For three months we have told you about tripletail. The fish nobody targets, the one laid up under a crab-trap float in the pass that most first-timers idle right past. Flat water, a live shrimp, a cork. On July 1 a guy from Walker named Ryan Stogner boated one out of Venice that weighed 37 pounds. If it certifies, it is the fourth-biggest tripletail in Louisiana history, and he was not even supposed to be tripletail fishing that day. Meanwhile the five-fish snapper weekend we flagged last week paid off, and the tide that went soft for the Fourth is stacking back up toward the new moon. Here is the read.

Tripletail. The sleeper we keep pushing finally produced a trophy. Ryan Stogner had a trout charter cancel on him, so Capt. Kyle Landry of Fish Venice Charters put him on the backup plan, running the satellite rigs off the passes and sight-casting live shrimp on spinning tackle in about 8 feet of water. What ate it went 37 pounds and 38 inches. The state record is 39.5 pounds and it has stood since 1959, so if this one certifies it slots in around fourth all-time in Louisiana. Stogner told Louisiana Sportsman he had chased tripletail five or six trips over three or four years for this. He called it the trip of a lifetime, and said the cheeks came off "as big as small cheeseburgers." Here is what matters for your weekend: the water is flat enough Thursday and Sunday to go do exactly this. Idle the crab floats and the rig legs, look for one laid up on the surface, and put a live shrimp under a cork on its nose. Eighteen inch minimum, five per person.

Speckled trout. Going strong in the marsh and the passes. Reel Shot posted a "speckled trout beat down" on July 7 and were back at it July 8 after taking the holiday off, and Ryan Stogner's group followed the big tripletail with a trout limit the next day, that trip with Capt. Jon Carter of Reel Shot. The pattern is the summer standard with better water behind it now: live shrimp under a popping cork or soft plastics along the pass points and the grassy shorelines, worked early before the heat, and the building tide this week means real moving water instead of last week's soft drain. Limit is 15, slot 13 to 20, no more than two over 20.

Redfish. The everyday summer pattern. Low, clean water in the ponds and calm mornings make it topwater season over the grass, so walk a plug across the pond edges, points, and drains at first light and let a red blow up on it before the sun gets high. When the topwater quits, slow down with a soft plastic or bait under a cork along the same edges, and this week the stronger tide gives you a harder drain to fish through the evening. Slot is 18 to 27, four per person, anything over 27 goes back. On a for-hire trip the captain and crew keep none, so the whole box is the customer's.

Sheepshead. Still hanging on the marsh-edge rocks, the pilings, and the pass structure on a fiddler crab or fresh shrimp. Summer is not their season the way the cool months are, so treat one as a bonus if you bump a school tight to a piling, not a target. No size or bag limit inshore in Louisiana, keep what you will eat.

Flounder and black drum. Both are bonus fish on a redfish trip, no captain put a fresh number on either this week. Flounder sit on the sandy drop-offs and points, drum on the bottom near marsh-edge structure. Flounder run 10 a day with no size limit, black drum are a 16 to 27 slot at five per person with one over 27 allowed.

Mangrove snapper. With the water hot and Thursday laying down flat, the close rocks and rigs are in reach and the mangroves are a reliable July producer right alongside a bottom trip. If you are loading up on bait for it, the pages had Bait Inc running fresh squid at five dollars a pound this week, worth a stop on the way down. Year round, 10 per day inside the 10-fish snapper aggregate, 12 inch minimum.

Red snapper. The holiday bonus is over and the limit is back to four. LDWF's emergency bump to five fish ran Thursday July 2 through Sunday July 5 and reverted to four on the sixth, so the send-window limit is four per person, 16 inch minimum, state and private season open. The weekend answered the question we left you with last week, though. Jon Carter's crew at Reel Shot fished the special on July 3, worked the trout first, then made the run and put ten snapper in the box, a two-man limit on the bonus. So the reef bite is on, and there is plenty of season left to go get in on it. More on the numbers below. Carry a descending device, it is federally required and on a good bite you will use it on every short fish.

Swordfish. The fresh offshore fish this week are swords. Peacekeeper Charters was dropping out front and posting it live, "one on ice already" on their second drop of the day. The daytime sword drift off the shelf edge is a flat-water game, and Thursday and Sunday are the flat days, so this is the week for it if it has been on your list. It is a long, specialized day, and right now it is the offshore bet that is actually producing.

Yellowfin. The honest read: no fresh dock number this week. The weather Thursday is exactly what the tuna fleet wants out at the floaters and the lumps, and it is peak summer, so the access is there. The bite is the question mark, and what fresh offshore fish we saw come off the water this week came on the sword drift, not the tuna troll. If yellowfin is what is bringing you to Venice, go on the calm days and keep expectations honest until the numbers turn. Three per person, 27 inch curved fork length minimum.

Mahi and wahoo. Pattern fish this week rather than reported ones. A flat stretch puts the weed lines, rips, and floaters in play, so keep a couple of lines in the spread on the troll out to the sword and tuna grounds and you have a shot at both.

Amberjack. Still closed in federal waters. It reopens September 1 and runs to October 14 this year, a longer season than last. That is a fall trip.

Gag grouper. Also a fall note on the same reef trips as the snapper: federal Gulf season opens September 1 and closes October 1. Nothing to do about it now beyond filing it away.

Billfish. Quiet on the water and between events on the calendar. The next billfish date on the board is the New Orleans Invitational out of Cypress Cove, August 20 to 23.

