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....
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