Saturday, September 10, 2011

Sulfur Mine - Bason's Marina, LA. What a gorgeous day of fishing. Went out by myself today - needed some solitude. Time with God. I was off to a slow start as I didn't sleep well but arrived and launched aroud 7am. Nice crisp fall day. Paddled the 2.5 miles to the Sulfur Mine and notced the birds all over the place. Good sign. The Ospreys were in all the usual places. After a few stops along the way; with little success, I arrived to an empty Sulfur Mine. It's really about a month early to be fishing this winter location but the shorter drive and the simple fishing pattern attracted me. On my first drift I started catching school trout. Moved on down to my favorite drift area, a number of hits but no fish. Fishing the Sulfur Mine is fairly straighforward. Establish a "drift" when you catch a fish; anchor, make a few casts, if nothing move on. I often find the fish will hold in an area as small as 10ft around. The other thing is that sometimes they will work little pockets leave and come back so fish 'around the clock' when you've caught fish and they stop start around a 360 degree pattern until you find them again. Someone kindly placed a large bamboo pole in an area I haven't fished in awhile. I thought, "hmmm x marks the spot". I started catching fish on my first cast to it. Very small trout both speckled and whites. I worked around the clock and started catching some larger fish. After about an hour it slowed down so I started around the clock again, picked up three really nice Specks and thought - man I'm on it now. But they moved on. Sulfur Mine is a unique fishing location. It is an unnaturally deep body of water due to its former life as a real mine. And the "bite" there is unnaturally soft. In other words when you cast your lure (90% of the times you have to fish under a cork) do not let an inch of slack get in your line. This is why a fisherman using braid will outcatch a mono fisherman 2:1. Trust me I've proved it over and over again with my fishing buddy Denis (he catching the 2 and I catching the 1). Also when you "pop the cork" just a twitch will do. Move it an inch or two at a time. Often when the water has a little chop on it you can let the bait just sit and the wiggle of the wave motion will attract a catch. But soon as the cork goes under you better pull the the hook. Anyway I probably caught about 80 fish to get 15 in the bag. Lost one nice 18-20 inch speck at the boat. I was grateful for the time alone with God and His creation. Many opportunities to pause and pray and reflect throughout the day. The weapon of choice today was a chartruese gulp ghost shrimp under a cork (water was a little dirty hence chartreuse - I normally fish an "East Beast" TTF Killer Flat's Minnow). Later in the day I laid into some very agressive 12: schoolies with a TTF Killer Flats minnow straighlined (seedy melon). This is my absolute favorite way to catch trout. Those guys were so aggressive the hooks were consistently sunk through their gill plates. The gulp baits are great but at $1 a lure they get a little expensive. I dropped $4 on lures this trip. When I fish a TTF lure I consistently get 20- 50 fish out of one lure. Most days I do as well or better with the TTF but I didn't have any chartreuse on board. Live and Learn. On the paddle home I saw many reds cruising the broken shorelines but I didn't fish them. I am looking forward to my annual clergy retreat next month and the Largest tourney of the year Fall N Tide. If you are interested in booking a trip I have limited availability but the season for kayak fishing is getting really good!

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