Somebody in one of the Louisiana fishing groups asked the only question that matters this week, Tuesday, right as the wind came up: what's the fishing going to be like this weekend, after the storm passes? Here's the answer, and it's a good one. At 7 Wednesday morning Tropical Storm Bertha was about 45 miles northeast of the mouth of the river, 50 mph, crawling west at 5 mph. It's a nuisance, not a disaster. And the forecast behind it is the flattest water we've had in weeks: seas around two feet Saturday and Sunday. Don't fish Thursday. Fish the weekend.

No Venice catch reports came across the wire Tuesday or Wednesday, which is what you'd expect with a tropical storm warning up, so this week's report is a read on conditions rather than a tally of boxes. The last dock intel worth anything came in before the wind: an angler in the Venice group posted chicken dolphin off a grass line, with blue water pushed fairly close in, and that was Friday the 17th, a different ocean than the one out there now.

Red snapper. The story of the summer, and it's turning into a countdown. LDWF's LA Creel numbers have Louisiana at 632,882 pounds, or 71.7 percent of the state's 882,439-pound private recreational allocation, and that's only through July 5. Two weeks before that it was 47 percent. Three weeks before that, 33. The season stays open until landings approach the allocation, and at this pace the runway is measured in weeks, not months. If a snapper trip is on your summer list, the flat weekend coming is the window, not August. Four fish, 16-inch minimum, and carry a descending device.

Yellowfin. Storms scramble tuna fishing in both directions. The wind pushes bait and stacks the rips, and boats that get out first behind a system often find fish willing. What works against you is the water itself: 30 knots for two days churns the top of the column and dirties it up, so the blue may sit farther out than it did last Friday. One thing it did not do is cool anything off. The sensor at Southwest Pass has held in the 85 to 86 range straight through the storm, so this is still a bathwater ocean. Both weekend days lay down to around two feet, and Sunday’s the better bet of the two, with the fleet's Saturday reports to run on. Three per person, 27-inch curved fork length, and you need the HMS permit.

Mahi and wahoo. Those grass lines got shredded and rearranged by 30 knots of wind. That's not all bad. New weed lines form fast on the back side of a blow, and the first clean day usually has fresh debris holding fish. Keep a couple of lines in the spread on the troll out.

Swordfish. The daytime drop is a flat-water game and Sunday is the flattest day on the board. Nobody's dropping until then.

Amberjack. Still closed. It reopens September 1 and runs to October 14, and this year that's 43 days instead of last year's 26. One fish, 34-inch fork length.

Redfish and speckled trout. Give the marsh a beat. Bertha pushed two to four feet of surge into the river mouth, and the gauge at Venice came up from half a foot last week to 3.58 feet Wednesday morning. That's salt and mud shoved up into the ponds, and the first day or two behind a push like that is usually the worst fishing of the month. It gets good fast. As that water drains back out it pulls bait with it, and this weekend the tide is on your side: the range is building toward the July 29 full moon, and Saturday's high is at 6:11am with the low not until 5:45pm. That's an all-day fall. Fish the drains and the cuts on the way out and work the dirtier water with something loud. Trout are 15 a day, 13 to 20 inches, no more than two over 20. Reds are four, 18 to 27, and on a for-hire trip the crew keeps none.

Tripletail and mangroves. Both get better as the water clears. Tripletail are 5 a day at 18 inches, mangroves 10 within the 10-fish snapper aggregate at 12 inches.

This slot is open for a gear brand or charter. Reply to this email.

Last Thursday this report told you the Hurricane Center was watching a weak low expected to form in the northeastern Gulf, gave it 20 percent over seven days, and passed along that it looked like it would drift northeast toward Florida, away from the delta. That 20 percent is what spun up into Tropical Depression Two on Monday and became Bertha by Monday night. It went west instead. So: we got that one wrong, and it's worth saying plainly, because a 20 percent chance of formation is a real chance and the direction of drift is the least reliable part of a seven-day outlook.

What it actually delivered is milder than the name suggests. The National Weather Service had a tropical storm warning and a heat advisory running at the same time, and the forecaster in New Orleans wrote that he'd never seen that combination. Rain has underperformed all week. The office's own words on the totals: "getting more than an inch of rain will be tough to do even right at the coast." Coastal flooding is real but modest, and they said it's "not to the degree one would think either."

Down here the week looked like the delta always looks before weather. Blue Line Charter out of Venice posted Monday morning about "the morning before Bertha," still taking bookings. Black Velvet Oyster Bar closed Wednesday and told everybody to stay safe. And the Faux Pas Lodge Invitational, four days and a few hundred anglers, started its scales Thursday afternoon in the middle of all of it.

