last one!!
Fishy

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Last 2 months from Venice
I know it has been a while since I have had a report up, I had to go back and look, its been almost two months! Wow! I had no idea. I have been in Venice fishing and any time off I spend working on the house. Not much time for reports.

I am here to report that the fishing has been good. The tuna fishing has been on fire some days. The dolphin never did really make a huge showing but we did catch some nice ones. We have had about 8 billfish in the last 2 months, two of them were sailfish.

Bait is now here in good numbers. Some days the tuna wont eat certain baits but atleast we have them to choose from. Chunks still catching fish as always. Top water action not all that good but have had some on top. Most tuna are 40-60 pounds right now but a few 80-100 pounders being caught.

Brandon and I had a visitor the other day, a whale shark surfaced next to us. We were able to get some awesome underwater pics and video and then trippled up on tuna right beside it. How cool?

Grass lines have been hit and mis but we have landed some wahoo along the grass. Also a few wahoo on floating pallets and logs. Dive baits seem to get it done.

While snapper and amberjack season has been closed, we have used the opportunity to go after some scamp grouper. Small live bait is the ticket. Getting through the snapper is the hard part! Some days we would have 6-9 nice scamp and some mangroves on top of that. Great eating fish. Amberjack season will open tomorrow so you can now keep a few more fish!!!!

Capt Gray has been putting it on em pretty good the last few days. He has had nice tuna every day. He is back at it today! Brandon and I will be back on the water Thursday.

I know we have a couple of open Sundays this month, if you want to fish. Some week days open as well!

Capt Andy, Capt Lee, Capt Jerry and a couple other guys have been running trips with us this summer and they have all put on one hell of a show! If Gray and I are booked up, I will do my best to get you on the water! Inshore and offshore!

Check out the pics!

All pics and reports on the blog, also on facebook!

New T Shirts and a new website to be released soon!

Capt Josh Howard
225-572-7408
deepsouthcharters@cox.net
www.deepsouthcharters.com
deepsouthcharters.blogspot.com

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Venice Tuna, Marlin and Dolphin
Its been a little while since a post. Yes, I have been fishing but I have had enough time away from the boat to post. I have been remodeling the bathroom and the babys room trying to get ready for the new addition to the family that will be here in August. My wife and I are very excited, this will be our first.

Back to fishing..... I cant even remember the last time I made a post and I cant remember every trip so I will try to give you an idea of what has been going on, what we are catching and what we are catching them on.

I guess about 6 weeks ago, I was into so big fish offshore. The tuna bite was good to us and we caught some awesome fish. Many of them in the 130 pound range. These fish would eat a little different from day to day and it was like a new operation some days. I caught fish on huge hardtails some days, the next day pogies would be the ticket, next day it was poppers and chunks, it was fun but a little aggravating trying to figure them out every day. We also hooked up to 3 blue marlin and landed 2 of them on live bait and 60/80 fluoro. Always a challange but always a treat. I just met with justin to get my brand new Makaira pulling baits so we will start to focus a little more on the bill fish. Seems to be plenty of them around.

Over the last few weeks we have seen a few good dolphin, I would think by now we would have tons of them but it has been a slow start. Looks like they are showing up now and I expect the new few weeks to see more. The ones that I have landed have been on live bait and frenzy poppers but an Illander and a ballyhoo is always a good recipe. Marlin love these things too.

The tuna that we have been on recently have been a little on the small side but solid fish for sure. Live pogies and chunks have worked but we have been able to pick up a few small hardtails here and there and they are always good to use. In the weeks to come who knows what we will be catching them on.

It will suck now that we cant catch amberjack. These fish are always a good way to get the crew into a good mood. They fight like hell and are good on the grill. The big hardtail have just started to show up and AJ fishing was easy over the last few weeks. Red snapper is now open for a whole 40 days so we will make the best of that. Also, the area is full of big mangrove snapper. We had one the other day that went 11.4 pounds. That is a nice fish. A few cobia around right now. A dead pogie about 20 ft down has been the ticket for us but I am sure they will take a jig if they are there.

I have not come across very many good rips but you can start to look for them, plenty of scattered grass out there, when it gets together, it will be 'on' for sure. You will be able to pick up some good dolphin, a marlin here and there and a few good wahoo on these grass lines. Not to mention, it will be a good spot to stop for bait on the way out.

Capt Gray is out on an Overnight trip right now. Im sure he will catch good fish but I get tired just thinking about being on that trip! haha, Im not tough anymore!!

We have plenty of open dates to fish. Not many Saturdays open but I will do my best to set you up with a boat on days that We cant fish. We are in the process of getting the new website up and running. It should be a cool site when its done. Remeber that you can see all of our past reports on the our blog.

