The number landed Monday. Six weeks after Louisiana's last public snapper count, LDWF posted the final one: 934,367 pounds, 51,928 over the allocation, and the two four-day windows it reopened with 4 percent left took more than 10. It's the first line of The Report because I told you twice it would be. Also this week: the $94,500 marlin tournament closed with nothing on its public board and a refund clause in the rules, and last night's front was dry air more than cold air. Saturday's full moon sits on the flattest tide of the month, which most people have backwards.

Red snapper, the math. LDWF's final estimate, posted Monday: 934,367 pounds landed in 109 days against an 882,439-pound allocation, 5.7 percent over. The allocation was already short 52,148 pounds as payback for going over in 2025, so without that penalty the number would have been 934,587, and Louisiana landed 220 pounds under it. That's one cooler. Still over, so 2027 starts 51,928 pounds in the hole. The table filled in too. On August 9 the state closed at 843,334 pounds, 95.6 percent (the table has been revised since we printed 847,330), then reopened with 4 percent left. The August 27 to 30 window took 27,980 pounds. The Labor Day window took 63,053 in four days, more than the season's weekly average of 49,177, and the year finished at 105.9 percent. Secretary Bosworth's release says the department was "excited to have an opportunity to offer" the holiday weekends. They made the payback.

Redfish and black drum. Cajun Culture Fishing Adventures posted five straight days on FishingBooker, September 15 through 19. "All nice reds" after a slow start Tuesday. Slot reds and bulls with drum and flounder Wednesday. A grind Thursday. A Friday the captain called tough "due to the high tide" that still boxed five reds with drum and sheepshead, and eight reds Saturday. A Venice guide posted a two-day "redfish smackdown," and the groups are full of bull-red photos with the water this warm. Reds are four at 18 to 27 inches, nothing over 27 kept. Black drum are five at 16 to 27, one over.

Speckled trout. The best trout intel this week came from a question. A man who moved away for work came back last weekend to hunt teal with his dad and asked the Bayou State group where the trout are. The answers, from people who fished them: where the passes empty into the Gulf on the east side, in the deep holes near the passes, in the Jump, and on the beach by Southwest Pass and East Bay two weeks ago. One angler who fished a veterans' event out of Breton earlier this month said the fish out there are small and "moving in but just haven't made it fully into the passes yet." Fifteen at 13 inches, two over 20.

Gag, amberjack, triggerfish, mangroves. This is the last gag weekend. It closes at 11:59 p.m. Wednesday in state water and 12:01 a.m. October 1 federal: 24 inches, two per person inside the four-grouper aggregate. Amberjack has two more weekends after this one in federal water, one fish at 34 inches of fork through 12:01 a.m. October 14. Inside nine miles, Louisiana's rulebook runs the season to October 31 unless LDWF closes it early to match, its regs page says October 14, and as of this morning LDWF hasn't said which. Last year it said the nine miles stay open, the day before the federal close. Gray triggerfish is one at 15 inches of fork inside the 20-reef-fish aggregate. Mangroves are 12 inches, ten inside the ten-snapper aggregate. And flounder, which nobody's counting yet: you can't keep one in state water from October 15 through November 30, so the ten-a-day season has three weekends left.

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Correction, September 30: this tournament never ran. The committee said so on its own Facebook page ("couldn't make the magic happen"), so everything below that treats it as fished (three boats out, the seas it opened in, the pool going home under the no-marlin rule) is wrong.

The Cajun Canyons Fall Invitational is over, and the public board never recorded a fish. Three boats fished it out of Cypress Cove, American Made, Houdini and Nikki Bella, for $35,000 apiece. As of this morning the live-scoring site reads blue marlin zero, tuna zero, total catches zero, "no live scoring to display," with the $94,500 pool still sitting on the payouts page next to two blank places. The site says on every page that it doesn't replace the committee's official standings, and boats can fish without logging, so I can't tell you nobody hooked up. I can tell you it opened inside a Small Craft Advisory with the canyons at 5 to 8 feet and laid down to 2 by Saturday. The rules say that if no qualifying blue marlin is weighed, the pool goes back to the three team leaders within 14 days, so unless the committee says otherwise, $94,500 is on its way home by October 3. If a result posts, it's in here next week.

The water, as promised. On the 15th the pass was 87.5, right where it sat all August. Three days of east wind averaging 17 to 20 knots took it to 85.5 by Friday, three calm days under 8 knots gave a degree back, and Monday's mean was 86.6, Tuesday's 86.5, and Wednesday's 86.7, front and all. So the verdict is a degree: the wind does the work and the sun undoes half of it. The next front came through last night, and the Slidell office had already called it more of a dew point boundary than a real cool-down. That's how fall gets here, one front at a time, each keeping a little of what it takes.

Last, a Venice guide's post in the Bayou State group, because it explains a line in every Book It. A man who said he was a guide himself booked a tripletail trip, no-showed August 31, rebooked, and no-showed again on the 14th at a 6 a.m. Cypress Cove pickup, bait and fuel already bought, no deposit taken because it was short notice. A deposit that doesn't come back is the price of a boat that's fueled and waiting for you at gray light.

