So I’m not really a fan of fishing Terrebonne Parish as I’ve never had great success there. 2023 was the first time in several year’s that I hadn’t qualified for the BCKFC Championship by Trout Challenge. I told friends that I didn’t care, which is true, and I probably wouldn’t fish Rumble unless redfish were calling my name all day. I pre-fished hard in 4 locations, never finding good conditions or the kind of fish needed to win. AOY Standings were published the week before the tournament and I was in very close contention for a Wildcard slot. Many people reached out to me the leading up to tournament asking when I would register, and I said that I might not. I spoke with a customer Friday who gave me a guaranteed spot near a launch I’d never heard of. I had someone trying to check it out for me and he never actually got there, but said the water was the cleanest he’s seen in Terrebonne in weeks. I really didn’t want anyone to know what I was doing, so I waited until the standings were turned off Friday night and registered last, at 945.

Rolled out Saturday early and I’m a creature of habit. I’ve been using Cash Magic on the bypass by Bayou Blue Road for my Slow Melt(Accept No Substitute), coffee refill and bowel evacuation location. There’s a very nice, perky clerk who hasn’t charged me for a refill since my first trip. I got spotted there by a couple anglers so the secret was out, but they didn’t say anything. I launched alone, off the beaten path but very close, and pedaled off into the darkness to fish a new area where I’d never been.  I had visions of grandeur because of the guaranteed spot.  I reached the spot in the dark, waited and watched the area come alive.

The Tournament Nazi’s full moon hadn’t set when there was enough light to cast. Threw the topwater to no avail then switched to jighead. Got a couple hits that felt like a white trout hanging on to my paddle tail, then switched to 4HORSEMAN Cork and Boom Boom combo. Threw against the shoreline and let the bait drift with the current and the cork went down.  It was 734 when I boated the first red of the day, a whopping 13″er. Lovely.  Nothing else for half an hour so repositioned and tried from different angle, nada. I had looked at the area on Google Earth so started making a big circle through likely areas. The wind had started around 10 mph and was steadily increasing, fabulous.  The relatively clean water became more and more dingy as the breeze increased.

I went back and forth between the cork and jighead until I snagged the cork and broke off the jig trying to free it. When I retied, I decided to go with a sprkley Chartreuse Gulp Shrimp(yeah I know you’ve never seen one) because of the dirty water.  Shortly after I caught two more rats. The second tore up the shrimp so put on a purple flake/glow 3″ Gulp Curlytail(Haven’t seen one of those either, have you?), and cast on a windward shoreline. Caught about 15 rat reds, 3 between 15 and 16, but no slots at 1115. Lovely. My thoughts went to big water, big fish, so I went to the main channel and started beating the bank on the windward shoreline. Saw a big swirl and the cork dissapeared.  I got to enjoy an angry fish in a heavy chop and current for a few minutes before landing and photographing at 1134. One down, at least I didn’t skunk.

I fished that windblown shoreline slowly back to the bayou leading to the launch catching a few more rats on the way. Shortly after I turned towards the launch,  a big red came up and hit my cork 3 times. Greaaaaat. A few minutes later, the cork dissapeared again and I boated a nice flounder. Well I haven’t registered a flounder on Massey’s so now was my chance. With the flounder looking up at me, I looked up the identifier, located a Sharpie and wrote the number on my hand. I picked up the board and fish, it winked at me as it flipped off my board into the water.  Oh well, that’s how the Championship tournaments have gone this year. I kept fishing as I worked my way back to the launch and at 155, my cork dissapeared again,  directly across from launch. I registered the 22.5″ fish at 157 for a total of 46″ and had hope.

I loaded up pretty quickly and made a beverage.  Although I had food and drinks on board for the day, I hadn’t eaten or drank anything besides the coffee that morning, grinding hard. As soon as I was rolling,  I called Ben Day for info. Based on what he told me I had a good feeling about the Wildcard spot. There was a dood turnout at Hooters for awards and it’s always fun to see the crew after a hard day of fishing. I talked with others vying for the Wildcard and although I sucked, they sucked worse.

Jerry Cottrell swept 1st. Robert Burkhardt hasn’t fished in months but dominated 2nd. Breck Hotard took 3rd with his normal quiet swagger. Awesome event.  We don’t give out a Dosgris Award for Championship Series tournaments but one angler had most of his fish disqualified because he forgot his Sharpie and identifier. Another held his identifier on is fish. A third took pics of the sky and didn’t check before releasing his fish. All very deserving of a Dosgris. 

Well, persistence paid and I’m qualified for the Championship. I’ll be scouting 23 as often as possible between now and the Championship. I’m also really excited about Fall N Tide which is 2 weeks away. Hopefully I’ll see ya’ll there! Can’t wait till next trip!

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