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

1/24/15

Launched from sweet water marina and met 2 other kayak anglers in bayou gentilly.  Caught a bass by the rock dam, headed to a few other good spots, with no luck.  Eventually made it back to the rock dams and caught 3 more bass.

Wind: WNW 16 mph
Pressure: 30.09
Sunny
Lemon drop under a cork

Minimalist Challenge

The Bayou Coast Kayak Fishing Club has an annual Friday night cookout the night before this tournament where everyone brings a little food and drinks, as we discuss the next day's event, or some of last years trials and errors.  

I was fortunate enough to run into Biggie and offered me a spare bunk instead of sleeping in my truck for the night.  Room consensus was a 4:30am wake up alarm, but we were all out of bed for 4.  We head down to the new Leeville public kayak launch for 4:50 and start setting up and getting our bag of lures for the day.  Minimalist challenge takes you out of your comfort zone by limiting the lures you can use.  You're only allowed to have super glue and leader material with you prior to receiving the goodie bag.  

After all 100 participants got their bags of lures, it was time to get in the water for a 6am shotgun start.  It was still dark, and my safety light's batteries were dead, but I had no other reasonable option, than to risk it and hope a boat didn't run me over.  

As the horn sounded and we were off, it was a chilly 44 degrees.  A mile into my paddle maintaining a 2.6 mph ground speed and leading the pack, it was time to take a few layers off and remember that I should slow down and enjoy the day.  

 My first mission was to head for some rock dams or close by and look for some deep water and pick up a few trout.   I managed to find a hole with a deep drop off from 2 feet almost straight down to 11.  Just because I found a hole, doesn't mean I'd find the fish.  The water was 48 degrees at this point.  I stayed there until 7:45 or so, and decided it was starting to warm up a little bit with the sun showing its face.  At this point I figured I'd look for some reds wanting to warm up on the flats so I changed tactics and found a pond that was 4 feet in the middle, and low flats all the way up to the bank.   The water in the shallows was at 49, and I was able to spot my first red fish sunbathing.  I cast at him a few times, each time ending in failure, and a few times spooking him, but due to the cold water, he didn't spook too far.  A few more cast and a slightly slower retrieve, he gobbled up the all brown minnow and small jig-head.  Set the hook, listen to the drag scream, and hold on!  Went for a winter time Cajun sleigh ride and eventually got him to the boat.  I measured him at 26.25 inches with 27" being the cut off length for this tourney.  

WOOHOO! I'm feeling like I might have the "big fish" category in my grasp.  For the next 3.5 hours I stalked the same area around this lake sight casting reds.  I managed to see at least 100 reds throughout the day, casting at 30 or more, and only getting 3 bites.  I spent 30 minutes in one area that was 4-6 inches deep with the water temp being 54 degrees and the fish were actively chasing little minnows or shrimp out of the water.  In this area there were 4 reds swimming in a 5 foot circle and must have cast 50 different times at them, changing lures, retrieval methods, and casting placement.  They wouldn't bite.

12-12:30 rolls around and I start heading in, planning on fishing the rock dam I stopped at earlier hoping I can find some fish to increase my total weight, but I wasn't able to.  I found some red colored raccoon close to the dam, and then decided to come home and weigh my fish in.

2:10 I get to the weigh station and im 4th in line, not too bad in the case of a tie.  3 o'clock and time to weigh fish.  With me being 4th, I get to hear my weight, and have to wait in suspense while others weigh in.  I've got biggest fish for a while, with a few reds over 7 lbs, but still lighter than mine. Clayton brought in a pretty solid stringer and a bigger looking red than mine, which bumped me out of the running at 8.07 lbs.  Eventually RevRedFish made the cut off time with a new personal best for him at 8.30 lbs.  He brought home the bacon for big fish.  All in all, it was a good tournament and a few people catching their first MC fish, myself included.

New year, New me

Having made plans to fish on the morning of the 1st, I loaded up the boat during the day of New Year's eve, and started to pregame the night's festivities.  Come 11:30 pm, and I end up falling asleep, missing the fireworks, and most importantly, not kissing my wife at 12, and wishing her a happy new year.  Didn't go fishing in the morning because of the hangover, and I have since given up booze, as they were deciding if I was going fishing in the morning, not me.

Jan 3, 2015 - Bob Breck said wind and rain all weekend, but when I awoke at 8am on Saturday, there was a slight breeze and some minor fog.  I loaded up the boat and hit the road.  Launching out of Pip's Marina I headed straight across the lagoon to get some protection from the wind.  The sun was starting to show its face, and the weather was warming up, so I was in search of some reds on the flats.  I couldn't find any reds where I thought they would be so i figured with the falling tide, I would try to fish the mouths of small bayous.  One red followed my Seein spots with a purple haze matrix shad all the way up to the boat, but I missed the bite.  I stayed in that spot a few more minutes with no more bites. I made a move to find another bayou being emptied into the lagoon.  I stayed there for a while and was throwing a lemon drop matrix shad with a 1/4 oz jig-head under a cork.  One bite with that, and the wind started to really pick up.  I came home for 12:30 with nothing but a wet behind.

Temps: 65-72

Skies: rain early, sunny

Pressure: 30.16 - 30.06

Winds: SSE 10-20