Last week we made three calls, and all three came in. We said the flat holiday water made tripletail the sleeper play, and an angler boated a potential state No. 4 on exactly that pattern. We said the five-fish snapper weekend was set up to deliver, and it did. And we said the tide was going soft into the Fourth, which it did, and now it is doing the opposite.

That last one is the story for this weekend. We are off the back of the holiday's weak current and building toward a new moon on July 14, so the daily range at Pilottown climbs from about a foot Thursday to nearly two feet by Sunday, one clean cycle a day. Strong moving water is back in the passes and the marsh, peaking Saturday into Monday. After a week of soft tides, that is the biggest thing working in your favor.

Peacekeeper Charters, Capt. Peace Marvel. When the offshore board says the fresh fish are swords, book the boat that is on them. Peacekeeper runs out of Venice and specializes in swordfish and tuna, and this week they were the ones dropping baits down the shelf edge and putting fish on ice while the tuna trolling stayed quiet. Louisiana Sportsman has written Capt. Peace Marvel up for his daytime swordfishing, which is a fish most operations will not even attempt, and it is the one offshore program pointed right at what is producing on the flat days this week. If a daytime sword is a bucket-list fish for you, and it should be, this is the calm-weather window and this is the boat. Reach them direct through their Facebook page, Peacekeeper Charters out of Venice.

A popping cork and a live shrimp. The most versatile rig in the delta right now, and the one behind half of this issue. A near-record tripletail ate a live shrimp under a cork on the rigs. The trout are eating one along the pass points. The reds will take one on the drain when the topwater bite quits. A good clacking cork over a live shrimp or a soft plastic covers all three on the same trip, which is most of what is biting in Venice this week. It is cheap, it is simple, and it works on the building tide when there is current to sweep your bait naturally. The names to look for are Four Horsemen, VuDu, the Bomber Paradise Popper, and Old Bayou Outdoors, stocked at Bass Pro, Academy, and most local shops. Rig it with a foot or two of leader and a live shrimp and you are set for a marsh day. If you want one more thing in the boat this week, put a big rubber landing net next to you, because a 37-pound tripletail or a bull red boatside is exactly where a trip goes sideways without one.

The marine forecast splits the week cleanly. Thursday is flat, light south wind around 5 knots and seas a foot or less, the best day of the window offshore and glass inshore, with maybe a stray cell building by midday. Friday and Saturday stay light on the wind but the seas come up, 2 to 3 feet near the passes both days and building to 3 to 4 with an occasional 5 out at the shelf by Saturday. Sunday the wind eases back to around 5 knots and the seas settle to about 2 feet. The catch the rest of the weekend is summer convection: scattered thunderstorms are in the forecast Friday through Sunday, mostly in the morning near the coast. So Thursday is the clean shot, and Friday through Sunday is a get on the water early, watch the sky game. Do not be the tallest thing out there when a cell builds.

On the moon and tide, we have flipped off last week's fading current. We are a waning crescent now, down to about 29 percent lit and darkening toward a new moon on July 14, and the tidal range is building right along with it. That is the setup you want: strong, moving water in the passes and marsh through the weekend, peaking Saturday into Monday. Fish the morning high on the incoming and the evening low on the drain.

Water temperature is deep into its summer plateau, upper 80s to around 90 at the surface in the shallows by afternoon. That sensor out at Southwest Pass reads a touch hot, so take it as a trend, not gospel, and the trend is warm and holding. The Mississippi at the Venice gauge is sitting low and flat, a little over a foot and barely wobbling with the tide. Low, clean summer river is what the marsh wants, good clarity and green water pushing up into the passes, no muddy high-water push to fight. And the tropics are quiet, the National Hurricane Center expects no development anywhere in the Atlantic or Gulf over the next seven days. We are into the stretch of summer where that is worth a look before a big offshore day, but there is nothing on the map right now.

The Ladies fish this weekend. The New Orleans Big Game Fishing Club runs its Ladies Invitational out of Cypress Cove this weekend, July 9 through 11. It opens the same morning this lands in your inbox. If you are down at the marina and see the boats going out, that is what it is.

Give the Grand Pass barges room. Word went up on the Venice pages this week: construction and diving crews are working the end of Grand Pass and the Zin Zin Bay crossing, laying pipeline. Divers in the water means keep well clear and do not run between the barges. If you fish that stretch, plan another line through.

The snapper season has room to run. Now that the limit is back to four, here is the reassurance: LDWF's latest estimate has Louisiana anglers at 288,649 pounds landed, about 32.7 percent of the state's private recreational allocation, through June 21. That is up from 30.2 percent the week before and still pacing comfortably under quota. No early-closure scare, plenty of runway for a summer reef trip, so there is no need to rush the calendar.

The summer tournament calendar. After the Ladies Invitational this weekend, the Faux Pas Lodge Invitational runs the last weekend of July out of the Venice Marina, the Empire South Pass Tarpon Rodeo lands July 30 to August 1 out of Delta Marina, and the New Orleans Invitational billfish tournament fishes out of Cypress Cove August 20 to 23. If you are building a trip around a tournament weekend, those are the dates.

Next week, the first read on how the new-moon tide fished, whether the tuna numbers finally turned or the swords stayed the better offshore bet, and word on that tripletail's certification. If you fished this weekend, hit reply with intel, attribution on request or off the record. And if you know somebody planning a Venice trip this summer, forward this along.

Fish the calm days, get off the water when it lights up, and go throw at the fish nobody throws at.

Until next Thursday.

Joey