Friday
Slept in till 4, as fall is here and sun coming up later. Stopped at State Oil for defication break and ice an ran into Lance Burgess, exchange pleasantries, of course. Ran into horrible traffic caused by construction shift change and a wreck. Planned on launching at Joshua’s but first light met me at Port Sulphur. Well, the championship is near so needed to do some scouting anyway. Went in a direction I’d never been and found some interesting areas. Caught tons of rat reds, baby trout, white trout all over but not the quality I was searching for. Yielded 9 legal trout, a slot drum(first in several years, and a 12″ flounder, which I released. Not Horrible, but not great either.
Rolled down to Delta Marina, checked in, unloaded and cleaned fish. The place quickly filled up and it was awesome to see everyone. Thanks to everyone I rounded up to help unload the trailer and fill Captain’s bags, it’s a lot easier with a bunch than a few. I met several first time BCKFC tournament entrants which is awesome! Before I knew it, a dinner of chicken fettuccine came out and everyone carbed up from the day’s fishing and in preparation for the tournament. We had our Captain’s meeting, distributed bags and hung out. It’s always fun to watch people huddled up in little groups strategizing for a tournament. Lots of whispering going on!
I have only 3 complaints about the weekend. First, the ice that State Oil sold was the same as Delta Marina, and it was horrible. 12 pounds in my drink bag was melted by 2. Pitiful! Second, there are no more coffee pots in the rooms at Delta and the store doesn’t open till 5. Don’t they know I have needs? Got in bed around 9 with my bunkmates watching tv and running down. Out like a lite!
Saturday
Woke at 4, got dressed and made a little instant coffee with the microwave to try and get my self fired up. At 420, rolled over to Jerry Cottrell’s crib as he’d imported a coffee pot and some Cafe Bustello. Fabulous! Got my potty break in, got ice and rolled south to Joshua’s. I figured I’d done so well at Paddlepalooza that the stars wouldn’t align for me so while I was gonna give it a shot, I wasn’t going to hurt myself. Luke Beslin pulled up right behind me and our other 2 bunkies, Josh Redd and Jonathan Aucoin, had already launched. Right before I cast off, we met Trey Gross from Lake Charles, who was fishing his first BCKFC event. Cool! I knew Josh and Jonathan had gone north so avoiding the crowd, I went south and Luke pedaled a ways with me, then dissapeared into the darkness. I pedaled over an hour to reach a reef in open water far from the shoreline. There was no wind and little current, but the water was beautiful. I missed a blowup then caught a legal trout, no trophy but I had a species. I saw a red on the reef and launched the topwater that way, got a quick hookup and quickly found it was a bull. Ten minutes later I drug it over the side and found my topwater lodged sideways in it’s mouth, hooks connected on both sides. Lovely, then she was gone.
