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There’s never a loser at Paddlepalooza!

April 14, 2014
Fishing, Kayak Fishing, Saltwater, Tournaments
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That is my friend Catch Cormier’s favorite line about the annual Spring kayak fishing tournament organized by BCKFC, now in it’s 11th year. After attending the event this past Saturday, he couldn’t be more right! Everyone involved put on one heck of a show for the 244 folks that signed up.

I missed out on the Friday night festivities and opted to leave super early Saturday morning. I didn’t make any scouting trips prior to the tournament so I decided to limit my tournament day options to places I’ve had success at in the past catching all three slam species; redfish, trout, and flounder. I was running a little late and wouldn’t make it on the water by 5:00am, but that gave me a chance to see just what LA 1 looks like during a tournament day. Every place you could toss a kayak in the water had a vehicle and the more popular options had vehicles lined up on the shoulder. It was pretty amazing to see just what kind of impact we kayak fishermen can have on a community come tournament time.

Lucky for me my spot was empty and I was on the water just before the sun came up. For the next 2-3 hours the winds were calm and the weather was perfect, the only downside to that was it meant the gnats and mosquitoes were out in force. The fishing though in that time was so good that the I wasn’t bothered by the bugs (being covered in clothing from head to toe helped as well). Fishing an oyster lined pond I had an incredible morning catching redfish and trout on topwater. When it was dark I threw a Spook Jr. in black/chartreuse and when the sun came up it was a Spook Jr. in bone. I couldn’t tell what the water clarity was upon launching but as the sun came up I could see that it was very nice. After landing about a dozen trout and maybe half a dozen reds the best of each were a 4 lb red and a nearly 2 lb trout. A good start, but I would definitely need to upgrade each.

I started working the spot for flounder focusing primarily on the places I had caught them in the past. Points and cuts in the marsh and anywhere the water moved were the areas I was targeting. At about lunch time I decided to pack it up and head up the road to try a different spot.

I didn’t realize just how windy it was after leaving the first spot, but I sure felt it upon arrival at the second spot. Conditions had deteriorated but I wasn’t deterred from trying to find a flounder. Water clarity here was very good as well – I guess I could thank that strong Southern wind for that. Bugs weren’t an issue any more either – thanks wind! Again I worked the flounder spots and again I was coming up empty. Knowing that I still needed to upgrade my trout and my red, I continued to throw topwater in likely looking spots. It wasn’ t long before I had a big fish on, only problem was it was a bull red! A fun fight, but not what I needed on tournament day.

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Catching that fish showed me that it was still effective to throw topwater even in terrible conditions, though it is harder to work the bait. Fishing the islands of a big bay I was getting hammered by wind, so I moved on to some marsh to seek shelter. Settling into a cut just to take a break I threw out some Gulp and watched as my cork immediately went under the water. On the other end of the line was a redfish upgrade at 5 lbs! Not a big upgrade, but better than nothing. On the next cast, this time out into the bay and back toward myself in the cut I watched as a red tried to take down the cork! Giving it a pop to take it from his mouth he luckily found the Gulp underneath. Another redfish in the boat, not an upgrade on weight but this one did have 13 spots! I didn’t want to get my hopes up on taking the leopard redfish category (I’ve made that mistake before), but I at least had a shot now.

It was getting close to weigh-in time so I decided to make my way back to the launch, which was of course into the wind across open water. Thank goodness for Jackson’s low seat position and the Aqua Bound Manta Ray blade size. I hardly ever use the low seat position, but this proved to be the perfect situation. I made good time considering I was plowing through building waves heading into the wind.

Back at Bobby Lynn’s standing in line to weigh fish, everyone began to recount the day’s events, which is one of my favorite parts of any tournament. It became increasingly apparent that there were a lack of unicorn, I mean, flounder brought to the scales. By the end of the day I believe only six were weighed. In a slam tournament that pays out to ten places this meant that the back half of the slam placings would be two fish slams (a three fish slam will always beat a two fish slam in a BCKFC tournament, no matter the weight). I knew I didn’t have a shot at a placing with my two fish slam, but it at least took some of those folks with two nice fish out of the individual species categories. The other thing that became apparent was that a lot of leopard reds were brought in. Not just any old leopards either, these were reds with more than a dozen spots – there were two 17 spot reds turned in! My little 13 spot wouldn’t hold up for first and barely hung on for 5th! At least I wouldn’t be going home empty handed though.

