Why We Fish
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Saltwater
Fall N Tide VIII Redux
After a month of waiting, Fall N Tide VIII finally took place this past Saturday down in Venice, Louisiana. My wife never ceases to amaze me and this time it was by graciously allowing me to make the trip down so that I could try and defend my slam title from last year. I’m not sure of many other women whom would have felt the same way with a two week old in the house. That’s why she’s the best!
I made the drive down Friday afternoon, which didn’t leave me any time to fish that day, but it did give me time to enjoy rush hour traffic through New Orleans! At least I had plenty of time to make the captain’s meeting and bounce a few strategies off my kayak fishing cohorts.
After all was said and done I decided to see if I could make lightning strike twice and cover the same area I did last year, hoping the fish would be in a similar pattern. It was a safe spot to try with the forecast high winds, but I was a little unsure with the tournament being postponed a full month. Cold fronts have begun to move through South Louisiana and water temps have dropped quite a bit. It is an area however that I’m most familiar with in Plaquemines Parish, so with familiarity comes comfort and that strategy paid off last year so what the heck.
As it turned out the weathermen were wrong and things ended up being much nicer than the forecast (that never happens). I stayed with my strategy and went to work much like last year, looking for flounder and trout. As the morning progressed it was becoming evident that neither the trout or the flounder were there, so it was time to move on.
I paddled out and hit spot after spot after spot looking for trout and not finding a single one. It was downright pathetic. By lunch time I don’t think I even had a fish to the boat and had only missed one strike. I decided to head to an area that might be better for redfish and fish it back to the launch.
Of course as I decide to finally dedicate time to redfish the winds decide to pick up and make sightfishing difficult. Shortly after lunch I caught my first red in a little marsh cut, 22″. Keep prying that area for flounder as it was a series of cuts and drains, habitat that flounder typically frequent, but caught nothing. I moved on to a flat I know I’d have luck on, but I also knew it rarely held upper slot reds – the kind you need for a tournament, but at this point I just wanted to salvage the day and catch some fish.
As soon as I got there I was into fish – go figure. I probably could have spent all day here picking up reds until I had a leopard or one of those coveted 26.99″ fish, but I didn’t leave myself enough time. I finished out my limit and headed back to the launch. The best redfish I had went 24.5″ and had 5 spots.
Fishing was tough for me early on and for awhile there it was smelling skunky, but I was glad the redfish were there in the afternoon to bail me out. I went to the weigh in knowing that I probably didn’t have a shot, but you never know, so you always weigh your fish. Sure enough my red came up short in both categories and it wasn’t even close. The redfish category had some of the heaviest slot reds I’ve ever seen weighed in. The winner, Jason Austin, brought in a slot red that went 8.73lbs! The rest of the results are below:
Cajun Slam
1. Rick Dembrun – 11.38 lbs
2. Brendan Bayard – 11.06 lbs
3. Tommy Eubanks – 11.05 lbs
4. David Torregrossa – 9.92 lbs
5. Donnie Elliot – 9.7 lbs
6. Mark Delatte – 9.37 lbs
7. Sherman Walker – 9.24 lbs
Redfish
1. Jason Austin – 8.73 lbs
2. Joseph Chevalier – 8.12 lbs
3. Sean Rasanis – 7.92 lbs
4. Adam Rockweiler – 7.89 lbs
5. Brian Sherman – 7.83 lbs
Trout
1. Smokey Cook – 3.32 lbs
2. Devon Beltz – 3.18 lbs
3. Joe Cantino – 2.87 lbs
4. Eric Muhoberac – 2.65 lbs
5. Chris Holmes – 2.43 lbs
Flounder
1. Toby Armond – 3.6 lbs
2. Steve Neece – 2.79 lbs
3. Gary Williamson – 1.64 lbs
4. Danny Ziegler – 1.21 lbs
5. Todd Lewis – 1.14 lbs
Leopard Red
1. Clayton Shilling – 11 spots
2. Eric Stacey – 10 spots
3. Jonathan Craft – 10 spots
4. Kenneth Owings – 10 spots
5. Nathan Grammes – 10 spots
Ladies Slam
Barbara Johnston – Red 6.76 lbs, Trout 1.11 lbs
Kids
Rory Craft – Trout 0.73 lbs
A big congrats to all the winners and a big thanks to all those that helped make the tournament possible. It takes a lot of volunteer work on the part of BCKFC officers and members to make events like this happen and often times it’s a thank-less job. It’s cool to see a lot of names on the leaderboard that I don’t recognize. The sport continues to grow and as it does it brings in a lot of great fishermen which will make each tournament down the road that much more competitive. These things should be a lot of fun for years to come.
One last thing I have to point out is that Rick also paddles a Cuda 12, so for two years in a row the slam division at Fall N Tide was taken by someone piloting a Jackson Kayak!
Blake’s squid fly
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):
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Lead tape (same tape that was used here: Blake’s deceiver variant
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Your favorite long shanked streamer hook
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Bucktail
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Ostrich herl
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Flash
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Saddle hackles
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Flash chenille
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Stick-on eyes
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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.
Step 2. Bring thread to a spot right before the bend of the hook. Tie in a small clump of bucktail.
Step 3. Tie in a few ostrich herls over the top of the bucktail. I like this to extend farther than the bucktail.
Step 4. Tie in a few pieces of flash either on top or on either side of the fly, your choice.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Finished Fly:
Proof of concept:
Mountains to Marsh 