The buoy at Southwest Pass read 70°F Saturday morning. Wednesday afternoon it read 75°F. The east wind that had most of the fleet tied to the dock for a week finally broke, the water caught up five degrees in four days, and the new moon peaks tomorrow night. If you've been waiting on the Venice spring, it just showed up on the day this issue drops. This is the first issue of the Venice Fishing Report. There's plenty to talk about.

Redfish. The strongest public reports are from the east-side marshes. Chad St. Pe at Cajun Outcast Inshore Charters out of Hopedale told Captain Experiences his clients "easily got their 7 man limit of reds both days," including a slot red with 32 spots. Jason Williams at Jason's Saltwater Guide Services in St. Bernard said "redfishing is very good right now." Both are east of Venice proper, but the spring pattern says Tiger Pass, Red Pass, and the West Bay interior are probably fishing the same. The river is rising off its low, 1.35 VG on the NOAA Venice gauge as of Wednesday, still well under the 2-to-4 high-water zone, so the marsh is clean and the interior is working.

Speckled trout. Trout are on per the April reports, but nobody's posting Venice-specific numbers this week. The interior ponds off Red Pass, Baptiste Collette, and the Tiger Pass shoreline are the seasonal plays.

Sheepshead. A reliable spring backup, and maybe the most underrated fallback for a week like this one. The delta jetties and the Baptiste Collette rocks hold sheepshead through the spring. Live shrimp or fiddler crabs on a Carolina rig, fished tight to structure, gets bit. Nothing flashy, nothing fancy. If your offshore plans blew up with the wind this week, go catch sheepshead and be glad the fish are cooperating when the weather isn't.

Yellowfin. The spring pattern is on. Fish that wintered on the lump are moving out to the shelf and shelf-edge rigs as the water warms, and the water finally caught up this week, picking up five degrees in four days once the east wind broke. Public reports are thin because the fleet has been tied up, but that's about to change. Thursday through Saturday is the offshore window before Sunday's front slams it shut. Live pogies and chunk are still what the boats are throwing.

Swordfish. No public reports in two weeks, which is the normal signal for a fishery that runs almost entirely off the grid. If you're doing the night drop this weekend, you already know a captain who does.

Amberjack. Closed in federal waters through August 31. NOAA Fisheries closed the recreational season back in September 2025 because the fleet went 478,000 pounds over a 404,000-pound annual catch limit. They dropped the 2025-2026 limit to zero pounds as the penalty, and the stock is on a rebuilding plan. Venice has been one of the best AJ fisheries on the Gulf for years. If you planned a spring trip with AJs on the mind, you're out of luck until September at the earliest. More below.

Red snapper. Twenty days out. LDWF set the Louisiana private rec and state charter season to open 12:01 AM Friday, May 1. Four fish per person, 16-inch minimum, state and federal waters for private rec. Federal for-hire boats have to wait until June 1. Federal gear requirements: non-stainless circle hooks, a descending device, and the free Charter Recreational Offshore Landing Permit. If you've been away from the reef-fish fleet for a while, read the LDWF bulletin once before you run out.

The biggest Venice story of the quarter is still the Cypress Cove Marina sale, and it's somehow still unreported outside the trade press. SVN Marinas announced the confidential sale of Cypress Cove Marina and Lodge on February 17, 2026. Buyer undisclosed, seller undisclosed, price undisclosed. Cypress Cove hosts the Cajun Canyons Billfish Classic and the Louisiana Gulf Coast Billfish Classic, and it's served as home base for the New Orleans Big Game Fishing Club. Eight weeks later there's still no public word on who bought it, how the place is going to run, how tournaments will be hosted at the April 29 LGCBC, what happens to the docks, or what happens to the lodge. The first real test is 18 days from now at the LGCBC weekend.

