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I’ll Fish Anywhere Man

December 17, 2021
Exploring, Fish, Fishing, Fly Fishing, Freshwater, Outdoors, Scouting, Sightfishing, Warmwater
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I got out on the water a good bit this year, more so than in recent years, which has been pretty exciting. I haven’t done a good job of documenting it here, but I’m working on that now. These trips don’t last as long as they used to, but I’ve gotten to fish a lot of new water and a variety of different types of water. The reason for the diversification was pretty simple; I wanted to target as many different species of fish as I could.

I found myself motivated to catch new species this year as I decided in the spring to participate in the Red Stick Fly Fishers Jambalaya Challenge, a contest our local fly fishing club started this year to see which member could catch the most species on the fly in the given timeframe. I figured I could catch 25-30 species and run away with the victory, but little did I know fellow Baton Rouge fly fisher and blogger, Chris Williams, had big plans to catch as many species as possible this year on the fly as well. Thus began a back and forth competition between Chris and myself that went on from March – November which put me fishing all over the Baton Rouge area and beyond looking to catch anything that swims.

On one of those trips I found myself in Zachary, checking out a BREC park there. The main fishing pond there had some stained water and the pond itself was pretty boring so, armed with my 1wt, I ducked off into the woods to check out the outlet creek.

With apologies to Johnny Cash, “I’ll fish anywhere man, I’ll fish anywhere…”

At this point I’ve committed to full blown microfishing, something I never thought I would do in my life, but a species is a species in a competition. I didn’t take pics of every tiny fish I caught, as many of them I’ve caught this year already. There were a variety of juvenile sunfish, mostly warmouth and green sunfish, and a couple topminnows, which from my research afterward were blackspotted topminnows.

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I can only take so much microfishing so I left the ditch in the woods and headed to check out another smaller pond at the park. I found it loaded with submerged vegetation and much better clarity than the bigger pond, or the ditch for that matter. I began tossing my 3wt with a beadhead leech pattern in pockets and around grass edges and working it back slowly, but fast enough to not to get it caught up in the weeds. On one cast a fish exploded on my fly as soon as it hit the water. It was a nice largemouth for the 3wt and after a short fight and some tugging through the weeds I got him to the bank for a few pics.

I wasn’t expecting a largemouth of that size in this small pond, but I was happy to have found him there.

Fishing a bunch of different ditches and parks around town has been a lot of fun this year. They don’t all reward you like this one did, but it’s this kind of trip that makes the exploration worth it. It keeps me interested in continuing the pursuit, fishing anywhere and everywhere, wondering all along just what the heck lives in the water around us and how can I catch them.

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.