Informational workshop slated for June 11 at Destrehan High School
The way most offshore captains have been running out of Venice lately according to Captain Josh Howard with Deep South Charters (225-572-7408), is to head out for some early tuna and amberjack if it’s a calm day before hitting the shallower rigs for snapper on the way back in. “We’re just trying to hit a variety of species right now,” said Howard.
Seeing as how red snapper season has only been open a couple weeks, it only stands to reason that they are on most offshore anglers’ minds. While Howard hasn’t been taking many snapper-only trips, he suggested that his results and those of his fellow guides indicate that the early season fishing has been fantastic.
“We’ve got our red snapper limit every day,” he said. “Although we haven’t been catching any huge ones, but that’s mainly a product of not fishing strictly for them. There are a lot of snapper hanging out in 60 to 150 feet of water, and the West Bay area has lots of them… they’re plentiful there, but they aren’t very big. West Bay also has some cobia and lots of mangroves.”
Howard also pointed out the 7 and 12 mile rigs as being two red snapper hot spots. Since these rigs have a little more depth on them than the West Bay structures, Howard pointed out that the fish out there have been a little bit bigger.
“The reds have been down near the bottom… as deep as 100 feet out on the 7 and 12 mile rigs,” Howard added. “The mangroves have been more up in the water… about 20 feet down. They’re staying high while the reds are staying down.”
By far the best bait on Howard’s trips has been frozen pogies, but he has also been catching some fish on butterfly jigs and live croakers. In fact, Howard said the live croakers have been pretty good at catching some of the bigger fish. Squid is working well, too.
Before hitting the red snapper on the way back in, Howard has found some yellowfin tuna and amberjacks on the deeper floaters like Elf, Ocean’s Quest, Devil’s Tower, Mars and Ursa.
“It’s been hard to beat live bait on the tuna,” Howard explained. “If you can find them, small hardtails work well, but for the most part we’ve been chunking cut Bonita and rainbow runners, which are plentiful at the rigs and easy to catch for bait. Other than that, we’ve caught a few on the Frenzy Angry Popper.”