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After weighing fish I was able to grab my captain’s bag (including the tee shirt Clayton is wearing in the pic) and shoot the breeze with a lot of the other competitors who have become friends over the years. Although the fishing was pretty tough for most (only 75 weighed fish) I didn’t see any disappointed faces, thus the real reason “there’s never a loser at Paddlepalooza!”. Between the captain’s bags, meals, tournament, raffles, and camaraderie among fellow like-minded individuals, you always come out ahead.

Speaking of raffles, the raffle items this year blew away what has been offered in years past. I should have bought more tickets than I did because there was a lot of good stuff on that table. The officers did a tremendous job with the raffle this year, I was impressed. It made me long for the days when placing in a category meant your pick of prizes from the raffle table.

IMG_2587 In closing, Paddlepalooza XI was a ton of fun, BCKFC knocked it out of the park on this one. I had a great morning catching fish and was lucky enough to take home 5th place leopard red that afternoon. The fried fish dinner was excellent as always – a lot of credit goes to the guys that volunteer to help cook and serve. I think it was a great move to hire fish cleaners this year to help take care of the one job no one really enjoys. Those guys were far more efficient than the average Joe, really cool to watch them work. The raffle went fairly quick considering what it had been in years past and the prizes were off the charts. Things just seem to get better and better with this organization and tournaments. Heck, even the shirt this year was one of the best I’ve seen. Super soft with another great Brendan Bayard design; these things are like collector’s items for kayak fishermen down here in Louisiana. It makes me proud to be a small part of BCKFC and I hope we continue to grow and put on outstanding events. We do a great job getting in state folks to attend, but it would be really cool to see more out of state folks down. The more people we can get registered for events like this, the more money that gets directed to charities like Heroes on the Water and the Palliative Care Foundation of Baton Rouge – the real winners at functions like this. Here’s hoping Paddlepalooza XII is just as successful as this year’s event!

2014 Paddlepalooza XI Results

Cajun Slam – Angler – Weight(lbs) – Prize Won

1st – Jeff Breaux – 10.19 – Hobie Pro Angler 14
2nd – Jason Austin – 8.15 – Hobie Outback
3rd – Wayne Lobb – 6.45 – $1000 Gift Card to The Backpacker
4th – Elliot Stevens – 6.33 – $800 
5th – Bill Crawford – 6.33 – $750 
6th – Steve Lessard – 9.52 (2 fish) – $700 
7th – Chris Holmes – 9.26 (2 fish) – $650 
8th – Brendan Bayard – 8.81(2 fish) – $600 
9th – Tommy Eubanks – 8.45 (2 fish) – $550 
10th – Shane Curole – 8.29 (2 fish) – $500 

Heavy Slot Red – Angler – Weight(lbs)
1st – Justin Pisani – 7.27
2nd – Jonathan Craft – 6.96
3rd – Timothy Caldwell – 6.93
4th – Perry Watts – 6.85
5th – Craig Brown – 6.79 

Mule Trout – Angler – Weight(lbs)
1st – Fred Trahan – 3.72
2nd – Toby Armand – 3.72
3rd – Jeff Suber – 3.56
4th – Sam Speer – 3.19
5th – Scott Harper – 2.94

Saddle Flounder – Angler – Weight(lbs)
1st – Douglas Menefee – 0.87

Leopard Red – Angler – Spots – Prize won
1st – Jason Powers – 17 – KC Kayak
2nd – Dwayne Walley – 17
3rd – Jared Leroy – 15
4th – Matt Lehman – 15
5th – Ben Roussel – 13

Ladies – Angler – Weight(lbs) – Prize won
1st – Barbara Johnson – 5.50 – Custom Bull Bay Rod

Kids – Angler – Weight(lbs)
1st – Rory Craft – 4.60

Saturday in the Park

April 1, 2014
Family, Fishing, Freshwater, Kayak Fishing, Kayaking, Saltwater, Tournaments, Warmwater
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We took advantage of a Saturday in the Park this past weekend to attend the 67th annual City Park Big Bass Rodeo and Fishtival in New Orleans. I competed in the first annual Boats on the Bayou tournament and was shocked to hear that 88 others did as well – that’s a ton of kayak fishermen for little old Bayou St. John!

