This past year was a good one for fishing in Venice. Even though it was a little bit slow for the tuna, all the other species really made up for it. It was a great year for Mahi Mahi. We caught tons of Mahi and they were usually not that far out and they hung around our area until November. I had a couple days that were the best I have ever seen. I looked over the side of the boat and saw probably a hundred gaffing size mahi swimming around. We caught em until the customers didn’t want anymore. There were a couple good runs of yellowfin tuna but it never lasted long. Some days we pulled up and caught tuna until the box was full but most days we worked really hard all day just to catch one or two yellowfins.
The government gave us the longest snapper season in quite a few years. We had two full months to take advantage. (June 1-August 2) Hopefully this year, they will give us even more days. We were also fortunate to have a good, long amberjack season after the snapper closed. Mangrove snapper bit well all summer with some days catching over 50 fish. Most recently, in October,November, and December we caught a lot of big cobia. They were schooled up in shallow water. All 30-70lb fish.
This offseason I put new motors on the boat. Suzukis this time and they’re even more efficient than the yamaha’s were. Been working hard to get the boat looking good again and ready for the new year. Hopefully, we’ll have good weather and good fishing.
