Posts Tagged "tuna"
It’s Lump Time: Yellowfin Tuna and Wahoo Action in Venice!
Venice, Louisiana is known all over the world as the Yellowfin Tuna epicenter and is known for huge Yellowfins during February and March as we shift to fishing the legendary “Lump”! Champion Charters is knee-deep in the middle of this red-hot Yellowfin Tuna bite and huge Wahoo to boot!
Keep in mind that Champion Charters is in full compliance with CDC and State of Louisiana COVID guidelines. Our boats are continually cleaned and being offshore in the salt air is one of the best ways to AVOID infection. Fishing is great for your health and now is the best time to get out of the house!
The Venice hotels and restaurants are also open and have ready to welcome you back to the Yellowfin Tuna Capital of the world! Let’s get to the latest fishing report:
Giant Winter Yellowfin Tuna!
It’s time to head for the Lump and we’re hitting the Gulf of Mexico in our custom 36′ and 39′ Yellowfins with our livewells crammed with live mullet and pogies and our hatches packed with chunk baits to make sure that we cover all of our bases. Our clients have been relaxing in comfort and safety as we rip it out to the tuna grounds to stalk jumbo Yellowfins and Blackfins.
Once we arrive in the vicinity of the Lump, we’re being greeted by huge Yellowfin Tunas ranging in size from 100 lbs to 200 lbs! Book your trip NOW to get in on this incredible Tuna action!
Football Season is Still On
While fishing – and catching- big Yellowfins, our clients are blown away by the aggressiveness and size of the Blackfin Tunas that are mixed in with the jumbo Yellowfins! These “Footballs” don’t take a backseat to anything! They’re ranging in size from 25-35 lbs!
Monster Wahoos and Melting Drags!
The Winter Wahoo bite continues to be amazing and we expect this to continue into the Spring! We’re catching gigantic Wahoos that weigh between 30 and 100 lbs! These are record fish that we’re catching on the way to and from the tuna grounds. Unlike tunas, we’re targeting Wahoos on the troll using a various lures and ballyhoo combinations.
Swordfish During the Day
The Swordfish bite continues to be strong! We continue to put our clients on Swordfish in the 150 lb to 300 lb range during our daytiming trips as well as our specialty overnight trips. When you book your trip, let us know if you want to book the Tuna/Swordfish combination trip, where we target Yellowfins on the way out and target Swordfish once we’ve boated our limit of tunas. That’s what’s great about operating our 36′ and 39′ Yellowfins: We have the speed and range to tap BOTH fisheries…and more!
Legendary Bucket List Overnight Trips
Our Overnight Trips, which leave the dock at Noon and return at Noon the following day are action-packed trips! More Yellowfins, Blackfins, Wahoo and Swordfish than you can shake a stick at!
Our Overnight Trips are worthy of your Bucket List. Call us NOW to book your Venice Overnight Trip to experience the angling experience of a lifetime!
Book your Snapper Fishing Charter NOW
The world famous Venice, Louisiana Red Snapper Season opens on June 1st and everyone is preparing to catch their share of Red Gold! We at Champion Charters will be pre-fishing certain areas in advance of the Season to nail down where the Red Snapper are holding up so that our clients can catch their limit of huge Red Snapper. This is one of our most in-demand charter trips and our calendar fills up fast! Give us a call to book your Red Snapper experience!
Tight Lines
Captain Chandler
It’s Time to Fall into Huge Yellowfin Tunas
We’re now into the legendary Venice, Louisiana Yellowfin Tuna bite and and fishing grounds have not let us down! We at Champion Charters continue to put our valued clients on epic Yellowfin and Blackfin Tuna as well as Wahoo, Swordfish and other pelagic species. Champion Charters is OPEN FOR BUSINESS and is ready to get you out to the grounds to take full advantage of this great action.
The Venice hotels and restaurants are open and have ready to welcome you back to the Yellowfin Tuna Capital of the world! Let’s get to the latest fishing report:
Huge Yellowfin Tuna!
We’re hitting the Gulf of Mexico in our custom 36′ and 39′ Yellowfins with our livewells crammed with live mullet and pogies and our hatches packed with chunk baits to make sure that we cover all of our bases. Our clients have been relaxing in comfort and safety as we rip it out to the tuna grounds to stalk jumbo Yellowfins and Blackfins.
Once we arrive at the target zone and get our baits in the water, we’re being greeted by huge Yellowfin Tunas ranging in size from 100 lbs to 200 lbs! Book your trip NOW to get in on this incredible Tuna action!
