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Fishing Bayou St. John

May 13, 2013
Fishing, Fly Fishing, Freshwater, Kayak Fishing, Kayaking, Saltwater, Scouting, Tournaments, Warmwater
1 Comment

There was no way I was missing a group 30th birthday party for some friends in New Orleans on Friday night. Ended up parlaying that trip into a weekend affair ending with Mother’s Day festivities with Amanda’s family Sunday afternoon.

Got to fish Saturday, heading to Bayou St. John for a small get together dubbed Redfish for Research. The goal was to try and catch redfish in the bayou to be turned into UNO’s Nekton Research Lab for further study. Fishing in the morning concluded with a demo day by Massey’s in the afternoon further up the bayou.

The day started off a little rough with some strong storms moving through the area. It kept folks off the water for about an hour after sunrise, but rains held off the rest of the day. I was mainly targeting bass with hopes of catching a decent one to turn into Massey’s CPR tourney. I did catch a few dinks, but nothing had any size. I didn’t land any redfish either, but neither did anyone else. We know there are redfish in the bayou, just not in great numbers. The flow of water from Lake Pontchartrain is obstructed by a few structures. Hopefully that will improve when a dam on the waterway is removed.

Water clarity in the bayou was excellent and it seemed to me like a healthy fishery. There was lots of bait and I was getting a ton of hits on the popper from bass and bream. I ended up catching a bass to turn in for both the fly and the conventional tackle category. I really enjoyed paddling Bayou St. John. BSJ and the adjacent City Park are quite the urban oases, wish we had something like that in Baton Rouge, though I’ve really enjoyed our neighborhood ponds since living here.

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The demo day by Massey’s was held after, though participation was pretty poor due to the weather that morning. Most of the guys that fished Redfish for Research hung around after and shot the breeze.

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After the demo day I headed out to some drainage canals to scout for carp. Still haven’t found a good place for them in Baton Rouge, but I’ve seen some good reports from some folks in the New Orleans area for them, so I wanted to give it a shot while I was down here. I didn’t end up seeing any until the third canal I tried, and even then I really only had a few legitimate shots. None were caught, I didn’t even get an eat, but from what I understand that’s part of the carp fishing process. Gar were everywhere and I did land one just to feel something on the end of the line.

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A pretty good Mother’s Day weekend despite no one catching redfish in Bayou St. John. If you do catch a redfish in the bayou and wish to turn it in for research the contact info for Patrick Smith is below, he is our contact for the research being done on the bayou:

Patrick Smith
Graduate Student
Nekton Research Lab
Pontchartrain Institute for Environmental Sciences
University of New Orleans
2000 Lakeshore Dr.
New Orleans, LA 70148
patricksmith111@gmail.com

Paddle keeper install

February 27, 2013
Kayak Fishing, Kayaking, Rigging
3 Comments

The new Cruise from Jackson Kayak doesn’t come with a paddle keeper of it’s own, so I needed to install them. A paddle keeper makes a handy place to store a stake out pole while on the water. It’s convenient and out of the way in that spot. Well I just so happened to have a paddle keeper kit from Yak-Gear sitting in my garage. It was a raffle prize at a tournament I was in and now I could put it to use.

There is a set of instructions that come with the kit. They are adequate at best, not very detailed, but most folks will manage to get the kit installed with them. I’ll offer my help below.

1. Besides the parts included with the kit, you’ll need to gather these supplies:

– Drill with 7/32 bit (5/32 if you use the stainless screws and lock nuts)

– Pop rivet gun (or a Phillips head screw driver)

– Pliers

– Sharpie

– Tape measure

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2. Next you’ll have to put together the bungees. You’ll start by sliding a sleeve over the end of the provided bungee cord.

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3. Then you shove the end into what they call a terminal end. Depending on how fat the bungee cord end is it might take a bit of squeezing and pressing to get the bungee to fit in the terminal end.

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4. Once the terminal end is on you can take the pliers and squeeze the sleeve over the terminal end.

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5. Next you’ll want to pick out where your paddle keeper will go. On the Cruise I decided that right under the Jackson Kayak logo was the best place. Mark one of the holes with the sharpie.

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6. Next, drill the hole with that 7/32 bit

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7. Pop rivet one end of the bungee to set the cord.

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8. Rather than trying to stretch the bungee and mark both sides with the sharpie at step 5, it’s easiest to set one side first, then stretch the cord a bit and mark the other side. Pull the bungee snug, not too tight, and not loose. Then you can repeat steps 5-7.

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9. All you have to do now is find a good spot for the lash hook. Use the tape measure to find the middle of your bungee and go at least 3″ up. I went a bit further than that and placed the hook on the inside side of the yak. I had to use an ultra fine tip sharpie to mark my spot as a regular sharpie tip was too fat to fit through the lash hook hole. With the hook on the inside I can lash things either to the side, or on top the rails. I used my measure board to make sure the hook didn’t protrude above the rails, I wanted to sit them either flush or slightly below the top of the kayak.

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10. After you drill that hole and pop rivet the hook in place (steps 6-7), you are done.

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