Today’s fishing report is brought to you bye the game, Never Have I Ever. In today’s pop culture, I understand it is a drinking game. From what I understand, players sit in a circle and someone says, “Never have I ever…and they fill in the blank with something they have never done before. Anyone in the group who has done the “thing” must drink. So, I’m starting this blog entry with Never have I ever and let’s see if you have to take a drink. It can be coffee, tea, water, or any beverage of your choosing.
Never have I ever been on the water in my kayak and seen a water spout.
So, how many of you had to take a drink? I’m sure some of you have been on the water with one of these. I have seen several of these over the many years I’ve been fishing. They really are quite beautiful. This one was probably 30 -50 miles away from me, out in the Gulf. This next one, from 2013 was a little bit closer. I didn’t take the pictures, someone else did and it is quite menacing.
Back to my fishing report. I passed on a trip with my buddy yesterday because I saw the radar and it looked like a mini hurricane was going to be hitting Delacroix right around the time I planned on getting there. It was probably a good call for me to stay in Baton Rouge but my buddy did land 8 redfish between squalls. After hearing that, I decided to get up early to beat the rain and headed to Delacroix myself. Herein lies my “never have I ever” number 2 or my never have I ever for the day.
Never have I ever had so many redfish REJECT a gold spoon fly! Conditions were quite favorable. There was virtually zero wind and I had a full sun until noon. The water was dirty (even where there was grass) but the redfish were feeding on crabs. I love sight-fishing for redfish but today, I had to rely on my ears. I push-poled my way through the flats and I would hear a big splash. I would then head toward the area where I heard it and I would wait for the fish to make its presence known. More times than not, this tactic worked for me. I saw a few redfish angrily come out of the water as they chased down bait. I later realized the “bait” they were chasing was baby crabs. The crabs were all over the place.
My first and only good eat came early during the day (actually while I was still monitoring that water spout). I saw a fish chasing bait in the shallows near a broken island. I pushed poled my way over to the fish and I slowly and stealthily eased my way up to where I had last seen it. I noticed several times during the day, that as I approached a feeding fish, I could hear my own heartbeat in my head. It’s absolutely nuts what adrenaline can do. I imagine that’s what happens to a bow hunter as he/she draws his/her bow on a big buck. As I got closer, I saw my pumpkin-colored adversary. I put my spoon fly about a foot in front of it…strip…strip…strip…bam! The fish immediately dug down in the grass. I tried to keep my rod tip high to keep the fish from digging into the grass but It was fruitless. The redfish had about 5 pounds of “salad” attached to my leader. I reached my hand in the water several times to strip the grass off my leader so I could work the fish. I would pull grass away and add a little pressure to my line. Then I’d feel the fish shaking on the other end so I knew it was still on. I guess having to fight a kayak and several pounds of grass zapped the fight right out of the redfish. After what seemed like 10 minutes (it probably wasn’t that long), I was able to get the fish in my net. I felt like I had really earned that fish with all it took to sneak up on it, get it to eat, and then fight it without it breaking my tippet.
I was on the board. I usually don’t keep anything over 24 inches and this one went 25. I had a hard time trying to revive it and after about five minutes of trying, I decided to put it in the ice chest. My daughter and the grandkids will be here this week and I know they love Nanna’s redfish courtboullion.
Little did I know it but that was the last eat I would get all day. I saw lots of fish. I spooked lots of fish, but never, ever, have I seen so many fish reject the spoon fly. I tried casting 2 inches away from their nose. I tried a foot away. I tried two feet and then strip the fly across their path. They either spooked and took off or they ignored it completely. I had two or three that actually followed the fly for several feet and then they decided not to eat. I got several multiple shots at fish that didn’t even see me. Oh. I forgot to ask. How many of you had to take a drink? I’ve had fish reject my fly before but I guess I had about 20 fish just say no to the gold spoon fly.
So, I changed tactics…and flies. I tied on one of my crab imitations. The problem with my crab flies is, I use a small lead dumbbell weight to turn the hook point up. While this works just fine, it sinks too quickly and I end up catching grass on every cast. The spoon fly wobbles on down and can actually be fished in a way where I rarely have to clean grass off it. Well, after I had two redfish follow my crab imitation and decide not to eat. I switched back to my spoon fly. This pattern continued all morning long. By noon, I saw several small squalls heading my way, so I decided not to be a statistic and I headed in. Wind, rain, and clouds don’t work well when sight fishing. So, now I’m a man on a mission. I will work on tying a crab fly that isn’t so heavy. That just means I’ll have to do some more research. You all know how much I like “research.”
Tight loops and tight lines!
Kayak Fishing With Kevin 