Fall n Tide 10 11/14/2015

           Every year Bayou Coast Kayak Fishing Club hosts the Fall n Tide fishing tournament down in Venice, La.  The boundaries are everything south of the Belle Chase tunnel, and you must launch from Hwy 23.  It is a Cajun Slam format which means to win the grand prize, you must catch a slot redfish, 12"+ trout and flounder.  

          The captains meeting was held at Cypress Cove Marina, Friday night at 7 PM.  After the meeting, I was able to pick a few people's brains on some info on the current fishing situations, and almost everyone said that it was going to be a tough day tomorrow, as there was no water to be found, and the water that you could find, was super muddy.  I told everyone that my plan was to hit the wagon wheel, as I did 2 years prior.  Everyone laughed at me and my horrible decision.  We stayed up a little later sharing fish stories and enjoying a few adult beverages, but the 5 AM wake up for me, and 2 AM wake up that others had, meant it wasn't going to be a late night.

           Sleeping in my truck to save a few bucks meant I was able to wake up at 4 AM without having the alarm go off.  The reports of low water, and not having fished this area for 2 years, I decided to wait until 5:30 to launch the boat, so I'd have a little bit of light.  I launched on Tidewater road by some rocks, and headed north.  Each paddle stroke as I'm leaving the launch, I'm hitting the bottom with my paddle.  Little did I know that this was going to come back and haunt me.  My plan was to get into the wagon wheel and hide from the wind, which was blowing 10-15 knots from the northeast prior to the sun coming up, and was only going to get worse as the day went on.  Plans almost never work with me, and kayak fishing.  I head deeper into the wheel, expecting the canals that I see on the GPS, to go all the way through to where my destination is.  They don't.  Small dams have been built in most of them to stop the movement of water and further erosion.  

         I continue to paddle to the north side of the wheel where I finally come to a cut that has a small pond draining into it.  I see some commotion near the shoreline, and suspect its a redfish, but it could also be caused by a gar.  Either way, I'd rather try to catch a good fish, and catch trash, than assume its a trash fish, and not catch a good one.  I started off by throwing a Seein' spots inline spinner, tipped with a black and chartreuse Matrix Shad.  No luck, and that was confusing to me, because a Seein' Spots is my go-to lure.  With that, I thought even more so, that the swirls were caused by a gar.  I didnt want to give up on it yet, so I changed to a Vudu shrimp under a cork, with hopes of the dirty water preventing the fish from seeing the lure, to having to hear the lure.  BINGO! that was the trick.  After a few casts, my cork drops underwater, and the fight is on.  He is putting up a good fight, and all I can think of is, "Please be under 27, please be under 27."  I finally net the fish, make sure I get the fish grip on him, and pull the measuring board out.  26" even.  Ill take it.  With conditions being as tough as they were, I knew other people would be having a bad day too, so into the box he goes.  I stayed at that spot for another 15 min before I started heading into some main canals looking for a flounder.  

         Flounder are quite mythical creatures, and I'm pretty sure it takes being a fish whisperer to consistently catch one.   I'm not that guy.  2 hours of dragging the bottom and catching several blades of marsh grass, I gave up on the flounder, knowing I didn't have time to pick up, relocate, and find a trout.  I decided my best bet would be to find some more reds, and just go for the largest red.  There was a pond that had some water moving through it, and a few splashes that I noticed while looking for the flounder, so as I aim my focus into the pond, I keep my eyes peeled, and see so many good signs of reds.  Swirls like the ones from the last red, tails, and bait jumping out of the water.  I set the stake out pole at the entrance of the pond with the wind to my back.  Using the wind to my advantage, I cast my Vudu out what seemed like 100 yards.  A few pops of the cork, and it disappears, heck yes!  My drag slowly peels off, but nothing too serious, so I know its not a monster.  About 19 inches, perfect for the grill, but this isn't fishing for food, I've got a tourney to win.  Back in the water he goes.  I see more swirls coming from another grass patch, as I throw to it, the wind catches the bait and shoots me off about 45 degrees of where I was aiming.  Center of the pond, shucks.  As soon as the cork hit the water, it was under, I must have landed right on the fish.  I catch a few more at this spot, as well as a 27 5/8 red, which I stuck in the box with hopes of some shrinking in the ice water.  

