Venice Mar 2

First and foremost, I want to thank JB for inviting me on this wonderful trip. The weather was not the most cooperative on Sunday, but Monday was good. The only hitch was fog and it was thick. One could barely see the edges of the pass and I think Eddie Burger, THE CAPTAIN!, put the hammer down and blew threw it like it was nothing. The fog actually got thicker on the way out and we were beginning to wonder if it would burn off. This made for a pretty wet ride out and we hit cold air for awhile, but soon went away.

On board were: Larry, aka buda blue water boy Alfonso-fonz JB-1st rate mate Stan Stan the Man Me-jt2hunt(Larry is trying to change this, not sure why?) and Mason(Larry's son), I am not sure if he has one, but it should be Tuna Slayer, Jr!

Oh yeah, the captain was onboard, too.(OK, there is your plug, Burger.......and are we there, yet??? wink, wink)

We head out to some rigs, troll for a bit and nada. Try to make bait, but the captain had trouble and could only manage one measly live one. We would have shown him how to do it, but did not want to make the captain look bad so early in the day. On we went. Saw a swordfish longline on the way out, why, why, why?

We get to rig of choice and bam, tuna jumping bait. I give my stella to alfonso to get the plastic of the hooks of a yo zuri(pink/white) and so as we are getting set up he casts and slammo! Fish on! One to the boat. Stan throws an OTI popper, boom! Second one on! Both landed.

Enough of sharing my stella, I am bound and determined to demonstrate my casting ability to the captain. Fish jumping about thirty yards to the starboard side and i cast the popper about as far from the busting tuna as one could. Note to self: Act like you been there before and take your time placing casts. Another blow up, popper lands on target and we have another. Next up, Mason. He gets on and lands his first yft. Mason was a trooper and fought the fish the best he could. I land another and Stan gets another.

We had doubles on three times.

One of the chunking rigs goes off and JB gets it started. Now, JB is the smartest of all and seeing how tired Larry is from fighting fish, he decided to put Larry in little more pain and hands him the broomstick! I see a blow up and throw to it, on target, again! I see a little tuna come out and slam down on it and another one look like it hit it at the same time. Fonz throws out there and hooks a good one! We have triple hookups, exciting times!

Obviously, this being my second tuna trip, with all the experience I have, I use the stella and bring mine to the boat first. It was bigger than the one I thought had hooked up, about 40-45 lbs. Biggest of the day, so far! Larry is in the back playing piddly-winks with us. I am not sure why, he had a setup capable of taking down an elephant and the tuna was winning. I look over at Fonz and he comes unbuttoned. Back to Larry. He was sweating so much the bilge pump came on and still no color! He was crying, a bit, but finally gets the tuna to the boat and you can see the relief in his eyes(I think he was saying something in his mind about JB, if you ever hand a fish like this to me, again, I am going to [email protected]#$%^.........See, JB is a smart man!) Almost close enough to gaff, and the tuna decides to go back down. Meanwhile, tuna are crashing bait in just about every direction and we have to..................................wait on Larry! Another five minutes and finally, the gaff is in! Biggest fish of the day, over 50 lbs)

I think we are at 8 fish, at this point. We keep floating around and catch a rainbow runner. See some cudas under the runner. Alfonso gets another on a popper. Finally, someone gets one on a jig.

All in all, we catch 12 of 'em. Four on chunks, One jigging, and seven on poppers.

Two were on an OTI popper and Five were on the Yo Zuri!

Captain Eddie Burger will get my business at some point in the future. Even if he is a Tiger Fan! Venice marina is a pretty cool place. I am a fan of those tiny places close to water at the end of the road. He put us on fish and thats what it is all about. The glacier bay catamaran is awesome. We got the twins out of the water, once. It was 3's on the way out and calmed, as the day wore on.

I am sure the others will post and make corrections. The only hiccup, we leave the cabins, which were at mile marker 8 and 9. Hit the road, drinking coffee, eating tacos, put cruise on 60(note to self, drive slower). I had the incredible privelege of getting pulled over about five minutes down the road by the plaquemines deputy. 60 in a 35, work zone. I tried to make conversation, what a waste of breath. Just the -----sign here and mumbling something about court. this was about 6 am. Oh well, he hates his life and mine is awesome and we caught tuna. I think he was a little jealous. My court date is May 9, (Eddie, you open the day before) Hahahaha. I told the wife i have to appear in court in person, might as well fish while i am there.

Eddie, you are awesome! Anyone want to go with a good captain, call him first for Venice!

I will try to post some pics!