With the top prizes going to those who caught the few resident bayou redfish most of that kayak fishing crowd focused their efforts on the section of bayou closest to Lake Pontchartrain. I thought that would be pretty fruitless after the massive deluge the area received leading up to the event so I focused on bass. Fishing around Demourelles Island with a Texas rigged worm netted me a few small bass – so small I was too embarrassed to take them over to the weigh station. Later in the day I was able to land a bass worthy enough to weigh – it was 13.75″ and a little over a pound. He hit the worm as I tried to untangle a terrible cast I made into a tree, quite the lucky break, maybe a sign I needed to slow it down.

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The tournament was a pretty quick one, starting at 7:00am and ending at 10:30am, so I paddled toward the weigh station thinking my little bass might actually place. At the weigh station I found out it wouldn’t be the top bass as a 3+ lb’er had already been caught. I really didn’t think for a second it would win, but maybe it could place. As it turns out they only announced the weights of the winners at the awards ceremony so I still don’t know where I stacked up against the competition. One would think with 89 people signed up for a tournament, you would at least announce first through third places in each category. Still we enjoyed watching grown-ups act a fool as other grown-ups threw packs of soft plastics from the bandstand.

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Unfortunately no redfish were caught during the tournament. I’m not sure if it was because of all the rain, but maybe I made the right decision not to go after them, I at least got to catch fish. I was questioning the decision not to target them though when I saw my buddy Steve with a 1.5 lb trout on a stringer immediately after I launched! Had me worried the water was salty for a moment, but I think that trout was just lost, I didn’t hear of another one caught. It is pretty cool that you can catch redfish, trout, bass and bream all out of one body of water, right here in the city. I’m not sure many places can boast that.

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After the tournament and awards ceremony (results here) we took a stroll around the Sculpture Garden. It was the perfect time of year for it too as the azaleas are in full bloom and the live oaks are beginning to leaf out. The irises were looking a little ragged, but I’m guessing it is still a little early for them. Two of the pieces of art really wowed us and I think you’ll see why in the pictures.

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After that we headed on up the bayou to where Massey’s was having an on the water kayak demo day. What started off as a foggy, chilly morning turned into a hot and sunny affair perfect for paddling a kayak. Marin really took to the new Cruise 10 and who could blame her – it looks like the perfect little fishing boat for tykes.

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Rumble in da Parish

March 24, 2014
Exploring, Fishing, Kayak Fishing, Saltwater, Tournaments
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Made it back on the water this past Saturday for BCKFC’s Redfish Rumble – the second tournament in their five tournament series. The event was held out of Sweetwater Marina in Delacroix but was open to all publicly accessible waters in St. Bernard and East Plaquemines parishes. The winner would be the person with the heaviest stringer of five slot redfish and one bass. In the past this event had always been held in West Plaquemines parish and never included a bass. I think the change was a good one; some of the prettiest water for redfishing is found in St. Bernard Parish and it is one of the few places I know of where you have the ability to catch bass and redfish on alternating casts. I love the fact that we now have a tournament that incorporates bass.

The tournament start time was 5:00am, which is a wee bit early when the sun doesn’t show itself until around 7:00am; so I started my trek down from Baton Rouge at 3:00am. I have not done a whole lot of fishing in St. Bernard or East Plaquemines so all of my scouting was done on Google Earth. Nothing new there, I do that for every trip whether it is somewhere new or not. I knew where a majority of folks would be launching and I wanted to fish somewhere different, somewhere without a big crowd, so I had a couple launch options in mind on the drive down. Option #1 didn’t work out. It was a pump station, but access to the pump station was gated so not wanting to trespass I headed to option #2. At option #2 there were a couple other guys launching, but that wouldn’t be a problem as there was plenty of water for the three of us – I was just looking to avoid the crowds. Water clarity at the launch was pretty good, even with the low tide, so I wasn’t looking to go anywhere else anyway.

I paddled out behind the two other guys and as they took the first cut I continued on, giving them ample room to fish. I made my way into the first pond and saw tails everywhere, for a second I thought, holy hell I’ve reached Valhalla! The horizon was just starting to light up as I began to fish so it was tough to see, but it didn’t take long to figure out that they were all gar. The pond was fairly shallow and covered in grass, the salinity couldn’t have been very high. I moved slowly through the area working weedless baits thinking maybe I’d get my bass. Then I saw a different tail and rather than move along the surface, it bobbed in place, I knew immediately it was a redfish, so I pitched a texas rigged Zoom super fluke jr. that way and it got hammered. I made a rookie mistake though, for some reason my drag was set super tight which made for a short fight and a green fish. I ended up reeling him too close to the tip top of the rod and as I got him in the net he flipped a few times and broke the tip section of my rod off. Not that big of deal since I had a few other rods, but still a bummer, at least I was on the board with a real deep copper colored 22.5″ red. I forgot how pretty the reds are when they come from the grass.

