We're on the back side of the moon this week. The new moon was Monday, the spring tides peaked with it, and from here through Sunday the current eases off until there's almost nothing left to it. The marsh was giving up reds and some monster sheepshead earlier in the week, before a stiff south wind built in overnight and stacked the Gulf up to eight and ten feet through Friday, tying the offshore fleet to the dock for the front half of the weekend. The river's low and clean, the marsh is still fishable in the lee, and the boats that want tuna are watching Saturday. This is a patience week. Here's how to read it.

A note up top: the inshore produced early in the week before the wind pinned the boats, so the marsh reports are fresh and the offshore side is thin by access, not by bite. What follows is the read on what's catchable this weekend, with the reports we have woven in.

Redfish. This is the week's best bet, and there's fresh proof. Capt. Herman Demoll Jr. at Cajun Culture posted reds on a strong June 9 trip and again on a three-day run through June 12, "fighting-mad redfish" and coolers packed, all in the calmer water before the wind. The one caveat for the weekend is the tide: the river's low and the delta's clean, everything the sight-fisherman wants, but the current's fading, past Monday's new moon the daily range collapses to under a foot and the falling-tide drain that turns the bite on goes soft. Fish the bigger of the two daily moves, get on the water early before the south wind builds the afternoon chop, and work the points, drains, and shoreline edges in the lee. When the open shorelines blow out, tuck into the protected ponds and dead-end canals and throw bait under a cork. Slot 18 to 27, four per person, anything over 27 goes back.

Speckled trout. Same story as the reds, the soft current is the whole thing. With the tide barely moving by Saturday and Sunday, the trout bite keys on the short windows when there's actual water moving, the first of a falling tide and the turn. Popping cork with live shrimp or croaker on the move, and the cleaner marsh ponds early and late when the current's dead. The low clean river helps, the dead tide hurts, so it's a timing game. Limit 15, slot 13 to 20, no more than two over 20.

Sheepshead. More than bycatch this week. Demoll's Cajun Culture trips both put what he called "monster striped sheepshead" in the box alongside the reds, so they're stacked on the marsh-edge and pass structure and worth targeting. Fish a fiddler crab or fresh shrimp tight to the pilings, rocks, and pass-side structure. No size or bag limit in Louisiana inshore, but the table-fare ceiling is real, keep what you'll eat.

Mangrove snapper. With the Southwest Pass buoy holding 83 degrees and the nearshore water in the mid-80s, the close-rig and rocks mangrove bite is the known June producer, on the days you can get to it, which this week means Saturday on. Year-round, 10 per day within the 10-fish snapper aggregate, 12-inch minimum.

Tripletail. The sight-fishing pattern along the crab-trap floats and debris lines is in season, but it needs a flat morning to work and the front half of this week is anything but. If Saturday lays down clean the way the forecast says, it's worth idling the floats in the passes.

Red snapper. Still the most dependable bookable trip on the calendar once you can reach the reefs, and that's the catch this week, you can't reach them until Saturday. Both seasons are open across the board, state and private at four fish and a 16-inch minimum, federal for-hire running through October 26. When the seas lay down for the back half of the weekend, this is the high-percentage box-filler. Carry a descending device, it's federally required gear on any reef trip and you'll use it.

Yellowfin. The fish have been on the program all month when the weather let the boats out, but this is not one of those weeks on the front end. Eight to ten feet of sea through Friday means the tuna fleet sits, and the window doesn't crack back open until Saturday when it drops to three to four. If you're booked for the weekend, you're hoping for the back half. Three per person, 27-inch fork length minimum.

Wahoo and mahi. No fresh numbers with the fleet docked, but the mahi run has been the bright spot offshore early this summer, captains calling it one of the better years in recent memory. When Saturday opens the door, the morning troll on the way out is the play. No standalone wahoo report this week.

Swordfish. The daytime drift off the shelf edge is in its summer window, but it's a flat-water game and there's none until the weekend. No number this week.

Blackfin and billfish. Quiet, and the billfish calendar's been dark since the Cajun Canyons wrapped at the end of May. Next Venice Marina event is the Faux Pas Lodge Invitational in July.

Amberjack. Still closed in federal waters through August 31. Reopens September 1.

Gag grouper. On the calendar for the fall: state and federal seasons both open September 1, with the state closing September 30 and federal October 1, after LDWF issued a Declaration of Emergency to line the state season up with the federal one. Worth knowing if you're building a fall reef trip, but nothing to do about it now.

The story this week is the calendar and the wind. The catch was there early: Capt. Herman Demoll Jr. at Cajun Culture packed coolers with reds and monster sheepshead in the calmer water before the front. Then we turned the corner on the moon, the new moon was Monday June 15, and the back side of that cycle is what we're living in now: the spring tides have peaked and the current eases off all week until the Pilottown range falls under a foot by Sunday, so the falling-tide marsh bite gets quieter and more timing-dependent.

