The north wind got to Southwest Pass late Friday night. The water at NOAA's station there averaged 81 degrees Friday and 75 degrees Sunday, its coldest daily average since late May. It's held about 75 degrees since. Saturday the wind there averaged 27 knots, with a 42-knot gust out of the north-northeast, and Venice Guide Service posted that evening, "40 mph winds, but we made a day of it." The guides fished through a dry north blow, and the forecast gives you today and tomorrow before NWS has it blowing again this weekend.

Redfish. The fish that carried the week, most of it in the wind. Blue Line Charter Service posted Monday at lunch, "Capt Shane's crew with a limit of reds in the wind today. Plus a box full of other species." Monday the pass averaged close to 20 knots, gusting 29 knots. Capt. Herman Demoll Jr. of Cajun Culture Fishing Adventures posted five FishingBooker trips together Tuesday, dated October 16 through 20, with redfish tagged on every one; his line for the 16th was "We caught everything the venice marsh has to offer." The reader who wrote in after last week's issue fished inshore Sunday the 11th, eleven days ago and before the cold, out of the Buras Fire Department ramp on the Highway 23 corridor with Capt. Jay Winters of Got To Fish: "Did well with Reds as long as you had live shrimp." He wasn't sure where the shrimp came from. His captain and deckhand were a father and son, the son worked in a bait shop, and in the reader's words, "Thank god he brought them." Reds are 18 to 27 inches, four a person a day. Anything over 27 inches goes back.

Speckled trout. Two of Capt. Demoll's FishingBooker trips, the 16th and the 17th, carry a speckled trout tag with no count or size in the text, and those tags are the only dated Venice trout this week. Somebody in one of the groups asked Monday whether the trout have moved into the river or The Jump yet, and nobody answered. Trip for trip, the state's survey of what anglers keep has November and December as the best trout months in the Barataria basin, delta included. Trout are 13 to 20 inches, 15 a person a day. No more than two over 20 inches, and the captain and crew of a boat under charter can't keep any. Flounder is closed statewide through November 30.

Offshore. One good day, then the blow. Mexican Gulf Fishing Company posted Friday night about a crew from South Carolina on their first Venice trip: "They wrapped up their day with a 5 species slam; Blackfin, Yellowfin, Cobia, Red Snapper AND a Wahoo". That's the one dated offshore trip with species on it all week, the day before the wind, and the wahoo is one fish, a bonus; in the state's numbers wahoo is a winter fish. Tuesday MGFC posted that the weather hasn't been great offshore recently, "but there's always a Plan B and Plan B gets a grade A." Nobody in the groups posted a tuna, a sword or a wahoo all week. Yellowfin are 27 inches curved fork length, three a person a day. Cobia are 36 inches fork length, one a person, two a boat a day. Amberjack has been closed in state and federal water since October 14.

Red snapper. The federal for-hire season closes at 12:01 a.m. Monday, October 26; Louisiana's private and state-charter season is already closed. From then until January 1, a federally permitted charter boat's red snapper bag is zero, wherever the fish came from. So Sunday's the last day one of those boats can keep a red snapper, and Sunday is forecast northeast 25 to 30 knots offshore. Gag's closed too. Gray triggerfish is open in state and federal water, one a person a day, 15 inches fork length minimum.

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Friday was calm at Southwest Pass most of the day, an 8-knot average, until a 38-knot north gust at 11 p.m. From there it blew four straight days, Saturday through Tuesday, each one averaging 17 knots or better out of the north through the east-northeast, and the waverider outside the pass averaged five and a half feet of sea Saturday. No rain came with it, none at the New Orleans airport and none on the radar estimate for Venice, and NWS led its Wednesday forecast discussion with fire danger.

More on last week's live shrimp thread. Capt. Louis Rossignol of Venice Guide Service said the live shrimp shortages had pushed him to dead shrimp. That was in a Great Days Outdoors delta report dated October 8, a write-up of a podcast, and it's from before the cold. He was catching a few fish at a stop and moving on, he was after slot reds in roughly the low- to mid-20-inch range, and there were a lot of very small rat reds showing up across the delta. His own rates page says, "I always use live bait when I can get it." No public post this week says either marina's bait stand had live shrimp on any given day, and I read both marinas' Pages and the groups looking for one.

