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.
Someday....I want to do this tournament so bad. great article and glad everyone had fun and a safe day.
ReplyDeleteThere is always next year. Make sure you sign up early though, as the tournament directors have limited it to 100 people.
ReplyDelete