This is my 11th year working as a fishing guide with Paradise Outfitters in Venice, quite literally my dream job. In the world of offshore fishing, Venice is primarily known for its unmatched pelagic fishery. There’s giant tuna feeding all around the mouth of the river from October to the end of March, along with big wahoo and swordfish. Transition to summer and it’s a madhouse at the floating oil rigs offshore, racing to catch bait in the mornings then flying to the rig to put customers on a hot bite of 50- to 60-pound tuna.
All that being said, our bottom fishery is very easy to overlook, even amongst charter captains. Everybody catches tuna down here. Sure, some are more consistent than others, but when it’s on it’s on. My main mentor and boss, Hunter Caballero, is one of the best there’s ever been at scratching out a few tuna bites when no one else can. But even catching a few tuna on a tough day isn’t what makes other guides envious. It’s coming back to the dock with a bunch of fat groupers that will really make them wonder. And believe me, I’ve been the envious one plenty of times.
Of all of the groupers that swim in the Gulf, it would be hard to argue that any are harder to catch than a big Warsaw. Warsaws are not only few in number, but they live in some really nasty structure. Getting them out of the structure is where it gets really tricky.
An unforgettable trip
On this charter, I had six customers on board who have fished with me before. We had three dads, Richard, Jamie and Josh, and three sons, Mateo, Graham and Merit, who were ages 11-13. Offshore fishing was very new to the boys, so we took off from Cypress Cove Marina for some tuna action. It was a very tough day of tuna fishing for most of the fleet, but each of the boys were able to land their first tuna on a triple hookup we had right when we pulled up to the rig.
As soon as we got done eating some tuna hearts and icing fish, the weather started to turn and the wind started ripping from the north. We pointed back to the northwest to go closer in and try for a Warsaw grouper. After catching a 275-pounder a couple weeks ago, I was thinking my next one would be significantly smaller. I could not have been more wrong. About 10 minutes into our first drop we got bit and it was game on! This fish fought much harder than the last one. The 275-pounder was almost kind of lazy; this fish was quite the opposite. Again, we were thinking it might be a shark but knew there was a possibility it was another Warsaw. After a tough 30-minute battle we landed the fish and it was indeed another giant Warsaw. The fish weighed in at a whopping 269 pounds.
– Andrew Bateman
