Massive 207-Pound Bigeye Tuna Caught Off Louisiana

The tuna fishing off Venice in south Louisiana near the mouth of the Mississippi River has been good since autumn. And veteran Capt. Chad Audibert had been catching plenty of yellowfins and bigeyes.

But on Dec. 9 fishing started slow for Audibert and his crew of five visiting anglers from Texas and his pair of resident boat hands.

“We started live baiting almost 60 miles offshore, and that didn’t work,” says the 28-year old Slidell, La. native who runs a 39-foot Yellowfin boat for VooDoo Charters. “So, we changed tactics to chunking with baits, but we still weren’t getting much. So we started fast trolling plugs to locate some tuna.”

Using a variety of five lures in their trolling spread, the anglers finally caught a pair of small wahoo that were released. About 30 minutes later a giant of a tuna hit a 10-mph…