Travel North to the Midwest & Haiku

He caught small green fish 

fishing in Indiana

Jeffery took a road trip

I Forgot Friday Video

The video of me catching that bull redfish from my previous post


Thanks for watching and if you want to see a well made fishing video check this one out.

I Forgot to Write About Last Friday

Wide as the Outback.

Inhaled it

Pictures are worth a thousand words right? Then here is 4000 words and maybe a video coming soon. the day started off with top water and small trout were everywhere. We were only able to manage five keepers specks not even photo worthy. After the top water bite died I moved  to a little flat  where bait was getting busted on the lee side of the bank. I casted the Mirrodine and began to catch everything swimming including the Hardhead catfish ,bull red and slot red  a couple more small trout.

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Night Light

Earlier in the summer I read an article in the newspaper on how we were plagued this year by undersized fish in Lake Pontchartrain. It postulated that a tropical storm would improve fishing in the lake which seems logical. At the bottom there was a sentence about fishing the lakes dock lights that changed my sleeping habits for the past couple months. Fishing at night under the lights is some of the fastest action you can get. Its great for kids and adult fishermen who have short attention spans, or just anglers who are addicted and fish 24/7 like me. Once you find a good light catching the fish cant get any easier.The simple rig is a 3/8 oz jig head and a soft plastic jig. You can smash the barb on the hook to make removal easier because you are going to catch a lot of fish and this saves a ton of time when unhooking. Another option is to tandem rig 1/8th ounce jig heads with my favorite chartreuse Sparkle Beetles will bring them two at a time.  My other favorite in the lights is the smallest Mirrodine, Mirrominnow,or MirrOglass lures worked very slow will draw strikes from the larger fish under the lights. Later in the fall when the shrimp start showing up shrimp shaped plastics shine the new live target shrimp will probably work magic along with the classic DOA. Fishing the lights is also a great time to pull out the fly rod the weightless flies glide through the strike zone perfectly and is my secret weapon when

A beat up sparkle beetle after a
night of fishing the lights.

working lights where the fish are more finicky of other lures. The key to catching fish in the lights is to work the edges of the beam where the light shines on the water and the base of the light near the edge of the dock. This summer my brother and I worked the lights along the banks of Lake Pontchartrain from late June through early August and have seen the fish grow from mostly 10 and 11 inchers to mostly 12 inch fish. By the end of August the trout should be solid keepers making for easy limits at night.  Safety tip Make sure you have a 360 degree white light and a bright handheld flashlight to not get run over by powerboats in the dark.

The Best Kayak Fishing Mods and Diy Projects

Turn your yak into a fishing machine

Center hatch tackle storage solution stops tackle
 from floating around the inside of your kayak.

Hobie outback front hatch gear bucket

Pre 2015 Hobie outback framed seat

Universal PVC kayak cart

quick release kayak anchor

Make rod butts shorter for kayak use.

Replacing old kayak bungee

More coming soon follow me everywhere

Kayak fishing diy make a drift sock make a anchor make a hatch storage bucket seperate sections of the kayak with mesh  quick release kayak anchor systemmake a kayak cart pvc kayak wheels easy do it yourself free kayak fishingcrate alternative kayak storage 

Late Summer Topwater Video

Video of my recent trip to Hopedale Louisiana. During this trip I threw topwater almost exclusively which led to a couple vicious redfish strikes. Thanks for viewing email me at FishxScale@gmail.com  

Pontchartrain Jacks

Every year after 4th of July Lake Pontchartrain is inundated by the hard fighting Jack Crevalle and us inshore anglers go a little crazy for these fish. Catching them is not that challenging if you are able to find large schools of bait mullets or their favorite menhaden which school up thick in the late summer. Jacks like to use break walls to pin the school of bait and unleash the attack. The lakefront steps and the areas around the marinas are good  in the early mornings and late evenings when the bait makes its daily migrations in and out the harbors. The best lures are 6 or 8 inch spoons or large topwaters which elicit huge strikes from the jacks. from now until late October you will find me chasing the jacks in the evenings along Lake Pontchartrain either from the kayaks or from land . Pontchartrain shark fishing post coming soon . Email me at fishxscale@gmail.com to schedule a trip or get some tips on a good bite.

