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Monthly Archives: August 2013

Yakin’ for Reds with Sportsman TV

August 7, 2013
Fishing, Kayak Fishing, Multimedia, Saltwater, Video
5 Comments

Back in June I had the privilege of filming an episode of Sportsman TV with host Greg Hackney that was focused on kayak fishing. Sportsman TV is a fishing show that airs locally on Cox Sports Television. I got the invite from Blake Gill of Massey’s Outfitters in New Orleans, one of our local Jackson Kayak dealers, who was generous enough to provide kayaks for both Greg and his cameraman/producer/jack-of-all-trades Jared Serigne. I’ve really enjoyed the new format the show has taken this year so helping them out was a no-brainer. Besides Blake and myself, Louisiana Sportsman’s kayak fishing guru Chris Holmes was also on hand.

Due to the presence of Tropical Storm Andrea in the Gulf, we decided the night before to head somewhere we could take cover from the relentless wind conditions we were experiencing.  As we got the launch that morning it was pretty evident that wind wasn’t going to be a factor, in fact it turned out to be a pretty awesome day. The only negative, for me at least, were the high tidal conditions we were experiencing.

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The water was high but we still had a really good day catching redfish. They were holding extremely tight to the grass. Greg picked up on that early on and wore ’em out. I think Greg really enjoyed his time in the kayak. It was his first time in one, but I’m pretty sure he outfished us all.

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I started the day off throwing topwater. I had a few throwback trout explode on my spook. One was right at the boat which was pretty cool to catch on camera. I picked up a couple reds later on and even ended up with a decent flounder to complete a slam.

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I’ve been holding on this report until the episode aired, which ended up being last week. I think Jared did an incredible job editing it all together, the episode came out really good. Anyway, check it out, let me know what y’all think:

Grand Isle again

August 6, 2013
Fishing, Fly Fishing, Kayak Fishing, Saltwater, Wade Fishing
2 Comments

I parlayed the trip down to Leeville for the Slamboree into a week of work on Grand Isle. Blake came down to fish on Sunday, unfortunately the wind that morning was relentless and forced an early exit from the water for us.

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The wind let up a bit after lunch and I made my way to Elmer’s to see if I pick up a few trout in the surf. I caught some trout, mostly throwbacks, but the highlight of the day was this juvenile Jack Crevalle that came on the fly rod.

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The next day meant the start of my work week and I found myself on an island full of these little guys.

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The tides were low and falling fast and had these little hermit crabs exposed on all the tidal flats. Low tides also meant potentially good sight fishing, so that evening I went back to where Blake and I had planned to fish and with better conditions I was able to boat three reds between 18-22″ long. They were tagged and released to fight another day.

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The next island I worked on was full of these black skimmers. They had a large nesting colony not too far from where we docked the boats. Most of their chicks had been fledged, but a few were still too small, including one stubborn guy who plopped down right in our work area.

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A storm forced us off the island a bit early, but fear not, that just led to more specks in the surf – this time off of Grand Isle itself.

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That concludes another fun filled week on the island. It must seem like I don’t do a whole lot of work while I’m down there, but I’m actually putting in roughly sixty hour work weeks while I’m down there. I’ve realized that the extra twenty hours I work is the time I had set aside to update the blog, so forgive the dead air.

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Slamboree

August 5, 2013
Fishing, Kayak Fishing, Saltwater, Tournaments
1 Comment

While the stinkpot (motorboat to the non-kayak fisher) crowd was having their fun in Grand Isle at the annual Tarpon Rodeo, I participated in the LA 1 Slamboree tournament up the road in Leeville. Named in honor of the highway we love to kayak fish, the event is put on by the Lafayette Kayak Fishing Club and sponsored by Lafayette JK dealer Pack & Paddle. The event featured slam, leopard red, and heavy red categories, with the leopard red winner receiving a brand new Cuda 12. Also available to kayak anglers was a speckled trout calcutta for a small additional cost.

The weather for the event was pretty typical kayak fishing tournament weather, steady winds and rain showers. I launched at an area I knew would be protected from the West wind. It was actually an area that I had never fished, but the marsh down here is pretty much all the same. I began the day throwing topwater looking for any resident trout, the only action I saw was from this guy:

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Switched it up to Gulp! under a cork and ended up catching some throwback trout. Soon enough I was hearing redfish crashing bait in the marsh and that proved to be the end of my trout fishing. I spent the rest of the day chasing reds, figuring the law of averages would catch up with me and one would either have lots of spots, or be extreme upper slot.

It was a strategy that never paid off, but I had a lot of fun catching slot reds and black drum. I did catch one big red that went over slot, not quite the tournament fish I was looking for, but it proved to be a great fight.

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The biggest red I had to weigh only went 24.5″ and was a little over 5 lbs. None of my reds had more than 2 spots. No tournament winnings this go round, but it was nice to see a lot of my friends on the leaderboard:

Speckled trout calcutta – Brendan Bayard

Heavy red winner  – Tommy Eubanks

Leopard Red winner – Gairi Williamson

Slam winners

1. Steve Neece – 11.7 lbs

2. Wayne Lobb – 9.13 lbs

3. Steve Lessard – 8.55 lbs

4. Ryan Alleman – 8.3 lbs

5. Toby Armand – 8.21 lbs

Congrats guys! Big thanks to Pack & Paddle and LKFC for putting on a great event. I look forward to fishing more events thrown by these guys.