Venice May 13-14

[TeamXXL]

Friday gonna get 1 final prefish in before the tournament. Pulled up to our A spot and I hung a red on the 2nd cast. There were rain storms all around that we were keeping an eye on when a water spout forms and is heading directly for us. We pick up and point the BlazerBay in a safe direction. Finally get to clear skies, but the VMAX is throwing a mud rooster tail, make a wide turn while staying on top, but the heat buzzer goes off and the motor shuts down to 2 cylinders leaving us beached in about 6" of water with a soft mud bottom. Now the rain is catching us again, so we huddle up under a tarp for 45 minutes until the rain passes. Once it's clear now we have to get the boat off the mud flat. So all 3 of us get out the boat, up to our ____ in mud pulling a BB to deeper water. Finally get her going and we head back to fish. Ended the day at dark with 11 redfish and a 2 fish weight of 16+

We are pumped for the next morning, only to find a switch of wind and muddy water just about everywhere. We didn't catch a single fish in our A or B spots, so we searched for clean water and found the reds stacked up. Only problem was they were all 18" carbon copies of each other. After catching about 10 of them we decided to give our A spot 1 more go even with the dirty water. To our surprise the fish were there and wanted to play. 5th cast BAM 6.5 pounder in the boat, very next cast BAM drag is screaming but it breaks off. Few cast later BAM 7-8 pounder to the boat and my partner stabs at it with the net. Spooks the fish and breaks the line. Heartbreaker! Total we broke off 7 fish in an hour. Tough day on the water, but Venice is Venice no matter what. The fish are there and willing. Looking forward to having a reunion with those redfish this weekend for the IFA