directions_boat Relentless Sportfishing Venice, Lousiana Charter Fishing Trips
phonelink_ring 228.238.0242

Tag: tuna fishing

The 2019 Season In Venice Is On!

Posted on by Anglerfish Marketing
Happy New Year to you and your family.  We had quite the year and we are thankful for everyone that chose Relentless Sportfishing. We look forward to fishing with a lot of our repeat customers this year and putting them on trophy tuna, swordfish and more! January has started out great with some big fish coming over the gunnels. While each day is different, one thing has been consistent: the fish are big!  Using a variety of methods we are racing out to the fishing grounds in search of feeding tuna.  The birds, shrimp boats, oil rigs, rips, etc have all been good indications of where the fish have been holding, however the best indicator has been your captain.  By fishing daily, we generally know where to find the fish from the day before.  This is a huge advantage over the “part-time” fleet. Using our years of logs and time on the water has been our key to success and finding the big fish has been our specialty.  We are so happy our customers are not only experiencing Venice Louisiana fishing, but they are getting to experience some of the best fishing around here in 10 years. Here in January, we already fished 2 bachelor parties as well as 1 corporate event and several private parties.  Each group has done a great job reeling in these beast. I am hoping the weather holds this winter season for all our clients on the calendar already as I expect the fishing to continue to be very good! Here are a few pictures from our Offshore trips: As we get deeper into our Winter and approach spring, we will be looking for Wahoo as well.  Last year the Wahoo season was pretty good.  It is nice to slay the tuna and then switch gears to catch some of the biggest wahoo in the country. If you are looking to go fishing in Venice, LA – we still have several dates available through the end of the spring. Please give us a call and we will get you out there! Tight Lines Captain Niel

Experience Venice Tuna Fishing

Posted on by Anglerfish Marketing
“Well, my wife has wanted to do a night in New Orleans for a while. A few months ago I floated the idea of a nice meal there, a casual drive down to Venice the following day and then a tuna trip. Surprisingly enough, she took the bait. Don’t get me wrong, she loves to fish, but it was awesome to think that she was willing to let us spend that kind of expense and time away from home when it essentially revolved around fishing.

Rolled into NOLA around 4:30 on Thursday afternoon and walked around a bit having a drink here and there while waiting on our dinner reservations at Herbsaint and for our friend to fly in from Fort Worth. He got in around 7:30 and we made our dinner reservation just in time. Great meal. I had the musgovey duck leg, which was divine; only complaint is that I could have eaten about 8 of them… fat boys like their food.

Woke up the next day and made our way down to Venice. Got there at the exact same time that another angler did who had driven straight form PC. We got all situated on house boat and had plenty of time to watch some fish come in, have a few drinks, grill some steaks and talk about the day tocome. Next day came quickly. Here’s Mike’s new 36 Yellowfin at Cypress Cove. Venice Marina Within no time we had drinks / food loaded, truck parked and we were making our way down the river. Yellowfin Venice Fishing Boat In the picture above we are about to be into open water and ready to net some bait. We saw a few popping out here and there, but not enough to toss on. Rather than spending time (and shoulder ligaments) tossing on onsies and twosies, Mike kept easing down a particular shoal and we found them a good bit thicker maybe 30 minutes later. Two casts and we had probably 80 pogies in the barrel. Time to go fishing!

Live baits, great conditions and we’re ready! Venice Fishing Charters We ran about 30 nm and in no time we have our first customer! Birthday girl on the rod… Venice Fishing Oil Rigs She made short work of an average sized late-May / June fish and in no time it was on deck…. Venice LA Yellowfin Tuna On Deck We all high fived and Mike pulled out the heart offered her a bite after her first tuna. She willingly took a chomp out, but didn’t chew for long. Unfortunately, I don’t yet have the picture of this scene, or the one with a nice first-kill swipe of blood across her faith.

After that, we put one line back out and not long after that we caught another similarly sized fish on a live bait. Buddy from TX whooped him pretty quick and we tossed this guy on ice. Yellowfin Tuna In Box After this, we had a little lull, but not much of one. Yours truly wanted to make a move, but we were marking fish above 200’ and Mike said let’s stay put. Most folks were up front chilling on the rail when I saw a fish bust within 100’ off to port. I ran forward grabbed the popper rod and hooked one up on first cast….

