried hard.

I had the Bright group the following day and the call was for tuna. The conditions didn’t allow us the make the Green Canyon run since the west side of the river was to rough to make the run. We went out east and found only small blackfins and yellowfins at the first spot. We did managed one 30lb yellowfin on a livebait. Then the bite died with that one fish so we were back on the hunt. We covered a lot of ground and at the last spot I live chummed up a nice tuna only to have it’s tail wear through the leader after about thirty minutes into the fight. At least we had our target species in the box. We ended another tough day with one yellowfin and four blackfin. We were using butterfly jigs for a big portion of the trip and that’s what the blackfins wanted.

The final day of my week was with the Roberts group in from all over. We decided to make the canyon run only to hit a brick wall about 65 miles offshore. We made a turn to head back north to another rig to give it a shot as it was pretty much the only option we had. The bait was tough and it was only in one spot. And that was where the rig was spray painting. We managed to get six baits real quick before we got painted. By this time it was getting pretty rough and just to make it a little more fun it started to rain. We quickly doubled up on 35lb yellowfin and the that was it for us on livebait. We broke out the jigs and lost one tuna into the rig and caught one blackfin for the box. We fished the rest of the day without a bite. We ended the day with only two yellowfin and a blackfin. The fishing wasn’t typical Venice this time of the year but you have to take what is dealt to you.

Capt. Mike

Winter wahoo fishing is heating up

Posted on January 13, 2009 by Relentless_admin

No matter how long you fish there are always going to be days that you just have to shake your head in wonder. I had one of those days on Tuesday everything I thought would work didn’t and everything I thought wouldn’t work did. The late season billfish bite didn’t pan out as the bait left the rig and was replaced by sharks. The first bite on a live mullet rigged on 100lb fluro turned out to be a fairly good sized shark. That had the ability to change species five or six times in the fight. The water just had enough green tint to make a positive ID tough. With a good amount of tuna marking on the sounder I dropped a seven seas hooker jig down just to see what was home. It didn’t make it very deep and I missed the fish. So a couple of jig rods went down and up came a yellowfin and a nice blackfin A few more drifts through the area the fish were showing at and nothing. My next plan of attcak was to target the wahoo. On the way to where I was going to start wahoo fishing I had a premanition or how ever you spell it. I made a turn to go to a totaly new area. The goal was for tuna and wahoo wasn’t exactly what my crew had came for. Upon arrival the smaller yellows and blacks were doing thier thing on the surface with a few bigger busts from larger fish. So out go the mullet only to find more large sharks. This time they were extra large hammerheads. With our live mullet only attracting sharks we broke back out the jigging gear. And went to putting a hurting on the blackfin and yellowfin. We shut it down after a reasonable amount of tuna in th box. The call was made to see if we could find some AJ’s on jigging gear. A naked jig didn’t work but a ghetto jig did with a strip of tuna hanging off of it worked like a charm. My jigs went fishless while the strip jig combo got hammered and quick limit of slightly above average jacks went into the box. The final susprise of the day was a tuna that was in the wrong place hanging out with the AJ’s after 45 mintues on a Accurate 20 spinning reel with 65lb braid everyone was thinking huge AJ but it just didn’t fight like one. So up pops a 90lb yellowfin in some very green and pretty shallow water. We ended the day with 5 yellows to 90 and 6 blacks along with a limit of nice AJ’s. The next three days the weather was susposed to be horrible but the weather man was wrong. In a way that they are never wrong the weather was a little foggy but very calm. The first day I tried the lump with no love at all except for sharks and more sharks than a few more sharks for good measure. The saving grace was dinner was caught in the form of some triggerfish and b-liner snapper. The next day I loaded the wahoo lures to go in search of them with the lack of tuna on the lump. The first rig we hit on the first pass was perfect three knockdowns. Out of that we only managed one wahoo in the 50lb range one broken lure on the strike and one cut off. From there it went not so good. We would get bites on just about every other rig only to lose the fish every time. If it wasn’t a wahoo the hooks stuck like supperglue to them. It was a pretty demorilizing day to only have one wahoo for all the bites we had. The next day started out slow on the wahoo troll again. But it quickly heated up for us with a double and both of them made it to the boat. Then a thrid was hooked reeling in another bait during the double. We were not doing anything different that we didn’t do yesterday except land the fish. The highlight of the day was a wahoo that was later weighed in at 92lbs. back at Crypress Cove. We ended the day doing some AJ jigging it was fun watching thier faces when a big AJ would eat thier jig. We ended the day with a ethical 9 wahoo to 92lbs and a blackfin. he last trip from this series was of course another wahoo trip but the area that they have been holding in well the word got out and there was more boats out there than the boat show. We doubled up on blackfin on the first pass by a spot that was a gift from hurricane katrina. After that it was three boats on every rig so we went jack fishing. Sometimes you just have to make it happen no matter the target species is. We ended the day with our limit of nice jacks and two blackfin. The stories the guys got from the jacks was worth it. It is pretty cool to watch one guy with the rod and two others holdig onto the guy with the rod. There are no pictures since I left my camera at the house. Hopefully everyone will send them to me. Until next time catch’em up. Capt. Mike

