The trip started before sunrise on Thursday morning. We picked up our friends Beth and Rj and got on the interstate heading north. It was a fun road trip with our friends, the long drive was broken up between four drivers making it go by fast. We got to our cabin in Venice LA in the early evening. We then ventured down to the Venice Marina for dinner, the Seafood Potato was recommended before we got there and it did not disappoint. We got to bed pretty early because the next morning we were meeting the captain at 6am for a day of fishing. After first going to the wrong marina, we found our captain around 645 and got on the water.
The wind was blowing hard that morning as a cold front was blowing through. We first crossed the Mississippi River and tucked back into a bayou sheltered from the wind. After running through canal after canal just slightly wider then the boat, both sides of the canal had mud banks leading up to fields of sawgrass. After a short run, we came across some clean water in a wider canal with a few narrow feeder canals running into it. We sat there with a popping cork and jig, catching 40 redfish in a few hours of fishing, ranging from 12″ to 25″. We weren’t able to get to the coast and fish for the big ones so we called it a day and headed back to fillet our catch. After relaxing at the cabin, we went back to the Venice Marina and brought a bag of fresh redfish for them to cook. They cooked it three ways and gave us the sides, and we feasted. Unfortunately that was our only day to fish so we never got to chase the big bulls, but we had a blast in this amazing fishery and definitely fueled my desire to come back and try again.
The next morning we woke up and headed to New Orleans, we spent the day in the french quarter eating amazing food and exploring. That night we made it to Biloxi where we stayed at the Beau Rivage and spent a lot of time in the casino. The next day we headed home and couldn’t wait to get back because we were all missing our kids. It was great to be gone but the best part was seeing the excitement on Vance’s face when we got home.
