What this camera sees

Venice 2 sits on the fuel dock, looking straight out over the basin. Three small gable-roofed pump houses stand along the plank deck, hoses coiled at their bases, a fire extinguisher mounted on one and a life ring hung on another. In front of them the deck meets the concrete apron. Behind them the harbor opens up, with clusters of weathered pilings standing in the water and a line of slips running off to the right.

Across the basin you can usually pick out moored boats, a low treeline on the far bank, and whatever larger working vessel happens to be tied up that day. Gulls and pelicans are regular visitors to the deck edge.

What to watch for

• Boats coming alongside to fuel, the most reliable activity in frame
• The surface of the basin, which shows wind and current before anything else does
• Birds working the pilings and the dock edge
• The far shoreline, which tells you how much haze or rain is sitting over the delta

Best times

Early morning, when the fuel dock is busiest, and the hour before sunset, when the light comes in low across the basin.

A launch point at the mouth of the river

Venice Marina sits at the bottom of Louisiana Highway 23, a few miles from where the Mississippi River splits into its final passes and empties into the Gulf of Mexico. It is a working marina before it is anything else: fuel, ice, slips, a launch, cleaning tables, and a lot that fills before sunrise and empties again by mid-morning.

Inshore and offshore from the same dock

What makes Venice unusual is how little separates the two kinds of fishing that happen here.

• Inshore, the marsh and the passes hold redfish and speckled trout, along with black drum and flounder, in protected water that stays fishable on days when the Gulf is not.
• Offshore, the short run out of the pass puts you near the blue water and the structure Venice is best known for. Yellowfin tuna is the fish most anglers come here chasing, with wahoo, amberjack, snapper and billfish sharing the same water.

A charter fleet works out of Venice year-round, and the marina is also a straightforward public launch for anyone running their own boat.

Why watch the dock

A live view of a marina answers questions a forecast cannot. The camera shows you the surface of the water instead of a wind number, tells you whether the fleet went out this morning, and shows the sky over the coast rather than over the city you are leaving. If you are deciding the night before whether the drive is worth it, ten minutes of watching the docks usually beats another refresh of the marine forecast.

Seasons and best times to watch

• Early morning is the busiest stretch, with boats loading, fueling and clearing the dock between first light and mid-morning.
• Late afternoon brings the fleet back in, and the cleaning tables get busy.
• Spring and fall bring the sharpest weather swings. A front moving through shows on the water long before it is uncomfortable to be out on it.
• Summer is the calmest and the hottest, with the longest stretches of flat water and the most afternoon thunderstorms.
• Winter thins the traffic but not the fishing. The inshore marsh stays productive when the Gulf does not.

The same highway that ends here runs back north through the rest of Plaquemines Parish, so Venice is both the last stop on the road and the obvious base for anything happening at the bottom of the delta.