I had documented this process on the Cuda prior to the last IFA event, but I deleted all the pictures off my camera before the tournament since it wass catch-photo-release and I wanted to give the judges a clean card to look through. So today I had it all planned out, I would film and document what it takes to install the mesh cargo panels on the Coosa. You can pick these up at your local Jackson dealer or through JK’s online store. Well I filmed it, but it was too dark (I was in a poorly lit garage while it rained), so the film came out lousy. Then the install was so easy that I failed to take pictures of all the steps because I just breezed right through….definitely a one beer job.

Here goes what I do have.

First, gather the materials you’ll need to install them. That includes the boat. You’ll need a drill, 3/16 drill bit, hand riveter (essential tool for kayak anglers), and the mesh cargo panels (which come with the rivets and clips needed to hold the net in place). Some folks will use marine goop as well to seal each rivet hole, but I don’t think it is necessary with the location of these holes.

Drill holes in the appropriate locations for your boat. For the Cuda it is 5 spots, pretty straight forward. After you drill the holes you can rivet the clips into place. Make sure to press firmly against the kayak while you do. Keep squeezing that handle until you hear it pop.

4 holes for the Coosa, and you actually need to place the holes for the top clips on top the boat, so it doesn’t interfere with the low position spot of the seat. Also watch when you are drilling the lower holes to not hit the flush mount rod holders.

Then all you have to do is stretch the mesh net over the clips

See, I told you it was easy. If I can do it, you can do it.

Traveled down to Plaquemines Parish this past weekend for the IFA Kayak Fishing Tour event held at Delta Marina in Empire. The IFA format is catch-photo-release redfish and speckled trout. Your score is the combined length of your biggest redfish and trout. 34 people showed up to fish the event despite the less-than-stellar weather. A cold front moved into Louisiana over the weekend and Sunday’s post-frontal conditions included high winds, 20-30 mph – nemesis to any kayak fisherman. You could feel the wind shake the cabin at Delta while laying down to sleep Saturday night. Not exactly the confidence boost you want pre-tournament.

There was a chill to the air Sunday morning with the wind howling. The silver lining was the fact that I didn’t see a single bug all day, that hardly ever happens in the marsh.

At the launch

I fished for trout in the early morning anywhere I could escape the wind. I started picking up rat reds and got on board with a 16″ red. No trout though, so I pressed on, paddling straight into the wind to hit a pond that I knew I’d caught redfish in before. The tide was out so the water was low, I wasn’t sure if I could even make it into the pond, especially with the NW wind blowing the water out. I did make it in and I was greeted with a pair of redfish, backs fully exposed from the tops of their eyeballs to the spot on their tails, crawling around on the mud flat eating crabs. I flipped a jig in front of one of them and after a short fight had him in the boat, 23″. Not bad. By the time I caught him, measured, and took a picture, the other red had moved on. I kept going around the perimeter of this pond and picked up a 22″ red, then another upgrade, a 23.5″ red.

23″ red

23.5″

I learned my lesson in the first IFA tournament I fished and now try to pinch the tail for all my fish. Squeeze out every inch you can out of a fish. All the reds in that pond were sight fished, never thought I would be able to do that in 30mph winds, but when the water is low, dirty, and rolling, they have no clue you are there. I was literally hooking and catching them right next to the boat. It was a lot of fun. I left the pond, went back into the bay, to again try for the trout. I fished the rest of the day for trout, trying several different lures, but nothing was working. Water clarity all day wast not what I was hoping for, but there were some pockets of clear water where I was optimistic. I found myself in the same position I was in for Paddlepalooza, except this time it wasn’t a flounder eluding me, it was a trout. A 12″ trout would have netted me 5th place.

Results: http://www.ifakayakfishingtour.com/tournaments/2012/empire_12.html

Congrats to Steve, Clayton, Adam, Devon, and James, all fellow BCKFC members and solid anglers at that. I ended up 13th with my 23.5″ red. There were only 8 people who caught both species and only 20 people caught fish. Conditions were tough and it was reflected in the results. I looked at Weather Underground to see what the observed conditions for Grand Isle, LA were on Sunday and it showed winds at 23mph and gusts up to 39mph.

I  was not very optimistic on the drive down, conditions were going to be tough and I had not fished the area in a long time. However, even with the tough conditions, I had a great time and am happy I was there. It was actually a really pleasant day, the sun was out and the bugs were nowhere to be found. The Cuda exceeded my expectations, slicing through the wind, I never felt it was a burden to paddle, even directly upwind. The rudder was a big help in drifting shorelines, definitely worth it’s weight in gold on a day like Sunday. Maybe one of these days I’ll be able to put it all together and bring home a check. I’ll just have to keep fishing these tourneys until I do. The next Louisiana IFA event is in Delacroix on June 17th.

Friday

This past weekend was BCKFC‘s 9th Paddlepalooza at Bobby Lynn’s Marina down in Leeville, LA. I had the pleasure of being down there Friday – Sunday. 201 people registered for the tournament, which is the most ever for the club, and according to Catch Cormier, makes it the 3rd largest kayak fishing tournament in the country.

I headed down straight from work Friday afternoon to see if the fish we caught last weekend were still there and what conditions might be like for Saturday. It was somewhat windy, the water was higher than last weekend and the clarity was worse. Undeterred I set off in search of trout and flounder. The trout were still where I had found them, in fact I found a few other places that were holding trout too. I missed one really good one in a different spot. I missed a flounder too, he came off as he leapt out of the water. So things were looking good for Saturday, my game plan was still formidable, it was just a matter of execution.

That night was the captain’s meeting where we were treated to a captain’s bag loaded with goodies, a nice big plate of pastalaya and a live performance by Clayton Shilling of his “Margaritaville” parody,“Leeville”. It was fun putting faces to names and catching up with friends met at previous events. As expected, pretty much everyone was still strategizing for Saturday, trying to pluck knowledge from anyone willing to talk.

