The parish lifted the Tidewater Road evacuation order Saturday and reopened the Empire Floodgate and the River Sector Gate to boats. The water took the bigger hit: the daily average at the Southwest Pass station fell from 85 degrees on Monday the 5th to 79 degrees Saturday, the lowest since our record started in mid-June, and by Tuesday it was back to 82 degrees. This is the first read after Isaias: who's back out, an inshore read that splits two ways, and a front NWS has coming tomorrow.

Redfish. Two reads this week, and they don't agree. A reader who fishes Venice regularly wrote in Tuesday after two days at Taylor's Point, the Red Pass rocks and up and down Tiger Pass. Three keepers in two days, and he didn't say what they were. The water was "stained and muddy everywhere I went," the guides he saw were struggling, and his verdict was "Worst two days ever." The only fish he caught came on live shrimp, and he says We Dat and Venice Marina were both sold out of live shrimp early. Then Venice River House, a lodging business at Venice Marina, posted Monday: "If you've been wondering how the fishing is after Hurricane Isaias let there be no doubt that's is on fire. Here are just a few caught this morning. Lots of keeper reds and these nice puppy drum. Captain Brian Sherman put my renters on them today !!" No place named, and the post doesn't say who Sherman runs with. The day before landfall, Capt. Jon Carter of Reel Shot posted "Wasn't easy but we got our limit of reds in some less than favorable conditions." Reds are 18 to 27 inches, four a day, and anything over 27 inches goes back.

Speckled trout. Nobody posted a dated Venice trout report this week, in any group, feed or forum I read, so the reader's stained-and-muddy line is the only water-color read I have. The state's survey of what anglers keep in the Barataria basin, which takes in the delta, puts the second trout run in November into December, the best of the year per trip. Trout are 13 to 20 inches, 15 a day. No more than two over 20 inches. Flounder is closed from today through November 30, no possession, every sector.

Amberjack. Closed in state and federal water since 12:01 a.m. Wednesday. Last week I wrote that "as of Wednesday morning LDWF hadn't put out anything this year to settle it," and Tuesday it did, with a Declaration of Emergency closing the state season at that same 12:01 a.m. Federal water closed the same minute under NOAA's June bulletin, until September 1, 2027. The last day got fished. Fish Venice Charters posted Wednesday morning about Tuesday's trip: "Decided to hit the bottom fish hard on the last day of Jack season and had a quality box of fish as well as 2nd sword we let go." That's the one dated Venice swordfish post I have this week.

Yellowfin. Mexican Gulf Fishing Company posted Monday that the FV Kimmi is back on the prowl, tagged yellowfin. The boats are back out, and nobody has posted a count or a size since the storm. The mid-Gulf buoy read 85 degrees Wednesday morning, and its daily average held between 85 and 86 degrees all week. Yellowfin are 27 inches curved fork length minimum, three a day.

Wahoo. Nothing dated this week, and that's the season's shape, which is where I owe you a correction. Our guide pages and the First-Timer's Guide said wahoo peak in October and November. They had it backwards. In Louisiana's numbers, the state's survey of what anglers keep on offshore trips from 2014 through 2025, January and February lead, and August through October is the low. The pages now print November through March, fixed since last Friday; no issue of this report printed the October-and-November peak. So the first wahoo are a November item, and the heart of it comes after New Year's.

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Isaias at Venice was wind and tide, and by the parish's record it was nothing worse. The parish put a voluntary evacuation order on the businesses along Tidewater Road the Thursday afternoon before landfall, for a projected surge of 3 to 5 feet, and closed the Empire Floodgate at Bay Adams and the River Sector Gate that night. Friday at 11 a.m. it reported no issues, a 53 mph gust in Venice, and a tide that had come up some but was no concern. The parish's own gust list had 89 mph at Main Pass 69. Saturday the order was lifted and both gates reopened. Rain barely registered at the gauges. No boil-water notice for the Venice area and no Highway 23 closure went into the parish record.

Marina status is thinner than I'd like. Cypress Cove's Facebook Page said before the storm it would run minimal staff Friday and expected to be back to normal business Saturday morning, with the store and hotel open if the utilities held, and since a Friday reel from the dock it's posted two promo posts, nothing on how it came through or whether it's back to normal. Venice Marina's Page posted that Thursday that water was rising and the evacuation order was out, and nothing about reopening since. Businesses at both complexes were posting trips again from Monday, Fish Venice out of Cypress Cove, Venice River House and Blue Line at Venice Marina. Delta Marina in Empire posted Monday that it's open daily, 5 a.m. to 6 p.m., with live shrimp and minnows.

Last week: "The CPRA meeting on the passes was scheduled for Tuesday at the Big Game club, and I've seen nothing since on how it went." Charlie Caplinger was in the room on the 6th and sent me his notes, and I've read CPRA's 26 slides (Todd Baker is the project manager). The number that explains the project is the flow. Pass a Loutre carried 32 percent of the river at Head of Passes in 1960 and carries 10 percent now. The preferred alternative dredges South Pass, Pass a Loutre, Southeast Pass and the Pilottown anchorage, 16.2 million cubic yards in all, at an estimated $144 million to $176 million. The one big objection Charlie heard was landowners worried the spoil fills productive ponds. His notes have construction targeted for 2028.

