It rained on Venice for a good chunk of last week, and the trout got beat down anyway. Capt. Jon Carter at Reel Shot posted a "bayou beat down" on July 14, fishing right through the weather, his third trout box in eight days. Capt. Rossignol at Venice Guide Service opened a trip the same morning with a magnum trout on the first cast. That's the story this week: the inshore bite doesn't care about a wet morning. Offshore, Thursday's your one flat day before the wind swings northwest and the weekend firms up, and the red snapper season just got a lot busier. Here's the read.

Speckled trout. The loud story this week, and it came through the rain. Reel Shot ran trout hard all week, a "trout smash" on July 9 and that July 14 "beat down" fished right through the storms, and Venice Guide Service put a box together the same morning. The pattern's the summer standard: live shrimp under a popping cork or soft plastics along the pass points and the grassy shorelines, worked early before the heat and the pop-up cells build. The thing to mind this week is the tide. The moving water's best Thursday and Friday, then the range goes soft into the weekend, so fish the harder-moving hours and don't wait around for a drain that isn't coming Saturday. Limit's 15, slot 13 to 20 inches, no more than two over 20.

Redfish. Nobody put a fresh named box on the board this week, but somebody put the right question to the Venice pages: an angler named Donny Bass asked July 14 how the water clarity's looking for sight-fishing reds. The answer's a good one. The Mississippi at Venice is sitting low and flat, right at half a foot on the gauge, so the delta's running clean and green and the ponds are clear. That's sight-casting water. Walk the grassy pond edges, points, and drains early, and when the topwater bite quits, slow down with a soft plastic or bait under a cork along the same edges. Slot's 18 to 27 inches, four per person, anything over 27 goes back, and on a for-hire trip the crew keeps none, so the box is all yours.

Tripletail. Still the flat-water sleeper laid up on the crab-trap floats and the satellite rigs off the passes, and Thursday's glass morning is exactly when you idle them down and sight-cast a live shrimp on the nose. Nobody boxed a fresh one this week, but the pattern's there for the taking on a calm day. 18-inch minimum, five per person.

Mangrove snapper. With the water hot and Thursday laying flat, the close rocks and rigs are in reach, and the mangroves are a steady July producer right alongside a red snapper trip. Year round, 10 per person inside the 10-fish snapper aggregate, 12-inch minimum.

Flounder, black drum, and sheepshead. Bonus fish on a marsh day, and no captain put a number on any of them this week. 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, and sheepshead have no inshore limit, so keep what you'll eat.

Red snapper. The live offshore story, and it's about the clock as much as the catch. The state private season's still open at four fish and a 16-inch minimum, but the landings pace jumped: LDWF's latest estimate has Louisiana at 47 percent of the private allocation through June 28, up from about 33 percent the week before. Nobody's calling an early closure, and there's better than half the quota left, but the runway's shrinking faster than it was, so if a reef trip's on your August calendar, quit sitting on it. The bite's on, too. Blue Line Charter out of Venice put a customer on a good one July 14. Carry a descending device, it's federally required and you'll use it on every short fish.

Yellowfin. The honest read's a thin one. No fresh dock number came off the tuna grounds this week, the offshore reports just didn't post, and I'm not going to invent one. What I can tell you is Thursday's the window: light south wind, seas around 2 feet, a clean shot out to the 30-mile rigs and the lumps if tuna's what's bringing you to Venice. Go on the flat day, and keep your expectations honest until the numbers turn. Three per person, 27-inch curved fork length, and you'll need the HMS permit.

Mahi and wahoo. Pattern fish this week, not reported ones. A flat Thursday puts the weed lines, the rips, and the rigs in play, so keep a couple of lines in the spread on the troll out to the tuna grounds and you've got a shot at both.

Swordfish. The daytime deep-drop off the shelf edge is a calm-water game, and Thursday's calm. No fresh Venice sword to point at this week, but the conditions suit it if it's been on your list.

Amberjack. Still closed in federal waters. It reopens September 1 and runs to October 14 this year. File it for a fall reef day.

Two weeks ago the tide was building into a new moon and the fish stacked up on it. This week's the back side. The new moon peaked July 14, and the tidal range is collapsing, from about a foot of swing Thursday down to a few inches by Saturday and Sunday, so the hard-draining current that turns the marsh on goes soft over the weekend. Stack a wind shift on top of that. Thursday's flat and light out of the south, the wind flips northwest Friday and firms up that night, and by Sunday it's blowing 15 to 20 knots with the seas up to match. So the shape of the week is simple: Thursday's the day, inshore and offshore both. Get your run in early, fish the harder-moving hours, and if you're fishing the weekend, take the earliest window before the wind stacks the seas.

The good news is the inshore bite doesn't need a big tide to produce right now. The trout proved that, boxed through the rain on soft current, and with the river low and the ponds clear it's prime sight-casting water for reds. If the offshore run turns bumpy Saturday, the marsh is the fallback, and it's fishing well.