Saturday

Woke up early Saturday to launch the kayak, found the water to be low and winds calm. Too calm in fact; the gnats, mosquitoes, deerflies were thick in the marsh. Worst I have ever seen. I was covered up fairly well with only my hands and parts of my face exposed. I found out mosquitoes can cut right through breathable fabric though. The bugs died down when the sun came up. For the first time in a long time, the weather at a BCKFC tournament was gorgeous.

I made it to my spot and was happy to see no one there. Unfortunately nothing was biting, so I pressed onto where I missed the nice trout from Friday. Caught a few trout there, nothing big though, and I started fishing points and cuts slow looking for flounder. I caught a lot of 15″ reds while looking for flounder, then hooked into a nice 24″ red that weighed just over 5 lbs. Later I caught a nice trout that ended weighing just under 2 lbs. I had the start to a decent slam, I just had to catch my flounder. Went back to the spot Blake caught all his flounder at last weekend and fished it hard for an hour, caught more trout, but no flounder. I abandoned that spot and tried to upgrade my redfish, but never found any that were bigger, so I headed back to Bobby Lynn’s for the weigh-in.

Without a flounder neither of my fish held up on their own for me to take home any prizes. Nice weather usually yields great catches down here in Louisiana and PP9 was no exception. It was a great day to fish and I really enjoyed the weigh-in, awards ceremony, and evening raffle. Some awesome fish were caught, lots of big trout from kayaks (2 over 5lbs). Not too many flounder were brought in, so those that caught them had a good shot at the slam. When the results were tallied the event saw 88 people weigh fish. 22 of those folks weighed in a slam (red, trout, flounder). Top 10 slam places pay out and are not entered in individual categories. My redfish placed 19th and my trout 16th – so not quite what I was hoping for individually, but could have been a different story if I found a flounder. 10th place slam was 7lb 8oz and I had 7lbs in just redfish and trout! Darn those elusive flounder.

John’s winning trout

Ryan’s big trout that secured him the winning slam

Dinner

The fish cleaning crew – the unsung heroes of Paddlepalooza

A big thanks to everyone that helped make this event happen. The food and fellowship were unsurpassed. I had a lot of fun, I look forward to this tourney every year. Congrats to the winners, there are some fine kayak fishermen in BCKFC. There will be more series tournaments throughout the year, but Fall N Tide is the next big event, it will be held October 27th.

Slam Results

1 Ryan Doty – 10lb 14oz

2 Jared Leroy – 9lb 2oz

3 Perry Watts – 8lb 14oz

4 Jeff Gleason – 8lb 8oz

5 Todd Lewis – 8lb 6oz

6 Gairi Williamson – 8lb 6oz

7 Ron Glockner – 8lb 6oz

8 Cody Wilson – 8lb 2oz

9 Dennis Soignier – 7lb 10oz

10 Kurt Loup – 7lb 8oz

Trout results

1 Johnny Bergeron – 5lb 14oz

2 Chris Holmes – 2lb 14oz

3 Ronald Durst – 2lb 12oz (in a Cuda)

4 Tommy Eubanks – 2lb 12oz

5 Mike Ethridge – 2lb 12oz

Redfish results

1 Jeff Maher – 7lb 4oz

2 Louie Blanchard – 7lb 4oz

3 Jim Shaut – 7lb 0oz

4 Randy Fleming – 7lb 0oz

5 Tyler Hall – 6lb 8oz

Flounder results

1 Stephen Christmas – 2lb 2oz

2 Sherman Walker – 1lb 14oz

3 Lance Burgos – 1lb 12oz

4 Chuck Wallace – 1lb 8oz

5 Brendan Bayard – 1lb 4oz

Leopard red results

1 Allen Melder – 8 spots

2 Kenny Sisung – 7 spots

3 Rick Finn – 6 spots

Sunday

I awoke on Sunday to the same beautiful weather we had on Saturday for the tournament, so it wasn’t too hard to do it all over again. This time I hit some favorite redfish flats with fly rod in hand. It took awhile to find the fish, in fact I didn’t catch anything for a couple hours, seeing very few fish. It can be like that with sight fishing, so it was no bother. I finally came to a leeward bank that was holding reds and it was on. I caught 9-10 in short time and threw in a black drum and gar to boot. All taken on the same fly, a gold crab fly, I’m not quite sure the name of the pattern, but I’ll post up a pic below.

It is always a special treat to catch a leopard red, which is a redfish with more than two spots. Sunday I caught one with 5 spots, I think the most ever I’ve caught was 10, though I have personally seen one with over 20 spots. They are very cool to see. Even rarer, at least in my mind, is landing a redfish without any spots. I’ve caught one or two before and did it again on Sunday. Also cool, but they just seem naked to me when they don’t have any spots.

I did manage to get some video, proof that sloppy casts will still catch fish.

It was a great weekend. I am really grateful the weather was so awesome. One thing I took away from the whole experience is the versatility of the Cuda. One day I’m fishing in a tournament where I have to work quickly, hit my spots, then move on. The next day, I’m standing up, sight fishing for reds with the fly rod. What a wonderful boat, a joy to paddle and fish out of, kudos to the folks at Jackson Kayak for designing and developing it.

Caught this sheepshead on the fly, he came with a little lagniappe

Redfish were caught on the fly as well, including a nice one at the end of this clip

Went fishing this past weekend.

Weather was nice, winds were light early on.

Changed things up and mothershipped our kayaks further away from the launch.

Redfish were abundant, sheepshead even more so.

Fish were caught on the fly, didn’t matter what kind.

Some fish were bigger than others.

The wildlife were curious.

We had a lot of fun.