November 10-11th report

Posted on November 14, 2008 by Relentless_admin

I was part of a two day two boat trip with Billy Wells (Wild Bill Charters). I did get the jump on them and I am putting the report from both trips up before they get a chance to do so. I don’t have any pictures from their trip as I am still waiting on them to be sent to me. The first day I had Tony, Chuck, Bill, and Jeff onboard for a day of tuna fishing. The. weather was just about on the verge of not being worth the run to the chosen area but the Freeman made the 3-5 beam sea very manageable. Mullet was hard to come by for me that day but hardtails were very easy. The fishing started out pretty slow but the dolphin started to come in one by one and we put four nice ones on the ice. The tuna were all marking deep but the marks were rising up shallower. At first there were a couple of bust here and there. Then we got Jeff on his very first yellowfin of which he did a great job on and got to enjoy eating the still beating heart. After a quick cleanup we got back into position and immediately hooked our second fish which Tony beat quick. After that things slowed down and I made the call to head to another rig to look for some easier fish. I should of stayed as Billy got onto some good ones. Of course the next rig was barren and we fished it for awhile with nothing to show for it. We headed to the house with two 70lb yellows and four dolphin. The following day we switched out some crew members and the guys that wanted to go and catch some grouper jumped on my boat. I would like to take credit for the results of this VERY ROUGH day but I can’t. The Kristal 651 did all the work for us along with some volunteer mullet. The trip actually started out slow with the first four bites we had come unhooked on the way up. But after that we shook off the bad mojo and put the smack down on 9 snowy grouper from 15-30lbs and a bouns Warsaw in the 80lb range plus a limit of real nice amberjacks. I put a cap of ten grouper on the deepwater grouper trips since they take longer to repopulate a rig. We hit our 10 fish limit with ease. And the satisfying thing is we left them snapping hopefully to be left alone until I need them. My crew on this trip are all bottom fishermen from Florida and they said they have never had a grouper trip like this one before. When I get the pictures from both trips I will attach them to this post. It is awesome to live in the Sportsman Paradise.

Capt. Mike

Alex G and the guys from Miami

Posted on November 14, 2008 by Relentless_admin

On Wednesday November 6th marked the day our adventure would begin. The crew consisted of Karl (Flagman), Rob (Pescado), Alexis (LegalLimitII) and Alex G. We left to Venice Louisiana for what would be a fishing trip of lifetime. There were moments when we were sure that it wouldn’t be but when we had almost given up hope things turned around for us in a major way.Our Cabin:

Here’s how the day went: Since we were supposed to meet Captain Mike of Relentless Sportfishing Charters at 6:00AM we agreed to get up at 4:45 AM. After having breakfast and getting everything we would be taking with us to the boat ready, we jumped in the car. When I start the car and look over at the clock I see that it’s not 5:45AM, as we’re expecting it to be, but 4:45AM. Everyone forgot to set their clock back for the time difference between Florida and Louisiana so we go back in and sleep another hour until it’s time to go. We were very pleased when we arrived at the boat. The 33’ Freeman was in spotless condition with excellent tackle and the captain and mate were ready to go!

It was a beautiful day around 70 degrees with the sun shinning brightly. The weather would remain like that for the rest of the day and the seas were 2 feet or less. Catching bait on the way out was not difficult so at this point we’re convinced were going to tear the yellowfin up. Shortly afterwards is when we started to realize that things were not going to be as easy as we thought.

When we pulled up to the first rig, 70 miles offshore, we immediately start to mark big fish at the 200ft rage. We setup a slow troll consisting of live bait (Runners) which results in a small dolphin. We continue to slow troll the area while casting out a popper on a spinning rod to small blackfin tuna busting on the surface. We only managed to get one black and decided to try another nearby rig.

The second rig was also holding fish but they where not coming up to the surface. Since trolling wasn’t working the captain decided to change the approach and we start drifting baits in the 200-300 foot range in order to bring the baits down to them. Bingo, we get a bite. We fight the fish for a few minutes but managed to lose the first 4 solid hits we get. 0 for 4 on the yellow fins and now we are starting to worry. This brings us to approximately 4:00PM with no yellow fin on the boat.

Now we have to make the decision of continuing another 20 miles and trying another rig or heading back home and giving it another try on Friday. With the way things were going it was a very tough question but after the captain advised us that the weather may be a little too sporty to go out on Friday the consensus decision was to continue on. We were all determined not to return to Florida without catching our yellowfin and we were not going to take a chance on the following day. Our decision turned out to be the right one because we would not have been able to go out Friday because of the weather as the captain had advised us might happen and we eventually started to catch fish. We arrive at the last spot of the day and it immediately looks promising. We hook a large dolphin shortly after starting our troll but wouldn’t you guess it, it pulls the hook and add another lost fish to the list. After we give up on the trolling we start setting up our drifts in the same manner which produced the bites at the other rigs. After several drifts without a bite we start to see more and more yellowfin crashing in the area.

