Venice sits at the end of Louisiana Highway 23, about 80 miles south of New Orleans by road (95 from the airport), at the last dry ground before the Mississippi River meets the Gulf. Everything fishable from here, the shelf-edge rigs, the Mississippi Canyon, and the whole delta marsh, runs out of a short list of marinas. Here's the working map: the two big ones in Venice proper, the two up the highway, and the numbers you'd otherwise have to call for. Everything below was checked against the marinas' own sites and Facebook Pages in October 2026; confirm the specifics before you make the 95-mile drive from the airport past the last gas station you were sure about.
Venice Marina is one of the two home bases of the Venice fleet, charter boats and private boats both, and it has been under the same ownership since 2002. A good piece of the offshore and inshore charter traffic stages here, its scales host the Faux Pas Lodge Invitational weigh-ins every July, and on rodeo weekends the dock turns into the town square.
The practical facts. 237 Sports Marina Rd, Venice, LA 70091. 504-534-9357. venicemarina.com. Two back-down ramps. The marina's services page lists fuel, ice and bait 24/7; its contact page gives store and dock hours of 5:30am to 5:30pm, so call before you count on a night fill-up. Ship store with tackle and marine supplies. Fish cleaning at the dock runs 45 cents a pound on whole-fish weight, vacuum sealing 75 cents a pound of fillet, or a dollar a pound (whole-fish weight) for both, and Crawgator's Bar & Grill (11am to 9pm) will cook your catch for $9.50. Wet slips rent by the day, month, quarter or year with a 30-foot minimum; the marina is on Dockwa, but call for a transient slip.
Lodging on the property is marina-run cabins and houses: two-bedroom cabins at $175 a night that sleep six, and two-bedroom, two-bath houses at $250 that sleep four, renters 25 and over. The services page also lists houseboat rental; ask the marina who rents them. Book lodging early for summer weekends and tournament dates.
Cypress Cove is the other anchor, and historically the center of gravity for the Venice big-game fleet. Several of the established offshore operations run out of here, the New Orleans Big Game Fishing Club calls it home, and it hosts the spring billfish tournaments and the New Orleans Invitational in August. The marina and lodge changed hands in February 2026: SVN Marinas announced the sale on February 17, with the buyer, seller and price all undisclosed. The name is the same; the website and main phone number are new, the restaurant was renamed, and the lodging menu is longer. Our report on the sale is here.
The practical facts. 235 Cypress Cove Rd, Venice, LA 70091. (504) 420-0707 is the main line; 504-534-7777 is the front desk the store page gives for after-hours fuel and bait help and live-shrimp reservations. cypresscovevenice.com. Fifty-six acres on the river. The fuel dock and bait shop run 6am to 6pm on the website (the Facebook Page says the marina closes at 5pm), with after-hours help from the 24-hour front desk. The store never closes for ice, oil and small parts, and live shrimp are by reservation. Riverfront fish cleaning tables. The boat launch is free for lodging guests. Wet slips for 115-plus boats, including slips for sportfish of 90 feet and up, with twin 50-amp power; transient dockage is $2.50 a foot a night, $50 minimum, electricity included.
Lodging is the hotel (the Lodge, steps from the docks), houseboats, townhomes, and five RV spots at an off-water lot four miles up Highway 23, all with pool access on the marina's private island and a free launch. The Dock Bar & Grill, which used to be the Cypress Grill, is open daily 11am to 9pm with a bar upstairs and down and a cook-your-catch menu.
For most visitors the marina choice follows the captain, not the other way around: book the operation you want and fish out of whichever dock they run from. If you're bringing your own boat, both are working marinas built around exactly that traffic. Either way you're in the same fishery; the passes don't care which dock you left.
If Venice proper is full, or your plans sit further up the delta, the Highway 23 corridor has two working options 25 to 40 minutes up the road (about 19 and 25 miles), with access to the same west-side marsh and a shorter run to some of it.
Joshua's Marina & Sports Bar is the Buras option. 309 Buras Boat Harbor Rd, Buras, LA 70041. 504-317-7205 is the number on its Facebook Page; its website still lists (504) 657-7632. Run by Corsing Management, whose site (corsingmanagement.com) is the current one; the old joshuasmarina.com address is dead. Boat launch, fuel for boats and vehicles, live bait and tackle, cabins, and a sports bar with a coffee bar, food, drinks and live music nights. Opens at 4am every day per its Facebook Page; closing time varies by day. Launch fee, ice and cleaning-station details aren't published, so call.
Delta Marina is in Empire, home of the Empire South Pass Tarpon Rodeo, one of the oldest events on the lower-river calendar (its 76th running was in 2026), and it is the best-documented small marina on the highway. Your GPS needs 317 Rose Marie Drive, Buras, LA 70041, even though the marina sits in Empire. 504-657-5116, open daily from 5am, until 6pm per its Facebook Page (its website still says 5pm). thedeltamarina.com. The back-down launch is $10, paid in the store or in the honor box after hours, and free if you're in one of their cabins. Ethanol-free gas and off-road diesel at the pumps on land and at the dock, ice in 20-pound bags, and the bait list runs live shrimp, cigar minnows, finger mullet, pogies, Spanish sardines and squid. Covered fish cleaning station. The cabins on the water are two-bedroom units sleeping four or five and one-bedroom suites sleeping two to four, launch and slip included, rates by phone. The Ponderosa Oyster Bar & Grill is open Thursday through Saturday 11am to 9pm and Sunday 11am to 7pm.
The road to all of it is LA-23, a state highway, not an interstate. From the New Orleans airport plan on about 2 hours, more in rush hour. Fill your tank in Belle Chasse or Port Sulphur; stations below that come and go, especially after dark. At the bottom of the road, fuel hours are in each marina's section above; call before you count on a late fill-up.
Cell service holds up better than people expect down the highway and through the marinas, and it thins at the southern end of the parish depending on your carrier. Offshore, the signal fades except near the platforms, so download charts and waypoints before you leave the dock.
Every so often a blown-out forecast, or a crew member who can't make the boat, leaves somebody standing at the marina with a rod and no ride. The local answers, collected from Venice regulars: the culverts along Tidewater Road on a falling tide, the water near the Cypress Cove cleaning station, the cut at the south end by Venice Marina, and up at Joshua's Marina in Buras. It isn't the rigs, but it beats watching from the truck.
The numbers on this page were checked against the marinas' own sites and Facebook Pages in October 2026. Fuel prices, lodging inventory, cleaning fees and restaurant hours all move, and a marina that changed hands this year will keep changing. This page tells you how the marinas fit together and what to expect; it doesn't replace the phone call.
Where you launch is the easy call. When to come and what the trip costs are the decisions that shape the whole thing, who to book is its own page, and the First-Timer's Guide to Venice Fishing walks the full plan end to end.
For what's happening at these docks this week, the Venice Fishing Report is a free weekly email: conditions, the fleet, tournament news, and the weekend outlook, every Thursday at 6am Central. Written by the son of a lifelong Metairie fisherman.