Got in bed Friday night around 8 to prepare for a long day of fishing. My son and his friends woke me up at 1030 whooping it up on the patio, lovely. Took me at least an hour to get back to sleep.
Saturday
Rolled out around 3 with full cup of coffee, on a mission. Iced down with SloMelt and launched at 530 and ran into Steve Lessard about 300 yards from the launch, who already had an 18.5″ trout. Fabulous. After exchanging pleasantries, I moved to my first spot, nada. I moved a little and ran into Justin Hebert who allowed me to fish in an area where he was catching trout on topwater, he too had an 18.5″ on the board. Lovely. I had one hit on topwater and switched to jighead and landed a 14.75″ trout. It was a start. Justin moved west and I south, for about an hour, then reunited at the shoreline to take a break, as the bite was off. He told me he’d took his registration pic on his bull red board and it was DQ’d. Yeah. We both jigged with Gulp while sitting on our boats and he started heading back to his truck. Allegedly, he caught a flounder on the way and dropped his measuring board. While trying to retrieve it, the flounder exited the boat. Allegedly. I fished the area about another hour with no upgrades and loaded up. I haven’t mentioned that boats were all around me, even parking where I was casting once. Such nice people. I moved inland to an area where I’ve caught lots of bulls. Missed the first on topwater. Great. One of the boaters I’d seen earlier right on me was standing on a point when I rounded it. He’d followed me and launched his aluminum boat off the side of the road. I anchored where he was casting for a while, just to return the favor, then moved on. I had two more bulls blow up on the topwater, but no connection. I started throwing 4H&BoomBoom and finally caught a 16.5″ red. Now I had 30″ but I knew that wasn’t gonna come close. I talked to Benjamin Day and he and a group were relaunching at the kayak launch behind GI, so I went to meet them, but launched further west and ran into them immediately. They were going further west and I started pedaling into the east wind and beating the bank with a Gulp, for 2.5 hours, to no avail. At 6 I started letting the wind blow me back and started with the topwater again. I immediately upgraded to a 15 plus inch trout and eventually to a 17″, but no bull or flounder. When I stopped fishing at 755 PM I already knew I was doomed, tournament wise. I loaded up and rolled to Sonic in Cutoff for a burger and then to Galliano Inn. Checked in and ate while unloading, showered and was out like a light shortly after 9.
Sunday
Slept in till 445 and pedaled away from the launch in Leeville around 6. When I got to the target area, I got a surprise topwater trout hit 10 feet from the boat, on a reef. 16″, not bad. I found they were up current and caught several on topwater. At 730 the topwater bite slowed, so I switched to the George Brown and caught a few. When that slowed it was jighead with white swimbaits. When the bite stopped, I, moved to another reef, located the trout with 4H&BoomBoom, then switched to jig until they stopped. I did this 4 times and had a limit of 14-17″ trout by 915, on 5 different baits. Awesome! I moved again an was sitting there catching when some friends from Topwater Marina pulled up. After exchanging pleasantries I told them to take my spot and caught more on the way back to the launch. Outstanding morning of fishing! I loaded up and cruised over to Bridgeside, sat up on the shady balcony and watched the fleet come and go, with their big snappers and hood ornaments. My sister surprised me a and rolled up to hang out. I was staying there with a buddy who arrived by boat. I helped him trailer it and we went for a golf cart ride down the beach. He had some boiled shrimp so I feasted, showered and passed out by 9.
Sunday
My buddy was going out in the boat so I launched and went out to the beach looking for the big girls. I caught an 18.5 pretty quick but no monsters. I fished till 1 then worked my way back to clean fish, wash the Ghost, unload and finally shower. I had an awesome 3 days of fishing! Needless to say, I slept like a baby.
No, I didn’t place high enough to qualify for the championship, and am not concerned. Anyone can spectate, including me. Congratulations to the winners, you earned it! See y’all on the water, if you lucky. I can’t wait till next trip!
Sounds like y’all had fun. My wife and I are on the road. In are Nations capital. Visiting some family and doing the tourist stuff