Summertime
by Capt. Woody Woods
Ahh…summertime. No fog, no wind, glass-calm seas here in the Gulf of Mexico, and epic fishing. While Venice is fortunate to have wahoo and tuna year round, as well as billfish, once summertime comes around, and the massive rip lines caused where the Mississippi River hits the blue water, coupled with large mats of sargassum weed, the fishing goes bezerk, with mahi mahi over 45 pounds not turning a head at the dock, and days with up to 10 shots at billfish not being uncommon. Any day on the rip lines here during summer can bring blue and white marlin, tuna over 180 pounds, dolphin up to 60+, and wahoo. A good day and you don’t even have time to sit down and grab a cold drink before your rigger baits are going off again.
One of my last overnight trips I ran was quite memorable, as it was getting late in the ball game and the fish just weren’t cooperating. I encouraged my guys to get some sleep as I putted from one rig to another, quite the ways away from home but where I was positive we would hammer the fish. Boy was I wrong, at least for a little while. The next morning, while my guys were still sleeping off the night before, I heard the tell tale buzz of a brand new tiagra, but only for a second. I whipped my head around from the helm of the express to see nothing. I had been awake for waaay too long and was starting to hear things. I resumed course and sure enough I heard a quick zip again, this time turning around to a lit up blue whacking my short flatline.
I made it to the cockpit in one bound and dropped back the big black bart right into her mouth. Satisfied with the delicious tasty resin snack I lined up for her, the blue starts tearing ass off into other parts of my spread, whackin both my rigger baits out of their clips. By now I was screaming “blue marlin guys, wake up wake up!” to my anglers who arose outta the salon and raced for the cockpit. Normally a blue will come in very determined, and not spend a lot of time whacking baits around like whiteys sometimes do. But the hooks never stuck in her mouth and sure enough we lost that one. Dangit…oh well, some good action to wake up to.
As we proceeded alongside the massive drillship I was marking fish at the night before, every pass we hooked up. At one point we had a triple with a big bull mahi, and two solid yellowfin. There was only four of us on board, with me manning the wheel, and all 3 anglers (including my gaff man) hooked up to fish. Insanity! Fortunately enough for this time of year, action like that is about the norm. Hands down my favorite time of the year to fish.
Stay tuned for next month’s adventures as we recap our awesome trip to Key West, as well as report on some of the fantastic marlin fishing we have been experiencing lately. Until then, I’m going to kick my legs up on this fly bridge, enjoy a drink and watch this beautiful Venice sunset. Yup…that’s just another day at the office.
To experience some of the awesome summertime fishing here in Venice, Louisiana, visit www.paradise-outfitters.com or give Captain Hunter Caballero a call at 504-610-1686.
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