What this camera sees

Venice 3 takes the widest view of the three. Mounted beside one of the marina buildings, it looks down the length of the dock and out across the water. A large American flag hangs from a pole off the building at the left of frame, with a wooden stair running up beside it. The concrete apron gives way to a plank dock, where a gable-roofed kiosk stands with a life ring on its side and smaller boats tie up alongside.

From there the view opens out onto a long run of pilings reaching into the basin, the far bank, and whatever is moving on the water in between.

What to watch for

• Boats tying up and pulling away from the dock face
• People moving between the buildings and the dock, the marina's daily rhythm
• The flag, which gives you wind direction and strength at a glance
• Weather building over the marsh on the far side of the water

Best times

Mid-morning through afternoon, when the light is full on the dock and traffic is steady. The flag is worth a look any time you want a read on conditions before committing to the drive.

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.