Fish Venice Charters, Cypress Cove. The pick this week is an outfit that posted a trip back on Monday, the first day any Venice outfit did, then fished the last day of amberjack Tuesday. Fish Venice is based at Cypress Cove Marina, will pick up charter guests at Venice Marina, and has lodging, the 4L Fish Venice Lodge plus condos and houseboats. Capt. Eddie Burger runs the Side Piece, a 42-foot catamaran on quad Suzukis, Capt. Aaron Wilmoth runs the FAFO, a 37-foot Freeman cat, with inshore captains and boats behind them. Capt. Eddie Brown is the captain Jeff Tomaloff was fishing with in January when he landed a 256-pound yellowfin, per Louisiana Sportsman. The site says offshore trips are most commonly priced as base cost plus fuel and gratuity, nearshore generally the same, and inshore base cost plus gratuity. Call 504-814-0063 or look at fishvenicecharters.com. Fish Venice books direct, so there's no booking link here; compare the whole Venice roster on our charters page.

(Some of the booking links on that page are ours. We earn a small commission if you book through them, at no extra cost to you. It keeps this report free.)

An artificial shrimp under a popping cork, for the day the bait stand is empty. The reader above found We Dat and Venice Marina both out of live shrimp early, and a group poster Monday called it "Vudu Cork and Vudu shrimp season." Here's the backup rig. Egret Baits' Vudu Shrimp comes pre-rigged, three and a quarter inches long, on a 3/0 hook, 2X strong. Hang it on a short leader under a popping cork and work the cork: in dirty water the noise brings the fish to the bait, and a shrimp is what his fish ate. It loses to live shrimp. In the October 1 issue, the same reader, on the Red Pass rocks, "threw an artificial shrimp for a while and got nothing on it, while the angler next to him with live shrimp got most of the bites." No price on this one and no link.

Today is the day, inside and out. The coastal forecast NWS issued at 1:56 this morning has east 5 to 10 knots inside 20 miles. Seas around 2 feet. Past 20 miles it's east 10 to 15 knots on 2 to 3 feet. The Venice point forecast has sun and a high near 83 degrees, and a dense fog advisory runs on land until 11 a.m. For tomorrow the coastal forecast has northeast 5 to 10 knots and about 2 feet inside, with a chance of showers and storms mainly in the morning. Tomorrow night the north wind comes in at 15 to 20 knots with gusts to 30 knots. After midnight it's 25 to 35 knots. Seas build to 5 to 7 feet, occasionally 9 feet. The forecast discussion from late Wednesday night has a strong cold front late tomorrow and tomorrow night, cooler and drier for the weekend. Saturday and Sunday are off. Saturday inside 20 miles is northeast 25 to 30 knots, gusts to 40 knots. Seas 6 to 9 feet, occasionally 11 feet, and bigger beyond. Sunday is northeast 20 to 25 knots on 5 to 7 feet, building again in the afternoon. The synopsis has small craft advisory conditions likely through the weekend and gale conditions possible offshore late tomorrow into Saturday. On land Saturday is mostly sunny with a high of 73 degrees and northeast 25 to 30 mph, so the marsh is a wind problem, blown out below the tide tables. The Hurricane Center expects nothing tropical in the next seven days.

The tide is middling. Pilottown's prediction today is a high at 12:37 a.m. and a low at 1:01 p.m., about 1.2 feet of range, so the water falls all morning into an early-afternoon low. The north wind tomorrow night will push water out below all of it. The front is the next step down for the water temperature, and there's no number for it until it happens. The river forecast NWS issued Wednesday morning has Carrollton about 3.1 to 4.2 feet today, rising to about 4.8 feet by Monday. After that it holds between 4.6 and 4.8 feet. Fish today. Tomorrow is a call on this morning's forecast, and the weekend is off, marsh included.

The second sponsor spot in this issue is empty. Last Thursday's issue went to 1,958 inboxes and 1,113 people opened it. If there's a Venice business you'd vouch for, the lodge you book every fall, the marina where you buy your ice and live shrimp, the shop that rigs your rods, forward this to the owner. Every reply lands with me, and I answer them.

Baptiste Collette Light 3 is gone. Coast Guard Sector New Orleans reported Monday that the Baptiste Collette Bayou Light 3 was found a foot above the waterline and a hazard to navigation, then updated it Tuesday: "found destroyed with wreckage on scene." The notices don't say what took it down, and they run through the 26th. If you run that cut in the dark, the wreckage was on scene as of Tuesday's notice.

Fishing For The Girls Rodeo, October 23 and 24, Myrtle Grove Marina in Port Sulphur. The 9th annual, put on by FishingForCharities, $25 to register and free for kids 12 and under. Last year's rodeo gave $31,000 to the West Jefferson Hospital Cancer Center for breast cancer patients, per the organizer's Page.

Outside one angler who put in at Cypress Cove Sunday, no public post this week says where anybody launched at Venice or what the fuel dock and the bait stand were doing. If you ran out of Venice, Cypress Cove, Empire or anywhere on the Highway 23 corridor this week, reply and tell me the ramp, the fuel and the bait situation. I won't print your name unless you tell me to.

Joey

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