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October Creek Fishing

December 21, 2021
Fish, Fishing, Fly Fishing, Freshwater, Outdoors, Wade Fishing, Warmwater
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Back in October as the RSFF Jambalaya Challenge was beginning to wind down, Chris Williams and I made it out on a creek in search of shadow bass. Shadow bass are not a species you can directly target IMO, but we at least made it out somewhere that I’ve caught them before, so I figured our odds of seeing one were at least a little better there. This was the first time Chris and I had fished together and I was glad we were able to make it happen.

We got an early start that morning and had an unseasonably Fall-like chill in the air when we first stepped in the water. It was cold enough that it took a little bit of time for the fish to warm up and become active.

The first fish I came across was a blacktail shiner, a fish I had come across earlier in the year and a common catch on the creeks that I wade fish here in south Louisiana. I caught a striped shiner soon after that and unfortunately for me he came off the hook before I could get a photo. That would have been another species on the list so a bit of a bummer. Soon enough the normal targeted species began to show up as well; the longear sunfish and spotted bass.

The fishing remained pretty slow for most of the morning into the afternoon, but Chris did well to add three species to his list; striped shiner, blacktail shiner, and spotted bass and put a little distance on his Jambalaya Challenge lead.

Unfortunately we didn’t turn up any shadow bass on our trip, which was not wholly unexpected. Like I said before, they are difficult to target directly. They are always bycatch for me and I certainly don’t catch one every time I fish a creek. As my mom would say “maybe we just weren’t holding our mouth right”.

I enjoyed my day on the water with Chris and I know we will do it again soon. We still have to track down a shadow bass for him and he knows where to go to catch chain pickerel in Louisiana, which is something I’ve yet to do.

Hitting the river to beat the heat

August 24, 2021
Exploring, Fish, Fly Fishing, Freshwater, Outdoors, Scouting, Wade Fishing, Warmwater
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This is THE hottest time of year to be fishing in South Louisiana. If you’ve got to get out to fish, now is the time to go wade one of our sandy rivers. There will be plenty of spotted bass and longear sunfish waiting to hit your topwater fly, they are the perfect fly rod fish. Just bring plenty of fluids and shoes that will handle gravel/sand. Heat stroke is no joke and being in the water will help regulate your body temp. The last time I got out on one of my favorite local rivers was back in June, but the info should still be pertinent.

I don’t take wade trips often enough, but I always really enjoy when I do, this day was no different. I had not caught any spotted bass this year prior to this trip so they were the target species. Everything else was lagniappe. I started off by throwing a hopper/dropper and it was pretty darn effective on the sunfish. The longear were very active. Bluegill were in the mix too, but not nearly as numerous as the longear.

In a shallow run I got a chance to notch another species for the year when the school of blacktail shiners attacked my dropper fly. This is a shiner species that gets big enough that you don’t have to result to microfishing to hook one. As long as your dropper is not too big you’ll eventually run into one on a sandy river. They are very common in our Florida parish streams.

It took me a while (and a fly change) before I brought a spotted bass to hand, but eventually I found a willing participant. I slowly fished my way back to the truck making sure to keep my eyes peeled for anything interesting while walking the gravel bars. Sure enough I came across a really nice banded agate. The last few times I’ve gone wade fishing in this river I’ve been rewarded with one or two. Just something else that makes this place special.

I picked up another spot and a really colored up longear before I called it a day. I had only spent a few hours on the water, but it was a productive trip and time well spent. Give a river trip a shot if you want to fly fish in the summer down here and don’t want to die of heat exhaustion. I can attest it will certainly make you feel like a kid again the moment you step into the water and you’ll be smiling the whole drive home.

City Park in late June

August 9, 2021
Exploring, Fish, Fishing, Fly Fishing, Freshwater, Gear Review, Outdoors, Retail, Scouting, Sightfishing, Tournaments, Warmwater
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After finishing first in the fly division of the BCKFC/Massey’s CPR kayak fishing tourney last year I have been brainstorming ways to spend the store credit I was awarded. Without actually going to the main store in New Orleans and seeing what I could walk out with this was proving fruitless. So one rainy Sunday in late June I trekked my way to New Orleans to do a bit of shopping. The first stop though was to City Park to try and catch a Rio Grande cichlid. It had been quite some time since I last targeted them so I was a bit rough around the edges.

A distant waterspout is a sure sign of good luck, right?

I started off near the New Orleans Museum of Art and didn’t venture too far from there as I was on fish from the start. They weren’t the target species, but I was catching a LOT of bluegill, as they got bigger things got more exciting.

Fishing a popper/dropper I got into a few coppernose hammers. They were manhole covers compared to their native cousins. I caught a couple other species too, but no Rios, so I started to walk around and check out some other spots.

Eventually I did find a Rio cruising the shallows and after a well placed cast and a casual eat I had my target fish to hand. Man, these things are pretty!

At this point I needed to make my way to Massey’s before they closed. I found a few things I’d had my eye on but never wanted to spend my own money on, I walked out feeling like I robbed the place. Store credit might be the greatest thing I’ve ever won in a kayak tournament! Let me expand on that a bit and make my case below.

Big kayak tournaments typically give a kayak to the winner, sometimes awarding kayaks to the top three places. That all makes sense. It’s a big prize, has a bit of a wow factor for the crowd, but does it make that much sense? Let’s be honest, the winners of kayak tournaments already own kayaks. They likely own really nice kayaks or they paddle for one brand or another, meaning they likely HAVE to use that particular brand kayak. So what happens to the kayaks they win? Well, they hit craigslist or Facebook marketplace and get sold the next week for cold, hard cash. It’s a bad look for the local clubs and I fail to see what it does to help the local shops that sponsor these events, outside of the pub they get at the awards ceremony.

Now, I don’t know that store credit helps the shops either, that would probably depend on what gets bought as the margins are different for different items. But as someone who has won kayaks in the past, this was a very welcome change as it gave me an opportunity to upgrade some of my other gear and purchase merch I’ve been gun-shy to buy in the past. Shoot, I’ve been pedaling the same bike for the last 20 years, but not anymore, and I still have credit remaining too!

I don’t want to sound like I’m being picky, as I will always be happy and appreciative of anything I’m awarded for placing in a tournament, but I can definitely get behind store credit taking over as the main draw. Big thanks to Massey’s for continuing to sponsor the BCKFC CPR tournament, the fly division is always one I enjoy competing in.