Venice, LA

[SpexnReds]

I want to plan a trip to Venice, LA to go fishing in the spring. I don't know who to use as a guide or where the best place to stay is....any suggestions?

[tightline]

You might want to wait awhile before you go fishing in Venice. Katrina ripped that place apart. I have a friend who's family had a fishing camp down there. After Katrina came through, they went down to inspect the damages. Fishing camp was gone, all the pilings were gone, hell...even all their land was gone. It was nothing but water.

[Jeaux]

As tightline said, Venice was hit pretty hard by Katrina. I've been down there twice since then and it's pretty bad. At this time, I don't think that there's anyplace to stay south of Belle Chase. That may change by the Spring. Of course, you can always stay in New Orleans and drive down. I've continued to hear that Venice Marina will be open in January, but I don't know what their status is. The backdown ramp at Cypress Cove is open.

As for the fishing, it was fantastic in November when the river was low. I had a great trip fishing with Capt. Brent Roy. We had a great catch of speckled trout and redfish. Most of the specs went 3 lbs or more and the redfish up to 30 lbs.

There are a number of guides who are working out of Venice right now. I think mostly inshore guys. The offshore captains are working out of Grand Isle and Fourchon. You might want to take a look the guides on rodnreel.com.

If you want to go, you should definitely plan to do so. You just need to plan accordingly since lower Plaquemines Parish is not what it used to be in terms of facilities.

Good luck and come on down!!

[Dr. Fish]

If you want to have fun fishing offshore with the fly rod you should call the boys at Reel Peace charters. They are the best of the best out of Venice. That being said, Venice is no longer so these guys are running out of Fourchon for now until Venice is up and running again which likely will not be until late April or May. Their website is www.reelpeace.com. They run 7 boats are are the dominate offshore guides down there. They can certainly recommend some good inshore guides as well as they know several of them.
THere simply is NO place on earth like the fishing down there. You will be ruined once you go there ;)

[SpexnReds]

Yeah, I'm from Texas and spend most of my time in West and Trinity Bays-winter here is never that hot, but hey, we got specks and reds. You guys out in LA are truely blessed, it's fishing paradise out there. And you guys are gunna be lucky this summer....because of all the hurricanes the tarpon are going to be FAT from all the bait that was blown out of the delta, hopefully some will turn west and pay us a visit here in the lone star state. But enough of that chatter, I have a friend up at TCU whos from NOLA and he says Cocodrie is hot right now....any advice on that?

[Dr. Fish]

So are you looking for inshore/marsh guides for Reds or offshore?

As far as the Tarpon go off LA, they already are giants :eek: . I can't say as I've ever seen one there that was much less than 140lbs and a whole lot of them are 180 or better.

[SpexnReds]

I'm lookin for marsh guides because I want to come down in March, stay in NOLA to go see Kermit Ruffins (GREAT trumpet player) and go to Commander's Palace (my favorite) and go fishin. I'll come down this summer for Tarpon. I've heard a very interesting theory about why yall have large tarpon and why more appear in LA than anywhere else. Some people are speculating that much like Pacific salmon, tarpon may be able to pick up the scent of freshwater. Why? Because freshwater indicates large rivers, which in turn, means FOOD. Also, there are two migrations; one from the west (the Yucatan) and one from the East (Southern FL). As the Mississippi River is the largest source of freshwater in the Gulf area, both migrations of tarpon pick up the "scent" and head straight for the delta, thus yall have more numbers of tarpon and HUGE tarpon than anywhere else (including Costa Rica), and why they seem to be present in Florida and the Yucatan in the Spring and Summer, yet seem to vanish in early fall, where you guys have the strongest season. I thought this was very interesting, and I for one believe it because it seems rather logical, of course, I'm no scientist. I just felt like sharing it with you because I often hear much discussion about the mysterious appearance and dissappearance of Tarpon and their insane number in southeast LA in August-October

[Dr. Fish]

Capt. Blaine Townsend is a well respected guide out of Cocodrie. I fished with him a couple years back and was impressed with his knowledge. His website is www.redfishflyfishing.com. Other than that you could give Capt. Tommy Pellegrin a call. He's primarily a nearshore/offshore guide but he's great with getting customers into fish on flies. You could have a ball with him at the closer rigs and such. He knows his redfish and trout as well. His website is www.customchartersllc.com

[Jeaux]

This reply is a little off-topic, but you may want to check on Commander's. It isn't open yet due to extensive water damage. It is being repaired and I believe they are planning to re-open in late Spring or early Summer.