T
he oil and natural-
gas platforms erected
around coastal Loui-
siana number in the
thousands, and come in a wide
variety of sizes and shapes.
Some are manned while many
others are not, and yet all of
them provide an essential ben-
efi t for the fi sh that inhabit the
northern Gulf of Mexico; they
become habitat.
Before the rigs came along,
the bottom of the northern
Gulf resembled much of the
rest of the coastal Gulf, mean-
ing it was fl at mud and sand,
with the occasional rock or
reef cropping up. Overall, re-
lief was scarce.
But the rigs changed all that,
creating an incredible amount of underwater structure in the form
of the rigs themselves and their metal legs, both large and small. If
you’re a baitfi sh, fi nding anything you can use to hide from preda-
tors is a good thing, and over the years the oil companies built lots
of hiding places for the lower end of the food chain.Hunting Grounds
Unfortunately for the bait (but good for us), the predators pretty
quickly fi gured out that the bait were drawn to these structures;
the illusion of sanctuary is short-lived for the bait of the world. In
short order, the rigs attracted huge schools of bait of many diff erent
types, and hordes of game fi sh soon followed.
Ye l l o w fi n tuna make up a substantial percentage of these preda-
tors, and you can catch them year-round out of Venice, Louisiana.
Th is quintessential fi shing town located along the Mississippi River
where the road dead-ends 75 miles south of New Orleans is really
nothing more than a giant fi sh camp. Th ere’s not much to do there
other than fi sh, besides maybe duck hunting in the winter, so ev-
eryone there has a shared motivation for being in town.
Capt. Trey Pique (voodoofi shingcharters.com) is a Louisiananative from Metairie, just west
of New Orleans, who has guid-
ed out of Venice for a decade.
Pique and I headed off shore in
March to search for the big yel-
lowfi n that prowl beneath the
rigs in blue water. Th is requires
a lengthy boat ride, as it’s about
26 nautical miles from Venice
Marina to the mouth of the riv-
er, and then your off shore trip
begins from there.Miles to Go
Fast, multi-engine off shore
center consoles have become
the boats of choice down there
since you must cover a lot of
water just about every day.
Once you get to the Gulf, a
huge number of options await
you on exactly where to go fi sh. Natural-bottom areas exist not too
far from the various passes that dump fresh water out of the Mis-
sissippi into the Gulf, but they had not produced many big fi sh in
the days leading up to my visit, so Pique opted to head off to deep
water to a well known “fl oater” rig.
Floaters do just what it sounds like; they fl oat in very deep water,
tethered to the bottom only by a thin pipeline extending downward
into great depths to extract the oil far below the seafl oor. Highly so-
phisticated GPS systems coupled to numerous underwater thrust-
ers keep the rigs in a precise position, even in heavy weather.
Th is particular fl oater sat in 5,400 feet of water 62 miles east of
the southeast pass of the river; quite a run. But as we approached
the rig, telltale marks began to appear on the sounder about 200
feet below the boat and we knew the trip had been worthwhile.
“Looks like somebody’s home,” Pique said with a sly grin as he po-
sitioned his 39-foot Yellowfi n down-current of the rig for a drift.
Pique pulled a dead bonito from a belowdecks cooler and began
cutting it into chunks. You can fi sh for the tuna in many ways, in-
cluding trolling, using live bait, or by deep-jigging, but chunking
remains a highly eff ective and time-honored way to elicit a bite.24 POWER & MOTORYACHT / JUNE 2017 WWW.PMYMAG.COM
SPORTFISHING
BY JOHN BROWNLEERigged for Tuna
COASTAL LOUISIANA’S OIL RIGS CREATE HABITAT THAT
YELLOWFIN TUNA AND OTHER PELAGIC SPECIES LOVE.Oil platforms can be eyesores, but they can yield some beautiful fi shing.