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Fall N Tide VIII Redux

November 19, 2013
Fishing, Kayak Fishing, Saltwater, Tournaments
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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.

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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.

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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.

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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!

IFA Kayak Tour Championship – Day Two

October 22, 2013
Exploring, Fishing, Fly Fishing, Kayak Fishing, Saltwater, Tournaments
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Saturday

Saturday’s weather forecast was a little misleading. Depending on what website you checked it was going to either be better or worse than Friday, but it wouldn’t be the same. Turns out both were right. It was better at the start and at the end, but way worse in the middle.

Jameson and I decided to hit a different spot on day two, one that gave us a better chance at catching bull reds. We got to our spot, got rigged up, and before we could even take off fish were attacking bait right next to the launch. So we tethered ourselves to the boats and made a few casts. I pulled out an 11.75″ trout, not quite eligible for the tourney. Deciding that these were all probably small trout we shoved off. On the paddle toward our first stop I commented to Jameson “I think we’re about to get rained on” and not five minutes later it started. It was a light sprinkle at first but with time it got heavier. Before it got too bad I managed to land a 17.75″ red to get on the board.

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Then all hell broke loose. It was raining sideways as the wind was ripping. Luckily the spot we fished on Saturday was full of mangroves and I was able to tuck myself right along side them and keep fishing. I made it over to a cut with some moving water and started missing a few strikes. I was finally able to land a 13″ trout. I now had two fish and was feeling pretty good because in this weather anything was possible.

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Jameson and I stayed as close as we could tucked to the mangroves and halfheartedly fished through the storm. When we saw a flash of light in our periphery we knew it was time to get off the water. Just around the corner was a camp, we decided to paddle over and ride out the storm under the shelter of a tin roof.

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That was pretty much the only lightning we saw, but decided to let the heavy stuff pass before we headed back out. While under the shelter all I could think was what good are rain pants and a rain jacket if I’m still soaking wet underneath? Water ran out of my sleeves as I held my hands down by my side. I couldn’t think of a time when I had fished in worse conditions. We wondered if we’d get a phone call from the folks at the IFA soon telling us to head back in for safety reasons, but that call never came and I’m glad it didn’t.

Things eventually calmed down and we made it back out on the water. By this time the tide had nearly fallen all the way out and all the nearby marsh banks had exposed mangrove roots sticking out of the water. It didn’t take long to hear the redfish working. As the water fell out of smaller tidal creeks into larger channels, redfish began to stack just below the outfall. I picked up a nice upper slot red at one of these spots.

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That would have been a perfect BCKFC tournament red, but at the IFA I was looking for above slot redfish. As Jameson and I began working up a narrow bayou a redfish made some commotion along the mangroves behind us. I threw a fly in the direction of the shrimp popping out of the water and was hooked up immediately. I was a little unprepared for how big this red was though. Here I am in a bayou no wider than eight foot with razor sharp oysters exposed on the left side of a bend and a tangled mass of mangrove roots occupying a good bit of the right side and only enough room for a kayak in between and of course he wants to go downstream. I somehow avoided getting cut off by the oysters, but the redfish managed to get wrapped around the mangroves and I couldn’t pull him free without actually going in after him. So I get as close as I can to him and park my kayak with the stake out pole. I lay down on the Cuda 12 and start pulling in line with my hands right at the bow. Finally I see his head amongst the mangroves, the fly is firmly planted in his jaw, but he’s in mangrove roots like it’s a jail cell, so I finally manage to pull his head out of the water and drag him into the boat. Let me tell you hand lining a 28″ redfish is a chore. You can see the oysters and the mangroves I was working with in the pic below.

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I couldn’t believe a redfish of that size was back up in there, but I was definitely relieved to get him in the boat. Eventually that creek got too narrow and we had to turn around. When we came back out to the main channel there was all kinds of nervous water. We spotted a big redfish cruising with his back out of the water. Jameson and I were both casting to him and I managed to hook up. I could tell something was wrong though because he had a lot more leverage than is typical in a redfish fight and it wasn’t due to his size. Turns out I foul hooked him in his dorsal fin so unfortunately this fish wouldn’t count for me. It would have been an upgrade too at 29.5″.

We kept at it, having a heck of a time watching redfish crushing bait in narrow mangrove lined creeks. The oysters finally did their work and as I hooked up on another redfish right at the boat the line broke in half. Soon enough the tide switched and once water began to fill those creeks it seemed like someone turned the lights out on the activity. The water muddied up and things shut down.

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Jameson had a decent slot red and just needed a trout to finish out the day so we headed back toward the spot where I picked up mine. I let him have the hole and wouldn’t you know it he pulls a 17″ trout out of the water. With that fish he actually was an inch up on me for the day. We called it quits soon after that and headed back to the launch. With 41″ I figured I didn’t have much of a shot to make the top 15, but I still thought we made the most out of a crappy weather day.

It was a lot of fun to hear everyone recount their day at the weigh-in. Weather was the main theme among the competitors. Someone flipped their boat while a wave took them into a jetty. Another lost a paddle only to have it recovered two hours later by a friend. The IFA tournament has an accompanying television show on NBC Sports network and for the Championship a camera boat follows a different competitor each day. They didn’t get much footage on Saturday because the weather forced them off the water.

There were tough conditions for everyone and those that persevered were rewarded. Good friends and fellow BCKFC members Steve Lessard and Brendan Bayard took top honors overall.

