Even when I Don't Fish I Catch Fish

Haven't been fishing much lately I only took two trips last week. Here is a quick gallery of the fish that were caught on film last week. Check the captions for the info.

Thursday Launched at Breton sound Marina in search of some redfish. I was only able to hook two out of the many that were hitting the topwater.

Saturday visited the Lumcon marine center in Cocodrie. If you haven't been check it out they have aquariums with native Louisiana fish. My favorite part is the tower that over looks five miles of marsh in every direction its a great spot to scout the fishing spots. Why didn't I take a picture of that? 

My buddy Cody took his Kayak down to Delacroix and was able to catch a few for a fry. Including these nice Largemouth Bass that are bigger than the Redfish.

Sunday got back to my old habits of staying up all night fishing. Went to find some speckled trout but Lake Pontchartrain is being invaded by stripers.

The Underachiever

Friday evening before the tournament the
average trout were 18 inches. 

My tournament slump continues after starting strong with some solid finishes in The Top Bag and Redfish Rumble. This past Saturday I fished the Bayou Coast Kayak Fishing Club Trout Challenge which was going to be easy because I had consistently been catching some nice trout in my favorite Lake Pontchartrain. My little brother Collin was going to participate in his first tournament and I had everything figured out. The Friday before tournament Collin and I headed out to Lake P to hone in on the bite before the tournament the next day. We made the short paddle out to where we wanted to start and on my second or third cast fish on a solid 18 incher was in the net. We spent the next few hours reeling in some sizable trout while jockeying for position on the bridge between the boats that were soaking live shrimp. They were also catching a steady  mix of redfish, trout ,and sheepshead. As we returned to the launch as the sun was setting Collin and I finalized our plans to return early saturday morning to fish the tournament.


Saturday morning Collin and I woke up at 3:30am I made a couple PB&J sandwiches for breakfast and I was ready to head to the lake. While we were eating Collin decided to check the weather and told me there was a west wind. If I wasn't fully awake at this point I was after Collin read the wind forecast the wind changed . make the lake rough and dirty. Decision time do we tough out the rough lake or make a last minute change and go somewhere else.I thought about it for a few minutes and decided to change and run to a spot down highway 23 where I have caught a lot of big trout on topwater. My new plan was to get a couple good fish on topwater before going to my deepwater jigging spot to round out the five fish stringer. We arrived at the launch quickly rigged up the yaks and tied on topwaters and headed for the flat. When we got there bait was everywhere and we quickly received a few bumps on the topwaters. At this point hopes were high and I hooked a nice trout only for it to shake off near the boat. Undeterred I kept casting the topwater missing trout after trout confidence fading with each miss. The finally I cast to a point and a big Speck grabs my top water and starts running it came up to the surface and then went on a drag stripping run where it successfully threw the hooks. Now I felt my plan b starting to go off course two nice trout lost and countless others evading our hooks. It was still early and we still had plenty of time to salvage the day. I continued tossing the topwater but the popping hits from speckled trout turned into huge explosions from redfish. Three casts in a row yielded huge blowups and this solid redfish pictured below. We fished the rest of the day in my deepwater spot catching plenty of throw back 11 inch specks and rat reds not what we needed on tournament day. It ended up being a decent day on the water where we caught a bunch of fish but a horrible tournament. Every day is a learning experience and that day I was reminded that you can't control the weather, and topwater is not a good bait to put your tournament hopes behind. Congrats to the winners who had some impressive stringers.

Scavenger hunt: Where I'm At

If a picture is worth a thousand words then these three should tell you most everything you need to know. Picture Number 1 tells you what we were catching Redfish. Number 2 tells you what we were using If you look closely you can see. Picture number 3 is the where if you know what you're looking at I will say that we were in Lake Pontchartrain. If you can't figure it out my email is Fishxscale@gmail.com I will tell you where we were fishing.

Beat the Heat

The summer sun is almost unbearable but if you know when to go you can beat the heat and get on the fish. One good way is to take an evening trip after the sun has lowered a little. Which is what Eric P and I did he came to New Orleans for a conference and wanted to see Louisiana outdoors. He kayak fishes for bass in North Carolina and wanted to catch some Louisiana redfish. We headed down to Hopedale where I have been catching a bunch of fish by working  between the grass and the shorelines . The wind was pretty high in the evening which made fishing pretty tough but he was able to stick it out and catch this beautiful three spot.  

This fish couldn't resist the gold spoon

Swamp Bass

Someone turned the heater on here in south Louisiana and the brutal summer heat has settled in.Fishing in the shade of the huge bald cypress trees was a welcome reprieve from the heat. I had to work in a town outside of Thibodaux and I arrived a little early so I could wet a line before working the graveyard shift. The change of scenery was nice and the huge cypress trees kept it cool. At one point I got distracted from fishing and just began to look around appreciating the beauty.(I snapped a few shots below) The trees all had moss hanging from the branches and sported a bright green, meanwhile the tannic water was a clear black almost like coffee. I wonder how the coloration of the water affects lure color selection.The sounds were very peaceful no cars,sirens, or city noise just the insects and birds.If you closed your eyes you might think you were in the rainforest or Jurassic Park .My goal was to catch a dinosaur fish we call a choupique in louisiana bowfin in most other place, but I couldn't find one on this trip. I did catch one little bass a consolation prize for trying.

