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16
Dec 17

2017 – A review

What an odd year it’s been.

I got out, I went some new places, I had some different experiences, I caught some new species, I met some new people.

It was another year where my days fishing for trout diminished. I think I fished for trout exactly three days… all with my daughter and a bit with my son (who landed his first trout), and for fewer combined hours than I’d normally fish in a single day. It just gets harder and harder to get away and make the drive North or East to find trout water. Kids. Work. Wife. It just isn’t fitting into an increasingly full life. I can’t really even complain about that, it’s just an observation.

I continued to find some time around the edges to get to the Bay and fish for stripers. I didn’t do this as much as I would have liked to, but I caught some, even the odd halibut. I saw plenty of seals and pelicans and very few other anglers.

My first trip of the year was to Ft. Lauderdale/Miami. It is a trip I’ll look back on with sadness, given the later actions of my fishing partner, but the fishing itself was pretty interesting. I caught my first Peacock Bass, which was pretty fun, as well as my first Mayan. I went night tarpon fishing in Biscayne Bay (remember, my son’s middle name is Biscayne) on a night of high winds and low expectations. We didn’t catch anything more than a single jack, but we did have tarpon rolling on the shadow line of the bridge and it is something I really want to do again. I got to fish with David as well, who showed me one of his spots.

Just a fun, fun fish to catch on a fly rod.

A Mayan on David’s water

My second trip of the year was to Belize for Spring Break with my girl. We went to Caye Caulker and stayed at Sea Dreams. It was a pretty awesome trip, full of bonefish caught from the dock and very little time wearing shoes of any kind. The day of fly fishing resulted in one nice snook and a really good soaking from the rain. Lots of great memories from that trip.

My Belize Snook

One of the highlights from Spring Break 2017.

Awesome

Nice cuda.

My third trip of the year was to Oahu for a family vacation. I had a day to fish and I managed to break my O’io curse, landing three, hooking seven and seeing my first adult Giant Trevally and my first ever milkfish. It was a pretty good day on the water… opened my eyes a bit to the Hawaii bonefish game.

My fourth trip was to Mexico, Mahahual, with my dad in July. I think it was maybe a bit too late in the year as it was HOT. This was, in retrospect, not the best trip for my dad. The heat and unsteady footing were not his friends. Still, he caught his first tarpon (baby) and had his first grabs from adult tarpon. I caught some babies, had more than one eat from the big guys and caught my first trigger fish. It was a good trip that would have been made better by maybe 8 degrees less heat.

Nick with my trigger

Dad’s First Sabalito

My fifth trip was down to the marshes of Louisiana, DIY kayaking for redfish with a group largely from Alabama. This was a great experience. I had never fished out of a kayak like that and was a bit shaky, but managed to catch three reds and my first speckled trout. I met James, another blog reader, and enjoyed our day on the water.

My first DIY redfish

Don’t you love the hazey GoPro pictures?

That rounded out my fishing for the year. It is now approaching mid-December and I might, might get another day or two of throwing for stripers in the Bay, but beyond that, my fishing is pretty much wrapped up for 2017.

New species: Peacock Bass, Trigger Fish, Speckled Trout
New guides fished with:
New fishing friends made:

 

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08
Nov 17

DIY Redfishing in Southern Louisiana with a crew from Alabama – Part 1

I have been to NOLA a lot over the last 16 months or so. My average is about once a month, all for work, and the trips are packed pretty full of meetings with a quick return flight. In on Tuesday afternoon, meetings Wednesday, meetings Thursday and then the last flight out of MSY that evening (7:40 PM gets me into OAK at about midnight). Not a lot of time for fishing in that mix.

I did get out last December with guide Ron Ratliff for a half-day. That was my first trip for reds in Louisiana and it was pretty awesome.

Part of the work crew, doing work at the conference in NOLA.

This year I had a big conference in NOLA (#KidneyWeek2017), so I was going to be around for a while. On top of that, my wife had a conference in Indianapolis. So… I had a day in play to find another fishing opportunity.

