Outpost Venice La.

Have you ever been on a real adventure.  I'm talking about leaving the country in a small puddle jumper airplane and landing in a place where things are a lot different than the norm.  Well take out the small plane and leaving the country and put in its place a 4 hour ride in a truck to South Louisiana and that's where our adventure begins.  A group of good friends got together and wanted to go on a real blue water fishing trip.  We live in a coastal county in Alabama and could have stayed in state for the trip but the short distance from Venice La. to the fertile sport fishing grounds around the Midnight Lump was an attraction we could not pass up.  We booked a February trip with Capt. Scott Avanzino with Paradise Outfitters out of Venice Marina.  We had a pretty crazy trip getting through New Orleans and all the small Parish towns.  It was Mardis Gras in the Big Easy so we skirted parade routes to south of town.  If you have never been south of New Orleans on Hwy 23 some of the small towns I remember are Port Sulphur, Empire, and Buras.  Hwy 23 runs down the west side of the Mississippi River and for most of the trip you are riding along the side of the flood levy.  It's exactly what you think it would be for the most part until you see the exotic animal farms and the citrus groves.


We arrived in Venice on Saturday evening and our 12 hour trip was set to start the next morning at 6 am.  We had  comfortable lodgings set up by Paradise Outfitters and the Captain and Deckhand of our boat stayed at the same lodge we bunked in. Our vessel for the trip was a 32' sportfisherman 6 pack known as the DELTA DAWN.  Our group picked a huge room at the back side of the lodge that was full of bunk beds.  We settled down about midnight for some restless sleep.  It's hard to rest when your on fire for the trip ahead.
    

Shelby Byrd, Matt Achimon, Rick Gaines,Joe Perkins and Elvin Byrd

After getting to Venice Marina we found the fog to be very thick.  The captain decided to make the short run down the Mississippi River to Tiger Pass and run the bay on out to the Midnight Lump.

River camp on the Mississippi
 

We cruised in the boat for about 1.5 hrs and then set out a spread and trolled the rest of the way to the lump. The seas where pretty heavy and we cold see smaller craft disappearing between the huge rolling seas and returning on the next wave crest.  We dropped the anchor and started chumming for Yellow Fin Tuna

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  It started a little slow and we had several Black Fin bites and landed many of them. About 3 hours into the trip we started getting the hammering bites that bend the broom stick size rods over to the side of the boat.  Talk about a fight, its a test of endurance when you have a 90 + lb fish with a attitude heading in the other direction.

Elvin Byrd with a Yellowfin Tuna

Shelby Byrd (me) and Rick Gaines with a Large Yellowfin
  

We landed several nice Yellow Fins and Rick had the fight of the day when a 96 lb wahoo hit and  violently screamed the line off the reel for about 10 minutes before all went quite.  The deck hand earned his pay at this point by offering good instruction. REEL,REEL,REEL he said that fish is heading for the boat you've got a wahoo.  Rick double timed the reel and gained ground before the wahoo had a chance to spit the hook.  It made several more intense runs before it was landed and hauled aboard.  Talk about some high fives and pictures flashing.  That one fish made it a trip to never forget.

Rick Gaines with a 96lb Wahoo

I do hope to make that trip again one day and can only hope we have the same results.

   Rick Gaines and Joe Perkins

2 Nice Yellowfin Tuna

Cleaning Stations at Venice Marina

Shelby Byrd on the Delta Dawn

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Shelby Byrd