We all came to Louisiana with the same goal in mind… to do as much fishing and eating as possible before our time ran out. Everything in between was just a bonus. Though the in between stuff was pretty damn fun too… let\’s talk about the fishing right now.
Monday 11/16 – 20 mph winds
Soooooo, we may have dodged some quarantines, we even dodged a potentially deadly tropical storm that at one point was expected to hit south Louisiana but what we couldn\’t dodge was the damn wind.
We staggered the launches for our large 18 person group throughout the morning starting at first light. Our floatilla went through what appeared to be a movie set but was really just real southern Louisiana marsh living. An incredible back drop for our day of fishing. The sun was shining, the clouds were scarce, the weather was nice… but the wind was howling. High winds and kayaks make for a challenge… extreme tides with a lot of flushing water doubles the challenges.
None of this stopped Jessica Bryant from Mississippi from sticking a \”marsh pumpkin\” as she likes to call them in super skinny water sending a warning shot to all of the boys on the trip. Wind, flushing water or not… it can be done. What a bad ass… that was just the beginning for her.
We (and by we I do not mean me) only picked off a few fish that day before the group was dejected and worn out… by no means was this the start that we wanted, however it is the start we were dealt. We will persevere.
Monday night 11/16 – Bowfishing via airboat
The camp we stayed at Deep Delta Bowfishing specializes in you guessed it, bowfishing charters. Now, this already sounds cool, but let\’s add the fact that they run airboats for their bowfishing charters. This we had to see for ourselves… so we did a thing.
We loaded two (2) airboats up with 11 anglers and went for a scoot across the marsh. Hot diggity damn that shit was fun! You can ask the guys on my boat… I was screaming the whole way \”FASTER\” just like a kid would.
The consensus was… we all loved it, the fish ARE safe when we have bows in our hands and we want to do it again! Not gonna lie… it was satisfying to shoot a fish instead of hooking a fish. I absolutely loved it… cold as hell, but loved every second of it. An unforeseen highlight of the trip.
Tuesday 11/17 – more 20+ mph winds
That 5:00 AM alarm was rough on Tuesday morning considering we had such a long day AND half of the group spent the night bowfishing… all of us were regretting that decision when we were stumbling around to get ready. Not our finest start… OK it sucked. But we did get out.
The winds were freaking relentless. We split up into three (3) groups to try to find marsh with water in it and to get the Cali boys onto some fish. For the most part, this group knows a thing or two about redfishing in the marsh, only a handful of us needed some help in understanding what to look for, how to approach skinny waters, what baits to use, etc. By the end of the second day we had that down… but the winds wouldn\’t let up.
The only blessing was that the groups started to report more fish being caught and then I had my first run-in with a redfish while in my kayak (I caught one on the dock in PAC)… and it was a doozy. Using a popping cork and some friendly advice from Eric Muhoberac from Louisiana Kayak Company I managed to frustrate a 31 inch redfish into biting. Then the hooting and hollering began. She was a beauty. How is it that my first kayak redfish is a fatboy!
As I was worried that my undersized net wouldn\’t get the job done, Eric swooped in and and landed my fish with an appropriately sized net. This moment was incredible, I let out a bellow of a cry and Eric followed with a sweet yell of success. Robert Field felt the disturbance in the force and he knows that sound… he knew that I found my fish and immediately jumped on the radio. Joe was there to film the final moments and snap a few good pics. I can\’t wait to share them with you…
Though the fishing was not on fire… there were signs of life, moments of joy and a glimmer of hope that all of us will get our redfish. We had two (2) more days of fishing to go… WE GOT THIS!