Capt Josh Howard
225-572-7408
deepsouthcharters@cox.net
www.deepsouthcharters.com
deepsouthcharters.blogspot.com

Marlin shots
A few Marlin pics

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Venice Tuna
I was able to fish two days during the weather break last week. Thursday and Friday was nice then it all went south on Saturday.

Thursday, Brad and I had Tonys crew from Texas on the Deja Vu. The guys wanted yellowfin tuna. Tony let me know about ten times that he wanted a tripple digit tuna!!! haha! Now, I had my doubts about these guys. They wore my phone out the days leading up to the trip but they turned out to be a hoot!! Funny Funny Funny guys!!!!

The trip started out slow. It was about noon before we got our first fish in the boat. We had to run around a little to find the fish but once we got on em, the 4 man crew didnt stop til they had 9 yellowfin in the boat and finished it off with a Blue Marlin.Tony even got a 112 pound yellowfin, his tripple digit fish! I just spoke to the guys tonight, they want to come back next week. haha

The following day I think I have this under control. Plan is to go back to where I caught them the day before, catch a few fish and make it back before dark. Easy enough right? Wrong! It was like being at the aquarium, we got to see plenty of fish but that was it. Did not get one bite all day. Plan B.....make a run in to find some amberjack. At this point, any ole amberjack would make my day, no way can I go back to the dock with clean ice.... First bait down gets nailed by a stud AJ! Finally, action. We get it to the boat, nice fish. We put a limit of these hammers in the boat and a couple of nice cobia. I have never been so happy to have reef fish permits. We ended the day with no tuna but still a nice box of fish. Thats how it goes some days. 9 yellowfin one day and ZERO the next.

We are using all different size live baits right now for tuna. Just want to remind you to adjust your hook size to the size of your bait. This will make for better bait presentation and better hook up ratios. Big bait = big hook, small bait = small hook.

We still have open dates to fish. See the blog and website for reports, pics, videos and info. Feel free to call or email anytime. Be safe out there.

Capt Josh Howard
225-572-7408
deepsouthcharters@cox.net
www.deepsouthcharters.com
deepsouthcharters.blogspot.com

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Venice Offshore Heating Up!
I hate when the wind blows but it does allow for some much needed rest and relaxation!

The past two weeks have been good for fishing. We have had a couple of days that I wanted more in the box but i really cant complain. The fishing has been pretty solid.

We are starting to see a few dolphin show up. A few nice rips have started to form but not many fish on them yet. We continue to catch a couple of hooters here and there. The tuna action is really starting to heat up and we have already released one Blue Marlin this year, this fish was caught last week!

I would say the highlight of the year, maybe even my life is the fish that was caught while I was fishing with Capt Gray last week. Even though we could not bring the fish back in with us, it was still a sight to see! What an awesome fish! I will leave the story for Capt Gray to tell.

We are starting to see a little bit of live bait show up at this time but not a ton yet. We continue to catch most of our yellowfin chunking, Frenzy Angry Poppers, trolling and live bait. Most of the dolphin have been on live bait and poppers but we did hook into a good bull with an Illander. Wahoo are holding to anything floating offshore as well as platforms in blue water. If you see something floating offshore that has bait under it, good chance it could be holding a couple of wahoo or dolphin, it could be worth the time to check it out.

The tuna that we are catching right now are 40-50 pounds but most days we are finding a few in the 70-100 pound range to add to the box. As you will see in the pictures, most days have been productive.

Moving on from here, we will start to have better catches of dolphin. More live bait will start to show up so this means that the tuna fishing should stay solid. The marlin will also start to hang around. I have new baits ordered with Makaira Pulling Lures and cant wait for them to get here. The billfish love these things.

We are still catching some nice amberjack. Wont be long before we can keep a few snapper. Only a 40 day season this year, try to make the best of the very short season and dont forget to voice your opinion when it matters, maybe we can get a few days back. Mangrove snapper are fun to catch as well. These cousins to the red snapper will make for some awesome table fare so keep them in mind when you are looking to add to the box on a fun trip out! They are fun for the kids.

We still have open dates to fish. We have this Sunday open (22nd) if you are looking for a boat. Remember, you can see all of our reports on our blog. Keep up with us on facebook and the website is there to answer any questions.

Capt Josh Howard
225-572-7408
deepsouthcharters@cox.net
www.deepsouthcharters.com
deepsouthcharters.blogspot.com

Venice Tuna Action
We have been on the water almost every day so I have not been able to post reports. I hope to be able to sit down long enough next week to post pics and a few reports but for now, I wanted to let you see a few good fish that we have caught.

The tuna fishing is getting good. We are starting to see dolphin show up, still catching a few nice wahoo and the ajs are hungry.

We have been able to catch tuna on the troll, live bait, chunks and poppers. It wont be long, summer is here!!!


Capt Josh Howard
225-572-7408
deepsouthcharters@cox.net
www.deepsouthcharters.com