Blackfins Are Big…and Plentiful!
While fishing – and catching- big Yellowfins, our clients are blown away by the aggressiveness and size of the Blackfin Tunas that are mixed in with the jumbo Yellowfins! These Blackfins don’t take a backseat to anything! They’re ranging in size from 25-35 lbs!
Let’s Yell “Wahoo”!
Another species that is on fire right now is Wahoo! The Wahoo bite is off the chain and we’re catching gigantic Wahoos that weight between 30 and 100 lbs! These are record fish that we’re catching on the way to and from the tuna grounds. Unlike tunas, we’re targeting Wahoos on the troll using a various lures and ballyhoo combinations.
Swordfishing Remains Steady
The Swordfish bite continues to be strong as well! We continue to put our clients on Swordfish in the 150 lb to 300 lb range during our daytiming trips as well as our specialty overnight trips. When you book your trip, let us know if you want to book the Tuna/Swordfish combination trip, where we target Yellowfins on the way out and target Swordfish once we’ve boated our limit of tunas. That’s what’s great about operating our 36′ and 39′ Yellowfins: We have the speed and range to tap BOTH fisheries…and more!
Overnight Fishing Experience
Our Overnight Trips, which leave the dock at Noon and return at Noon the following day are action-packed trips! Our anglers are catching the large Wahoo mentioned above plus Mahi Mahi and even a Blue Marlin or too during the daylight hours on our way out to the Tuna grounds by trolling various lures and lures rigged with dead baits.
We will fish our way offshore to the point that we can get set up for the dusk “witching hour” when Yellowfin Tuna and Blackfin Tuna launch into a feeding frenzy on schools of flying fish as we pitch live baits to them. After it gets dark, the action stays red-hot. We switch from live baits to “chunking” to keep the tunas around the boat and pitching jigs.
There is not time for rest as the bite is amazing all night! As the sun peeks above the horizon to begin the day, we’ll switch back to live baits as the first hour of daylight brings the big Yellowfins back on the bite.
Our Overnight Trips are worthy of your Bucket List. Call us NOW to book your Venice Overnight Trip to experience the angling experience of a lifetime!
Keep in mind that Champion Charters is in full compliance with CDC and State of Louisiana COVID guidelines. Our boats are continually cleaned and being offshore in the salt air is one of the best ways to AVOID infection. Fishing is great for your health and now is the best time to get out of the house!
If you want to FALL into the fishing trip of a lifetime, call NOW to reserve your date before we fill up!
Tight Lines,
Captain Chandler
Nighttime is the Right Time for Tunas!
Venice, Louisiana is known all over the world as the Yellowfin Tuna epicenter and is known for huge Yellowfins during February and March. Champion Charters is all over this red-hot Tuna bite and we’re making it happen with our exclusive OVERNIGHT fishing trips!
Tuna, Wahoo, Tuna, Wahoo, Tuna
Our Overnight Trips, which leave the dock at Noon and return at Noon the following day are action-packed trips! Our anglers are catching huge Wahoo (from 30 lbs to 80 lbs) during the daylight hours on our way out to the Tuna grounds by trolling various lures and lures rigged with dead baits.
We will fish our way offshore to the point that we can get set up for the dusk “witching hour” when Yellowfin Tuna, Bigeye Tuna and swarms of Blackfin Tuna launch into a feeding frenzy on schools of flying fish as we pitch live baits to them.
After it gets dark, the action stays red-hot. We switch from live baits to “chunking” to keep the tunas around the boat and pitching jigs.
The Yellowfins we’re catching range in size from 60 lbs to 150 lbs plus the Bigeyes and Blackfins are up to 50 lbs!
There is not time for rest as the bite is amazing all night! As the sun peeks above the horizon to begin the day, we’ll switch back to live baits as the first hour of daylight brings the big Yellowfins back on the bite.
At this point, we need to give those sore arms a break as we make our way back in, targeting Wahoo and Mahi Mahi as targets of opportunity.
Our Overnight Trips are worthy of your Bucket List. Call us NOW to book your Venice Overnight Trip to experience the angling experience of a lifetime!
Let Champion Charters get you to the fishing grounds at warp speed and fish all night in comfort aboard our custom 36′ and 39′ Yellowfin center console fishing machines. Nobody in Venice can get you to this amazing overnight bite quicker than Champion Charters!
Don’t forget to ask us about large parties! We can take up to 12 anglers!
Tight Lines
Captain Chandler
The Wahoo Bite is Off the Hook!
