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Kayak Fishing

I’ve been participating in something called the “One fish per month challenge” on the Southeast Fly Fishing Forum for a few years now. It’s a fairly simple challenge that just requires you catch a fish with a fly rod each month of the year. It’s not too hard to keep up with as long as the weather and the fish cooperate. After all I can usually find/make time to fly fish at least once a month. Last year it evolved into trying for a different species each month of the year. I made it to December, then couldn’t catch something different, what a bummer. This year I was able to accomplish my goal though, so below is 12 months of 12 different species on the fly. Not too many exotics this year, shoot, everything except the coldwater trout were caught in Louisiana, but that’s a testament to the diversity we have here. Now that this is accomplished, I’ll have to mix it up next year, maybe a different fresh and salt species each month. Or how about a different species every day of one month – that would be tough. I’m open to suggestions….

January – Channel Catfish

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February – Black Drum

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March – Largemouth Bass

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April – Spotted Gar

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May – Brown Trout

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June – Longear Sunfish

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July – Spotted Seatrout

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August – Sheepshead

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September – Greenback Cutthroat Trout

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October – Sand Seatrout

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November – Red Drum

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December – Green Sunfish

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Remember that fly rod I won in the CCA STAR raffle?  Well I finally received it this past week and put it to work over the weekend. I initially thought the rod would be a BVK, but I learned from Catch Cormier that I could order any rod from TFO that I would like. Catch was instrumental in providing CCA with the fly rod for raffle and went out of his way to get the rod that I requested, a 7wt TiCr. I originally requested it out of jest, but Catch said he may be able to actually get one, and went to work. The TiCr was, without a doubt, my favorite rod series that TFO had produced and then they went and discontinued it. My old 8 wt was a TiCr and it really bummed me out when I broke it and TFO had to replace it with a different series. I’ll have to be extra careful with this TiCr, because should I break this one, I’m sure it will have to be replaced with a different series. That doesn’t mean I won’t fish it hard though, after all, that’s what fly rods are for.

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Conditions were pretty good early to fly fish, but got worse as the day went on. The tide was rising and the wind was increasing throughout the day. It didn’t matter though because the redfish are still thick in the marsh and water clarity is excellent. I had a blast catching them with the new TiCr. All were caught on that same jack hammer minnow Blake tied I used last time out, this fly is really durable. I explored a bit more of the spot Blake and I have been fishing lately, making a big 6-7 mile loop this past time out. Biggest red on the day went 27.5″, but I did see bigger. I just couldn’t put a good cast out in front of the fish. I’ve got some video to edit, but until then enjoy the GoPro stills.

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