Getting there:
From the upstate 700 miles
From Charelston 900 miles
Truck gets 7 to 9mpg pulling the boat.
$500 to pull the boat there.
Buy food before you arrive. Only really one place to eat and very limited shopping. You are 74 miles from New Orleans. VERY little in Venice as far as stores. The Marina has the best restaurant.
Lodging
Renting a house boat is $150 to $350 per night. Depends on how nice you want to go. Most sleep 6 to 8 some up to 14.
Charters
THIS IS A MUST!!
It is a long run out of the Mississippi, you NEED to learn the waters or you will destroy your boat. If you don’t have a radar and you are not comfortable with it don’t take your boat. You will run across anything from a mud boat to a HUGE cargo ship. Often the river is very foggy due to the cool waters from the river hitting the warm waters of the Gulf.
Bait and fish are not easy to find. The charter captains stay on top of this, this is their full time jobs. These guys run 150 plus trips a year and have a finger on the pulse of this fishery. Think about going out of Charleston for the first time with nothing but a NOAA chart and thinking you will catch a wahoo or limit of dolphin. Local knowledge is a key. Don’t expect them to freely give it to you. Remember this is their full time job, you don’t give your pay check away don’t expect them to give theirs away. Need to earn some creek credit. Don’t get me wrong they are SUPER nice guys but it is not fair to anyone to just show up and say hey I am Joe Blow from SC and I want to catch yellowfin tuna, can you give me all your numbers?
Charters are $1350ish a day plus fuel. Fuel can very, the tuna can be any where from 15 miles to 80 miles from the end of the river. They will give you a rough idea before you leave though.
Best Captains Down there, Use these guys!
Mexican Gulf Fishing Company
Captain Kevin Beach 504.451.3886
33 Freeman - Pale Horse
So Scoutin, you gonna give a final tuna tally and how much money you lost to the Shockwave crew?
In all seriousness, if you are gonna go, you MUST charter a captain the first time or two. You will absolutely be WASTING your time if not. Especially if you are going after yellowfin. I cant tell you how many people I have talked to that have been disappointed after dragging a boat down only to catch a few blackfin and snapper.
So Scoutin, you gonna give a final tuna tally and how much money you lost to the Shockwave crew?
Where are the pictures of team shock waves catch?!
This is the internet, just cause you have coolers full of yellowfin does not mean you actually caught any. Proof is in the pictures!
Nah, what had happen was they had a 2 day lead on us to figure them out and that was clearly to our disadvantage not to mention their boat was 10 feet longer, had, 600 more hp, Wade made 30,000 plus casts with the popper something superman himself could not do, Simmons shops at Courtland’s new store and has all the pro jigging stuff, etc, etc, (I have all sorts of excuses for getting my butt cut)
It was a great time! Can’t wait to go back! We need to get Beach or Wells to take us in October and show us the 80 to 150 pounders they catch everyday.
That would be a sweet charter trip for sure!
Set the trap boys, we going to pass through them again!!
“There is no hunting like the hunting of man, and those who have hunted armed men long enough and liked it, never care for anything else thereafter.”
Ernest Hemingway
“There is no hunting like the hunting of man, and those who have hunted armed men long enough and liked it, never care for anything else thereafter.”
Ernest Hemingway
Great post and great fishing guys!! It might be a Broken record, sorry I missed the trip. Hopefully I stayed home for a good reason and will get some extra business as a
result.
The IT’LL DO team is going diving on Friday. Brian / Scott, come on and drive the boat, with Mississippi River experience, I can certainly relax.
Great post and great fishing guys!! It might be a Broken record, sorry I missed the trip. Hopefully I stayed home for a good reason and will get some extra business as a
result.
The IT’LL DO team is going diving on Friday. Brian / Scott, come on and drive the boat, with Mississippi River experience, I can certainly relax.
Call me…
Your Mississippi comment:
We ran the South Pass back to Venice in total darkness flying by instruments. Talk about pucker factor!! I will say that Brianh’s twin NSS12s were DEAD on. Could not have done it with out them. Radar overlay is bad a$$!
Set the trap boys, we going to pass through them again!!