Guides were pretty booked, it is prime time after all, so, I called upon the power of the internet and asked if anyone wanted to split a boat with me. I got a response fairly quickly from James who said he had ~20 guys coming from Alabama to DIY it, an annual gathering, from kayaks. He could get a kayak for me if I was interested. It was an experience I couldn’t pass up, so I took him up on the offer.

The group had two houses rented about a 2 hour drive from New Orleans. After the exhibit booth and flooring was pack up I hit the road. I managed to get down in time to steal some of their dinner (I brought rolls though). I met the crew, saw the kayak I’d be fishing out of, got attacked by mosquitos, had a couple of beers and managed to harass all the white trout under the dock lights (which was more fun than was reasonable).

A bit of serendipity next, as my friend Peter from Copenhagen happened to ALSO be right where I was going. After leaving the AL crew, I made my way over to where he was staying with Jesse and Brody. We put some additional hurt on some white trout and caught up a bit.

The next morning I got back to the Alabama crew an hour later than intended, because, see… the clocks changed and my alarm got me up at 5:45, which was more like 6:45 the day before… so… I was both late and on-time. After breakfast, we headed off.

Heading off was short-lived, as I left my rod at the house and we had to return to get it, because I’m sometimes forgetful. This would be a fast trip were it not for the obvious speed traps and the ever vigilant police (sheriffs?).

Now, the only time I’ve ever fished out of a kayak was in Maui a couple years ago, and that was a peddle kayak and you didn’t have to stand up in the thing (I mostly got out to fish, although we did throw some spinning gear sitting down and trolled some flies). Turns out you DO need to stand up in these kayaks, at least when you get where the fish are. I was… not steady. I have a high center of gravity and a lot of other excuses if you are interested, but man… I just felt like I was going to fall in pretty much every time I stood up for the first couple of hours.

Amazed I’m not falling in. Photo credit James Eubank

While there were about 18 guys, only four of us took to the trucks to hit different water. It was James, Ben, Drew and me. We launched and paddled out over some open water to some islands not far away. James and I went one way, Drew and Ben the other.

I need to point out I was just plain lucky on conditions. The wind in the morning was non-existent. In saltwater fishing I just expect there to be wind, sometimes a lot of it, sometimes too much of it, but very seldom is there none. That’s what we had when we started the day. The fishing gods were smiling down on my. Thanks buddies.

Within minutes of reaching the first island I immediately saw some sheepshead, but was way too close and WAY too unsteady to get a shot in at them. It took me a while to figure out where everything needed to go. How do I get my rod ready? Where do I put the paddle when I reach for the rod? How do I do all of this without flipping over and sinking to my waist in the muck? I had questions and it was going to be a trial-and-error kind of day.

One of my favorite sayings is “Sucking at something is the first step to becoming good at that thing.” I was at the first step toward kayak fishing greatness, very much in the sense of that quote.

I soon started seeing redfish, but I was not all put together yet and the fish would either be gone by the time I got sorted out or the kayak would have drifted on top of them when I was ready to cast. I’m glad I took my spinning rod out of my gear bag because it would have been really, really tempting to just sit down and fling things without risking tipping over and feeling foolish. Sometimes it feels like we can live our lives in a pretty much constant quest not to be embarrassed. Glad I took the chance.

I found a little cut out of the main channel that had some identifiable redfish in it. There was also something sticking out of the water in the middle of this side pocket which I took to be a log. As I got the kayak in the side pocket the log started slowly swimming out. It was a bull red. It was just massive. Biggest red I’ve ever seen with my own eyes. I was going the wrong way by the time I realized what it was. No casts were made at it and I’m sure that salty old beast was way too smart for my novice redfishing skills (and meager kayak fishing skills).

Out in the main channel and in some slightly deeper water I was seeing fish-sign. I cast at it and was tight to a fish. This was to be my first ever speckled trout.  A decent fish and nice to feel the tug of something to compensate for my feelings of inadequacy in the kayak.

