Drum Beat

For a while now, I've been searching for redfish or black drum, or really any fish that can be sight fished.  I look for subtle clues: a tail barely poking out of the water, a v-wake, a grass stem wiggling more than the rest.  I haven't been very successful.  Today was a very normal day on the water.  Not very successful.  Then, out of nowhere, BAM.  Gigantic tail.  Straight up in the air.  Just waving at me.  A tail the size of a tennis racquet.  Okay that might be a slight exaggeration, but it was huge.  Sometimes the clues aren't so subtle...  The big black drum's tail would appear for a second or two and then disappear for a minute.  Each time it would appear I would quickly maneuver my kayak within range and cast my Clouser minnow where I imagined that giant head to be.  Just one cast.  Then I would back away and wait for the tail to appear again.  I knew if I got too close it would spook and head off to deeper water.  This dance routine went on for about 10 minutes.  Then something different happened.  The tail popped up.  I cast.  I overshot.  I was slowly stripping the fly back in when the line went tight.  Ohmygosh I got'em!  I think I was more surprised than he was!

Shortly after hoookup

I immediately knew I was in for the long haul.  Last fall I watched my buddy, who was with me this time as well, land a 40 lb black drum on 12 lb test after about an hour.  But that wasn't from a kayak.  I quickly realized that fighting the fish from a kayak complicated things.  He was literally dragging me around the bayou!  When I made progress, it wasn't so much me reeling him in as it was reeling myself in.  Black drum are rather slow fighters.  Once he took me to about 3 wraps from my backing, but most of the battle was with about 20 ft of fly line out.  After about an hour and a half I realized I was in trouble.  The beast was tired; it was now just slowly swimming almost directly beneath the kayak.  Now what?  Try as I might I could not pull him up to the surface.  I was pulling against his weight so he didn't have to do much to resist it.  Having a 9 ft pole made things very awkward.  To make matters worse sunset was approaching.  I actually handed my buddy the rod and started trying to pull the leader up by hand, thinking if I could just get him up within sight I could reach down and grab him.  I tried this several times but each time I had to let go because he would swim a little bit and put too much tension in the line.  I really needed a beach to land him on.  Or heavier line.  I pulled on the leader one more time and felt a sickening feeling.  The line had broken off at the tippet knot after holding for two hours.

The only proof I've got...

In the end I would have released him anyway.  I got the thrill of the hunt, the take, and the fight.  I just missed out on the trophy shot.  It would've been by far the biggest fish of my life.  And it would've been sight fished from a kayak on the fly.  It doesn't get much more extreme.

Back at the launch, we saw something else that was pretty extreme.  You know you're in Mississippi when...

Yup thats a motorcycle towing a boat.

My reward for a tough day on the water:

Michissippi Fly Update

Well, I didn't make it out fishing last weekend - I ended up going into work instead...  And I won't be fishing for a while because I just got my ACL reconstructed.  Such fun!  But while I'm laying low for a few weeks, I'm doing my homework.  I just got Redfish on the Fly by John Kumiski so I'm looking forward to  reading that.  I'm also hoping to read lots of blog posts and watch lots of fly fishing videos.  Here is a link to one of my all time favorite fly fishing videos:  High in the Lowlands  23 minutes of Everglades excitement.  Enjoy, and keep those blog posts coming.

Grand Bay NERR Expedition Report

Well, the kayaking expedition was a great success.  I kayaked about 3 miles from the boat launch at Grand Bay NERR through Heron Bayou out to Middle Bay, allowing me a beautiful view of the Chevron refinery in Pascagoula, which looks like it could be an evil city out of a Disney movie.

After kayaking around a point, I took a different route back up into Heron Bayou and back to the launch.  The weather and scenery were wonderful.  Besides the regular wading birds and pelicans, I saw a white ibis fly directly overhead and watched a northern harrier glide slowly across the marsh with its wings in a V.

Like I said, the kayaking expedition was a great success.  The fishing?  Not so much.  On the way out I searched in vain for signs of redfish feeding in the shallows and cast to known oyster beds with no success. Then I trolled over the grass beds in Middle Bay for a little while and didn't get so much as a bump.  The most exciting thing that happened was when I kayaked into a small creek and spooked two fairly big fish, one of which actually bumped my kayak as it escaped.  My first reaction was 'redfish!', but they actually looked more like mullet as they swam past.

To be honest, I wasn't that surprised.  I haven't been very successful on similar outings in the past.  There is so much hype around sight fishing for reds, I expected them to be easier to see.  The only fish I see on a regular basis are mullet, and they are everywhere!  I think I only saw one redfish all day.  I got out to wade at one point, and I saw an explosion in the shallows followed by a bulge in the water as a fish chased something around, but by the time I waded within casting range, it was gone.  Seeing that once in a day of fishing is not enough to make it worth targeting.  Maybe I would be able to see more fish from up on a flats boat.  Or maybe I just keep hitting the marsh on the wrong tide.  Anyways, I'm going to keep trying.  This weekend my buddy and I are headed to our hot spot - its as close to a sure thing as I know of around here.  So hopefully I'll get this skunk off my back...