          By noon, I've been asked by 3 boats if I need help, but knowing that would give me the DQ, I manned up and started paddling back.  While in the wagon wheel, I had the current in my favor, but the wind was never helpful.  I popped out by a small gas platform which is where I entered the wheel, but this time, I had to get 300-400 yards off the bank to find water deep enough to paddle.  The wind is 15-20 knots from the east now, and I've got to head almost due south to get back to the truck.  A crosswind like that is no joke.  Breaks were taken, and curse words were said.  That paddle was tough!  The last 100 yards I could see where another kayaker had dredged through to get back to their vehicle, and I knew I was in for a struggle.  There was approximately 1 inch of water and 100 yards to go.  

          My 1st thought was to throw my anchor, and p-=ull myself to it, but its a grappling hook, and it doesn't hold in soft mud very well.  2nd plan of attack: get out and try to walk through the mud, while sliding the yak.  1 half step, and the mud is up to my knee.  That wont work.  Plan "C" is just a combination of doing the humptydumpty, rocking back and forth to form a hole in the mud for the boat to float, and push pole with the paddle.  Luckily that was the last plan i needed.  One other club member and his wife had to use the Mack daddy plan of all plans.  Call 911 and get an air-boat for the rescue.  Not saying any names, but he received the dogris award.  Congrats!

  

          Weigh in starts for 3 PM-4.  I'm number 3, and I watch our weigh master do a back breaking chiropractic number on my redfish to see if he could stretch it to 27.  The fish came in at 26.5" and weighing in at 8.93 lbs.  I knew this was a solid weight, but had no idea if it was going to be enough for 1st.  The fish cleaner never showed up, so at the last minute, we had 5 of us that stepped up to clean the fish caught to feed the anglers.  Most people said that their day of fishing was tough, and very few slams were caught, with 4th-7th being 2 fish stringers.

         As the results come in, and awards are passed out, I ended up taking home 1st place biggest red, and Eric Stacey got the 2nd largest red with 8.33 lbs.  The 1st place Cajun Slam was caught by a visitor from Romania.  His skills and hard work paid off, and he was able to take the PA rodeo ride at the end of the night.  Congrats to everyone that participated, and a HUGE thank you to BCKFC for holding the event.  

$200, and some sort of major award

Massey's Teammate Eric Muhoberac and I.  He got 1st place trout.

The aftermath of getting suck, and having to get myself out.

Adventure Fishing World Championship

The alarm goes off at 4:29am (I know, I'ma weirdo) Saturday morning, and I just have to do the daily morning routine to get ready.  I'm out of the door for 4:55, and text my partner Chris to let him know I'm on time, and to make sure he is awake too.  On the short 40 minute drive, I notice the moon has a shadow cast on it, giving it a strange glow.  Being the fisherman that I am, I start to wonder what superstitions will come of it.  I let the other anglers know about the eclipse happening, and only a few seemed interested in the space side of things.

I believe the fellas name was John, but he was a big ol' fella from Heroes On the Water.  I called him over to Chris and my boat for a team checkoff to make sure we had our required equipment of a flare, compass, map, 2 gallons of water, whistle, 2 rain coats, 2 lights, and first aid kit.  As he was inspecting our gear, a drone flew over getting what I can assume is a great video shot of all 100 kayaks lined up ready to go.  

6:45 we received the maps, but weren't allowed to open them until 7.  The anticipation continued to build until they finally blew the whistle at 7.

7am, start of the event.  3 or 4 teams immediately launched their boats from Sweetwater marina in Delacroix, La.  Chris and I opened the map to set a game plan knowing that from 7am-2pm we would have a 20+ mph north wind. 

Our plan of attack would be to hit 5, followed by 2, then work our way to 1, and if we had enough time, figure out how to get to #4.  Checkpoint 5 is double points, while 2 and 1 are single.  4, is also double.  It is a requirement to get at least 3 fish scored, while you can only get 1 score per location. 

As we headed down bayou Gentilly, the wind picked up from super calm, to the forecast 20+.  It was almost a straight tailwind, and knowing that we had a long day ahead of us, I decided to not paddle and just you my Jackson Cuda rudder kit to steer me down the bayou.  

We get to the mouth of little lake and find the Native flag flying indicating that we are at the checkpoint.  The token master is on land, so I need to dock my boat and get out to receive the token so we can catch a fish and get a score.  As I get the token and head back into my boat, Chris says to me, "OK boss, lead the way."  Now I haven't ever fished with him before, but I have known to respect him and his fishing abilities, and when he called me boss, I really felt the metaphoric hammer drop and the pressure build.  I point to a spot in the distance, and suggest we hit this area, as I don't think too many people know of it, and it produces quality fish most of the time I go there.  So we head west from the token and start getting a side swell and side wind as we begin to cross little lake. At this time I realize I've lost my net at some point.  So great, not only if I lose a fish due to not having a net do I let myself down, I let my partner down too.  

