Last week we told you to wait out a south wind that had the Gulf stacked to ten feet. This week there's nothing to wait on. The wind's gone, the seas are running a foot or two through Sunday, the tropics are dead quiet, and the tide is building toward Monday's Full Strawberry Moon. Inshore, there's a real story behind why the marsh is loaded right now, and it starts with how high the river ran this spring. Offshore, the door's wide open every single day this weekend. After a month of fishing around the weather, this is the week the weather fishes for you. Here's how to read it.

Redfish. This is the headline, and for once there's a clean explanation for why the marsh is so good. In a June 19 Louisiana Sportsman feature on the delta, Capt. Louis "Rock" Rossignol of Venice Guide Service spelled out the mechanism: "This year, the Mississippi ran a little higher so it added more fresh water to the ponds," and "those grassy ponds are great places to fish for redfish because that vegetation oxygenates the water and clears up the algae." The higher river grew the grass thick, the grass cleaned and oxygenated the ponds, and now it's prime redfish habitat. The river's since dropped back low and clean, the other half of it: the high-water benefit is banked in the grass, and the clear low water makes those ponds fishable and sight-able again. Capt. Mike Frenette at Redfish Lodge put it simply in the same piece: "The Mississippi Delta is a special place. It's unique because of that great river." His guide Jordan Roque backed it up with a bull red off the marsh south of Venice. Work the grassy-pond edges, points, and drains on the falling tide, which strengthens all weekend as the moon builds. Slot is 18 to 27, four per person, anything over 27 goes back.

Speckled trout. Right there with the reds in the delta's summer mix. Fish the building Full-Moon tide, the trout bite keys on moving water and there's more of it every day into Monday. Live shrimp under a popping cork or soft plastics along the pass points and grassy shorelines, and fish the calm early mornings before any afternoon pop-up storm. Limit 15, slot 13 to 20, no more than two over 20.

Sheepshead. Still around the marsh-edge rocks, pilings, and pass structure on a fiddler crab or fresh shrimp, but late June isn't their season the way the cooler months are, so treat them as a bonus, not a target. Bump into a school tight to a piling, fill the box, otherwise spend the day on the reds. No size or bag limit inshore in Louisiana, keep what you'll eat.

Flounder and black drum. Both are in the mix. Capt. Johnathan D at Fish Lousiana reported June 21 they're out every day boxing reds, trout, black drum, and flounder, and he expects it better into July as the winds lay down and the river settles. Honest bonuses on a redfish trip, flounder on the sandy drop-offs and points, drum on the bottom near marsh-edge structure.

Tripletail. The sleeper of the week, because the pattern needs flat water and the whole weekend is flat. The fish hang under crab-trap floats, weed lines, and debris in the passes, and when the Gulf is glass you can idle the floats and sight-cast them with a live shrimp or a jig. It's the best species the first-time Venice angler doesn't know to throw at, and conditions this good don't come around often. In season now.

Mangrove snapper. With the nearshore water warm and the seas flat, the close rocks and rigs are reachable any day this week, and the mangrove bite is a reliable June producer right next to a snapper trip. Year-round, 10 per day within the 10-fish snapper aggregate, 12-inch minimum.

Red snapper. The most dependable bookable trip on the board, and this week you can reach the reefs any day you want, which hasn't been true much of this month. State and private recreational are both open, four fish and a 16-inch minimum, and the federal for-hire season runs through October 26. Plenty of room left in the season too (more in From the Dock), so no need to scramble. Carry a descending device, it's federally required on any reef trip and on a good bite you'll use it on every short fish.

Yellowfin. The honest read: conditions this week are exactly what the tuna fleet wants, flat seas, light wind, no weather to dodge, and late June is peak season out at the floaters and the lumps. The access is as wide open as it gets. The bite's the question mark. The most recent account we've seen, an angler fishing out of Cypress Cove in mid-June before this calm set in, had the tuna scattered, a dozen boats working a rig with not much to show. That was dirtier water than what's out there now, and the weekend's numbers hadn't posted by send time, so take it as a caution, not a verdict. If yellowfin's what's bringing you, the weather's finally on your side, just don't book it expecting a sure thing. Three per person, 27-inch curved fork length minimum.

Wahoo and mahi. The mahi are the bright spot out there. That same mid-June trip got into them on a weed line when the tuna wouldn't cooperate, and a flat-calm week puts every weed line and floater in play, this has been one of the better mahi runs in recent memory. Keep a couple of lines in the spread on the troll out to the reef or the tuna grounds, this is the week the bonus fish show up. Wahoo's the quieter half, no fresh number, but June's historically a strong month for them off Venice.

Swordfish. If you've wanted to try the daytime sword drift off the shelf edge, this is the week, a flat-water game and the water's dead flat. There's been some action to back it up, that mid-June trip deep-dropped for swords when the tuna went quiet, raised one that came off, and watched the boat next to them land a pup. A long, specialized day, but the conditions don't get more cooperative.

Amberjack. Still closed in federal waters through August 31. Reopens September 1, so it's a fall-trip item, not a now item.