A nice shot of the sun's rays poking through the clouds.  Taken right before I got attacked by the mother lode of all gnats!

Grand Bay NERR Expedition

I am planning a kayaking and fishing expedition to the Grand Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve this weekend.  This is one of the few parts left of the Mississippi coast that is uninhabited and pristine, and I am very excited to visit this place again.  I went there last winter in search of redfish and came back empty handed, but it is an awesome expanse of water and grasses with endless creeks and bayous to explore.  This year is going to be different.  I did some homework:

http://grandbaynerr.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/OysterMap_Bayou_Heron.png

http://www.usm.edu/gcrl/research/images/seatrout.habitat/seatrouth.habitat.figure.5.jpg

Hopefully these maps will at least lead me to some spots to key in on.  Fish do like oysters and seagrass right?  Expect trophy shots in next week's follow up post...  Or if I don't post anything it probably means I got skunked... 

If anybody reads this and has fished here before (highly unlikely I know), I could use all the help I can get, so kindly leave me a comment with some advise.

Holy Mackerel

I have to replenish my Clouser supply from the weekend.  Those Spanish did a number on my flies.

Half of a Clouser minnow

At least I can reuse the hooks and eyes...

Fly Fishing Pensacola - Day 2

Sunday morning I was on the water by 7 am.  This time, I was wearing waders.  It was a very good decision.  I very briefly checked out the sound side before moving to the gulf beach.  I waded out past the sandbar, but once again, it was very quiet with no action in sight.  Just when I was starting to lose hope, I saw some splashing down the beach a ways.  In a matter of seconds, the water was boiling around me.  I didn't know right away what type of fish was having this feeding frenzy, but I quickly found out.  My first cast resulted in a strike, and I stripped in a fly that was half the fly it used to be.  Spanish!  The next cast resulted in a solid hook up, and after a spirited fight, I brought my first Spanish mackerel to hand.  I quickly lost count of how many Spanish mackerel I caught.  It was so easy, it was ridiculous.  The biggest challenge was the fact that I had to tie on a new fly every time the old one became nothing more than a hook.  Surprisingly, only once did a fish bite through my 20 lb tippet.  I managed to take a couple pictures despite the fact that all I really wanted to do was unhook each fish and start casting again.  

Most were around 17", the biggest was 19"

This is always difficult...

But Spanish mackerel weren't the only fish around.  Every once in a while, a hook up would result in a fish flying through the air and doing cartwheels.  Ladyfish!  Of the four ladyfish I hooked, one threw the hook, one broke me off at my tippet knot, and I landed two.  They were both about 22" long, and they gave my reel a serious work out.

Ladyfish are such a blast to catch.  I've never caught a tarpon, but watching these ladyfish fight reminded me so much of the videos I've seen of immature tarpon.  I can definitely see the family resemblance.

Eventually, the frenzied Spanish mackerel started to disperse, and the splashing became less frequent, but it was one of the greatest fishing experiences in my recent memory.  As mackerel go, they probably weren't even that big, but being able to catch a 17" fish on every cast is just insane.  It was about 2 hours of pure joy.

A couple of side notes.  There were a couple of bait fishers on the beach near me.  I don't think they caught anything.  This time I was feeling quite smug.  Also, this section of the beach is overlooked by an old gun battery - a very cool place to fish.  I took some pictures.

An odd looking rig being brought in with several escorts.  I think its well within range...

Great success!  Pensacola never disappoints.  I'll be back for sure.

Fly Fishing Pensacola - Day 1

I left bright and early on Saturday morning and headed over to Pensacola for my big solo fishing and camping expedition.  I had mainly three fish on my mind: redfish, Spanish mackerel, and ladyfish.  Fall is supposed to be a good time of year for redfish, and the waters around Pensacola are supposed to be a good place to find them.  Also, I read that Spanish mackerel are abundant near Pensacola, and I've never caught one before.  Finally, I caught a big ladyfish the last time I was in Pensacola, and I was looking forward to doing battle again.

My first stop was wade fishing in Santa Rosa Sound, near Gulf Breeze.  It was only about 9:30 am, and it was probably around 60 F.  Being from Michigan, I tend to get cocky about the temperature down here - psh, I don't need waders, this is Florida!  In reality, the water was chilly and the wind was blowing hard.  Needless to say, I was quite cold.  There seemed to be no action on the flat, and I was only entertained by a couple of puffer fish, one of which puffed up while I was trying to get the fly out of his mouth, which caused me drop him and left him floating upside down, buoyed by his puffed up chest.  It was quite hilarious, but I didn't get a picture.

I moved on to the beach near Fort Pickens.  I'm never quite prepared for how beautiful the water is.

Two shades of blue

The fishing was slow here as well, but I was enjoying the the scenery.  I watched in awe as a group of huge rays patrolled the sandbar like giant underwater geese.  Eventually I managed to hook a fish - a dinner plate sized flounder.

More after the jump.