Tuna Fishing in Venice Louisiana
On our second night in Venice, it was a clear and conscious decision for us to avoid any additional Den Lounge shenanigans. I mean, we did cover alot of irreverent ground there on the first night and Captain Chris did tell us there was “no fucking way” he was being caught dead in that place. So we did the responsible thing and drank tequila and beer at the marina restaurant, were in bed before 10pm, AND didn’t smell like a seedy bar ashtray.
The next morning, after about a 100 ft walk from our cabin to the Relentless, we were greeted by our deckhand Travis. Much more on Travis later but as the boat got prepped for the day we were joined by Captain Joey Blavis and his friend Pho, who is an underwater photographer/videographer that works all over the world for the Discovery Channel. Pho joined us and was hoping to get some footage of mako sharks.
When we took off, the fog was pretty thick but the Relentless was equipped with a Simrad unit to be able to navigate safely. I made sure to send my wife a picture of me wearing the new life jacket she got me so she knew that I’d make it back (or at least there would be a good chance of them finding my body for insurance purposes). I figured the morning run would be long so I layered up with three different shirts and a hoodie. I’m glad I did because it was cooler than I thought it would be for end of March. Pro tip: when you are riding as a passenger in a boat in cool weather, sit facing the rear of the boat so the wind hits you in the back. Even better if the chair you are sitting in can block the wind.
We ran out a total of about 90 miles and on the way we stopped off to catch some bait off of a patch of portuguese man o’ war. The fish (man o’ war fish) that live under these jellyfish creatures are great for tuna. We’d pull up next to the man o’ wars and then scoop the net under to nab the fish. In fairly short order, we had bait for the day’s fishing.
Once we headed off from where we caught bait, it was a short but eventful run to the oil rig we were fishing. The fellas threw on some Den Lounge-esque rap jams and we all were getting pumped for the tuna. One thing led to another and Travis (our deck hand) started singing along with the song “money…money…money” and each time took a wad of cash and threw it up in the air (with the money falling in the water behind the speeding boat). I don’t even want to think about how much cash it was but Travis instantaneously became a fishing legend to me with that move. The Captain never even considered turning the boat around to go after it. I guess he was used to Travis’ shenanigans which must be more frequent than I’d imagine. He did however turn the boat around at one point when we saw a floating bag. I’ll never forget the captain’s response when I asked him if it was a floating bag of coke as we neared it when he looked at me and replied “If it is, we’re all fucking doing it.” Probably for the best it turned out to be a bag of floating trash and not a few pounds of Columbian bam-bam. So on we again sped to the rig to catch some tuna. LET’S FUCKING GO!!
Within a few minutes of getting to the oil rig, Travis and Captain Joey had us hooked up on a yellowfin. I grabbed this one and it being my first tuna, I was impressed with how strong they are and how good of a fight they put up. By the time we were able to gaff it, my forearms were definitely feeling it. I knew these fish were going to whip my ass by the end of the day. Ryan and Joe shortly thereafter were able to get hooked into two yellowfin tuna at the same time and one of those we landed and the other broke off near the boat. After we had been there for a bit and fought a few fish, we got some company with two other boats. I think their chumming must have stirred up some sharks because after that, we had a few fish that broke off and the ones we were able to land had bites out of them. We did have a nice 50-60 lb yellowfin that we were able to get in the boat after a really good fight.
We ended up running to another rig around lunchtime and once we got there, we saw a colony of tuna hitting baitfish at the top of the water column, which was a pretty cool sight. The guys quickly rigged up the ballyhoos and after we trolled through the area got double hooked up again. After a nice fight I was able to land a large blackfin tuna that was on par with a few of the smaller yellowfin we had caught. That was about it for our time for the day.
The ride back was nice and flat and within just a few minutes, I was able to sink into my Pepto Bismol pink Relentless beanbag and nod off for a well earned nap. I woke up to us pulling into the dock, which was full of fishing boats coming in. Based on the conversations we had, most of the guys who stayed in closer didn’t have productive days but they guys who ran out 80+ miles did pretty well. We were fortunate that Captain Joey had a good game plan for the day. The Relentless crew did a hell of a job putting us on them. Three coolers of fish later in the truck, it just might be time to get a larger freezer. Venice was all we could have asked for and the memories are ones that will stay with us for a lifetime. Until we meet again Den Lounge!!!