Venice Guide Service, Capt. Louis Rossignol, Venice Marina. The outfit that made a day of Saturday. Rossignol is a south Louisiana native, 30-plus years on top of and under the waters of Venice by his own site, and a founding member of the Hell Divers Spearfishing Club. He runs a 24-foot-10 Yellowfin with a Yamaha 300. Capt. Daniel Eckhardt, a US Army veteran with 17-plus years on these waters, and Capt. Ritchie McCloskie run the other two boats. The site's own seasonal line is that "mid to late October usually signals the big inshore run for redfish where you can catch a limit of red literally minutes from the dock," which is their claim. Rates are $1,000 for two anglers, $1,100 for three and $1,200 for four, about six hours on the water, with tackle, fuel, ice and market bait included. Trophy tripletail, cobia or snapper combo trips are $200 more plus fuel, weather permitting. The deposit is $300 a day per boat, non-refundable. Call (504) 481-7529 or read veniceguideservice.com. Venice Guide Service books direct, so there's no booking link here; here's the whole Venice roster on our charters page.

(Some of the booking links on that page are ours. We earn a small commission if you book through them, at no extra cost to you. It keeps this report free.)

A small bait cooler with an aerator, so the live shrimp you did find stay alive. Last week's rig was the artificial shrimp for the day the stand is empty. This is the other half, for the day you got two dozen. The one I looked at is Engel's 7.5-quart Live Bait Pro with its rechargeable AP3 aerator, and Engel's site listed it at $109.99 Wednesday. Engel's storage guide puts 2 to 3 dozen live shrimp in it. That's sized to keep them alive overnight and through a full day with the water cooled and the aerator running, not the most you could cram in for a short ride. The storage guide puts shrimp water at 65 to 72 degrees, and the pass has read about 75 degrees this week. Cool it gradually, no more than 10 to 15 degrees below the water the shop had them in. On ice, in Engel's words: "Sealed packs or a frozen bottle only. Never dump loose ice into the bait water. Loose ice shocks bait, dilutes saltwater, and can add chlorine." So the rig is a lidded bait cooler, a battery bubbler, and a frozen water bottle dropped in to bring the temperature down slow. No link on this one.

Today and tomorrow are the window, inside and out. Inside, the coastal forecast NWS issued early this morning has northeast 5 to 10 knots today and around 10 knots tomorrow. Outside it's northeast around 10 knots today and 10 to 15 knots tomorrow. Seas are around 2 feet both days. Tomorrow night it turns east and the seas build. Saturday's not a soft day anywhere, northeast 15 to 20 knots all day with gusts to 25 knots. Seas run 3 to 5 feet inside, occasionally 6 feet. Outside it's 4 to 6 feet, occasionally 8 feet. Saturday night it gets worse, inside and out. Sunday's off everywhere. Inside it's northeast 20 to 25 knots all day, on seas of 5 feet and up. Outside it's 25 to 30 knots on 8 feet and up. The Hurricane Center has nothing in the Gulf.

The tide is as flat as October gets: about 4 inches of range today, a high at 8:07 this morning and a low at 4:45 this afternoon. Tomorrow's about 2 inches, the flattest day of the month by a hair. Venice tides run on the moon's declination, not its phase; the moon crosses the equator early tomorrow morning, so Sunday's full moon sits on a middling tide, and a northeast wind sets the water below all of it anyway. The river forecast NWS issued Wednesday morning has Carrollton about 3.6 to 3.7 feet through Sunday, easing after that; at that stage Carrollton and the Venice gauge both swing with the tide. Make the Saturday call on tomorrow's forecast.

The second sponsor spot in this issue is empty. Last Thursday's issue went to 2,037 inboxes, and 1,165 people opened it. If there's a Venice business you'd vouch for, the captain who put you on reds in Saturday's wind, the bait stand that had live shrimp when you needed them, forward this to the owner. I read the replies myself, and I answer them.

Cypress Cove's ramp fee doubled. The marina's Facebook Page says the boat ramp fee went to $20 on the 20th, up from $10. The pass now comes with a $10 voucher good at the marina or Da Dock Bar and Grill, the whole increase back if you spend it, and it covers the fish cleaning tables, overnight tie-up at the docks, overnight parking, used-oil disposal and trash service. Lodging guests launch free, and an annual pass is $500.

A buoy now marks where Baptiste Collette Light 3 was. The Coast Guard's newest notice, from Thursday the 15th, says a buoy has been placed on the channel side of the destroyed light's position. Last week I wrote that the notices "run through the 26th"; the newest one runs to Wednesday the 28th at 8:04 p.m.

Two comment deadlines Monday. LDWF's notice of intent to require engine cut-off switch wear on every boat under 26 feet, in line with the federal rule, takes comments through October 26 to Capt. Jason Russo at [email protected], and the commercial menhaden reporting notice takes comments to [email protected] by 3 p.m. the same day.

Thanks to the reader who answered last week's ask about the ramp and the bait; his Sunday is up in The Report. This week's question: have the trout moved into the river or The Jump since the water dropped? If you found them, reply and tell me where and how, cork or tight line, live shrimp or plastic. Your name stays out unless you tell me to use it.

Joey

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