9 Yellowfin Tuna

This past week, we had a couple of our good customers coming down to hunt and fish. We tried to pick the best day to fish and then hunt two other days. The weather man tried to trick us but I think we managed to fish the good day in the end!

We made a hunt Wednesday morning, Wind was blowing good but the ducks really didnt want to work. It took a while but we did get to shoot our ducks! Thursday we had planned on hunting because Friday looked to be the best for seas. After making it to the marina Thursday morning, I checked the seas to see that infact, thursday will be best, called the guys, change in plans, now we are getting the boat ready and even after the mix up, we were only a little late leaving the dock.

We decided that we would go tuna fishing so I headed to a spot where I had caught them a couple of weeks ago but they were gone! Fished a few more spots with nothing to show, decided to hit one more spot and after making a wrap around the rig we marked a couple of fish! We put two live baits back and one goes off!! Start to fight this fish and the other reel starts screaming!!! Awesome, now we are doubled up! We land both fish and put baits back out, now nothing!

Took a little while but we finally got back in them. We ended up going 9 for 10 on yellowfin tuna and one small blackfin! Just goes to show, you never know what the next spot may have!

Next morning, we are back in the duck boat! We shot 15 birds by 8:30, good enough, we take it in early, it was a good way to end the season! Thanks guys for an awesome week!

If you want to fish, we have plenty of open dates! Capt Gray and I cant wait to hear from you!

We also have lodging, inshore fishing and bowfishing available!

Hope to see you on the water soon!

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

New Video

9 Wahoo

We were scheduled to fish Sunday with 4 people, they did not even know one another, the trip was set up at the request of one person, ironically, this person sent a text to me while I was in the duck blind on Saturday that said, I wont be able to make it!! Bad news is most of the others are in Venice by now or on the way! What to do?? Do I cancel? Its not the other guys fault? Do I take a 500 dollar cut in Pay? huh, think about it a while and decide, hell with it, seas look good, we are going!

Sunday morning we load the 3 guys on the boat and leave Venice Marina about 5:30 AM. Cool ride down the river, hit the gulf to find warm air and nice calm seas! My brother Brad was down hunting with me and decided to make the trip as a free deckhand because now I dont have the money in the trip to pay a hand, in the end the crew hooked him up. It was nice to have hime on the water because as it turned out I would need the help!

We made a long run to start the day, first bait in the water would be smashed by a wahoo only to pull hooks! Made a few more wraps, nothing! Run a little farther, put baits out, troll for 30 mins, not one knock down! Told the crew we would change it up a little and send down a live one for amberjack, didnt take long and we were doubled over. Got out limit of jacks pretty easy and decided to make another run.

New spot, water looks nasty, about 60 degrees. We pull baits for about an hour, now I am getting a little up tight. We are about to pick up the baits when a hammer hits the long line. Good fish, people are running around, move the bean bag, dont let any slack get in the line, reel reel reel!! We lost the fish, pulled hooks! Baits back in the water for 2 mins, reel screaming again, we got it this time!! Wahoo Baby. Baits out again, BOOM another one, then onother one, this went on til we had 7 in the box then it happened! We hooked two and finally, we landed two! The crew called the trip at 2:30 with 9 wahoo in the box, ended the day by landing double hooters!!!

Oh man, what a great day on the water! Felt like summer, 73 degrees, calm seas, box FULL of wahoo and in the end I made out ok on money because we didnt have to burn a ton of fuel so I am super happy that we made the decision to run! Lets just say that the other guy was the loser on this day!

We have plenty of days open to fish, We have this weekend open to fish wahoo and tuna as well as the weekend of the 21st! If you would like to fish, please give us a call or email!

See you on the water!

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

Tuna/Amberjack/Doplhin/Marlin

The past two days have felt like summertime in Venice!! After making our way out of the cold river water on Wednesday, we pushed on to beautiful blue water that was a warm 71 degrees! The site of the warm blue water, calm seas and flying fish everywhere made it feel like it was June again!

We fished a few areas til about noon with one very small amberjack to show for it! The crew still in very high spirits, we pushed on to find the fish! The last stop of the day was the ticket! Although late in the day, Matt hooked into a nice yellowfin with a popper, just to have the hooks pull. 10 mins later we all looked to see a "MAN" hit the Frenzy Popper!! This fish faught harder than any other popper fish I had hooked before! After 2 hours and the rod handed off to everyone in the boat 5-6 times, including Matt and myself, we finally see the stud! another 30 mins at the boat, not being able to lift this heavy fish with the popper rod, we all watched the fish swim away after breaking off! This fish was every bit of 150 pounds, huge tuna!! This really took the wind out of our sails!! We re-group, put baits back out to have one smashed, FISH ON!! a few mins later!! FISH OFF!!! You have got to be kidding, pulled the hook! Cant catch a break!! Put the baits back out and we get hit twice on one bait, then nothing! Next bait takes off, stops, takes off again, set the hook, Blue Marlin comes out of the water! After an hour we had the fish boat side, Matt on the wire then to the bill!! Awesome colors on this fish!! After a bad string of luck we finally have something to take pictures of! We hit the dock with that one small amberjack but I will say it was an eventful day!!