Me on the popper rod… Hooked Up In Venice On Oil Rigs Popper fish in box… Fish In The Box After this our next fish came on a live bait and it was solid… About to come over the rail… Yellowfin Tuna On The Gaff Wife with a hero shot… And CLEARLY best picture of the trip! Big yellowfin Tuna! Same fish… Yellowfin Tuna Me with the fish… Yellowfin Tuna After this we hooked up on a double. The larger of the two fish hit first (crashed a slow trolled live bait) and then a second rod went off fishing same thing. I hopped on the smaller fish and boated it fairly quickly. We were then sitting on 6 fish. After a good fight (and a little bit of embarrassing rod-passing) we boated another real nice fish. This made 7 nice tunas and bonus fish number 2. We messed around for another 35 minutes or so and headed home. In that 35 minutes I had a fish boil on a popper and we watched another boat put a 35-30 pound fish in. We probably could have soaked out another fish or two, but we had 5 average fish and two real nice ones given the time of the year. That being said, we elected to take Mike’s advice and head for the hill. 

The second bonus-fish… Venice Fishing Same fish with fella from Texas… Tuna Capital Of The World After this, we scrubbed the boat real quick and headed that way with a cold beer in hand. What a day! It might have been 11:00 at this point. We had two folks on board that were up for poking around for another fish or two, but as a whole we were all fine with heading on in.
Iced fish about to get the slurry! Tuna In The Box While out there we watched two or three fish miss live baits, but not once did we one bend a rod or peel line and miss. IMO, we went 7 for 7 with only two sharks. Fantastic!

Headed in… Ugly, boat, huh? The Ride Back Picture of ugly tackle with sun at about high noon… Yellowfin Tuna Back at Cypress Cove… we couldn’t find a cart, so I sprayed the dock down for a few minutes and let them lay long enough for a picture with my wife. We could have done better here, but I was in a hurry to get some ice back on them before we made our way to the cleaning table. Yellowfin At The Dock Again, no hand cart, so in the truck they went! Keep in mind, we had bed liner nice and cool and dumped plenty of ice on them. They stayed like this for no more than 5 minutes, and then we had them in a cart with ice all over them. Yellowfin Tuna Venice Fishing charters One more look at them… Venice Fishing Charters For Tuna If you ever go battle with 80+ pound tuna you have a few choices. 1. Learn proper form. 2. Don’t drink beer for two days prior in NOLA and marina. 3. Bring a guy like the one pictured below. Yeah, he did a lot of pumping and winding: Tuna Also got to see a 297 warsaw at the dock… or at least it’s carcass… Warsaw Grouper Since getting home we’ve been eating pretty well: Fresh Tuna Sushi and Edamame Tuna, avocado BLT…. Start here…Yellowfin Tuna Finish here… Burgers A little poke. This… Vacuum Sealed Tuna Into this… Fresh Tuna With Soy Sauce With what’s left over you try to eat…Tuna Steaks   Great stuff!

Can’t wait to get back! Hard to go wrong in South LA when you have great weather and a great captain!

All Big Fish!

Posted on by Anglerfish Marketing
We are finishing up a string of trips. And looking forward to a day of downtime. Tomorrow, to do boat maintenance. The fishing has been ok ,but the numbers are down some. But the ones.We are targeting are all in the 100 to 160 range. Chaz had the biggest today at 118 and a bunch of snapper. I had a 109 and snapper and Ed had a good one, but didnt get the size. Venice Fishing Charters  

The Perfect Day In Venice, La

Posted on by Anglerfish Marketing
Today was the perfect day. I had a great family in from Chicago that wanted a day of catching. They got more than they wanted. We doubled up on yellowfin right off the bat. Which set the tone of the day. Now for the upside/downside of the day. The next double was two jumbo yellowfin. The girls wanted no part of them so it was up Jeff and I. As luck would have it the smaller of the two pulled the hook. Ok no problem let’s work in the other one. We got him to the boat but he made a last ditch effort and made a run and broke us off. Everyone got to see him he was a solid 150 plus. So after that it was on to the snapper hole for a quick limit. 13315569_1060371784008602_2163913151773482118_n
13413086_1060371737341940_8414562225890843674_n 13417452_1060371697341944_934170851940585089_n 13419265_1060371714008609_6752635650944919625_n 13427920_1060371764008604_7406899100342329245_n

