Catching Venice

[capt hoop]

This trip was to be an offshore trip. We decided because of the weather offshore was not an option. I loaded up the bay boat and we went looking for a good day of fishing. My first plan was to run down river. Due to the storms in the area I decided to stay close in case we had to run in.

Once at my destination I had to look for a place to fish. Every place I wanted to go to had a boat there. It seems all the guys had the same idea due to the weather. I picked a place that I never fished before but it looked good enough to start until somebody moves from one of the points or ditches. This spot was good enough for us to start catching fish. Unfortunately there were a lot of small ones to pick through. We had to go through a dozen or so just under the 16 inch limit before we landed a keeper.



We were getting doubles quite a bit. The action was hot and heavy.



To add to the meat locker we found some sheepshead mixed in with the action. Their small mouths make them excellent bait stealers. My 3 pounds of bait was going fast.



About 10:30 the winds picked up and it got choppy in the small cove we were in. This made casting a bit more difficult. My bait supply was almost exhausted. Another near by boat was close to his limit and had extra bait so he offered it to me. I stayed in the area he was in and we just about finished up right there. Some nice fish were coming out of the canes.



Our last keeper of the day was a tagged redfish. It was 16 1/2 inches long and the tag was fresh. I put it in the livewell. We still had some bait left so we kept fishing until it was gone looking for another keeper. I took all the necessary information so we could call in the condition, size, and location of the fish. My goal was to release this fish so it could be further tracked. As it turned out we did find one more to replace it so we released the tagged fish to continue the study. I forgot to get a picture of it though. The fishing action was so constant.

Around 1:30 we were out of bait and the box was full. so we headed in. At that time Danny said he was glad because he was fished out. His son agreed.



I can honestly say we caught well over a hundred fish just to get our limit of redfish and 8 sheepshead.



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

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