Early Mornings in the Late Summer

The Summers in south Louisiana can be brutally hot especially in august. The key to catching fish is to get out early before 11 O'clock that means launching before the sun is up to allow for the paddle time to your fishing area. When launching at in the dark especially At busy marinas and waterways make sure you have a 360 degree light. I also like to carry a headlamp or small handheld flashlight for navigation and to be able to signal oncoming boats. My brother and I launched around 5:30 in the dark and set out for our destination the sun took its time rising a signal that fall is not far away. When we made it to our spot the sun was peeking over the horizon and there was bait everywhere. I began throwing a matrix shad on a 3/8 jig head a couple casts in I foul hooked a small shark luckily he got off the line before I had to deal with those teeth. as the sun got above the horizon i began tossing a skitterwalk the topwater bite started off slow but it took off right around 7. It started with a 29 inch bull red. I cast into a large school of nervous bait and had a fish strike the lure three times before giving up on the next cast I walked it then bam a huge explosion and this fish didn't miss it took off stripping drag. After a tense fight I was able to grip it and pull it into the boat.

This was the fish I fished all day for during the IFA tournament and I had caught it before 7 o'clock this day. I continued working these rocks and was able to pick up another redfish on the skitter walk . This time a more manageable size 25 inches that had 12 spots. After catching this red I decided to move to another spot to try and catch some specks. I situated myself on a point where current was pushing around I could see bait flicking on the surface I cast my topwater in and immediately missed three hits on one cast. I grabbed my popping cork rod and cast to the same spot my cork quickly went under and I reeled in a solid 18 inch speck. This continued for the next 15 or twenty minutes alternating from cork to topwater.As yo can see from the picture below my topwater got a ton of action today the paint started to flake off.

After that spot dried up I drifted the backside of that point and found the bite again including a 21 inch speck that rounded out my IFA redemption stringer. I continued drifting this stretch steadily picking up specks until  10:30 when we called it a day. This is the only way to stay cool during these warm days.

Lafitte IFA Kayak tour

I fished the IFA Kayak tour Lafitte originally I wasn't going to do it but I realized I had to fish to qualify for the championship.  The last time I fished the IFA Empire I had a horrible day read about it here. I guess this story starts the Friday before I went red fishing for some slot reds for the grill. Me and my brother ended up keeping three reds from 18 to 22. On the way back to the launch at 11am we decided to take a detour to a trout spot. when we got there the tide was moving and there was bait being blown up. I was able to catch an 18 inch speck and missed a few more that I could see were bigger. I regret not going there first thing that morning because by this time it was hot out. If I wouldn't have caught that trout I probably would have gone to grand isle but I opted for the closer option that allowed me to sleep at home rather than my jeep that I had spent the past few weekends in. Sunday morning we woke up at 4:30 and headed to the launch. We arrived at 5:30 unloaded everything the wait for 6:00 was the longest 30 minutes of my life. It took forever but once the time came we were off and it was a sprint to the trout spot before the top water bite died. We got there rather quickly and as soon as we got there my top water was being blasted. I had 6 or 7 blowups before I hooked up but once I did I had a solid 18 inch speck. A few casts later another huge blowup and I could tell this was a bigger speck finally got it in and snapped the picture it ended up being almost 21 inches. I fished trout for fifteen minutes more but I didn't hit anything that was an upgrade. I knew my trout was good enough so I switched my target to the red fish I knew I needed a 40 inch fish to compete because most of the guys went to grand isle where they were plentiful see here. Armed with a extra smelly gulp I  fished for a redfish all day from about 7:30 until 1:30. I couldn't make it happen I caught all kinds of bottom feeders including white trout and croakers but no redfish. I know there were some big fish in the area my brother caught a 25 inch drum and he swears he lost a 24 inch speck at the kayak. It was a humbling day after starting off so well it was frustrating to not be able to complete what I set out to do. Competitive fishing is a battle against yourself and mother nature  as much as i like to think  can make the fish bite I haven't completely figured it out. Even though I didn't win anything the experience I gained will only help me in the championship.

fish from the friday before

friday before a 25 inch red

Anticlimatic Slamboree recap

This has proved to be a very busy time for tournament kayak fishing it started with the Lafayette kayak fishing clubs La 1 Slamboree tournament on July 26. Cody, my brother and I prefished for three straight weekends for this tournament and we explored  many areas I had not fished before. During prefishing we were able to find some good trout and redfish. When the tournament finally rolled around I was confident I would be able to have a decent stringer to weigh in. The day started out well I caught a 12 inch trout right off the bat Ii then stumbled upon a school of bait that was being pounded by something . I threw my topwater in and quickly reeled in a gafftop catfish I cast in again and another this went on for 15 minutes until I gave up and moved to a point with some current I was able to land a 16 inch speck. After that speck It was more gafftops until I caught my only redfish of the day a 15 inch that I tagged and released. My buddy Cody fared much better than me as he caught a keeper speckled trout and he had what we thought was a perfect slot redfish that would put him somewhere near the top. Cody's redfish turned out to be 1/16th of an inch too big  but it was still an impressive showing for his first tournament. Also to put the slam in Slamboree you were supposed to catch a flounder I still don't know where they live heres the only flounder i could find over the four trips we took down the highway.

The only flounder I could fool.