Very Good Fishing

Posted on by Anglerfish Marketing
It’s time to head it to the house to recharge my batteries and enjoy some family time. I ended this string of trips today with the Valentine family. The fishing was as it was all week. Which is pretty damn good. We fished till 1 before we had our fish due to some conversion issues. But finished the day strong. Now it’s going to be a enjoyable two days off. Then back at it for a week or so. 10429497_727866770592440_6897654297353837079_n

Rob and Eric Get Into The Tuna!

Posted on by Anglerfish Marketing
I had Rob and his son Eric back on the boat again this year. And the trip went almost a carbon copy of last years trip. Except without there marlin. The following day I had Doug Madden which was a group of farmers. At first they thought tuna fishing was gonna be easy but quickly learned that a tunafish is not a redfish. It was a great trip with lots of good natured ribbing the whole day. The only time that wasn’t going was when we were hiding behind a rig to knock down the wind and rain from a wicked thundetstorm that caught us. Two great days that had is north bound by noon. That kind of fishing you can’t beat. 603681_722679951111122_111624387111830845_n 10501971_722679791111138_896670954439208200_n 10524363_722679914444459_8959896459639455879_n 10547412_722679894444461_7248778005162524144_n

Excellent Tuna Fishing!

Posted on by Anglerfish Marketing
I have been fishing everyday and haven’t had time to write a report, but one of my customers from the 24th wrote up an amazing report and here it is: —– “Well, my wife has wanted to do a night in New Orleans for a while. A few months ago I floated the idea of a nice meal there, a casual drive down to Venice the following day and then a tuna trip. Surprisingly enough, she took the bait. Don’t get me wrong, she loves to fish, but it was awesome to think that she was willing to let us spend that kind of expense and time away from home when it essentially revolved around fishing.

Rolled into NOLA around 4:30 on Thursday afternoon and walked around a bit having a drink here and there while waiting on our dinner reservations at Herbsaint and for our friend to fly in from Fort Worth. He got in around 7:30 and we made our dinner reservation just in time. Great meal. I had the musgovey duck leg, which was divine; only complaint is that I could have eaten about 8 of them… fat boys like their food.

Woke up the next day and made our way down to Venice. Got there at the exact same time that another angler did who had driven straight form PC. We got all situated on house boat and had plenty of time to watch some fish come in, have a few drinks, grill some steaks and talk about the day tocome. Next day came quickly. Here’s Mike’s new 36 Yellowfin at Cypress Cove. cypresscovemarina_zpsdc1cdde9 Within no time we had drinks / food loaded, truck parked and we were making our way down the river. headedout_zpsfa93e534 In the picture above we are about to be into open water and ready to net some bait. We saw a few popping out here and there, but not enough to toss on. Rather than spending time (and shoulder ligaments) tossing on onsies and twosies, Mike kept easing down a particular shoal and we found them a good bit thicker maybe 30 minutes later. Two casts and we had probably 80 pogies in the barrel. Time to go fishing!

Live baits, great conditions and we’re ready! happybirthday_zpse8366c7f We ran about 30 nm and in no time we have our first customer! Birthday girl on the rod… valhookedupfirstfish_zps5c228749 She made short work of an average sized late-May / June fish and in no time it was on deck…. firstfishofday_zpscaea5ec4 We all high fived and Mike pulled out the heart offered her a bite after her first tuna. She willingly took a chomp out, but didn’t chew for long. Unfortunately, I don’t yet have the picture of this scene, or the one with a nice first-kill swipe of blood across her faith.

After that, we put one line back out and not long after that we caught another similarly sized fish on a live bait. Buddy from TX whooped him pretty quick and we tossed this guy on ice. 2ndfishofday_zps087fe57a After this, we had a little lull, but not much of one. Yours truly wanted to make a move, but we were marking fish above 200’ and Mike said let’s stay put. Most folks were up front chilling on the rail when I saw a fish bust within 100’ off to port. I ran forward grabbed the popper rod and hooked one up on first cast….

