The program consists of inserting a circle hook
into a chunk of bait to conceal it, since the wary
yellowfin have keen eyesight. As Pique tossed a few
chunks at a time into the current, creating a steady
stream of bait, I pulled line from my rod tip, allowing
my bait to sink at the same pace as the free chunks.
That’s a key point; any pressure on the line that might
make your bait look different from the freebies will
usually cost you a bite.
The Bite Is On
It took a while, but after the baits reached the tunas
200 feet down, the bites came pretty quickly. Pique
struck first, decking a fish well over 100 pounds. My
turn came as I hooked and fought a chunky yellow-
fin that we estimated at about 75 pounds. The action
came steadily and we soon had a full fishbox.
Pulling up to Venice Marina that afternoon, we
were feeling pretty cocky about our successful day,
until we returned to Venice Sportsman’s Lodge
and were greeted by a fellow guest, 74-year-old Vic
Wickman of St. Petersburg, Florida. That same day,
he had spent two hours and 45 minutes strapped into an 80-pound
standup outfit and landed a beautiful 226-pound yellowfin without
assistance from anyone on the boat. His fish missed the Louisiana
state record by a mere 25 pounds.
And someone else landed a 215-pounder
that same day! Both were caught far from each
other, and far from where we had fished to the
east, showing just how large and spread out the
tuna population can be. It’s almost overkill to
mention how many other pelagic species roam
these amazingly productive waters, including
dolphin, blue and white marlin, wahoo, king
mackerel, and much more.
Then there’s the bottom fishing. We spent
our second day catching fat American red
snapper one after the other around rigs closer
to shore, in Louisiana state waters. To top it
all off, we caught a 50-pound Warsaw grou-
per at the end of the day, a somewhat rare
catch. I’ve caught only five Warsaws in my
entire life.
The northern Gulf teems with life, both
aggregated and propagated by the staggering
wealth of underwater hardware. The Gulf
of Mexico off Venice consistently provides
more shots at large numbers of truly big fish
than anyplace else in the continental U.S., and it’s a place all seri-
ous offshore anglers should visit. UCatch Editor-at-Large John Brownlee on Anglers Journal TV and see
a binge-watch-worthy backlog of previous episodes at waypointtv.com.The author hoists a Warsaw grouper.
The fish is big, but the memory’s bigger.