SaltyCajun.com - Ct. fisherman in Venice

Bart and John have been coming here around Halloween annually. So far this year my friends from this fishing site have not done as well as I had wanted them to do. This time was true to form for this year. The day they flew in we headed out in the afternoon for some bull reds. By the time we got out the tide was rolling in and very dirty. It was hot as well with no breeze at all. As we attempted to fish the area the water hyacinths got so thick I had to leave. I moved in closer looking for a slot redfish or two. At one point Bart got lucky and had a fight with a very respectable redfish.

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I worked the whole bank loosing some equipment in the process. Some I was able to retrieve and others I had to sacrifice. After going half way around a large island John hooks up and does battle with a good black drum.

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Unfortunately we ran out of time and headed in to get ready for an offshore trip the next day.

We started out in fog and it did not clear until we got out of the river and into the open gulf. Our quest for yellowfin tuna was all but not going to happen as the talk on the radio was sharks on the shrimp boats and the yellows in the other areas were not to be found or not feeding. Our day started out with Bart hooking up and landing a nice blackfin tuna.

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As we continued on John did battle with his first ever amberjack. The fish were there but not feeding well. Captain Bret even got so bored he photo bombed this one.

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The other boats that were running around were not finding anything so I went into the "Don't leave fish to find fish" mode. At this time we were only 6 miles from land and I was marking well. Bret's boat had some trouble with small black tip sharks. We lucked out without getting any.

There were a lot of manta rays in the area to entertain us.

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By the end of the day the boats that started with us and left had came back to see if they could make a salvation. One of them only had 2 bonito all day and another only had 1 blackfin. We had a few bonito to give us some action as well as a few blackfin. John ended the day with our biggest blackfin of all.

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The ride home was very smooth. After doing battle all day in the hot sun these guys had a well deserved meeting with the been bags as the Glacier Bay rocked them to sleep.

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It was a full day on the water. The bite was slow with no yellowfin. Only a few blackfin but more than they wanted. I actually gave away the last of it to the neighbors this evening.

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They had a full enjoyable day and a half here. John even went into our 80 degree pool after his fishing. They are already planning next year and Bart's cousin is going to join them in 2015.

Life is Good!
Fishing is not a matter of life or death. It's more important than that.

CAPT HOOP -- OUR FREEDOM