One planning note for the out-of-towners: the red snapper season is burning down faster than it was. The landings pace roughly tripled in a week. There's still room, but if you've been meaning to book a summer reef trip, the calendar's starting to talk to you.

Southern Pro Charters, Capt. Chad Pique. With the offshore mixed bag being the summer draw and the snapper season wide open, this week's pick is a boat built for exactly that. Chad Pique runs a 39-foot Contender out of the same Sports Marina Road complex the inshore guides work out of, and by his own account he's USCG licensed and has been running Venice more than fifteen years. The program is a full-day offshore mixed bag: yellowfin, red snapper, mahi, wahoo, whatever the season's giving up, out to the rigs and the lumps. On a week when Thursday's your clean shot and the reefs are producing, that's the trip. Book direct at southernprocharters.com, or through Captain Experiences. (We earn a small commission if you book through this link. It keeps this report free.)

A vertical jig for the reef bite. With the snapper season open and the rigs in reach on the flat days, this is the week to have a knife jig tied on. A 3 to 6 ounce speed jig drops fast through the bait, gets bit on the fall, and pulls red snapper, blackfin, and mangroves off the 30-mile rigs without you dragging a cooler of dead bait around in the July heat. It's the run-and-gun way to fish the same structure a Venice mixed-bag day already sits on. Shimano's Flat-Fall, the Williamson Benthos, and Nomad's Buffalo are all solid, in the 100 to 200 gram range for the rig depths out here. Bass Pro, Academy, and most tackle shops stock them. Tie it straight to 40 or 50 pound fluorocarbon and work it hard off the bottom.

The marine forecast splits the week hard. Thursday is the flat day: light south wind around 5 knots and seas around 2 feet, a clean shot offshore and glass inshore in the morning. The wind flips northwest Friday morning but stays light, 5 to 10 knots with seas 2 to 3 feet, then it firms up Friday night and builds through the weekend, 10 to 15 Saturday and 15 to 20 by Sunday. The seas come up with it, 2 to 4 feet near the passes and, by Sunday morning, 4 to 6 with an occasional 8 out at the shelf, with a scattered storm around Friday night through Sunday. Thursday's the offshore day, Friday morning's the backup, and Sunday is the day to stay out of the big water.

On the moon and tide, we're just off the July 14 new moon, a thin waxing crescent building toward the first quarter on the 21st. The tide's doing the opposite of last week: the range collapses from about a foot of swing Thursday to near-slack by Saturday and Sunday, then starts to rebuild Monday. Weak current over the weekend, so fish the harder-moving hours early and don't count on much of a drain Saturday.

Water temperature's parked in its summer range, low 80s at dawn and pushing toward 90 in the shallows by afternoon. That Southwest Pass sensor runs a touch hot, so take it as a trend, and the trend is bathwater. The Mississippi at the Venice gauge is low and flat, right at half a foot and barely moving, which is what keeps the passes clear this time of year. And the tropics woke up a little overnight: the National Hurricane Center is watching for a weak low to form in the northeastern Gulf this weekend, 20 percent odds of development over the next seven days, and it's expected to drift northeast toward the Florida side, away from the delta. Nothing on the map points at Venice this morning, but we're into the stretch of summer where you look before a big offshore day.

The Faux Pas rodeo is a week out. The Faux Pas Lodge Invitational runs July 22 to 25 out of the Venice Marina, with the captains party and late registration there Wednesday the 22nd from 6 to 8pm and scales open Thursday and Friday 5 to 8pm, Saturday 3 to 6pm. Earlier this summer we had it filed under Cypress Cove and organizer Kleo Blue set us straight: Venice Marina hosts the party and the weigh-ins, and crews bunk out of both marinas. New Orleans Big Game Fishing Club members, the club's 2026 schedule carries July 24 and 25 as its Faux Pas regular tournament, so the rodeo doubles as a club date. It's the first Venice-proper event of the summer stretch, and the town fills up for it.

A Venice guide's idea of a rough start. File this one under why the locals are built different. Capt. Rossignol at Venice Guide Service posted a July 14 trip that started with a magnum trout first cast and then went sideways: second cast, a catfish came in hot and buried a side fin in his thigh, all the way to the base. He had grandpa yank it out, knowing it might mean a trip to the hospital, then kept fishing and filled the box. His words: "just think if we'd have had all day." That's a Venice morning.

Next week, the first reports off this weekend's wind, whether the snapper pace keeps climbing toward a closure, and a closer look at the Faux Pas field as it fills in. If you fished this week, hit reply with intel, on the record or off. And if you know somebody planning a Venice trip this summer, forward this along.

Run offshore Thursday, fish the marsh when it blows, and go beat the rain.

Until next Thursday.

Joey

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