That there is a crappy, gopro picture of my first speckled trout.

Soon thereafter I got on the redfish board. As I was paddling along a mangrove edge I saw water pushing, coming toward me. I could see the shapes of several fish, moving deliberately. I managed to get the rod ready (minor miracle), to get the cast made (also minor miracle), before they were on top of me. They were REALLY close when they ate, but ate they did. I was tight to my first DIY redfish.

My first DIY redfish

It was a nice fish. I was feeling pretty good after that. I had picked up a red on my first day really fishing out of a kayak and my first day DIYing for redfish and I was dry.

This whole time James was working up the other side of the cut from me and he was getting into fish as well. He’s been doing this a while and never looked like he was about to go in the drink. James was a pleasure to fish with and I’d do it again.

This is now one of the longer posts on the whole blog, so I’ll pause here and put up Part II in a day or two, which will include the story of James catching a redfish with his bare hands (no kidding).

On a side note… thanks guys. The Alabama group welcomed me in straight away, made me feel comfortable, lent me their gear, let me snag a couple beers and fed me and, overall, were just a solid group of guys. It reminds me of the Northern California Fly Fishing Message Board Bashes we used to have, way back in the day. Nice to have a fishing crew.

 

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06
Nov 17

Redfish Kayak Fishing Expert – Added to the resume

I have now spent more than five hours fishing out of a kayak for redfish in Louisiana, DIY-style. This, I’m confident, makes me somewhat of an authority on the subject.

In the picture below you can see me fishing Southern Louisiana with James from Alabama. Being the internet star that I am, I was quickly able to take all of James’ knowledge and feed it right back to him. I was so successful at this that James out-fished me, out paddled me and didn’t once leave his rod back at the house after having driven all the way to the end of the frigging island through the various 25 mph speed traps (I may have been guilty of the latter).

Here I am, spreading my expertise.

Here are the overly broad, sweeping generalizations I’m prepared to make on the topic.

  • There is almost no wind. Yup, from my vast, vast experience (see above) there is almost never much wind in the bayous of southern Louisiana. This makes fly fishing much easier than windy places, like, for example, everywhere else.
  • Only magic and dark forces keep you in the kayak. I have been told it is the design of the kayaks that make them stable-ish for an angler standing up, but I am convinced it is a combination of dark, unseen powers and magic. I constantly felt like I was going in the drink, but didn’t and I think the supernatural is the only plausible explanation here.
  • Redfish will eat topwater. Yup. They will.
  • There are bull reds and they look like logs. Like… they look a lot like logs and you should cast at them, not wander over near them only to find out that it WASN’T a log, but the biggest redfish you’ve ever seen.
  • There are a lot of guys from Alabama fishing Louisiana. Specifically, around Grande Isle, once a year, and they know how to cook and have a good time.

I’m sure there are more lessons to impart, but I haven’t slept a whole lot in the past few days and I’m thinking maybe, just maybe, I should.

And… because I know you are thinking it… you are welcome.

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19
Oct 17

BotB – Redfish Expert

I’m going back to NOLA, because, of course I am. This time it is a conference (anyone else going to Kidney Week???) and I have a day at the end of things to get on the water. Last year I got out there in December and managed a half day with guide Ron Ratliff, who was booked when I asked, about fishing this time around.

My first redfish, photo from Derek Rust, in the Keys. 

Ron taught me everything there is to know about fly fishing for Reds in the 3 hours we had on the water, meaning that now I am not only the world’s leading bonefish expert, but I’m also, like, one of the top experts when it comes to redfish too (if you are taking any this serious, then it means you are why we can’t have nice things).

So, no Ron this time around, I was looking for time on the water. Somehow this has turned into me getting on the water on a SUP in the marshes of southern Louisiana doing some DIY redfishing. I am sure some comedy is going to ensue.

Looking forward to it, although not the falling off the SUP which is about a 50% bet.

 

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21
Dec 16

Louisiana Red

Capt. Ron Ratliff and I heading in after a successful few hours of redfishing.