Meanwhile in Baton Rouge: the Louisiana House Committee on Natural Resources cleared a set of menhaden bills on April 8. The headline bill, from Rep. Joseph Orgeron, would set a 22-foot minimum depth for purse-seine pogie boats. It passed committee 8-7. Fisheries biologist Scott Raborn testified that the deeper-water sets cut redfish bycatch by 30 percent. Rep. Mike Fesi has sponsored companion buffer-zone and catch-weight bills. The whole Louisiana coast has been on a quarter-mile pogie buffer since March 20, down from a half-mile before that. This matters for Venice because the pogie boats working the nearshore zones affect bull red fishing and the live-bait supply that drives the spring yellowfin bite. Source: Louisiana Illuminator, April 9.

Venice Guide Service. Capt. Louis "Rok" Rossignol runs inshore out of Sports Marina Road in Venice, and he's one of the longest-running guides in the delta. Thirty years on these waters, USCG 100-ton master. He's been written up in Louisiana Sportsman for a tripletail feature and on NewsChannel 9 for his October reds. Rossignol's team of three captains runs redfish, speckled trout, and tripletail out of the interior marsh and the jetties. His April 10 Facebook post summed up the week in four words: "It's on em'." If you want honest inshore work with a captain who's forgotten more about these waters than most guides will ever learn, this is the call.

Book direct: veniceguideservice.com or (504) 481-7529.

The heavy-duty cast net. 10 to 12 foot radius, 3/8 to 1/2 inch mesh, built tough enough to handle full-grown pogies without shredding on the first throw. Betts Super Pro and Calusa are the standards. This isn't a glamour pick. It's the single piece of gear standing between your offshore trip and the bait every serious captain out of Venice is running right now. Live pogies are what's going in the livewell for chunk and live-bait tuna, and the only way to fill the livewell is to buy them at the dock or net your own. With the menhaden fight heating up in Baton Rouge this month, the case for netting your own has never been stronger.

The NOAA marine forecast had us in a Small Craft Exercise Caution stretch most of last week. East winds 15 to 20 knots, gusts to 25 offshore, seas 4 to 5 feet. Then it broke. Thursday through Saturday the forecast is southeast 5 to 10 knots, seas 2 to 3 feet, the kind of three-day window Venice April rarely hands you. Sunday slams shut: NE 20 to 25 knots, 6 to 9 foot seas offshore, thunderstorms in the mix. Monday stays ugly. If you're running offshore, Thursday through Saturday is it. Inshore anglers get Friday through Sunday morning on the lee shorelines before the front finds you.

Water temp at NDBC Station 42084 at the Southwest Pass entrance was 75.4°F Wednesday afternoon, up about 5 degrees from last weekend and now sitting slightly above the April average. Loop current isn't reaching the rigs, which is normal for this point in spring. The river is rising off its low, 1.35 VG on the NOAA Venice gauge as of Wednesday, still well under the 2-to-4 high-water zone, so the marsh is clean and the interior is working.

Moon phase: new moon lands Friday April 17, the day after this issue drops. The new-moon weekend is the one you plan around. Offshore boats get Thursday through Saturday before the front shuts it down. Inshore, the strong tide pushes start April 17 and peak Saturday and Sunday morning on the lee side of the delta.

The AJ rebuilding plan is real and it's ugly. NOAA Fisheries set the 2025-2026 annual catch limit at zero pounds after the fleet went 478,000 pounds over the limit in 2024-2025. The federal recreational season won't open again until September 1, 2026 at the earliest, and even that depends on NOAA's numbers for the next fishing year. The stock is officially overfished. Source: NOAA Fisheries bulletin, September 26, 2025.

LGCBC is 18 days out. The Louisiana Gulf Coast Billfish Classic runs April 29 to May 3 out of Cypress Cove Marina and Grand Isle. First big billfish tournament on the 2026 Venice calendar, and the first real test of what a post-sale Cypress Cove looks like. Registration is live at louisianachampionscup.com.

Next week: a closer look at how the spring yellowfin bite is shaping up now that the water's caught up and the fleet finally got a window. Also: where things stand on the amberjack rebuilding plan and what a Venice angler should actually do about it.

If you know someone planning a Venice trip or running out this weekend, forward this. Hit reply if you've got intel from the water, any intel, attribution on request or off the record.

Until next Thursday.

Joey