I couldn’t help asking Capt. Brandon Carter why he chose Venice as the home base for his charter service.
The No. 1 factor, he quickly answered, green eyes gleaming like a tiger’s, is the quality of the fish — the size.
“Another thing is the consistency,” Carter said. “We stay on fish year round. While my specialty is big speckled trout, redfish is a big part of our guiding business. We always catch redfish.
“The only time when a high river seriously affects trout fishing here is in the dead of winter. Trout at that time of year want to be up inside.”
By inside, Carter is referring to the mouths of the cuts (sometimes called “spillways,” for whatever reason) coming off the major passes of the river up inside the delta.
“Venice is also a little less crowded than other areas,” he added, “although that’s changing.”
Venice has also changed, and it has affected the fishing, he acknowledged.
“We lost ponds and shorelines of passes — as much as two miles in the Pass a Loutre area,” Carter said. “The backs of coves used to be solid canes.
“Now the banks are more broken and the coves are less shielded from river water that spills through the breaks, as well as being less protected from the wind.”