As you know by now, Venice is one of the premier Yellowfin Tuna fisheries in the world. However, someone forgot to tell the huge Wahoo that we’ve been catching over the past month!
We’re hitting the Gulf of Mexico in our custom 36′ and 39′ Yellowfins with our livewells crammed with live mullet and hardtails. Our clients have been relaxing in comfort and safety as we rip it out to the tuna grounds to find the tunas.
However, on the way to the Yellowfin grounds, we’re getting into thick Wahoo schools. We’re getting shots on Islander lures rigged with ballyhoo, trolled at 7-9 knots. Right now, the colors that work the best are pink, blue/white and purple/black.
We have been averaging 5 to 8 Wahoo per trip! As you can see in the picture above, we’ve been coming back with many more. Even though we’re fishing top-flight tackle, these Wahoo are melting drags and burning biceps! Few pelagic species can match the scorching runs of which Wahoo are capable.
Don’t Worry. The Tunas are Still Around Too.
The Yellowfin Tunas aren’t going to take this Wahoo invasion lightly. The Yellowfins have also been ferocious and have not passed up any of our baits either.
As we move into the Springtime Yellowfin bite, we’ll continue to see more bites as the Yellowfins return to the feeding grounds that they left for the winter.
Once we arrive at the target zone and get our baits in the water, we’re being greeted by huge Yellowfin Tunas ranging in size from 20 to 40 pounds and larger!
There are also big Blackfin Tuna mixed in with the Yellowfins and they’re ready for a fight! Some trophy sharks are lurking for a slugfest once we catch our limit of tunas, which does not take long.
Come join me to take advantage of this unreal Wahoo action and jumbo Yellowfin activity. We’re running two custom We still have a few dates available in February and March is starting to fill up as well. Give us a call to set up your trip. Let’s get into the bite!
Tight Lines,
Captain Chandler
Overnight Tuna Fishing Trips in Venice La
August is some of our favorite fishing of the year. It gives us the opportunity to take advantage of predictable weather and the fish feeding at night. We leave in the late afternoon and come back the next day. Fishing all night opens up a whole new opportunity for my August clients. It allows us to not only target them during the dark when they are feeding, but also get that first light bite which sometimes is the best. Call us to see what days we have available and let’s make it an adventure.
Fishing Report:
Our day trips are doing better now. There was a lull period there for a while where the tuna were basically gone. I hate when that happens, but that is fishing. We want our customers to catch tuna more than they do, so it is really heart breaking when that happens, but I’m happy to report we are back in them. When they were absent we were making up for it with snappers, mahi and even had a blue marlin we released.
Let’s hope it gets better everyday. I have 11 trips in a row coming up and will be reporting everyday on Facebook, so be sure to follow us.
Tight Lines,
Captain Chandler
Tuna Fishing is Getting Back To Normal!
It has been a weird couple weeks here in Venice, Louisiana. For the first time in a long time, the tuna fishing was slow. I believe the season transition started early or a combination of late in the year cold fronts, but whatever it is, we are glad fishing is picking back up. To make up for the lack of tuna, we have been targeting the next best thing: swordfish! I have had the opportunity to learn from one of the best sword fisherman and honed the skill over years. With a little luck on my side and a great crew, we have been crushing them. In fact on one trip we boated 4 fish!
So that has been the story as of late. Instead of struggling with a slow tuna bite, we have been putting our clients on the hot swordfish bite instead. Checking my years of log books, I have not seen a swordfish bite like this in a long time. I believe we are better at targeting them now and catching them during the day takes some real expertise, but some other factors such as wind, tides, moon, currents, etc all come into play with targeting swords.
One thing that remains constant is if you get a good bait in front of them, they will most likely eat it! This is why we take our time to prepare the bait just right. Whether we use squid, mahi mahi bellies, mackerel, etc, we take the extra time to sew and prepare it just right. When your bait is very deep you want the best opportunity and most of the time a swordfish will wack the bait with their sharp bill, so it important that the bait can withstand the attack so that they will come back and eat it. Fish on!
Check out this lit up fish in cobalt blue water we brought home for the grill:
As I mentioned, the tuna fishing is starting to turn around we are also entering our wahoo season. While I am still fishing for swordfish, I’m ready to get back into the meat of our prized Yellowfin Tuna and put some sushi on the table. This was an awesome day last month and your typical day in April. So I look forward to getting back into the grind and giving my anglers some sore arms!
I still have some dates open in April and we are filling up the rest of the spring into summer. I always recommend as soon as you know your dates, to give us a call and book them, because they go fast.
Tight Lines,
Captain Chandler