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Massey’s BCKFC Fish Pics Tournament

December 12, 2013
Fishing, Fly Fishing, Freshwater, Kayak Fishing, Retail, Saltwater, Tournaments, Warmwater
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You may have noticed throughout the year that some of my fish pictures had a little card identifying my participation in an eight month long catch-photo-release tournament:

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The tournament, put on by Bayou Coast Kayak Fishing Club and Massey’s Outfitters, was free for club members to participate in and ran from March 1st through October 31st. It consisted of seven categories over two divisions:

  • Conventional Rod and Reel Division

    • Speckled Trout
    • Redfish
    • Flounder
    • Large Mouth Bass

  • Fly Rod Division

    • Speckled Trout
    • Redfish
    • Large Mouth Bass

What made this CPR tournament a little different was it’s point structure. Normally overall aggregate length wins in a slam tournament like this, but this one was different because each category was awarded a fixed amount of points. The goal was then to get the most points by trying to catch the longest fish in each category. This made each species just as important as the last and protected the tournament from being dominated by one really long catch. Each division would win a kayak so no division held more value over the other, both fly and conventional divisions would be competitive.

This tournament was a lot of fun to fish because it was so multifaceted. It lasted eight months, so my interest in kayak fishing was at an all time high during that time. There was potential in every trip to upgrade your standing and work your way to the top. It also highlighted species that I normally don’t focus on and really helped me to become a better angler for them. I made specific trips to fish for largemouth and intentionally fished for flounder – these things don’t normally happen and it was a lot of fun.

I didn’t do as well as I would have liked, getting 4th overall on the conventional side and 5th in the fly, but I was lucky enough to enter a fish in every category and being the only angler to do so the tournament organizers felt I deserved a special prize – a brand new Bending Branches Angler Pro paddle!

BCKFCawards(Photo credit: Brendan Bayard)

I also took home a $100 check for 4th, not bad for a free tournament! A big thanks to the fine folks at Massey’s for their generosity. The rest of the results are below:

Conventional Aggregate
1st Clayton Shilling
2nd Steve Lessard
3rd Mark Eubanks
4th Ben Roussel
5th Steve Neece

Fly Aggregate
1st Jonathan Craft
2nd Kevin Andry
3rd Glen Cormier

Youth Aggregate
Rory Craft
Big Trout
Donnie Elliot
Big Red
Lance Burgos
Big Flounder
Michael Drenski
Big Bass
Don Hallet

It took a number of trips to earn the 4th place finish as I was upgrading fish throughout the year, but I didn’t catch anything memorable until the IFA championship. That’s when I was able to get a 31″ red and a 22.5″ trout.

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I was pretty disappointed that 31″ was the biggest red I could get because early in the year I had a few reds over 40″! At 22.5″ though, the trout may have been the biggest I’ve ever caught, so really stoked to have that fish to use for two different tournaments – the IFA championship and the Massey’s CPR tourney.

My flounder was caught while we were filming for Sportsman’s TV in June. It went 17″ and flopped in the water shortly after taking it’s picture, which was fortunate because I haven’t caught a bigger flounder since. Maybe I’m cursed after catching two monsters at Fall N Tide last year.

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The bass was an even bigger disappointment than the red. I caught it during a daytrip up to the Kisatchie National Forest. I thought I had a good shot at catching a nice bass at one of the lakes up that way, but all I could muster was this little guy, who went just a hair over 13″.

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Pretty embarrassing, but rules state they had to be caught on public water and I felt like this was the best place to get a monster and it didn’t pan out. I’ll have to spend a little more time on bass next year and hopefully find an even better spot.

What’s more embarrassing is that this was all it took to get 4th. You’d think that in a club with well over 300 members and the tournament being free this event would be a no-brainer for everyone, but it seemed to be the same core group of 20-30 competing with each other. Hopefully year two of the Massey’s Fish Pics tournament will be bigger and better and even more folks will compete – to me, if you have a kayak and fish in Louisiana, it’s worth the cost of a BCKFC membership ($25 last time I checked) to participate.

Fukushima Crab

November 26, 2013
Fly Fishing, Fly Tying, Saltwater
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Bull red season is in full swing in Louisiana and the fly of the month for November should help you get one to eat, provided you make an accurate cast of course. It is Blake’s take on a Tim Borski classic, the Chernobyl crab, that he calls the Fukushima crab.

Materials:

  • Your favorite hook – I used a mustad 34011, size 2

  • Dumbbell eyes – pick a size suitable for your hook and the depth you wish to fish

  • Marabou

  • Deer hair for spinning

  • Hackle

  • Schlappen

  • Rubber legs

Step 1. Start thread, tie in dumbbell eyes and bring thread to the start of the bend.