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Steve won the tournament with around 114″ total and Brendan finished second with 105″ and was angler of the year on points. Jared Waites of Florida took third place at 104″. The rest of the results are below:

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Although I didn’t think I had much of a shot at placing I was actually able to move up from 13th to 8th and took home a check! Weather was the great equalizer and just catching four fish to put on the board over two days was challenging enough for many competitors. At 8th place I was actually the top paddler of the group – I’ll take those little victories anywhere I can get them.

The tournament as a whole was a lot of fun, the fishing ended up being pretty good despite the conditions. The conditions are what make it a challenge and I think that just adds to the fun. It was cool to meet some other Jackson teamers and spend some time fishing with Jameson, who ended up 18th, just three places out of the money. I know he wants to come back down next year for some redemption.

A tentative schedule for the IFA events in 2014 was handed out at the weigh-in and it looks like the Louisiana events are scheduled for May 18th in Empire and August 3rd in Lafitte with a potential championship Oct 17-18 in Houma again. Those dates and locations are subject to change. Hope all the kayak fishermen out there consider joining the fun next year.

 

IFA Kayak Tour Championship – Day One

October 21, 2013
Exploring, Fishing, Fly Fishing, Kayak Fishing, Saltwater, Tournaments
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This past weekend the city of Houma played host to the IFA Kayak Fishing Tour Championship. Having fished both the Empire and Grand Isle events earlier in the year I was eligible to fish the Championship. The Championship was a two day event in which a total of four fish would be scored – your longest trout and redfish from each day. The winner would be that person with the largest total aggregate length. Boundaries were anywhere within the state of Louisiana, so it was up to each angler to decide how much driving time they wanted to commit to. Everyone would have to drive somewhere to fish and Houma provides a pretty central location to most of the kayak-friendly saltwater fishing destinations found along our coast. Being most familiar with the marsh between Golden Meadow and Grand Isle, I decided to stay and fish along Hwy 1.

This was my first year fishing the Championship, I’ve fished single Louisiana division events in years past, but was never able to fish both and give myself a chance to fish in the Championship. This year I was joined by fellow Jackson team member Jameson Redding, who did pretty well last year in the Championship, which was held in Chalmette, finishing fourth overall. Not bad for a first time Louisiana fisherman. We were joined on day one by Charlie and Melita Ganoe, also on the Jackson team, who were in Houma visiting family – great timing on their part.

Friday

As with seemingly every tournament the weather would factor into the outcome. A cold front was blowing through over the weekend which made things tough on every competitor – there was no avoiding it. Friday’s weather wasn’t the best, but after experiencing what Mother Nature sent our way Saturday, it was a blessing to have Friday. It was overcast and probably blew 10-15 mph throughout the day which made you have to put a little extra effort into every paddle stroke. The day began rather inauspiciously when I found the launch I like to use had gone from public to private. Awesome, time to come up with Plan B on the spot. I decided we should launch from a popular roadside spot instead, although it was somewhere I barely fished conditions should be similar to what I was planning to fish. After launching I parked myself in a cut that had a good bit of moving water. I was able to get on the board early with a 19″ red.

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That was followed by a 16″ flounder which was unfortunately not a target species in this tournament, but I know where he lives come Paddlepalooza time.

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I moved on and fished cuts and points, alternating between a topwater and a popping cork, looking to pick up a trout and at least get two fish on the board. While throwing my topwater on the back side of a wind blown point I had an enormous blow up right next to the boat. It was a nice trout, the biggest I’ve ever caught in the marsh. When I got her in the net she looked to be about 4-5 pounds. I put her on the board and could only squeeze 22.5″ out of her though, what a fatty!

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Working that topwater around a different point produced a similar result.

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This one was just under 20″, so not an upgrade, but still a lot of fun to catch. It was highly unlikely that I’d be able to upgrade my trout, but I could definitely upgrade my redfish so I headed into a pond to look for an upper slot red, or really anything bigger than 19″. Normally in these weather conditions sight fishing would have been impossible, but redfish are suckers for crabs and I could hear them crashing the banks going after them, so call it “sound fishing”, that’s essentially what I was doing. I would paddle around quietly and listen. I was still watching the banks but redfish would often give themselves away by crashing the banks.  Eventually I ran into a redfish that had no business being in the pond he was in as it was no bigger than my living room and there he was with his entire back out of the water.

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31″ was certainly an upgrade and a really good find for a marsh red. At this point I was pretty pumped sitting at 53.5″. I knew guys were going to go out and catch big bull reds and big gator trout around the passes and at the MRGO dam, but this was 53.5″ in the marsh, definitely the best day I’ve had fishing the marsh this year, and this was a last second Plan B at that!

So I probably should have kept paddling toward the big bays to look for a bull red, but I stayed in the marsh and played with the redfish. They’re just too much fun to pass up and that’s why we’re out there – to have fun.

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Caught a few more reds in the ponds on the fly rod, including the above leopard that had 7 spots and even got another flounder in a cut. Plan B ended up being pretty badass. A slam spot with leopard reds? Not too shabby.

We loaded up the kayaks and headed up to Houma to weigh-in and see how everyone else had done. Jameson and Charlie each had a trout and red as well, so we all had some success. It was evident when we got to the weigh-in that everyone else had pretty good days too.

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53.5″ was good enough for 13th. 13th, are you kidding me? I knew there would be some that came in with 60+”, but I figured that would be a handful. 53.5″ would have won numerous single day events across several divisions. Folks came with their A-game to the Championship. Still it felt pretty good to have a good day on day one to set myself up to be competitive on day two. The tournament paid out to fifteen places so that was my goal for day two.