Southern Catch Outfitters, Capt. John Cole. With the snapper allocation three quarters gone and a flat weekend landing right behind the storm, this week's pick is a boat that fishes both halves of that. Cole grew up fishing out of Orange Beach and has been running Venice for fifteen years by his own account, and he holds a USCG 100-ton master's license. He runs two 40-foot Invincible catamarans, which is the right hull for a week when the seas are still settling out of a blow, and the program covers what's actually in play right now: red snapper, amberjack, grouper and tilefish on the bottom, yellowfin, swordfish, mahi and wahoo up top. If the marsh is still stirred up when you get down there, he also runs a technical inshore trip, sight-fishing off a tower boat.

Check dates and pricing. Full day offshore is $2,500 plus fuel, and fuel runs 175 to 250 gallons. The inshore tower trip is $1,200. Book direct at southerncatchoutfitters.com, or through Captain Experiences.

(We earn a small commission if you book through Captain Experiences, at no extra cost to you. It keeps this report free.)

A weedless gold spoon. The most underrated lure in Louisiana and exactly right for the week in front of us. Bertha shoved muddy, grass-choked water up into the ponds, and when it drains back out you're casting into stained water full of floating trash. A gold spoon is the answer to both problems at once. The flash and the wobble put out a signal a redfish can find without seeing thirty feet, and the weedguard lets you drag it through the grass mats that a treble-hooked plug can't survive. Throw a half-ounce gold weedless spoon, the Johnson Silver Minnow being the one everybody's grandfather owned, on the outside edges of the drains as the water pulls. They're a few dollars apiece and every tackle shop on Highway 23 has a rack of them. Bend the weedguard out a touch so it doesn't cost you hookups, and put a swivel eighteen inches up your leader, because a spoon will twist your line into a slinky by lunch.

Thursday is not a fishing day offshore. The coastal waters out of Southwest Pass are under a small craft advisory with south winds 20 to 25 knots gusting to 30 and seas 6 to 9 feet, occasionally 11. Thursday night it collapses: winds down to 10 to 15, seas 4 to 6. Friday is the transition and the first day that's workable, south at 5 to 10 with seas 2 to 4. Then it gets good. Saturday is southwest around 5 knots with seas around 2 feet, and Sunday is west 5 to 10 with seas also around 2 feet. If you only get one day, take Sunday and run on Saturday’s reports.

The moon and the tide are working with you for once. We're just past the first quarter on the 21st and building toward a full moon on the 29th, so the tidal range grows through the weekend, from about a foot and a half Thursday to nearly two feet by Sunday. Saturday and Sunday both run a morning high to a late-afternoon low, which is a long, steady, all-day fall.

The one thing that will beat you up out there is heat. Once Bertha clears, high pressure builds in behind it and the rain chances drop to 20 or 40 percent, with highs in the low to mid 90s and heat indices between 105 and 110 through Sunday and into Monday. Leave at dawn, carry more water than you think you need, and don't be the guy who wins the weather lottery and then cooks himself at noon.

This slot is open for a gear brand or charter. Reply to this email.

The Faux Pas rodeo drew the short straw. The 2026 Faux Pas Lodge Invitational is running July 22 to 25 out of the Venice Marina, and Bertha landed square on the front of it. The captains party was Wednesday evening and the scales open Thursday, which is the day the seas are 6 to 9 feet. Saturday's scales, 3 to 6pm, sit on the flattest water of the whole event, so expect the board to move late. The organizers hadn't posted a schedule change as of Wednesday, so if you're fishing it, check with them before you drive down. The rodeo’s contact line is 504-834-8342.

Snapper watch. Worth repeating on its own because it's the most actionable number in this issue: 71.7 percent of Louisiana's private recreational red snapper allocation is gone as of July 5, and the state closes the season when landings approach the allocation. There's been no closure announcement. There may not be much warning when there is.

Mark September 1. Greater amberjack reopens in federal Gulf waters September 1 and runs through October 14, a 43-day season this year against 26 days last year. One fish per person, 34-inch fork length. If your fall Venice trip is still a maybe, that's a reason to aim it at September.

If you rode this one out down there, hit reply and tell me what you saw, on the record or off. Post-storm reports are the hardest intel to get and the most useful, and next week's issue is going to be built out of them.

Otherwise: skip Thursday, watch Friday, and go fish Saturday and Sunday. It's going to be flat and it's going to be hot.

Until next Thursday.

Joey

Some links in this email earn us a small commission at no extra cost to you. We only point you to gear and captains we'd send a friend to.