I kept at it in the same pond and soon saw another redfish tail dancing. This time I threw a 1/4oz gold spoon his way. The cast was way off, probably because I can’t think of the last time I threw a spoon, but it wasn’t too far off that I blew it. It was beyond him and way out in front, so I brought it back and dropped it dead in his path as he got close I gave it a twitch and started a slow reel, the redfish saw it and charged and soon after I had my second redfish in the boat. At 23.5″ it was a small improvement, but I was hoping for a little bigger.

I made my way out of the pond and into a bayou. There was no shortage of good water here, everything was covered in grass which made for pretty good clarity throughout. Blind casting I picked up a third redfish. Pretty fish too, he had 8 spots. At 20″ he went on the stringer, I was hoping to cull him later in the day. One word on stingers and redfish, if you run it through their lower lip and not through their gills they will stay alive.

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Moving through the bayou I was almost at a big bay when I see an entire redfish back out the water. He looked to be a pretty good size, maybe upper slot, maybe too big, it didn’t matter anyway because after making what I thought to be a good cast he spooked on the retrieve.

I worked the grass beds in the bay and came upon a redfish working the shoreline. This time when I made a good cast I was rewarded with another eat. This fish had some size to him too. After peeling drag a few times I brought him in the boat. At 28.5″ he was too big for the tournament. A real nice redfish, lots of fun to catch, but not the size I was after.

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After a short talking to we parted ways. The bay failed to produce any more fish and I had drifted quite a ways. Rather than backtrack I sought out the same type of area I had caught them earlier in the day. I was already past the half way point so I started circling back to the launch, hoping I could finish out a limit and pick up a bass along the way. After a good paddle back up the bay and into a different cut I made it to a sting of ponds that were promising. A cast into fleeing baitfish landed me my fourth redfish. He went 22″ and I started to think my 23.5″ might be the biggest I would turn in – which usually isn’t how to break into the top five.

I continued my route through ponds and bayous blind casting to every likely spot, just trying to finish out a limit. Thankfully that fifth redfish didn’t make me sweat it out too long. He was caught on a 1/4oz gold spoon, just like the previous three fish. It was the best bait I had tied on for the conditions. I tried an inline spinner for awhile but it kept getting hung up on itself or tangling in weeds. Topwater failed to produce early on, so that got set aside the rest of the day.

The paddle back to the launch was pretty slow going, the tide had switched on me and I was fighting it all the way back. I picked up my stuff and hit the road to head to the weigh-in and made it there with 15 minutes to spare. My limit of reds came in at just over 21lbs, so they averaged around 4lbs each, but without a bass I had no shot at the top five. I ended up placing 9th (21.89 lbs), which isn’t bad considering we had around 70 people fishing the tournament. After the first two series tournaments I’m still in the mix, sitting at third, but it’s going to be tough to beat out those usual suspects.

2014 Redfish Rumble results:

1. Steve Lessard – 26.24 lbs

2. Casey Brunning – 25.82 lbs

3. Clayton Shilling – 25.76 lbs

4. Johnny Bergeron – 24.85 lbs

5. Rick Dembrun – 24.64 lbs

A lot of familiar names in that top five, it always amazes me how these guys can consistently produce. There is no doubt about it, we’ve got some great fishermen in BCKFC. Steve took first thanks in part to a really nice bass, I think it was the biggest weighed in, a very fat marsh bass. At 6th place Eric Muhoberac’s stringer was also very impressive as it was only four redfish. Of course with a stringer like that he ended up being big fish winner as well with a 7+ lb red. Big congrats to the winners and a huge thanks to everyone in the club that made it happen and to all the sponsors that donated prizes.

After the tournament a group of us headed to Rocky & Carlo’s for supper. Health nuts be advised, here’s my meal:

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Veal cutlet and baked mac with brown gravy on top and a side of fried green beans for the table – yes, all of it was very good. It was my first Rocky & Carlo’s experience and it won’t be my last. In case you were wondering, catching a limit of reds and then having a meal with friends makes for a really great day.