Then the wind stacked on top of it. A stiff southerly built in overnight and has the offshore zones running eight to ten feet, occasionally thirteen, through Friday. That's a hard no for the tuna fleet on the front of the weekend, and it's why the offshore side of the ledger is quiet, the boats that would file those reports have been at the dock. The forecast lays it down to three to four feet by Saturday, so the offshore door reopens for the back half.

So the honest read: a marsh-and-patience weekend. The low clean river's in your favor inshore, the soft tide isn't, and offshore is a Saturday-Sunday proposition. Fish the lee, time the bigger tide move, and if tuna's what brought you, don't waste Thursday or Friday on the dock looking at it.

Capt. Herman Demoll Jr., Cajun Culture Fishing Adventures. On a week when the offshore is blown out into Saturday, the smart booking is inshore, and Demoll is a fifth-generation Venice native running an inshore and reef program out of the delta with a 5.0 average across 23 reviews. He's also the one putting the freshest fish in the box right now: reds and monster sheepshead all week, coolers packed, the kind of cadence that tells you he's actually on the water and reading it. If you want a Venice-native local who can put you on reds and sheepshead in the marsh while the Gulf settles down, and slide you out to the reef when it does, he's the call. Book through FishingBooker.

A topwater plug for the morning bite. With the tide soft this weekend, you want to be on the water early, while there's still a little pull moving bait and before the south wind piles up the afternoon chop. The low, clean river sets up exactly the conditions where a walk-the-dog topwater shines over the points, drains, and shoreline edges. The Heddon Super Spook Jr. in bone or chrome-and-blue is hard to beat for both trout and slot reds, around $8 and stocked at Bass Pro, Tackle Warehouse, and pretty much every dock-side shop on Highway 23. Walk it slow on the first leg of the falling tide and let the fish tell you whether they want it faster. When the blowup quits, switch to a soft plastic under a cork and grind it out.

The marine forecast issued early Thursday is the headline. The offshore zones are running south 20 to 30 knots with gusts to 35 and seas eight to ten feet, occasionally thirteen, through tonight and Thursday, easing to seven to eight feet Thursday night and four to six feet Friday. It finally lays down Saturday and Sunday to three to four feet with the wind backing to 10 to 15 knots. Translation: the offshore is essentially out Thursday and Friday, and the only fishable bluewater window this weekend is Saturday and Sunday. Inshore, the southerly keeps the open water choppy, so fish the protected marsh and the lee shorelines.

On the moon, we're three days past Monday's new moon and building toward First Quarter around the 22nd, so the spring tides have peaked and the current eases all week. At Pilottown the daily range tapers from about a foot and a half at the new moon to roughly a foot Thursday, just over a foot Friday, and under a foot through the back half of the weekend. Fish the bigger of the two daily moves to get the most water.

Water temperature's sitting on its summer plateau, 83.5 degrees in the most recent Southwest Pass buoy reading with a 24-hour range from 82.9 to 83.8. No front or push to move it. The Mississippi at the Venice gauge is low, 0.78 feet, up about three tenths over the prior day but down hard over the past two weeks. The gauge is tidal and bounces intraday, so read the trend, not the number, and the trend is low and clean, which is keeping the delta's clean-water pockets open for the sight-fishing. The tropics are quiet, the National Hurricane Center expects no Atlantic development over the next seven days, and there's nothing to watch here (more on the season's first storm below).

A reader caught us on the snapper line. We received an email to flag that we'd been running the wrong limit on mangrove snapper, and the reade was right. Louisiana gray (mangrove) snapper is 10 per day within the 10-fish snapper aggregate, not the 5 we'd carried for a few issues, 12-inch minimum. It's fixed here and in the archive. That's exactly the kind of reply that makes this thing better, so if you ever see a number that looks off, hit reply and call it out.

The season's first storm came and went. Arthur, the first named system of the 2026 Atlantic season, spun up and fizzled out near the upper Texas coast this week without touching us. NHC has nothing else on the board for the next seven days, and the season's forecast to run below normal. A quiet start, which is the kind you want.

Tarpon's the next thing on the calendar. The silver kings start showing along the passes and the beaches through the back half of the summer, and the Empire South Pass Tarpon Rodeo, July 31 to August 2, is the event to circle if you want to plan a trip around the run. Worth getting on a guide's calendar now if that's the fish you're after.

Next week, the first catch reports once the weekend window holds, an updated read on the river, and how the back side of the new moon set up the late-June bite. If you got out over the weekend, hit reply with intel, attribution on request or off the record. And if you know somebody planning a Venice trip this summer or fall, forward this along.

Until next Thursday.

Joey