We get to the location in record time, I anchor up casting distance to the bank, and start throwing a vudu shrimp under a cork.  Its not my preference, but with these conditions, I really wasn't sure what to throw.  Chris headed back into the cut to see if he could pull something out of the ponds.  I was the first one to get a bite, and after an extremely quick 10 seconds, the fish spit the hook.  Dag nabbit!@!!!  I recast close to the shore again a few more times, and quickly get another fish.  This time, I land it, and its a 16'ish inch red.  16 inches in double points gives us 32.  That is a pretty solid number, but a really small fish, so we decide to stay a little longer and upgrade our fish.  Chris then catches a 22 inch red, we take a picture and at this point I'm getting pretty excited because I realize my partner is a catcher, and not just a fisher.  He decides that we should start working our way back, but fishing the shoreline as we do.  Right as he says that, he hooks up with another nice red.  This one is 26.5".  Now its really time to return our token and head to our next destination.

We return our token and I plug in the 2nd checkpoint into my gps.  1.3 NM as the crow flies.  Well, we aren't a crow, nor were we flying.  We found a mud flat that we had to almost get out and pull the boats behind us, and our 1.3 mile trip quickly turned to 2.  We are working our way to CP2, and see "The fishfinder" and he says they've caught a nice red, but are still trying to upgrade before moving on.  We get to the spot and decide to continue east because it looks like less people are working this shoreline.  We ended up passing a few people that were fishing the banks, and I found a small but deep cut opening up into a large lake.  Chris went his direction to fish, while I went in this cut, and eventually found a fish chasing bait around.  I threw my bait to him, and he swallowed it up.  As I started reeling the fish up and fighting him while drag was peeling off, I did my usual look down for the net to realize I didn't have it anymore.  So when the red got closer to the boat, I just wrapped the 30 lb test leader around my hand and yanked up.  It was a successful move, but sliced my finger with the line between my digits.  Oh well, I'll live.  We take a pic of my fish, and it was 23.  A quick revival session, and we were off.  Time to return the token and head to the next spot.

1.8NM to the next location... luckily though, it was as straight as the crow flies... sorta.  We had to traverse a rock dam and try to fit a fat Hobie Outback through a narrow wooden dam, which it didn't fit, so we had to carry Chris' boat over the marsh land.

We finally get a rest as we get the token from CP1.  We are close to the launch, and not far from a few spots that I'v caught plenty of reds at before.  Unfortunately, I've never fished these spots in these conditions, and the water was too low for us to get to where we needed to.  We struggled to find a fish, but Chris was able to blind cast a 13" bass from the middle of a pond.  We have a little Gatorade and look at the clocks to determine what our next move is.  Its only 1:45, so we still had plenty of time to put on our wheels and walk to our 4th checkpoint, which would be double points.  

We return our token back to the CP1 token master, and make our way back to Sweetwater marina.  2:30, we are on solid land, our kayaks have wheels, and we are walking.  We have to be back at Sweetwater for 5:59:59pm, not a second later, or we would get the big DNF.

We get to our last checkpoint for 3pm.  It took us 30 min to get there, so now we know how much time it will take us to get back.  We launch behind the pumpingstation and start looking for reds.  After a little while I land a 16 inch red, but it will ultimately be the last fish of the day for us.  We eventually pack up our things and start the journey back to the marina for weigh ins.  The walk back took us a little bit longer than the walk there, as the full extent of the day's journey is starting to kick in.  

 At the end of the day, we ended up using 2 of my fish, and 2 of Chris'.  The fact that I was able to keep up with him was a huge confidence booster, and as a team we were able to place in the top 10 in a World Championship.  I was fortunate enough to meet the creator and owner of Jackson Kayaks, Eric "EJ" Jackson.  Total, we covered 15.6 miles, trekked over 12 feet of dams, and walked 1.75 miles while carrying our kayaks.  This was an adventure I'm likely not to forget for a long time, and one that I can't wait to do again.  

Here is my trophy that I won, as "Top 10 get paid"

No, not that one, the one on the left....