Devil Horse Grasshopper

Recycled Kayak Trailer Build

Update :check out my new trailer click here

When I began kayak fishing I was drawn to it because of its simplicity being able to just throw it on the car and go. They are low maintenance no expensive outboard motor to maintain ,no battery to remember to charge ,no registration ,and no trailers. Thats what I used to think I still don't have to worry about an outboard blowing up, but now I  have just as many if not more to worry about. Countless accessories I have to repack neatly after every trip, a fish finder battery that needs to be charged ,and now I have finally added a trailer. If I continue on this path my Outback will have a 5 hp Yamaha on the back soon.To be Honest The trailer is probably the best investment other than the Outback itself that I have made.  The trailer has made loading up and launching a much easier and quicker task saving me time and the back ache. before I would have to empty the hull before flipping it upside down and lifting the Outback on the roof of my Jeep. Now I just hook up and go.



I picked up the trailer a couple weeks back it started as a harbor freight 40x48 the guy that I got it from had extended the tongue 3 feet and built a flat plywood platform. I got the 2x4s for free from my aunt who had them laying in her backyard. I wanted this trailer to be pretty simple its a temporary fix until I upgrade to a custom made heavy duty trailer that will hold up to six yaks. This wooden trailer will hold me over until next month when its complete. I still need to paint it and find some carpet to line the bunks and it will be complete when I do I will update this post with the final product.

Short Report

Live minnows

When I started this blog I never intended to put so many words in my posts I dont even read these posts. When I went fishing this morning I also didn't intend to use live cocahoe minnows today I don't need live bait. My objective for the day was to relax so I just went with the flow. We launched around 7Am set the minnow trap and went on the hunt for some reds we paddled around a couple grass filled ponds but I missed a couple reds on the frog early and we only ended up with the  one red below. We gave up on the reds and retrieved the minnow trap which was brimming with cocahoes. We  set up at the mouth of a bayou casting them 2ft under popping corks and caught a couple Speckled trout before calling it a day. 

Email me FishxScale@gmail.com

The Coolest

Kayak Specks in Lake Pontchartrain

Wayne with a nice Lake Pontchartrain speckled trout.

Went fishing with Wayne O this morning on Lake Pontchartrain The speckled trout were biting at the trestles but not steady but you would catch one every 25 or 30 casts. Wayne was able to land this beauty he also had one just as big or bigger come off at the boat. I was able to land four trout and missed another four keepers while fumbling with the net. There were a ton of boats out and the ones with live shrimp were consistently reeling in decent fish. If you go out in your yak be careful because there are lots of boats jockeying to get in on the bridge . Also a tip bring a good heavy anchor those little folding anchors don't work. Have any suggestions/questions/answers Email me at FishxScale@gmail.com

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I Can't Stand the Rain

Sometimes you just have to go even though the weather conditions are not ideal I had my mind set on going

You can clearly see the barb to the right of the lure.

Sunday so I went. The forecast was calling for a 30% chance of rain up until around 11 O'clock when the percentage bumped up to 60%. So I loaded up my new trailer and set my alarm to get out on the water early. I woke up to dry calm conditions and optimism that I could have success on a bad day. After meeting up with my buddy and sorting out some trailer issues we were an hour behind schedule and I the rain was an hour closer. Once we made it to Campos marina we met up with two more guys Cody and Maurice who were already on the water. As we made it across the mrgo Cody was reeling in a speckled trout and the day was looking up. Bayou la loutre was full of bait and eager to catch a fish I started casting and hooked up with something that just didn't feel right I was able to get it to the surface it was a stingray that I hooked by the stinger. After contemplating the best method for hook removal I decided to cut the line and let the hook rust out.We exited into lake Borgne and spread out working the shorelines and reefs Cody continued his hot streak and quickly caught a puppy drum near the Fort. Meanwhile I continued around and started throwing a popping cork with a blue moon deadly dudley about 2 feet under it. I was drifting with the wind casting it to the rocks on the shoreline . Just as I was planning my next move my cork dissapeared and an open water redfish fight on my hands. The result was a nice red fish .

The fish were biting despite the poor conditions

  This was the only fish I could pull from Lake Borgne and at this time the wind was picking up and making it tough to fish the open water in the kayak. We headed back in to fish the marsh for reds before the rain we could see on the horizon would force us off the water.

Easy kayak redfishing spot inside the rocks
 less than a mile from Campos Marina

We went behind the rocks and were met with lots of grass not a problem  read this and there was lots of bait and it looked pretty promising. We spread out and began working the grass lines but before I could get in and really start hunting the rain storm was bearing down on us. Before we left Cody did catch a nice bass right before the rain came down and sent us home early. Hopefully Cody, Maurice and I can get together when the weather is better so we can really catch some fish.

Have any suggestions, questions, want to take a trip, Email me at Fishxscale@gmail.com

 and finally for your listening pleasure

Missy Elliott