Captain Jimmy Nelson called me up a couple months ago and told me about an opportunity to catch some big fish in Louisiana. I had actually visited twice before while lming as a cameraman for Jimmy’s Extreme Fishing Adventures, so I had witnessed firsthand how large and abundant the red fish fishery was there. My journey this time started in Charlotte, North Carolina. It was a 14-hour long drive that proved to be well worth the effort. Venice, Louisiana holds many fishing opportunities both inshore, near shore and offshore. One of the most impressive things about the place is the close proximity to the amazing fishing grounds. Just a few miles from the Venice Marina is a marshland loaded with monster bull Redfishing that can be caught year round, as well as, a Red Snapper fishery within 6 to 9 miles from shore.
I met Captain Jimmy Nelson and Luiza Barros from Fishing with Luiza at Venice Marina that night. We stayed in one of the lodges right on the marina. The next day we headed down the stairs and walked a few steps to meet Blake Rigby, from Tripletail Charters, at the dock, he runs both an inshore and an offshore boat. Today he pulled up in his custom 24ft bay boat. We ran just a few miles from land and stopped at the rst gas rig, where we immediately noticed the strong, ripping current. Blake
kept the boat in gear as Jimmy and Luiza dropped their lines in the back. They were sporting the new Shimano Stellas on Terez rods. Jimmy likes to rig a uni to uni knot with 65 lb Mustad Wish braid to 80lb Yo-Zuri ouro to an 7/0 Mustad hook. Due to the heavy current, an 8oz sinker was a necessity. He put on a huge chuck of squid and allowed it to drop about halfway to the 300ft bottom. After feeling the light pecks of smaller fish, he decided to let it drop down a bit further and sure thing it worked. Within minutes, Jimmy and Luiza were both wrestling fish in as Capt. Blake threw the boat in gear to help pull it away from the rig. They landed a pair of nice 20-25lb red snapper. Using the same successful setup, Blake rigged up a dropper line with a pogy and a squid attached to a 10lb weight on a 50W Shimano Tiagra. Luiza cranked up a few monster Red Snapper on it before going back to the Stella. Within 15 minutes, we caught our limit of Red Snapper, so we picked up and decided to change the game plan to target Mangrove Snapper. Capt. Blake moored up to a gas rig and started chum- ming squid and cut bait and then he tossed a free lined chunk into the mix and let it sink. It didn’t take long till he had a monster Man- grove Snap- per. He ran to the stern of the boat to help pull it away from the rig. Jimmy and Luiza took note of the Captain’s techniques and began mimicking his style as they dropped their lines. Time passed quickly as rods began to bend and lines tightened as 5-10lb Man- groves were hooked up left and right.
The next day, we met up with Captain Louis from “Fish Killin Charters”. His Uncle has a very successful fishing business in the area and he had grown up working for him. Captain Louis is one of the very few captains that doesn’t use or need a GPS to navigate the labyrinth of treacherous marshes in Venice. He took us to the first spot of the day along a grassy shoreline. Jimmy was throwing an Egret Baits Vudu Shrimp and Luiza was throwing a shrimp on a popper; both are equally appetizing to Red fish. Jimmy managed to cover lots of ground with the lure, expertly tossing it in between schooling mullet. As recommended by the captain, Luiza would pop the cork every 15 seconds or so. Later in the day we moved to a sandy shoreline in- between a sandbar. As the sun started to set in the evening, the lure action started to win over the live baits and Jimmy successfully boated his best Red of the day on an Egret Baits Wedgetail Mullet.
The Mississippi river empties into the Venice marshes, bringing a large supply of nutrients for all types of fishing. This bounty of nutrients, which mullet, shrimp, pogies and other bait-fish prey upon gives Venice a vast ecosystem; allowing largerfish (like Red fish, American Red Snapper and Mangrove Snapper) the potential to grow to a very large size. Louisiana al- lows anglers to keep two Red Snapper over 16 inches per day. Most anglers will also get their five per person bag limit of red fish with one over slot sized red fish (16-27inches). This fishery regularly produces red drums in the 30- 50lb ranges and that’s all we saw that day. Venice also has a healthy Trout fishery as well as Cobia and Tripletail. The possibilities are almost endless.
It’s highly recommended to bring some sort of Bug repellent during the summer months, like Sunsect. On any given day, especially early light and near dusk, the bugs attack quickly. The only thing that attacks more quickly than the bugs in Venice is the fish.
Now is the time to book your trip and catch a few fish for yourself!