Now Thursday -

We expected to be greeted with calm seas (1 ft or less) but instead it was more like 3 ft seas but O well! Still was a warm beautiful day! Back out to the blue water, cant wait to put the lines out! Matt readys the boat and we splash the baits! Not 3 mins after baits are out the 50 wide lets out a loud scream, come tight and watch the rod double over!! Oh yeah, we have a good one on! To my surprise, Ronnie has this fish up in record time! about 25 mins and we stick 2 gaffs into a 135 pound yellowfin!! Now we are pumped! This makes up for the one we lost the day before, well kinda! ha ha!

Baits back out, takes a little while but finally the 50 goes off, set the hook, grab the rod then the other rod goes off, set the hook, gets tight then nothing! I look to see that a nice dolphin had spit the bait, Matt grabs the poppper, it hits the water and I see the fish jump! Awesome, now we are doubled up with a nice tuna and dolphin! Land both! Tuna went about 110 pounds! We ended up pulling hooks on another tuna then Ronnie and his son said we have enough meat, lets go catch a couple amberjack! Oh boy, remember yesterday, I could only find the one baby amberjack! Not going to that hole, We going to good rig! Get there, takes about 10 mins to catch our limit of nice amberjack!

What a day!! What a couple of days!!

It was so nice to fish in good seas and catch nice fish, I am so pumped, I wish we had the next few days booked but we dont so I guess im going look for a deer!

Thanks to both crews for a great 2 days!

We have plenty of open days to fish, just pick up the phone or email! The new Contender is ready to rock!

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

Wahoo

We were able to fish last Friday, seas layed for one day and we fished in about two foot seas, nice to fish in those conditions!

We were fishing around the full moon and went 2 for 4 and nice big wahoo! I Feel sure that we would have landed more if we could have kept the big AJS from smashing our baits on every wrap! The customers were so tired from catching amberjack that they didnt want anything to do with a rod!! ha ha! Early in the day we were able to catch a few nice big blackfin, never found a yellow! We used live bait to catch our amberjack, little did we know, we we end up releasing about 25 that hit our trolling baits! Never before have I caught so many amberjack trolling!

I am posting to let you know that I will be fishing around the new moon as well for hooters and have a fewe days open! I like to fish them 2-3 days before and after the moons! Right now I have Dec 22nd open and dec 26th! The moon really helps on the wahoo bite! We are also catching all of the big amberjack that you can stand right now along with a few nice grouper and blackfin tuna! A few yellowfin here and there, they will really start to show up in late January though!

This is the time of the year that the big hooters move in! I always start fishing them in December hard! Most wahoo this time of the year are 40-60 pounds and we always catch some over 80, even seen them over 100 pounds in the winter! If you want to fish, just let us know!

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

Friday and Saturday reports

We were able to fish Friday and Saturday this past weekend. I would like to say that it was nice and calm but that would be a lie! Last week Capt. Gray talked me into fishing with him for two days. After two rough days on the water, lets just say he owes me big time!!

Friday Gray had customers that drove down from Oklahoma and even though we told them it would be rough offshore, they wanted to fish! We let them know it was a little rough to chase tuna so we made the decision to go bottom fishing!

Nice and easy out to the first spot, a few cut offs on cudas, I think we may have picked up one nice AJ on a pogie. Decided to get the sabiki out and after a few casts we had the baitwell full of hammer hardtail! 15/0 hook, 400 pound leader, 24 oz lead and five huge hardtail = five real nice amberjack plus the one on the pogie, thats a 6 man limit! Awesome! Pack up and head west. Make it to the next spot and drop down deep and in about 2 hours only 1 grouper to show! Next spot was the one! We managed to pick up 5 real nice almaco jacks, 2 brotula and 2 more nice snowy grouper! Not bad, take it to the barn!

Saturday we had hopes that the seas would lay a little but no luck! First thing saturday morning, talk to the crew, we decide to make another bottom run!