Last prefish before the big AFWC

Launched for 6:45 planning on making it a long day.  I started off by heading to the graveyard to ultimately go past it, but found 2 islands with a little bit of moving water between them, and decided to throw in the middle of them.  Landed 2 speckled trout in 30 min.  Not great, but its the first ones of the year.  Having seen some predatory fish crash up on the bank a few times about 100 yards away from me, I decided to pick up anchor and see if I could catch one.   No luck at this spot.  As I continued my way down into an area I had not fish before, I see 2 other kayakers coming from that direction, which I thought was weird as it was still only 9am and they were coming back.  I ultimately made it to the destination of unexplored area, and was able to catch a 17" large mouth.  I continued to move into what I suspected to be a large pond with grass.  I was wrong, it was a large mudflat filled with reds trying to warm up from the 54 degree night they just endured.  It was easy pickins from there.  If I saw them swimming, I was able to cast past them, bring the lure in front of their face, and Fish On!  There was a few occasions that I thought I saw a fish, but it turned out to be nothing, so I kept the lure out there, waiting for a fish to swim between me and the lure, and was able to trick him into taking the bait.  The wind started to pick up at this time, and decided it would be best to take some shelter behind some marsh grass, or find a different area.  Just a few hundred yards from the mudflat I was fishing at, I found a small cut coming into the main bayou.  I put my anchor down and cast into the cut allowing the current to bring my bait back to me a little.  The cork went under in no time, and on the other end of it was a small redfish.  It was under 16 inches, so I had to throw him back.  I caught another 2 or 3 small ones in this spot, changing up lures and tactics to see what was working, and everything was.  The 4th red caught in this spot was a 25" red which spooked the rest of them out of there, as I didn't get another bite for a while before I made up my mind to move.  I moved another few hundred yards down this main bayou until I found another cut, this one leading back up into the graveyard.  I anchored here and caught some reds.  I eventually moved through this cut into the graveyard, seeing a redfish swimming in circles, with an inch or 2 of its back sticking out of the water.  My first thought was to catch it, but when he wouldn't bite, I thought it would be a better idea to save him.  So I did my best to spook him until he got scared and swam past the 1 inch of water land barrier entrapping him.  From here, I was able to sight cast several more reds in crystal clear water with a small amount of grass at the bottom.  The gold spoon didn't work at this area, so I switched to a chartreuse H&H cocahoe with a jig head.  The reds couldn't resist, and there were a few times that even after I had one hooked, I could see it's friends swimming around following him.  I ended the day with 11 pics of reds, but I know that I didn't take pics of all of them, so I think 15 or more redfish, 2 speckled trout, and 1 large mouth bass.

Skies: clear
temps 55-80
water: dirty to clear
lures: gold spoon, natural vudu shrimp under a cork, chartreues cocahoe under a cork and jighead
wind: SE 10

3/22

Fished before going to the fairgrounds to meet up with my family that was in town for Rachel and Nicks wedding.  Caught 2 reds on aqua dream spoons, moved to a different spot after spooking some while using the ice fishing pole.  Went to coordinates that a friend gave me for speckled trout, caught a big catfish on vudu, moved a little into moving water and caught several reds, bass, and fresh cats while anchored.   8 reds, 2 bass, 2 cats

Temps: 70-80
Skies: Clear
Wind: 0-8 MPH West
Pressure: 29.95

3/16/15

Launched at Sweetwater marina and headed to the graveyard to see if i could start the day with a red or 2.  Caught a red on a gold Aqua-dream spoon at the first island.  Found a major pass and started throwing a vudu under a cork, and caught a red and a trout.  Went south towards bayou gentilly and found another island that was hiding a redfish in it.  Headed into the wind looking for areas I had never fished before, but found some moving water, and threw a Seein spots along the bank, another red.  Made a move, but couldn't find any more fish for a while.  Made it to little lake, anchored in the spot that Nick and I had caught fish at before, landing another 3 rat reds, all on vudu under a cork.  Started making my way out of little lake, back into explore mode.  Found a cut that was maybe 8 inches deep, and opened into a large lake.  I started throwing a vudu under a cork at what i thought was gar.  My cork would keep going under, but I couldn't seem to set the hook.  After about 5 times, I notice the vudu shrimp had no hook.  I switched over to a chartreuse matrix shad under a cork, and caught a 27' red.  Having suspected that was the gar, I threw out again in a close by area, landing another red.  From here I stay anchored and catch another 7-10 reds in one spot.  As the spot dies down, I make my move to patrol the shoreline, catching another 7-10.

