January Kayak Fishing

I went out this weekend with the intention of just doing some kayaking.  Of course I brought my fly rod just in case, but I really intended to just go kayaking.  I launched my 15' sea kayak in the Mississippi Sound and pointed the bow straight south with no destination in mind.  

Nothing in sight...

It was a beautiful, calm day on the sound, and I briefly contemplated kayaking all the way out to Horn Island, 8 miles south.  Realizing that my mother and fiance would kill me (yes, they read my blog), I decided to turn around and head into a nearby bayou that I had long wanted to explore.

Boy am I glad that I did.  I paddled way, way back, where the bayou is as wide as a trout stream.  I started spooking redfish, their wakes giving them away in the shallow water as they fled from my 15' blue monster.  I gave them a few minutes to calm down, got my fly rod out, and landed this beauty on my second cast.

Not a big redfish by any means, but certainly a welcome relief from my recent troubles.  I feel pretty silly for driving to Louisiana a few weekends ago and striking out when I can catch redfish literally a mile from my house.

More after the jump...

I thought I was going to start nailing them, but the other redfish in the bayou proved to be smarter than this one.  I got one more bite, and spooked several, but I could not bring any more to hand in about an hour of fishing.  Meanwhile, the mosquitoes were having their way with me.  The sun was on its way down so I decided to start heading back as I had a couple miles to go.

On the way, I trolled through the deep section of the bayou and managed to get this nice speck.

I resisted the temptation to keep trolling and paddled out of the bayou, following the shoreline of the Sound back to the launch and arriving before dark.

All that paddling made me hungry.  There's nothing like red beans and rice to recover from a day on the bayou.