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Fishing with James

April 20, 2016
Exploring, Fish, Fishing, Fly Fishing, Kayak Fishing, Saltwater, Scouting, Sightfishing
1 Comment

The AFWC was held down in Delacroix earlier this month and though I didn’t fish the event, I did get a chance to fish with a friend who was in town for the event while he was staying in Delacroix.  James McBeath is the Director of Marketing over at Jackson Kayak and a former Musky Fly Fishing Championship World champion.  We’ve had the pleasure of fishing together in the 10,000 islands of Florida and the Pacific coast of Panama  and I was excited to get the chance to fish with him again, but this time on some local water.

We picked a really great day to get together as the weather turned out to be absolutely gorgeous – it was about as good as you could ask for when it comes to Louisiana redfishin’.  Little to no wind, bright blue skies, tide not too low or high, and absolutely perfect temps, which all added up to great sightfishing conditions and active redfish.

We explored an area within the AFWC boundaries that I had yet to fish and was happy to find as I fought and landed more reds than I cared to count, and in some of the shallowest and clearest flats I’ve ever seen in Lousiana.  A bonus to fishing in Delacroix was the bass bycatch – It shouldn’t, but it always surprises me when I see them on the end of the line while I’m redfishing.

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It was an absolute pleasure to fish with James again.  I have not done a whole lot of fishing in Delacroix and am still learning the area so it was nice to check out some new water with James and have some success while we were at it.  We had a lot of fun, caught a bunch of fish and hopefully I was able to help him in some small way with his top 10 finish in the AFWC.

Panama – another day in paradise

February 28, 2014
Exploring, Fishing, Kayak Fishing, Kayaking, Saltwater
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On our last full day to fish in Panama we looked to repeat the success we had the day before. We set out our bait lines and went to work jigging. James got in on the action early with a nice almaco jack. It wasn’t long before we were all catching fish.

12626172084_61cb78e527_c(photo: Will Richardson)

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As the bite eased off in that area we made our way toward the other side of the island, splitting up to fish different spots. I really wanted to catch a rooster so I headed straight for the area where Jim caught his. It didn’t take long before I was hooked up and I got another chance to yell “Fish on!” on the VHF, which has got to be one of the greatest feelings in the world when you’re on the water.

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(photo: Will Richardson)

Not a rooster, but still very cool to add another new species on the trip – African pompano. We continued to work the jigs and troll our live bait and fish continued to hit. Jim got into a few different species on the day and I caught a houndfish that made my last one look like a baby.

12625677733_94683038c6_c(photo: Will Richardson)

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Jim had a very cool moment as he jigged up an almaco jack, brought it to the boat and was showing it off to the camera and at that moment his live bait rod goes taught. He hurries up, unhooks the jack, tosses it in the water and goes to work on the other rod and ends up catching a really nice pargo that gave him a good fight.

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When the bite wore off we got the itch to paddle out into the blue and see if anything was lurking offshore. We got into formation, 3 kayaks wide and formed the “Wall of Death” as dubbed by WIll, trolling our live baits behind us, hoping that someones reel would start singing. It was a slow paddle as we ended up heading upcurrent chasing surface activity in the distance. After awhile with no action we called it off and headed back toward the island. It gave us a chance to just enjoy a nice leisurely paddle in a beautiful place. We had worked so hard to catch fish that week that it was nice to sit back and take it all in.

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12625587573_7c8b46a0dc_c(photo: Will Richardson)

Our time at Bahia Honda was winding down with only another half day to fish. It was bittersweet as I was sad to see it come to an end, but happy I would be home soon and see my little girl. Thankfully I wasn’t completely out of touch with home while away. Jim and Will had a DeLorme inReach unit that allowed us to text or email our loved ones whenever we needed to. I believe they were even able to update the shows Facebook page while we were there and anyone following along could keep track of where we were at by viewing this website. I know my wife was thrilled to death that we had one of these with us. It really provided that extra piece of mind knowing we were okay while we were off the grid. That night we were treated with another fantastic sunset which proved to be the cherry on top of what was another day in paradise.

12625576923_f02c1853c8_c(photo: Will Richardson)