VENICE RESULTS AND STORY
|
|
|
Venice, LA
September 3, 2007
By: Bo Crawford
I was quite pumped about this trip since this is the first inshore tournament TMTanglers has had in three years. This was important to me because the Top 10 Redfish and Top 10 Specks were just established before the inshore fishing tournament idea came to a screeching halt. As a result the lists have been stagnant for three long years and it has bugged me. This was our chance to improve the lists.
The lodging was comfortable but rugged. The AC worked fine so there were no complaints from Skip and I. They even had a TV. But it didn't have ESPN so all the TV did was tease Skip about missing the opening weekend of college football. Getting supplies was a challenge. The first day we had trouble getting gas. The second day we had trouble getting ice, then the truck got stuck in mud and had to be pulled out. The third day we still had trouble getting ice again (too stupid to learn from our mistakes), but we did get more efficient each day. Consequently we caught more fish each day too. As predicted the redfish bite was phenomenal and the speckled trout bite was tough (for us). But surprisingly we didn't catch many flounder and we caught zero bass. ZERO.
Each day started with chaos at the launch with everyone and their brother putting in. That was followed by a 20 + mile boat ride before the first fishing spot. Surprisingly there we no crowds on any day we fished.
DAY ONE: Went to South Pass and fished traditional hot spots on the way down. Missed a couple of reds but never got into a significant concentration of them. Finally made it down to South Pass and resorted to using live bait. On the first cast I hooked a massive bull red. I mean massive. I had promised myself that I wouldn't make Skip endure me fighting a fish for hours if I hooked one using light line. Naturally, I hooked one using 8 lb test. I should have taken my own advice and used heavier tackle. After big mama broke off we fished some rocks that I believe have been added since our last trip three years ago. Along those rocks we caught a speck, a redfish, spanish mackerel, hardheads, sheephead, gafftop, and more ladyfish than you can count. After we got sick of catching ladyfish we went after these big fish we saw breaking. I threw in with a Rat-L-Trap and it was zzzzzttttttt POP. Instant breakoff. Skip was smart. He threw topwater with braided line and subsequently caught a huge jack cravelle. At 19 lbs it was the biggest fish of the trip. After he caught his I followed Skip's lead with the braided line and big topwaters and we spent some time catching jacks and big ladyfish.
DAY TWO: We went to Pass A Loutre and found some clean water and caught our limit of reds. We had no live bait on this day but Skip wore them out using a gulp shrimp. He also has a cool spoon that I will be ordering several of before our next trip. Anyway, we caught our limit of reds and a couple of flounder and the usual hundred ladyfish. After that we went for a ride looking for trout waters but had no luck. I knew the trout fishing would be tough out of my boat before we left, but I couldn't help but try.
DAY THREE: On this day we decided to just kick redfish ass and not worry about trout. And we did. We went to our best spots and wore them out.
Below is a screenshot of our three day trail. There is much less land that this map would lead you to believe.
The prize winning fish are listed at the top of the page. No AOY bonus points were awarded for this tournament because less than 50% of the club participated.