These were not small fish. They all looked over 100#s and our hearts where racing in anticipation of hooking one of these monsters. Finally, Rob breaks the ice and lands the first yellowfin in the 20#s. range. At this point we’re all thrilled to have the first one in the boat when things really start to heat up.

Just as the sun is about to set Alexis gets a bite. It’s a big fish but we’ve gotten awfully close to the rig and the fish is digging down. At the same time a group of 30#s dolphin who had been swimming around the boat each time we approached the rig decided to also start to bite. We lost the tuna but landed three of the dolphin.

At this point we’re convinced our luck had changed and we were correct. Next thing we see is the small yellowfin caught earlier pulled out of the ice and getting filleted. Sweet sashimi time, so I thought, it turned into chunks and they started going overboard. A concerned look on my face was immediately relieved when yellowfin after yellowfin got hooked on the chunks. We hooked and landed every fish after that. We kept the bigger fish weighing in at 145#s, 135#s, 80#s and 75#s.

To say we ended on a high note is an understatement. If you’ve never caught a tuna over 100#s make sure you’re in pretty decent shape before making the trip. These fish will absolutely kill you. We all have sore muscles we never even knew existed.

Fresh tuna at the marina:

Special thanks to Captain Mike Ellis, from relentless sport fishing, for going the extra mile and putting us on fish. It’s nice to fish with a Captain that has as much passion and hurts as much as you do when a fish is lost. His boat was very impressive and comfortable. The fuel efficient vessel was very appreciated especially at the end of the day when you’re settling fuel cost. He never gave up on us when things just weren’t going our way and the results were spectacular. If you would like to charter Captain Mike his contact information can be found on his website: https://www.relentlesssportfishing.net. Highly recommended!!

Venice truly the Sportsmans Paradise

Posted on November 14, 2008 by Relentless_admin

The last couple of weeks is a prime example of why Louisiana is the sportsman’s paradise. I left the deer camp in time to drop off a couple of deer at the processers and head to Venice for six days of fishing. I tried to squeeze a duck hunt in between all of this but I couldn’t seem to wake up. But I missed a easy and quick hunt with limits for everyone. Now on to the fishing. I started this series of trips off with Franklin Hedley and his buddies from South Carolina. I had a tough act to follow since the last time they fished with me this summer we put 13 yellows in the boat and was home early. This trip sarted off on the right foot with all the mullet you would ever want and plenty of perfect hardtails. The first fish of the day was a blue that popped up behind a mullet but he would never commit to eating. After that the grand tour of the gulf started we hit three more rigs and at the third rig we finaly managed to get something in the box a 29” yellowfin. The day was really not going well for us at this time. But I still had one more rig to hit. Thankfully this rig was holding some dolphin and we quickly put five very nice dolphin in the box for a pretty decent consolation prize. If you wanted to count all of the cudas it was a banner day for them.

The following day I had Steve Gibishar and his wife out for Steve’s 50^th birthday. I was going to write something up but he beat me to it so I am just going to be a little lazy and copy his post.

Well we decided to go with Capt. Mike Ellis on Relentless for my 50th birthday fishing trip. It was definitely a good call. Capt. Mike has a very appropriate name for his business and boat as he was the most tenacious capt. I’ve ever fished with. He was relentless in trying to get us our tuna. I don’t think I’ve ever fished with a harder working capt. and he was a genuinly nice guy. We’re already trying to figure out how soon we can afford to go again. One thing that differs from trips in Venice to trips in Florida is that you pay for a trip, not a specific amount of hours. I’ve been on boats out of Destin where we didn’t have much fish when the bite picked up, only to have the capt. tell us that we were out of time and had to head back in. But for 175.00 an hour, we could stay out longer. With Capt. Ellis, we paid for a trip, and he was going to do whatever it took to get us our fish. We left at 6:00 in the morning and got back in at around 7:30 PM. The bite started late and he was determined to get us our fish. I spoke with him a few days after the trip and he said that he didn’t get back in till midnight on his trip the day after ours. That’s determination! My wife Char thought the boat was comfortable. [IMG][/IMG] Here’s our fist of four tuna coming up. [IMG][/IMG] This is where it all happens. [IMG][/IMG] Here’s the Capt. himself. [IMG][/IMG] I’m whooped on this one, it was a little bigger than the others. [IMG][/IMG] I finally won. [IMG][/IMG] This is what we went there for. [IMG][/IMG] My wife working on one. (counting the dolphin, she outfished me)(again) [IMG][/IMG] My wife savoring the heart of her first yellowfin. [IMG][/IMG] My wife with one of her three dolphin, all about the same size. [IMG][/IMG] The final result, four yellowfins and three dolphin. [IMG][/IMG] I want to thank all the people who recommended Capt. Ellis as the trip made for a very memorable birthday. For those of you that haven’t been tuna fishing in Venice, you’re denying yourself a great time.