Caught a couple more dinks on topwater then launched it at a popping shrimp. For the first time, I saw a bull red come a couple feet out the water with my bait. Unbelievable! I tried to jerk by baitvout of it’s mouth but that didn’t happen till I pulled the hook from the corner of it’s jaw, perfect hookset. The topwater bite had ended so started throwing the jighead caught a couple rats and missed what I thought was a slot red. When I couldn’t get a hit on jighead, I switched to a Four Horsemen cork and a sparkly Gulp Curlytail I’d gotten at ICast. I started catching a mix of white trout, and specks. I bagged a couple legal trout, the biggest about 13 inches. I could have sat there and caught a limit but they weren’t the fish I was looking for and the wind was building. I made another circle around the reef and worked it over hard, yielding a 15″ trout. Upgrade! The wind was over 10 and building, so I headed back towards the shoreline, about 30 minutes into the wind. I started popping the cork by the rozos and catching fish right away. A few minutes later, I caught a 23″ slot red. Species 2 in the bag! A few minutes later, I ran into Luke, who had bigger fish than me. Lovely. That just made me pound the shoreline harder. I was hoping that the odd weather and solunar events would have a profound effect. You see we were have an eclipse and then a front was coming through, back to back. I wanted overcast when a cloud passed over I looked up and knew it was short lived. I cast at a point with water moving over it and the cork dissapeared, drag screaming, and yielding a 25″ red. Upgrade! I cast on the point again and the cork took off sideways. I thought it was a rat until I swung the 11″+ flounder into the boat! Species 3! I thanked God and Wade for my fortune, and asked them to help me upgrade my trout and flounder. I fished hard all the way back and caught lots of fish, just no upgrades. But I had a slam! I did catch a very large drum that was under 27″. First time in years! Wow! I picked up and rolled to Delta, and weigh in. I pulled up right by the tent, put my box in line and signed in. I jumped back in the truck and parked in the shade near our room, wiped my face with an ice cold rag, changed shirts and hats, filled my iced tea and rolled in to the weigh in. There’s lots of nervous tension at a weigh in. Some wonder if they have enough, some have given up and are relieved. Lots of emotions going on, and trash talk. Delta started food really early, fried fish, jambalaya, mac n cheese and fries. Who don’t like fried fish right after fishing? Entrants raced to eat. I had to grab people to keep the line moving but it all worked out. I saw some beautiful fish weighed but still had hope. After weighing and eating, I cleaned fish.
When I got back, awards started. I was given the list to write for checks, and I wasn’t on it. Oh well, at least I caught a slam. A couple of the new people placed in species and after years as an officer and countless hours devoted to BCKFC, Michael Ethridge won! He had a 4 plus pound saddle flounder that put him over the top! He’s gonna be sitting pretty in that new Cammo Outback! Yeah, I’m jealous! New entrant, Dylan Raborn, won the coveted dosgis award for loosing 2 rods overboard. Fortunately, he was able to retrieve one and won one in the raffle. My raffle tickets paid off with a battery operated filet knife, landing net, and Dexter fillet knife, which I traded Butch Ridgedell for a set of Diawa fishing tools and braid. I did however heckle many winners. Yes, I crack myself up! Not only did Michael Ethridge win, he also claimed all the unwanted fish and didn’t finish processing them till about 9. This doesn’t happen with CPR, just saying. All my bunkmates dissapeared so I went looking for them in the restaurant, and found them at the bar. I paid the catering bill and asked what they had for desert? She said they didn’t serve desert, which is my third complaint! What kinda joint is that? I walked down to exchange pleasantries at the fish cleaning station and encountered Breck Hotard and Danny Compagno, still fishing! I hung with them a while and was very disappointed when Breck wouldn’t go get me some chocolate ice cream. And all the bananas I’ve put in his boat, for what? There was a big group hanging by the tent and I went for a little. Shortly after I sat by them, the wind kicked up and there was a definite change in temperature. The front had arrived. Benjamin Day and I made plans to fish in the morning then I made my way to my room, showered and passed out, exhausted.
Sunday
Slept in till 5, got dressed, and loaded up. Got coffee and ice then called Ben. Yeah, no, so I rolled. I was thinking I should have listened to my wife and brought my Royal Shrimp Boots, but the water temperature hadn’t drop much. The water level however had been a little high and dropped a couple feet overnight with the raging north wwind. I only fished about 3 hours and caught a small slam, 3 days in a row. Yes, I’m awesome like that. I’d released the flounder and gave my few fish to the shore fishermen as I haven’t left them a gift lately. I got home and unloaded, then passed out for about 3 hours. Phew!
What an awesome weekend! Thanks to our Officers for putting on Fall N Tide and our sponsors for supporting us! Thanks to the new people for showing up and we hope you had fun. Who could hang with us and not have fun? It’s time to get ready for the BCKFC Championship! I can’t wait till next trip!
Awesome write up/recap as usual. Was good to see you, also, as usual. Looking forward to the championship!