Friday was a good day

I just needed a break so I informed the wife I was going out for a rare Saturday trip.  Just me,  no kids, no friends, me and the Lord.  I needed some time by still waters and I found it by pointing my Scotty Rod holders to the horizon and going there.

Its not often you find water this clear in Louisiana but when you do it's usually a really good thing.

That's a Black Spoon of Death (TM) and a Crappie Psychic Trout Trailer - killer combination.

This combo did most of the damage

All in all it was a good day.  A day that just made you well...

There were tough days behind and tough days ahead but that day was a good day.  Well they're all actually good days we just don't always know it. 

Psalm 118:24New King James Version (NKJV)

²⁴ This is the day the Lord has made;
We will rejoice and be glad in it.

Psalm 23:4King James Version (KJV)

⁴ Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

Amen and amen!

A Day with Many Titles - Prefishing Day 1

One of the funny things that blogging does to me is that I find myself thinking about the "name" of my day while I'm out fishing.  So this first day of scouting for Paddle Palooza Ten was normal in that aspect but not so much because it was a remarkable day for so many different reasons.

First of all I realized I forgot my camera when I was 20 minutes from home.  So the first name of the day was "I Can't Believe I Forgot My Camera" (the saga of that name continues as I had 55" of fish disqualified for one online tournament, and 100 pts vanished for another online tournament - ouch).  Then as I drove down the road, I saw reds in the water, from the road three different times.  So I thought the title I didn't want to get stuck with was, "You Drove by All Those Redfish for This?".

But then I got out of my launch site, paddled through my first turn (actually missed my first turn) and then I'm in shocked when I look around and see Tails up out of the water all around me.  And these tails are massive, larger than my hand spread as wide as I can.  So I'm thinking the title is "EPIC" but I spend the next 30 minutes casting with no results.  I'm getting aggravated fast.  Then I pull in a 15.5 inch speckled trout. Finally I paddle into the fish and realize I'm surrounded by bull Black Drum - decidedly not the target species for the day.

Finally I catch a fish and after about 12 pictures I get one tolerable shot with my phone:

And that's the way the rest of the day went if I could get around the Hundreds of Black drum I could find some unbelievable reds.  I had a hard time catching anything in the slot (16-27 inches) they were all bulls.

I won't bore you with 8 shots of various sized fish but it was truly an amazing day.
the working title became "A Remarkable Day: for many reasons".

Finally it was time to try and catch a trout.  That's when I trolled up this beast:

That's a forty inch fish my best redfish ever.

I never caught another trout.  But I went on to catch a few more bull reds, and one 25 inch Black drum.  I do plan on coming back later with some cracked crab and get some major sleigh rides from those bull drum!  I saw some fish that were Crazy Big - another title for the day was "Black Drum Gather for Invasion" or yet another was "The Running of the Bulls".

Finally I realized; about half way in, to thank God and forget about the camera issues and just enjoy the day God made.  When the final fish resulted in a cramp in the arm - I knew it had really been a remarkable day.

God bless

Fall N Tide 7 is in the bag and a great day of fishing it was.

As usual my camera was neglected for most of the day.  I started the day at 12:30 am when my partner text woke me to announce a family emergency.  We swapped gear back to my car and I started my prep a few hours early.  I had a 3 hour drive ahead so I hit the road around 1:30 am.  Without my fishing partner I felt a little unsure about my day but hoped to have success.

As I arrived in the area I saw the tell tale white lights of headlamps flashing around one of my favorite spots.  After the storm there was some question if we would be able to launch there but I found a few friends willing to help me haul my boat over the levee and get after it.  And at the early time of 5:30am I launched to fish.  By daylight I had my third 18" trout in the bag.  The day's target was one red, one trout, one flounder.  You count on the Redfish to get your weight and hope for a flounder to qualify.  So after a lull of about 30 minutes I paddled out to the marsh to seek my redfish.

When I hit the marsh I saw  the distinctive swirl of a predator around a clump of grass and grabbed my "Shiney Hiney topped cocahoe plastic minnow" and promptly caught a 19" trout.  A pleasant surprise.
Then I worked my way into the marsh and heard the crashing of redfish every where.  It was going to be a fun day and for the next 3 hours I caught all the redfish I could stand but had a hard time getting over 25" (the goal is about a 26 and 3/4 inch redfish).  I caught reds until I had cramps in my arms even having two in the net at once:

You can see one of the TTF Shiney Hiney jigheads hanging out the mouth of the one the other was caught on my modified Johnson Silver Minnow - I take the 1/8th spoon and dip it in black powder coat.  This pair of 25" reds were a blast to catch I reeled one in and saw the other wake and caught him while the first was still in the net.

So by 10 am I had 4 25" reds in the bag and seemed to be getting nowhere so decided "I've got 4 hours to try and catch a flounder".  And boy did I try.  I caught another dozen reds but not one flounder.  Finally I caught a red with 9 spots and kept him for a chance at a prize.

But by 1:30pm I was exhausted (I had only paddled about 2 miles) too little sleep and too many reds had taken their toll.

I called it a day and went to the weigh in satisfied no matter what happened next.  What happened was a nice little Citica Baitcaster for my 9 spotted redfish:

I feel like the Lord taught me a few important things again, patience, rejoice in the holiness of the moment, and don't let a tournament ruin a great day of fishing.  I had a blast and at the end of the day the reel was worth more than I paid for the tourney, fishing, and food for the day - you just can't ask for more than that.

Kayak Fishing

This video captures the thrill of kayak fishing like nothing else I've seen (I am not endorsing their product):