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Step 2. Tie in a small amount of marabou about as long as the hook shank. Wetting it slightly makes it easier to handle.

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Step 3. Tie in a few strands of natural deer body hair on the underside of the hook. This should be the length of the entire hook.

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Step 4. Tie in a few pieces of flash on either side of the hook shank. Later trim this so that it is a little bit longer than the rest of the materials.

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Step 5. Tie in a hackle feather on either side of the shank. I like for them to splay out, but I’m sure they would be fine tied in the other way also.

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Step 6. Tie in a schlappen feather.

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Step 7. Cut, clean, and stack(even the tips) a small amount of deer hair, maybe ¾ of a pencil. We aren’t packing a popper here, so you don’t need a giant amount of material. Measure the tips to make a collar at the back of the fly and spin the deer hair around the shank.

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Step 8. Tie in a set of rubber legs with figure 8 wraps. I like to add a little super glue for durability..

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Step 9. Move thread forward of the legs and spin another clump of deer hair. No need to stack this one. I cut the tips off of it since I don’t need to form a collar which leaves less material to get in the way.

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Step 10. Tie in another set of legs.

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Step 11. Spin another clump of deer hair.

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Step 12. Tie in the last pair of legs right behind the dumbbell eyes.

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Step 13. Whip finish the thread and trim the body of the crab making sure not to cut the rubber legs, the schlappen feather, or the collar. I ended up trimming the collar on the bottom of the fly and leaving it on the top of the fly.

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Step 14. Start the thread again and bring it behind the dumbbells. Palmer the schlappen up the shank and tie it in behind the eyes.

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Step 15. Dub the head with a little dubbing of your choice and whip finish the thread between the dumbbell and the eye. I like to trim the hackle on the top and bottom.

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Finished fly.

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The Borski Chernobyl crab worked a few weeks ago for Blake and Barret, so I would imagine the Fukushima would  have worked just as well.

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Enjoy.

Blake’s squid fly

October 31, 2013
Fishing, Fly Fishing, Fly Tying, Saltwater
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October’s fly of the month is Blake’s take on a bait that we don’t often talk about here, squid. We don’t talk about it much because we fish a lot of brackish water where you won’t find many squid, however, there’s no doubt in my mind that redfish like to eat squid and this may be the best time of year to throw this pattern, as we begin to target big bulls that are making their way inshore. It looked to be a good fly choice this past weekend for Blake as he and Barret had a pretty good day catching slot and bull reds.

Materials (in order of application):

  • Lead tape (same tape that was used here: Blake’s deceiver variant

  • Your favorite long shanked streamer hook

  • Bucktail

  • Ostrich herl

  • Flash

  • Saddle hackles

  • Flash chenille

  • Stick-on eyes

  • Pseudomarabou

Step 1. Cut a piece of lead tape so that it covers the shank of the hook. Leave yourself enough room at the bend to tie in the tailing materials and leave room at the front to finish off the fly. Cover the tape with a layer of thread.

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Step 2. Bring thread to a spot right before the bend of the hook. Tie in a small clump of bucktail.

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Step 3. Tie in a few ostrich herls over the top of the bucktail. I like this to extend farther than the bucktail.

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Step 4. Tie in a few pieces of flash either on top or on either side of the fly, your choice.

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Step 5. Find four somewhat small and webby saddles and tie them in, splayed out, with two on either side of the fly. I used some cheap saddles that I got from one of those Cabela’s feather grab bags. Tidy up the shank a little.

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Step 6. Tie in chenille at the back of the fly and palmer it forward. I like to coat the shank with super glue or SHAN before palmering the chenille to make the fly a little more durable. Tie the chenille down leaving some room at the eye.

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Step 7. Trim the chenille to a point at the front of the fly. This will help the veil lay back rather than splay out in a future step. Cut the back ends of the chenille body flat on either side to make a good base to glue the eyes.

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Step 8. Glue the eyes on the base that you made. I use the stick on eyes and glue them on using household goop. Notice the pointed end of the chenille at the front of the hook. I should have used some bigger diameter eyes for this fly because squid have huge eyes for their size, but I didn’t have any.

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Step 9. Tie in a clump of pseudo marabou at the eye. I do this by making a cylinder with the material, making a small hole in the middle of the cylinder, and pushing it over the front of the fly until the material is as far back as I want it. Take a few gathering wraps of thread , push the butt ends back and tie everything back on the shank.

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Step 10. You could leave the fly as it is in the previous pic, but I decided to trim the collar down. I just want it to show a little motion in the water.

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Finished Fly:

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Proof of concept:

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