Winds: W 15+ AM, 0-2PM
Tide: falling
Temps: 60-80
Clouds, overcast to clear
Lures: Matrix shad chartreuse under a cork, vudu, gold spoon, seein spots
Total distance: 8.1 miles

3/8/15

Pre-fishing Delacroix for Adventure worlds fishing championships.  Exploring some new areas for me so I can have as much knowledge of the entire area prior to the tourney.  Fished with Nick, and saw Chris at the launch.  Found a hole about 8 feet deep while the rest of the area was 1-2 feet, and was able to find a 35 inch freshwater catfish. Later found some moving water at a pinchpoint and landed 2 more large mouth bass.
Natural colored Vudu shrimp under a cork
Wind: 7-10
Temps: 54-70
Pressure: 30.29
Skies: Partly Cloudy

3/1/15

delacroix

7:15-11:00

winds 12 MPH ENE

Temps: 57-61

Water clarity: clear

Overcast skies with slight fog

Seein' spots with chartruse matrix shad

When the cat's away, the mice will play

My wife is enjoying herself on a much needed vacation, while I stay at the home front to keep an eye on the dogs, and fill the freezer back up with fish.

On my drive to Delacroix this morning, Dogdad passed me up while I was pulled over, and he was kind enough to stop and ask me if everything was alright.  Everything was, but that is the comradery that I enjoy so much about kayak fishing.  He offered me an invite to one of his honey holes, but I had to decline as I'm trying to learn new parts of Delacroix so I can be the best teammate I can be for AWFC.  

After talking to Jumpmaster0664 (sorry, I'm horrible with names) at Sweetwater marina, we went our separate ways.  He was in search of trout, while I was looking for bass and/or redfish.  I paddled for about 45 min before I even put a line in the water, and even then, I had another 15 minutes before I really started fishing.  I found a canal with ponds coming off of it on Google earth, so I thought it would be deep, but for most of the day I was only in 2 feet of water or less.

As I wind my way through the canal, it opened up into a large pond, and I could see several tails breaking the surface.  Water visibility was extremely low, but the fact that the redfish were waving a flag as if they needed a refill at Poncho's made finding them easy.  I wasn't really planning on keeping any, so the first 3 or 4 were all released before I decided to start keeping them.   

Around 11 I left the main canal and ponds, heading deeper into the broken marsh, where I was able to pick up 3 reds right at the 17" mark.  After a small throwback red, I saw something busting up some bait down wind of me, so I knew it was only a matter of time before I was in casting distance.  1st cast aimed at him, was just right.  A short battle later, 27.5".  I stop to take a Massey's Fish Pic, and release him.  

The wind was starting to pick up pretty bad so I figured I'd hit one last spot that was on the plan, and then I'd head home.  While letting the wind drift me to where I needed to go, I slowly drift over a pretty decent size red.  The first cast was too far ahead of him and I didn't have enough room between him and the kayak, so I had to recast, this time he took the Seein' spots inline spinner.  He starting pulling me in the direction I was originally going which would mean less fishing area, so I threw down the stakeout pole, and fought the battle anchored.  When I finally get him to the boat, hes bigger than the last bull red, so I take out the token, take a pic and let him go.  

All of the reds had leaches on them.  The bite was never phenomenal, but it was higher than normal, and with the water warming up, so should the bite.  

I missed several large reds that would pull off 40+ feet of line on the initial run, then turn and spit the hook.  It was rather frustrating because I know that they were likely to be over 30".

 The 7" tapered fillet knife by Bubba Blade made short work of the fish today.

Temps: 63-73
Wind: 0-10 MPH
Skies: Clear
Water clarity: 6 inches tops
Water temps: 58-68
Seein' spots with black/chart

Exploratory Delacroix trip

In lieu of the recent Mardi Gras murders, I opted out of going to parades and spent some time on the water.  As I began unloading the boat, I immediately realized that I remembered to grab the fish finder battery, but forgot the faceplate.  So much for having a true water depth for the day.  I ended up combat launching so the paddle wouldn't be as long as if I had launched from Sweetwater.  The goal was to get on the north side of Lake Robin, which was successful.  I didn't see any fish action until the afternoon.  Found some grass patches in about 3-4 feet of water and was able to pull 7 bass out of them.  The red was caught on a mud flat that I could see them tailing while I was fishing for the bass.  Ill be changing my tactics up for next week to see if I can pull a larger bass from a bed.

 This little guy must have been sick.  He didn't fly away with all the others, but when I splashed my hand in the water he came to me.  He allowed me to pick him up and pet him for a minute or 2.

 Possibly my biggest bass to date.  I hope to get one over 10 lbs this year, but that is a high goal.

 3 casts, 3 bass

 Id throw my Seein' Spots over these grass pads and try to pull the bass from them.

