The Saturday Letter · Vol. 1 · No. 30
July 20 – July 26, 2026 · July fundamentals · Louisiana · 1 of 1 desk · frozen Saturday issue
Permalink: /newsletter/2026-07-25
This week on your coast
Birdfoot tarpon if you already know the water. Night and first-light reds. Trout in the lakes.
This edition is Louisiana only — Louisiana. Coasts you did not elect stay off this letter. Scores are 1–10. They are not bite guarantees. Read this month’s seasonal fundamentals.
Louisiana
Louisiana desk
River is the tide
Today
medium
Redfish should be the day — flood the west-bank ponds, then the south passes if the bulls are in.
Birdfoot tarpon if you already know the water. Night and first-light reds. Trout in the lakes.
— Tide is incoming from NOAA.
— On this coast the wind often outruns the printed tide. Observed water is -0.35 ft versus the prediction.
Open the Venice briefBox score · July
Tarpon
Louisiana
Keys migratory peak Apr–May. Boca Grande Pass is the spring stack. Jupiter inlet and beach. Texas beach/passes mid-summer. Venice south passes in the heat. Bahamas: resident fish in bights Apr–Oct.
Mangrove / gray snapper
Louisiana
The snapper that will live in a Texas jetty and a Keys creek. Schoolies on structure. Bigger fish on the wrecks. Not a yellowtail.
Red snapper
Louisiana
Gulf wrecks and snapper banks. Texas and Louisiana live on this fish in a short federal window. Not a Galveston grass headline. Not a Keys yellowtail.
Tripletail
Louisiana
Summer Gulf. Traps, weed, and channel markers. Texas and Louisiana live on this fish. Not a wreck grouper.
King mackerel
Louisiana
Texas and Florida summer kings. The beach and the first wrecks. Not a trout. Not a wahoo.
Noise, not the headline: Jack crevalle.
Rules
No coast-wide harvest closure is on the board this week. Still verify before you keep a fish.
July by region, type, and speciesRegs citedLDWF recreational saltwater · current LDWF coastal finfish · rolls in 8 days. Louisiana flounder is typically closed Oct 15–Nov 30. Verify LDWF the week you keep one.