Venice, Louisiana's reputation as the yellowfin tuna capital of the world held up again this week. Fillet-knife brand SORD ran out of Venice with offshore captain Joey VT — better known on YouTube as Joe VT Fishing — and limited the boat in under an hour on a sloppy afternoon rig bite, then ran straight back inside to christen the brand-new Killer Dock cleaning stations at Gulf of America Outfitters' headquarters.
The trip doubled as a product moment. "We're down here in Venice, Louisiana, and we just got in late last night," the SORD spokesman said. "Adam from Gulf of America invited us to come down because today is the day that Killer Dock fish cleaning stations get installed at the Gulf of America headquarters." SORD is the fillet-knife partner of the Gulf of America operation, so first fish on the new stations had to be SORD fish.
The Gulf wasn't friendly. "The weather is pretty rough out there. It's probably 4-ft, 4 to 5 at 7 seconds, so they're still spaced out a good bit," he said. The crew left late — and not by accident. They were targeting the known afternoon yellowfin window when the smaller class fish thin out and bigger tunas climb the column. "We're going to be able to go fishing with Joey VT, come back from fishing, dock right at the Gulf of America headquarters, hop off the boat, and clean our fish all in the same spot," he said.
Joe VT's plan was no-nonsense. "Step one, show up. We did that. Step two is to go catch a bunch of pogies. Some people call them menhaden, some people call them bunker, some people in the world call them shad," he said. "We're going to go putt putt our way out there and we're going to go catch some yellowfin tuna. The bite has been very, very good."
Time of day is the trick. "Usually been getting there early and when you get there early, you usually catch about 50% what we call true peanuts, like 20 to 30 lb fish, and half of them will be 40 to 60," Joe VT said. "But once you get there in the afternoon, for whatever reason, the smaller fish dive out, it seems, and it's usually more so like 60-70 lb fish with a couple 40s mixed in and a chance to hook like an actual big one, like 80 plus up to 100 lb." The closing dare on the day was a Venice blue — "the man in the blue suit."
The math held. SORD and Joe VT limited yellowfin off the rigs in under an hour and ran back to the dock with fish in the box for the maiden run of the new cleaning stations. For SORD founder, the dockside moment is the whole reason the knife exists. "I love the place there at the end of the day of a fishing trip, which is when you're coming back, you just had a great trip, you crushed some fish," he said. "Everybody's hanging out around the fish cleaning station. We're just cracking up, the music is playing. It's just the end of an incredible day. And that is actually where and why I created a product that fits into that moment, which is our fillet knife."
For visiting anglers planning a 2026 Venice trip, the takeaways are practical. The afternoon bite on the rigs is fishing harder than the early run. The class of fish in the box right now is 60 to 70 lb with bigger fish around. Bait is bunker — call them pogies if you're from Louisiana, menhaden if you're from anywhere else. And if your timing is right, the trip from cast to fillet might be less than two hours, end to end.