RNG Outfitters, Boothville. Run N Gun works out of 41575 Highway 23, a few miles above Venice. Its Venice listing on Captain Experiences is the nearshore rig trip: 8 hours on a 24-foot Skeeter, platforms from 2 miles out in 50 to 100 feet, tackle and fish cleaning included. $1,200 for one or two anglers, $1,400 for three, $1,500 for four. Five or more means two boats, and they say outright they work with other local guides, so ask who's running yours. Their own rate card has the same trip at $1,050 for two plus $100 a head, with bull reds, jacks, sharks, cobia and tripletail on the list. The 50 percent deposit is gone inside 14 days; weather is the captain's call and gets you a reschedule or a refund. Lodging is $250 a night for up to six, six miles north of Venice Marina. Their site footer says Coast Guard master licensed and insured, and that's the only credential anybody claims, so it's the only one we print. No reviews yet. Direct is 504-329-6309.

Jacks and mangroves on the near rigs, and a bed six miles up the road: Book RNG through Captain Experiences

(We earn a small commission if you book through this link, at no extra cost to you. It keeps this report free.)

A knocker rig for the last gag weekend. Gag live in the legs and rubble of the rigs in 60 to 120 feet. A hooked gag turns for the structure the instant it feels the hook, and any slack costs you the fish and the tackle. A 6- to 8-ounce egg sinker slid straight down onto a 7/0 or 8/0 non-stainless circle hook (required with natural bait on reef fish, the rule we covered in August). Above it, 60- to 80-pound fluorocarbon, on a conventional outfit with 65- to 80-pound braid and the drag set where you can barely pull line by hand. Drop a live pinfish or a hardtail chunk to the bottom beside a leg, reel two turns, and when it loads up, wind, don't lift. If you get the fish ten feet off the structure, it's yours. Unmonetized this week.

The front came through last night, and today behind it is northeast 10 to 15 with seas 2 to 3 feet inside 20 miles and 2 to 4, occasionally 5, out to 60, mostly sunny and 88. Friday is the day I'd skip: northeast 15 to 20, seas 2 to 4 feet inside, 4 to 5 and occasionally 6 from 20 miles out to the canyons, with a slight chance of showers. Saturday lays down to northeast 5 to 10 and around 2 feet at the pass, 2 to 3 outside, and Sunday is east 5 to 10, a foot or less inside and around 2 out. Highs 85 to 88, lows 76 to 77. The Hurricane Center has nothing in the Gulf.

Now the tide, because the full moon is Saturday at 11:49 in the morning and it's the flattest day of the month. Pilottown swings half a foot Thursday, three tenths Friday, and on Saturday the water moves a quarter of a foot across five turns. Down here the daily range follows how far the moon sits north or south of the equator. Its phase has nothing to do with it, so "full moon, big tide" is an Atlantic rule that will cost you a trip. The water comes back Wednesday the 30th, 1.2 feet, and builds to a foot and a half by October 2, which means real current returns the day gag leaves. The river is about 3 feet at Carrollton and holds 2.7 to 2.9 through the weekend, so the delta stays green. The forecast then climbs to 3.7 by October 3 and 4.9 by the 7th, past 4 feet, which is where the jetty regulars in Louisiana Sportsman say the rocks quit. If the jetties are on your list, this is the weekend.

The read: today is the inside day, the last real fall of water until midweek, on the leeward side of the northeast wind. Saturday is the outside day for the last gag, and it's also the day the marsh has no current, so if you're staying inside, fish where the water moves anyway: the pass mouths, the deep holes near them, and the rocks. Sunday is the calm one, a foot or less, rising half a foot from a 7 a.m. low.

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The state wants to hear from you about the delta, at the Big Game club, October 6. CPRA is holding a public meeting on the Birdfoot Delta Hydrologic Restoration Project from 4 to 6 p.m. at the New Orleans Big Game Fishing Club, 235 Cypress Cove Road, behind the marina. The project sits at the mouth of the river, meant to slow wetland loss and rebuild delta marsh. LDWF's notice says CPRA wants feedback specifically from recreational fishermen who use the Birdfoot. That's the passes and everything you run through from Venice. If you've watched a cut silt in or a bay open up over ten years, you're the person they're asking for.

The Louisiana Redfish Classic Championship fishes out of Venice Marina October 2 and 3, artificial only, two reds per team per day, captains' meeting Thursday the 1st at 6 p.m. at the marina, $750 cash there or online through Monday night. Results here the week after.

Four people asked the groups the same question this week. Four anglers who've fished Florida and Texas, wanting a Venice inshore charter and the right month. An inshore guide near Venice or Buras for the second week of October. A tripletail guide for three, last Saturday. And the teal-weekend trout ask up in The Report. Here's ours, in one place: the Venice charter roster, every operator on it verified against its own site, inshore and offshore, with what each one actually sells.

Thanks to everyone who answered last week's question; I read every vote. If you go to the CPRA meeting on the 6th, or you find moving water Saturday somewhere I didn't name, hit reply and tell me. First names only, same as always.

Joey

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