Me on the popper rod… meonpopper_zps960dd9ca Popper fish in box… popperinbox_zps59ca1fb0 After this our next fish came on a live bait and it was solid… About to come over the rail… 4thfishoverrail_niceone_zps0c72f861 Wife with a hero shot… And CLEARLY best picture of the trip! valtuna_zps7c345d59 Same fish… goodfish_zps6bf76b7e Me with the fish… tuna_zpsc9c12db8 After this we hooked up on a double. The larger of the two fish hit first (crashed a slow trolled live bait) and then a second rod went off fishing same thing. I hopped on the smaller fish and boated it fairly quickly. We were then sitting on 6 fish. After a good fight (and a little bit of embarrassing rod-passing) we boated another real nice fish. This made 7 nice tunas and bonus fish number 2. We messed around for another 35 minutes or so and headed home. In that 35 minutes I had a fish boil on a popper and we watched another boat put a 35-30 pound fish in. We probably could have soaked out another fish or two, but we had 5 average fish and two real nice ones given the time of the year. That being said, we elected to take Mike’s advice and head for the hill. 

The second bonus-fish… firstniceoneonboar_zpsaaefedfe Same fish with fella from Texas… fishofday_zpse1035423 After this, we scrubbed the boat real quick and headed that way with a cold beer in hand. What a day! It might have been 11:00 at this point. We had two folks on board that were up for poking around for another fish or two, but as a whole we were all fine with heading on in.
Iced fish about to get the slurry! 4310f6f8-f913-43fb-b270-1a277b886431_zps748d5c03 While out there we watched two or three fish miss live baits, but not once did we one bend a rod or peel line and miss. IMO, we went 7 for 7 with only two sharks. Fantastic!

Headed in… Ugly, boat, huh? tuna5_zps9ebe4428 Picture of ugly tackle with sun at about high noon… headedout_zpsfa93e534 Back at Cypress Cove… we couldn’t find a cart, so I sprayed the dock down for a few minutes and let them lay long enough for a picture with my wife. We could have done better here, but I was in a hurry to get some ice back on them before we made our way to the cleaning table. tuna4_zps302ee629 Again, no hand cart, so in the truck they went! Keep in mind, we had bed liner nice and cool and dumped plenty of ice on them. They stayed like this for no more than 5 minutes, and then we had them in a cart with ice all over them. tuna3_zps43713175 tuna2_zpsc1fe26eb One more look at them… haul_zps34cf02af If you ever go battle with 80+ pound tuna you have a few choices. 1. Learn proper form. 2. Don’t drink beer for two days prior in NOLA and marina. 3. Bring a guy like the one pictured below. Yeah, he did a lot of pumping and winding: oneofgoodones_zpsca0d8c0c Also got to see a 297 warsaw at the dock… or at least it’s carcass… 297poundatdock2_zps40ad4677 Since getting home we’ve been eating pretty well: dinner0_zps4efad61d Tuna, avocado BLT…. Start here…tunasandwich_zpsdcc79c38 Finish here… dinner2_zps2bfa498b A little poke. This… poke1_zpsc65141ad Into this… pokeserved_zps289eda79 With what’s left over you try to eat…poke3_zps06b2988f   Great stuff!

Can’t wait to get back! Hard to go wrong in South LA when you have great weather and a great captain. Read more: http://forums.floridasportsman.com/showthread.php?156665-5-24-Tuna-Fisihng-Venice-LA-with-Mike-Ellis-Pic-intense#ixzz332JcTfBH

Making Every Fish Count

Posted on by Anglerfish Marketing
The tuna fishing is pretty good. But it’s a quick bite and then it’s over. If you haven’t caught them by noon they are done for day. Capitalizing on all bites has been real important. The fish have been a mix of 30-100lb yellows and all eating live baits. So have the sharks so for a investment tip by stock in Seaguar Flurocarbon. The sharks have been Relentless and have been chewing up leaders just about as fast as I can tie them on. We did get a susprise wahoo on a livebait with a Trokar TK-5 9/0. Other than that it’s been all yellowfin 60-80 Fluro has been getting the bites and the 9/0 Trokar has been the hook of choice for the size livebaits we are using. relentless

Mid March report

Posted on by Relentless_admin
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

Tuna gone wild report

Posted on by Relentless_admin

 

     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