Gag grouper. On the calendar for the fall, same reef trips as the snapper: state waters open September 1 to 30, federal September 1 to October 1. Nothing to do about it now beyond knowing it for a fall reef trip.

Billfish. Quiet on the water, and the tournament calendar's between events. The next billfish date on the board is the New Orleans Invitational out of Cypress Cove in August, with the Faux Pas Lodge Invitational at the Venice Marina the last weekend of July before it.

The why behind this week is worth a beat: it isn't luck. The higher-than-usual spring river grew the marsh grass thick, that grass cleaned and oxygenated the ponds into prime redfish habitat, and the river's since fallen back low and clear so the benefit's banked and the ponds are fishable again. That's the read Rossignol and Frenette both put on record June 19.

Stack the conditions on top and it's the cleanest week in a month, flat seas every day through Sunday, quiet tropics, and a tide building toward Monday's Full Strawberry Moon that strengthens the falling-tide bite right through the weekend. Offshore's open every day, inshore's glass in the mornings.

And it sets up the turn into July. Frenette's tip in that same piece is one to file: "July is a great time to throw topwater baits for redfish when the water calms. I like the walk-the-dog style topwaters, especially a Strike King KVD Sexy Dawg." We're days from that being the everyday pattern over these ponds. The honest read: stop waiting, pick a day, go. They've all got fish in them.

Venice Guide Service, Capt. Louis "Rock" Rossignol. When the marsh is the story, book the guy who explained it. Rossignol is the one on record this week breaking down why the ponds are loaded, and that read comes from knowing this delta cold. He runs an inshore guide service out of 237 Sports Marina Road in Venice with a team of captains, working redfish, trout, and tripletail through the interior marsh and the passes. On a flat-calm week with the ponds fishable and the Full-Moon tide building, his program is pointed right at what's producing, and the tripletail sight-fishing is a bonus only locals know to chase on glass water like this. If you want an honest inshore day with a guide who reads this marsh for a living, he's the call. Find him at veniceguideservice.com.

A good pair of polarized glasses. Not the flashiest Rigged Up we've run, but the one this week calls for. A flat-calm weekend with low clear water in the ponds is a sight-fishing week, and sight-fishing lives and dies on whether you can see into the water. Polarized lenses cut the glare off glass-flat water so you pick out a redfish backing into the grass or a tripletail under a crab float before you ever cast, and they pay off offshore reading the weed lines on the troll. Costa is the name most Venice captains wear, the 580 glass lenses run north of $200, but any quality pair with a copper or amber base tint will change your day. Wear a leash, the delta keeps the ones you drop.

The marine forecast is the easy part this week. The offshore zones are running south to southwest at 5 to 10 knots, seas a foot or less tonight building to only about two feet and holding there through the weekend with the wind light and out of the south. That's flat. Offshore is open every day Thursday through Sunday, inshore is glass in the mornings. It's summer, so a pop-up afternoon thunderstorm is always possible, keep an eye on the sky and don't be the tallest thing on the water when one builds, but there's no organized weather in the picture.

On the moon, we're in a waxing gibbous building to the Full Strawberry Moon on Monday June 29, so the spring tides are stacking all weekend. At Pilottown the daily high climbs from about 1.19 feet Thursday to 1.27 by Saturday and Sunday, one clean cycle a day, a morning high draining to an evening low. That's long falling-tide windows from mid-morning through evening, and the current strengthens right into Monday. Fish the drain.

Water temperature's deep into its summer range, the most recent Southwest Pass reading came in in the high 80s, and that sensor runs a touch hot, so call it solid high-80s, right where summer parks it. The Mississippi at the Venice gauge is sitting low, right around a foot, keeping the passes and marsh ponds clean and clear, exactly what the sight-fishing wants. The gauge is tidal and bounces through the day, so read the state of it, not any single number, and the state of it is low and clean. The tropics are quiet, the National Hurricane Center expects no Atlantic development over the next seven days, nothing to watch.

The snapper season's got room to run. Wondering whether the state red snapper season is about to slam shut? It isn't. LDWF's latest estimate has Louisiana anglers at 210,474 pounds landed, about 23.9 percent of the 882,439-pound private recreational allocation, through June 7. Healthy pace, comfortably under quota, so there's plenty of runway for a summer reef trip, no need to rush the calendar.

Tarpon's right on the doorstep. The silver kings are an any-day-now proposition along the passes and the beaches, the run stacking the Tarpon Triangle, Southwest Pass, Empire Canal, and Grand Bayou, through July, August, and September. If a tarpon's on your Venice bucket list, get on a guide's calendar now, the good dates fill fast once the fish show.

The summer tournament calendar. Quiet through late June, then it picks up. The Faux Pas Lodge Invitational runs the last weekend of July out of the Venice Marina, the Empire South Pass Tarpon Rodeo lands July 31 to August 2, and the New Orleans Invitational billfish tournament fishes out of Cypress Cove in August. Want to plan a trip around a tournament weekend, those are the dates.

Next week, the first real catch reports off this flat-calm window once the offshore numbers post, an updated read on the river, and how the Full Moon set up the 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, forward this along, it's the best week we've had to send them.

Until next Thursday.

Joey