Head back to the same spot as the day before, figure we pick up another baitwell of big hardtail! Wrong, they moved out. Had to work hard to find a few hardtail and got a few on cut bait! We had to leave the area with one AJ short of a limit, couldnt seem to get that last one. Guess the one that I dropped back in the water would have come in handy about now! Gray would probably still be giving me a hard time if I wouldnt have found one more jack and a nice 35 pound snowy at the next rig! HA HA! I still cant believe I dropped a 50+ pound jack back in the water!!

We did find that nice Snowy and AJ and that spot but that was it for the day! We hit a couple of shrimp boats on the way back in, only sharks to show! I did hear that a couple of boats had seen a few big yellowfin on a couple boats saturday though. The boats are just making it back out but it looks like it will get bumpy again so who knows!

We have an open boat for saturday 12th and also the 18th, 19th and 20th are open to fish!

Give us a call or email for info!

Check out our site and visit the blog for pics and reports!

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

Ocober starts out with a Bang!! A bang in the motor!!

have you ever had a plan in your head, a map of what you think will happen and turns out to be all wrong??? Happens to me all of the time! Happened again this month!

I have been planning my return to fishing after being off for a few months due to the accident! Capt Gray and I found this awesome boat, its a 2010 demo with under 500 hours, got a decent deal! While we are waiting on the paperwork to get done, I start booking trips, books start looking damn good, most trips I have ever had on the books in October. October gets near and the wind started to blow, we have to cancel several trips! I spoke to a few captains, found out a few big fish have been caught, getting pumped up now! October 1st, Capt Gray and I make a trip, cant find one tuna. We did find some nice jacks so it wasnt the end of the world but not the trip we had hoped for! The next week, 3 trips on the books, cancel every one of them due to weather!

Take the time off to install a killer speaker system in the boat, happy!! Looking forward to fishing 11 days in a row starting October 12th, cant wait! Very good customers on the boat, radio sounds good, head out, fish the morning behind the boats, cant even find bait fish, wow, not good!! Head to medusa to try our luck, as I am slowing down at medusa I hear a noise in the motor, almost new motors, what can it be?? Blown Powerhead, yeah, didnt see that coming! Did I mention new motors?

On the way back at a very slow 9 mph, stop at a couple of rigs to atleast pick up a few jacks, yeah right, the cudas were starving, couldnt get one bait down, not even a jig! Now what? Crank up the tunes, customers crack open a beer, grab a few snacks, have a good time! Did I mention a slow ride??

Now, try to move customers around, reschedule some, weather wouldnt allow for most trips anyway, looks like we will get the boat back in time for weather break!! Nope! Parts delay? Really?? Figured! Thanks to captain Lee McLean, I was able to fish Saturday with Paul Myers crew from Salty Cajun, awesome guys!

Saturday we try for tuna, get things going, blackfin show up, catch 7, waiting for a big yellow to show, run low on bait, finally swap a blackfin for some chum, manage to piss off half of the Venice Fleet because we got too much bait, catch one more blackfin and thats a rap! Fish took off! Capt Gray and I cant believe with this awesome water, this bait and this hell of a crew that the fish would leave us but they did! In an effort to fill the box, we head off to find some amberjack and I have to admit, it was prob the best Jack fishing I have ever seen! We sent the baits down and doubled up 3 times in a row! Never lost a weight, never lost a fish. They were all big fish, gave the guys the fight they were looking for and really saved the trip. On the way back we stopped to try to find a few mangroves with no luck and took it to the barn! The best part about it is Paul is brave enough to come back and fish with us next saturday! Not sure if he knows that capt Gray wont be fishing with me this time so they wont be able to gang up on me and crack wellhead jokes and talk about my driving!

Back to my point! I had a lot of plans for October! I had visions of huge yellowfin everywhere, running a ton of trips in the new boat but as you can see, plans can change fast! Sometimes you just have to roll with it, cant change it, dont worry about it and just go have fun!

I think I start back fishing on the 27th. We hope to bring you reports of huge yellowfin, you bet your donkey we will give it our all but either way, I will let you know what we find!

I do think we will get a little late run on tuna! I believe one of the problems have been the rough seas and the boat not being able to stay out there, if the boats stay out all week this week, I think it will be on.

We are open most of the first 2 weeks of November! If you are looking for an adventure, its never a dull moment around us! We will do what we can to put you on fish, the only guarantee that we can make is, you will have a few good laughs! Fish are overrated anyway!!

Be safe out there! We hope to see you on the water! We may or may not be in our boat!

Want to remind you that you can see every trips report and pictures at

http://deepsouthcharters.blogspot.com/

I promise you that we post every trip, no matter if we catch or not! You get to see every report and pics from EVERY TRIP!

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