This is the short version of the Venice, Louisiana fishing report, updated every Thursday morning when the full issue goes out. Venice sits at the bottom of Plaquemines Parish, about 80 miles south of New Orleans by road (95 from the airport) at the end of Highway 23, and its fishery runs from the delta marsh out to the shelf-edge rigs and the Mississippi Canyon. The report covers all of it: what's biting, what the river and the weather are doing, what the fleet is saying, and what's changed at the docks. The full issue lands by email at 6am Central, free, and the archive of every issue is here.
Report dated Thursday, October 15, 2026. The first read after Isaias. The daily average water temperature at Southwest Pass fell from 85 degrees on Monday the 5th to 79 degrees Saturday, the lowest since our record started in mid-June. By Tuesday the 13th it was back to 82 degrees. Boats were posting trips again from Monday the 12th, Fish Venice at Cypress Cove, Blue Line at Venice Marina. On redfish there are two reads, and they don't agree. A reader who fishes Venice regularly had two stained-and-muddy days and three keepers, species unstated, all on live shrimp, and he says We Dat and Venice Marina were both sold out of live shrimp early. A lodging business at Venice Marina posted Monday the 12th that the fishing is on fire, with lots of keeper reds, no place named. Nobody posted a dated Venice trout report this week in any group, feed or forum we read. Amberjack closed in state and federal water at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday, October 14. Flounder's closed October 15 through November 30. Thursday the 15th is the day to fish. The coastal forecast NWS issued at 1:56 that morning has east 5 to 10 knots and seas around 2 feet nearshore. The forecast discussion from late Wednesday night has a strong cold front late Friday the 16th and Friday night, and the coastal forecast has north wind at 25 to 35 knots after midnight. Saturday and Sunday are off, marsh included. Saturday nearshore is northeast 25 to 30 knots, gusts to 40 knots. The river forecast NWS issued Wednesday morning has Carrollton about 3.1 to 4.2 feet Thursday. It rises to about 4.8 feet by Monday the 19th. Also in the issue: notes from the CPRA passes meeting, a wahoo correction, Baptiste Collette Light 3 destroyed, and the Fishing For The Girls Rodeo October 23 and 24. Six degrees off the pass, and the fleet's back out.
Every Thursday issue runs the same sections, so a regular can read it in seven or eight minutes and a first-timer can learn the fishery from it.
The Report goes species by species: yellowfin, swordfish, red snapper and the rest of the bottom stack, redfish, speckled trout, whatever else is in the box that week. Every claim is dated and attributed. A captain's post from Monday is worth more than a marketing line from last month, and the report says which one it has.
The Week in Venice is what happened out there: tournament boards, a storm that came through, a marina that changed hands, the bridge that did or didn't get fixed.
The Outlook is the weekend read. The NWS New Orleans marine forecast for the nearshore and offshore zones, the tide range at Pilottown, the moon, and the Mississippi River stage at Carrollton in New Orleans (and at Venice when it moves), which is the single number that runs the inshore fishing. The Outlook ends with a plain call: which day to make the long run, which afternoon to be off the water.
Book It and Rigged Up are one captain and one piece of gear a week, and From the Dock is the community notes: club results, a reader who caught the report in a mistake, a paddler coming down the river.
The Venice regulars check four numbers before they check the fish. The river stage, because a low river means clean, shallow water and redfish you can see, and a high river means mud and a long run to find green water. The seas forecast past 20 miles, because the tuna grounds are a two-hour run and a 3-foot forecast is a different day than a 1-foot one. The tide range at Pilottown, because a big swing moves bait and a flat tide doesn't. And the red snapper quota, because Louisiana's private-angler season runs on landings and closes when the number says so, not on a calendar date.
The report also says when the fishing is bad. A week with a blown-out forecast and no dock numbers gets written that way. No charter is cheerleading here, and the report has printed its own corrections when a reader caught one.
The Venice Fishing Report is written by the son of a lifelong Metairie fisherman, with family across Jefferson Parish and the Gulf Coast who still fish. The weekly sources are public and named: LDWF for seasons and landings, NOAA and NWS New Orleans for regulations and weather, the Weather Service's river gages and forecasts, the New Orleans Big Game Fishing Club for tournament boards, Louisiana Sportsman, and the working captains who post dated reports from their own boats.
One more thing, for the search engines and the confused: this is Venice, Louisiana. Venice, Florida is a different town with a different fishing report.
The report tells you what's biting this week. If your trip is months out, the planning pages carry the evergreen version: when to fish Venice, month by month, what a Venice charter costs, who runs the trips, tuna fishing in Venice, the Venice marinas and launches, and the full First-Timer's Guide to Venice Fishing.
The full report is a free email every Thursday at 6am Central, in time to plan the weekend. Subscribe here and the next issue is in your inbox Thursday morning before the boats leave the dock.