My wife is in Montana with our boy at her parents’ place. My daughter is in Mexico with her mom. I’m in Louisiana for work.

This is my fifth trip to NOLA since August and I had yet to find time to fish for reds. I decided this would be the trip I’d change that.

When I got in on Monday I was surprised at how cold it was. Temps were in the high 40’s at night. It was, ya know, for a Bay Area person, cold. I didn’t fish Monday. I didn’t fish Tuesday, an equally cold day. I didn’t fish Wednesday morning, but after my last meeting of the day at 11:00, I headed south to meet up with guide Capt. Ron Ratliff for a half-day of fishing.

Wednesday was a beautiful day. The chill had gone away, temps were in the mid 60’s and the wind was negligible. I lucked out, pure and simple.

After getting to Chauvin and quickly changing out of my work shirt and slacks, we were off and on the water.

This was my first time fishing for reds in Louisiana. I was reminded strongly of the Marls in Abaco, but in place of mangroves you have the marsh grasses, which serve the same function in pretty much the same way. Small islands and bays and channels all were created by the marsh grasses, creating a maze of habitat for fish and the things they feed on.

We only fished for a little over three hours, but we found fish, a lot of fish, and they were often grabby. I was surprised at how close in the casts were (30 feet was a long cast and my longest, maybe 40′, was five feet past the fish) and how many casts these fish would let you take. They seemed not to care a whole lot about a half dozen casts landing all around them with a weighted fly. They didn’t like being lined, but beyond that, they were extremely agreeable.

Capt. Ron was easy to share a skiff with. He’s a local and he knows his water, and the fish, well. We had to change flies a few times to get it dialed, but we found what worked and the fish were mostly happy fish. We had a good time on the water and brought several fish to the boat in a day that was short on time to begin with. I had no complaints and was all smiles. I like this country and I like these fish.

I also managed to catch my first black drum, which was a nice bit of work.

I’ll be back. This is a special place, clearly, and it needs maybe some more of my time and consideration.

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03
Oct 14

The Keys, Day 2-ish

I got up early and met Captain Derek Rust and Dan Dow at the dock. We set off to go and try and find some tarpon at first light. What tarpon we found were coy and after a couple hours of playing hide and seek we switched it up to look for snook and reds.

Now, I’m the “bonefish” guy, right? So why look for reds or snook when I could go look for bones? I had never caught a red or snook before, so I was interested in giving it a shot.

Shots I had, and plenty. I had a couple good shots and snook before we went in search of the reds.

It turns out I still have plenty to learn and my bonefishing knowledge didn’t count for much when looking for the reds. I was casting in the wrong places and giving the fly the wrong action and my frustration level was slowly ticking upward.

Dan finally got a fish to stick and soon thereafter I managed the same. What a beautiful fish. I can see why so many folks have recommended going after the reds to me. It was a pretty good end to a good day on the water with Derek and Dan. We covered 90 miles that day in Derek’s boat and he worked very hard on what was a busman’s holiday for him.

Dan's Red.

Dan’s Red.

My first redfish, photo from Derek Rust

My first redfish, photo from Derek Rust

I am very much looking forward to the next time I can get to the Keys and see the Everglades again. I had not been to the Everglades since I was 10 or so, and even then I never got to see this side of the Everglades. What a beautiful spot and you really got the feeling of having the place to yourself.

Good stuff.

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09
Feb 13

Redfishing looks kind of fun

I’ve caught a few carp and while I have seen them wagging tails like a bonefish, I have not experienced other bonefish-like qualities. They say they are there, but for me, those qualities prove elusive.

I have not been redfishing. However, my sense of it is more like bonefishing than, say, carp fishing. It seems like a mix between bonefishing and fishing for jacks.

I’d like to do it. Of course, I’d also like to go to the hundreds of places I could bonefish that I have yet to visit, so I’m torn.

The SWC guys recently went to NOLA for some Reds and… well… it just reinforces my interest in doing that.

Derek with a very nice looking Red.

Derek with a very nice looking Red.

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