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gimmedeal · 01-21-2007, 12:05 AM

Headed out for Venice on Wednesday so we could fish the Thursday window. Got in and met up with Nick, Jared, Bret, and Beau, with Jason (Argo) still en route. It was decided that Jason, Beau, and I would fish with Capt Mike Ellis and Trey (the mate) on 26' Glacier Bay and Jared, Bret, and Nick would fish on the 30'. Thursday am we loaded up and headed for the Lump. Set up to chum and got some bonita right off. The tuna were conspicuously absent though. Last year if you sent a chunk back, you'd be on a BF or YF, Thursday they were few and far between. As luck would have it, wahoo took up the slack. Jason and Beau landed 3 between 65 and 90 lbs, big wahoo. We also limited on AJ's between 35 and 60 lbs. Eventually we picked up a few tuna, 2 chunky(lump chunky) BF, and my third and largest to date YF, about 80 lbs. Beau also caught a couple of beeliners for good measure. All fish on chunk, on fluorocarbon. We got hooks bit off 3 or 4 times but not that often. Tried jigging some, but without success. Didn't get to use the popping rod that TJ sent. It looked great but the opportunity never presented itself. Seas were probably 3 to 4 foot all day, and a little sloppy. Our deckhand Trey got sick for a while. We didn't have room in our fishbox for my YF so we had to hand him over to the other boat. When we pulled next to it, I thought they were chumming for cops, there was a glazed donut floating about 20' behind the boat. Was tempted but restrained myself. We headed back with the other guys still fishing. We ended up with a really good catch (and really, wouldn't you really rather eat wahoo?).
That night when everybody got in it looked like Argo had big fish with the largest wahoo, I got big YF, and Nick and Argo looked to have similar AJ's.
We had to fend for ourselves for dinner, Venice is a third world country when it comes to food, but we knew that heading out and came prepared. Bret seared steaks and grilled chicken, I stir fryed vegs and made fried rice in the wok and we had seared YF and YF and wahoo sashimi. Nick brought the wine and we ate pretty good.
The infamous day two. We knew from the forecast that the seas were getting worse thru the day but decision was made to get out and hit it hard. Ellis told us the day before that lately trips were getting their tuna by 11:30. Argo, Beau, Jose ( a friend of Argo's on his first offshore trip), Nick, and I were going to fish with Capt Rimmer on a 30' Gravois, an aluminum cat powered by twin Yamaha 250, 4 strokes. Rimmer told me that it weighed 4000 lbs less than the 30' GB and burned less fuel. Not a frilly boat, but rugged and functional. The ride out went fast, we made good time. Once there, we hit the chum churn and started a chunk slick. We caught tuna pretty quickly, had 5 YF in less than 2 hours. They were all from about 25 to 50 lbs, Nick getting the biggest. The seas, that had started out maybe 4 to 6 were getting worse rapidly and temps dropping and it was time to go. It sucked but it was the right decision. A pelican trying to pick up our chunks behind the boat got swamped by one wave. Our trip back was long, cold and tested our foul weather gear.
I gotta say, I still haven't caught my 150, may never. I am up to 80 though and if I get a chance to go next year, hold me a place Jared. Thanx for putting it together.
Argo has the pics from our fishing and I'm sure he'll be posting them up shortly.

Fred

01-21-2007, 12:05 AM	#8 (permalink)
gimmedeal Senior Member Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 259	Headed out for Venice on Wednesday so we could fish the Thursday window. Got in and met up with Nick, Jared, Bret, and Beau, with Jason (Argo) still en route. It was decided that Jason, Beau, and I would fish with Capt Mike Ellis and Trey (the mate) on 26' Glacier Bay and Jared, Bret, and Nick would fish on the 30'. Thursday am we loaded up and headed for the Lump. Set up to chum and got some bonita right off. The tuna were conspicuously absent though. Last year if you sent a chunk back, you'd be on a BF or YF, Thursday they were few and far between. As luck would have it, wahoo took up the slack. Jason and Beau landed 3 between 65 and 90 lbs, big wahoo. We also limited on AJ's between 35 and 60 lbs. Eventually we picked up a few tuna, 2 chunky(lump chunky) BF, and my third and largest to date YF, about 80 lbs. Beau also caught a couple of beeliners for good measure. All fish on chunk, on fluorocarbon. We got hooks bit off 3 or 4 times but not that often. Tried jigging some, but without success. Didn't get to use the popping rod that TJ sent. It looked great but the opportunity never presented itself. Seas were probably 3 to 4 foot all day, and a little sloppy. Our deckhand Trey got sick for a while. We didn't have room in our fishbox for my YF so we had to hand him over to the other boat. When we pulled next to it, I thought they were chumming for cops, there was a glazed donut floating about 20' behind the boat. Was tempted but restrained myself. We headed back with the other guys still fishing. We ended up with a really good catch (and really, wouldn't you really rather eat wahoo?). That night when everybody got in it looked like Argo had big fish with the largest wahoo, I got big YF, and Nick and Argo looked to have similar AJ's. We had to fend for ourselves for dinner, Venice is a third world country when it comes to food, but we knew that heading out and came prepared. Bret seared steaks and grilled chicken, I stir fryed vegs and made fried rice in the wok and we had seared YF and YF and wahoo sashimi. Nick brought the wine and we ate pretty good. The infamous day two. We knew from the forecast that the seas were getting worse thru the day but decision was made to get out and hit it hard. Ellis told us the day before that lately trips were getting their tuna by 11:30. Argo, Beau, Jose ( a friend of Argo's on his first offshore trip), Nick, and I were going to fish with Capt Rimmer on a 30' Gravois, an aluminum cat powered by twin Yamaha 250, 4 strokes. Rimmer told me that it weighed 4000 lbs less than the 30' GB and burned less fuel. Not a frilly boat, but rugged and functional. The ride out went fast, we made good time. Once there, we hit the chum churn and started a chunk slick. We caught tuna pretty quickly, had 5 YF in less than 2 hours. They were all from about 25 to 50 lbs, Nick getting the biggest. The seas, that had started out maybe 4 to 6 were getting worse rapidly and temps dropping and it was time to go. It sucked but it was the right decision. A pelican trying to pick up our chunks behind the boat got swamped by one wave. Our trip back was long, cold and tested our foul weather gear. I gotta say, I still haven't caught my 150, may never. I am up to 80 though and if I get a chance to go next year, hold me a place Jared. Thanx for putting it together. Argo has the pics from our fishing and I'm sure he'll be posting them up shortly. Fred Last edited by gimmedeal : 01-21-2007 at 12:10 AM.