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Yesterday was like Christmas morning all over again!  UPS dropped four packages for me to find on my door step!  Two boxes from Braid Products, One box from Frenzy Tackle and one box from Owner Hooks! I am still waiting for a shipment from Bomber and Ande but I have plenty of new toys to play with for now!

We are getting everything ready for the new year! I spoke with Billy Freeman yesterday and he assured me that he will personally be in Venice on the 8th to deliver the new Freeman 33! He had it in the water yesterday and got her up to 64 mph – downstream, ha ha!  (62 upstream)

Friends of mine have begun to catch nice wahoo! Its killing me because I do not have my boat yet but it will be here soon enough!  I have at least one trip booked every week starting January 15th through the end of February so looks like I will have plenty of time to bond with the new boat! I was able to book the 5th of February tonight and that was the last Saturday that I had open to fish the Freeman for January and February! March is wide open as of now but not sure how long the Saturdays will hang around!  Just because all of my Saturdays are taken up doesn’t mean that we are booked up by far! I think I only have about 17 trips booked in all! There are plenty of Fridays and Sundays open on my boat!  Capt. Gray still has a few Saturdays open! If we can’t find a spot for you on one of our boats, we are friends with a lot of great captains in Venice, we will get you set up with one of them if that’s what it takes! Venice needs your business and you will be very happy with what you get when you fish here, especially this time of the year!

I am on the pro staff with Braid Products! You talk about a super company! Dennis Braid has built a business that knows exactly what the hardcore offshore fisherman needs because he is one! David Holmes is my rep for Braid, when I sent my order in for the year he told me that he had a few custom color marauders! He knows that Venice is an awesome place for monster wahoo and he wanted to know if we would be able to put these things to work!  Let’s just say I have all nine of them! (Sorry Tommy) These baits are amazing when it comes to wahoo!  The great part about them is they are rigged with dual swiveled single hooks! When a wahoo hits a marauder, they do not come off like a treble hook! Don’t get me wrong, some days I will catch all of my wahoo on a bomber or on a stretch but I always try the marauders! I lose less fish on J hooks! I find (this is just me) in clean water the Marauders work the best! In dirty water I may have to switch over to bombers or a stretch! Some days they will eat them all!! (At the same time)  

When using wahoo baits that are rigged with treble hooks, I change out all of them out to Owner 4X 4/0 or 5/0 hooks! These hooks will hold up to the big wahoo that we catch in the winter! Most baits come rigged with decent hooks but these monsters will straighten them out like copper rigging wire!  

It won’t be long before the tuna start to show up! Get all of your reels cleaned up and ready to go because I believe it’s going to be a great year!  Bonita are everywhere and I think it’s just a matter of time before we start to catch tuna in good numbers!

Please visit our site to view pictures and videos from last winter! This will give you the best idea of what you can expect this time of the year! The weather conditions are not the best, it’s a little cool but oh man, the fishing is good!  We want you on our new boat!  Billy Freeman told me once you fish on a Freeman , you won’t fish anywhere else so we are doing the research to see if this is true!  Ha ha!  Hope you all had a good Christmas and we wish you a Happy New Year! Hope to see you on the water!

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