Archive

Warmwater

Massey’s BCKFC Fish Pics Tournament

December 12, 2013
Fishing, Fly Fishing, Freshwater, Kayak Fishing, Retail, Saltwater, Tournaments, Warmwater
1 Comment

 

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:

token

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.

IMGP8371

IMGP8357

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.

IMGP8146

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″.

IMGP8289

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.

Frenchtown Road Conservation Area

October 30, 2013
Exploring, Fishing, Fly Fishing, Freshwater, Hiking, Scouting, Warmwater
Leave a comment

This past Saturday Amanda and I had a chance to check out BREC’s newest park, the Frenchtown Road Conservation Area, which is the biggest conservation area in the system at 495 acres. It encompasses most of the land between the Amite and Comite Rivers, south of the Illinois Central Railroad. Currently there are a little over three miles of hiking trails on the property through mostly bottomland hardwood forest.

These trails are just the beginning of the park’s intended development. I’m hopeful that established kayak/canoe launches are in the master plan, as it sits now the only river access that is available is via a 0.7 mile railroad trail to a beach on the Amite River at the park’s NE corner. Any new access to our area’s scenic rivers is a good thing, but it looks like I’ll have to invest in a cart before I can give this stretch of water a proper go. I did manage to get a few mid-hike casts off from the beach and was rewarded with a little spotted bass for my efforts.

IMG_0029

IMG_0040

IMG_0053

IMG_0057

IMG_0068

IMG_0078

IMG_0085

IMG_0087

IMG_0100

IMG_0104

IMG_0111

IMG_0112

It was a nice day for a hike and I look forward to using this area more in the future. There was a little confusion on the trails though. Seems a nearby property owner was not too pleased at the location of the big loop trail in the park and “No Trespassing” signs were placed toward the end of the trail turning this loop into a long one way. According to the park’s facebook page it sounds like a bypass trail has been added and the area can be avoided. You’d think they would figure these things out before opening the park, but live and learn I guess.

Lakes of the Kisatchie

September 19, 2013
Exploring, Fishing, Fly Fishing, Freshwater, Kayak Fishing, Scouting, Warmwater
2 Comments

Knowing that my days on the water will be limited once the baby arrives, I spent a day in the Kisatchie National Forest looking for largemouth bass. Normally if I wanted to do some bass fishing I’d prefer to spend my time on a river, catching spotted bass until I was flat wore out. On this day, however, I was going for a home run, looking for an above average bass. I had never laid eyes on any of the lakes in the Kisatchie, much less fished them, but I had good reason to believe there were some nice bass in at least one of the lakes I fished.

Upon arrival the lake was as I expected – empty. The water was crystal clear, the entire lake bottom covered in grass, deeper toward the dam, covered in lilies on the shallow end. I wish I could tell you fishing was spectacular, but it wasn’t. I caught two, both around 12″, a disappointing result when you drive 2.5 hours. Still, the lake was beautiful, one of the nicest I’ve seen in Louisiana.

IMG_1611

IMG_1613

I had time to head to another lake that was the site of an old timber mill 100 years ago. It wasn’t as nice as the previous lake, it looked like who ever managed the lake had been doing a lot of work clearing brush around the lake’s shoreline – not sure if that is the best thing from a fishery perspective.  This lake also had a shallow end covered in lily pads though these lilies were much bigger. I pulled three bass out of this lake with the biggest going 13″. In both lakes the bass were caught in the shallow end swimming a bait along a grass edge or popping a topwater next to the lilies.

I went for the home run, looking for big bass in distant lakes, but all I could muster was a bloop single. I did enjoy scouting an area of Louisiana that actually has some elevation to it though. It was a nice change of pace with a drive time similar to that of Grand Isle to Baton Rouge – not like I haven’t done that in a day.

IMG_1616

IMG_1618

IMGP8290

IMGP8291

IMG_1619