 The only red I was able to catch.  Most of the reds that I was able to see, had about an inch or so of their tail sticking completely out of the water.

Temps: 46-68

Wind: West 6-9 MPH

Skies: Clear

Pressure: 30.26

2/7/15

Full moon, north wind, and falling tide, all together results into some extremely low tides.  Having launched out of Campo's marina with Dominique, we headed behind the rocks so we could catch some fish, and I could hopefully find one of the large bass I had caught last week.  With the weather being warm, I had high hopes for both of us getting into a mess of fish.  Finding an opening of a bayou into a large shallow flat, we saw plenty of swirls which ended up being reds.  Dominique isnt much of a stander as hes been swimming 2 of the 3 times hes come with me.  I was able to put him on a red early, and I was able to find one for myself, but no large bass this time.  

Dominique with his 26.5" red

My red was a hair over 28, but pinching the tail, taking a picture, and keeping him in the boat was out of the question.

Temps: 46/65

Skies: clear

Wind: 5-9 mph NE

Tide: Extremely Low

Seein spots with lemon drop, and purple haze

Pressure: 30.26

No shortcuts in fishing

I stayed at home for an extra hour while I waited for the sun to come up and start warming the water up.  Last night's lows were 48 with a high of 61.  I put in at Campo's Marina in Shell Beach (free for yakkers).  I got on the water for 7:30 or so and battled the wind to cross the MRGO so I could position myself against some marsh and get some protection from the eastern wind.  I see two other yakkers ahead of me, but they turn around shortly and head back the direction we all came.

I figured with the wind lasting all day and never changing direction, I'd head as far as I could as early as I could so I could catch a tail wind on the way back.  I was in about 2 feet of water for most of the trip as I stayed facing mostly east winding my way through the marsh.  I hadnt seen a single sign of life in the water other than a few nutria until about 9:30.  I spooked my first red which I ran right up on, but in seeing it, i knew thatt they would be heading into the shallower water to warm up.  I found a random pass that was well over 6 feet deep while the rest of the marsh stayed shallow.  As I got closer to Douluts Canal, I started looking for ways into it, in hopes of finding some trout in it.  

I found myself trying to take shortcuts into Douluts Canal, looking for an entrance, where at times I was only 10 feet away from it with only marsh mud and grass in between me and my goal.  Eventually I made it after I got stuck and had to do the "Humpty Dump" move to scoot my kayak through the mud and slop.  

At this point, zero fish have been landed, zero bites have been had, and only 1 red and a few gar have been spotted.  I made the decision to head back closer to home and through the ponds that I had seen fish in earlier, in hopes of them showing up to bask in the flats.  

I somehow find the same pond and the same spot I caught sight of the first red, and see the 2nd red sighting of the day.  The wind has a firm grip on my kayak and the redfish goes from 12, to 3, to 6 o'clock real fast, which I stick the stakeout pole in the mud just in time to miss him and see a mud swirl brew up.    My kayak continues to turn around and face me west where I can see some sort of something in the water, which I couldnt tell if it was a fish, or a rock, so I cast past it and slightly right, and as soon as my Seein' Spots got perpendicular with him, he took off like a rocket and inhaled the lure.  Fish on!!  First fish on my new setup, and the reel is screaming and the rod is bent in half.  I like everything about this moment.  Get the fish into the boat, picture, unhook, tell him a secret, and release.

 I pick up my stakeout pole and let the wind drift me accordingly.  I was hard to sight cast with the wind and the waves, so I was mostly just casting where I figured fish would be.  Fish 2 and 3 also caught on Seein' Spots.

At this point I'm figuring I've worked this area hard enough, I'll head even closer to home and maybe I can pick up 1 or 2 more, and maybe finish the day with a limit of reds caught.  I get back to familiar territory and 2 casts in a row I miss a fish, where the 2nd one was splashing on the surface chasing my lure.   I drop the anchor and cast in the same area multiple times, with at least 1 bite every cast, sometimes more.  I determine that I'm playing with some smaller fish, so I change over to a cork and jighead method.  I catch this beautiful large mouth bass, followed by another 2.

Now I'm feeling pretty good and finished the day with 6 reds released and 4 bass also released.  The bass are really starting to plump up.  

 I've been told that a blue tail means that the fish is/was actively feeding.

Wind: ENE 12 mph

Low: 49 High: 61

Weapon of choice: Seein' Spots with Nightruse matrix shad

Clear skies mostly sunny

Fishing trip #4