Once Ike made his landfall, Ryan could get insurance for his new boat for his latest business venture at Cajun Fishing Adventures (The Fly House), I went over to Hells Bay Boatworks to pick up his Ice Blue 18 Waterman. He's been very busy around the 2 storms and has a major outdoor writers conference at his place beginning today, he had no time even break-in the motor, and I had the time to do it and deliver it to him,..which meant (hopefully), a little fishing time in The Redfish Promised Land.
So after arriving late Thursday afternoon, Ryan and I discussed possiblities of getting out for a few hours. After a look at the calendar,..he said sure. We drove down the drive leading into Joshua Marina Friday morning to find a parking lot that was attacked overnight by a higher tide than normal, but had pulled out quite abit by our arrival of 7am. He and not been on the water since before hurricane Gustav so the first project was to go for a little boat ride, to look for the right water color/clarity and amount of bait.
After looking over several lee shores with chocolate-looking water, we began to find some areas with pretty green water with some visibility,...and skipping shrimp, and finned bait everywhere. We began to work down this long, lee shore when I spotted a v-wake about 100 yards away, BUT coming right at us. I kept an eye on it while blind-casting to various shoreline highlights that might be good ambush spots for the reds. Now the v-wake has closed its' distance and has increased in its' impressive size. Once within easy casting range, I tossed a small Exude chartreuse swim bait within a foot of the red, and in true Louisiana-style,..the redfish sucked it right down. Once aboard, the bronze football measured exactly 27 inches and weighed 10.25 lbs. I LOVE THIS PLACE !!!! We switched places after each fish,.....and we catch 14 reds on that 1 shoreline. Ryan said this will be a good place to bring the writers that don't want to fly fish, but we needed to find an area that wouldn't be bothered by wind for the ones choosing the whippy stick.
We cruise around looking for such a spot, and we find a pipeline canal that was previously closed by oil/gas companies,...now open after the 2 storms. We find a canal that had nearly everything we need, so I took the wheel and idled the boat down the middle of the canal while Ryan spotted and caught another 12 reds, and I caught 5 more. Mind you we're under power and catching reds.
Toward the end of the second canal, we spot 2 ponds that might be as good as the canal was. I take out the fly rod with a rattle rouser attached, and in the next 30 minutes,...catch 6,....3 with roll-casts of no more than 10-15 ft. We switch places, and Ryan catches 3 within 10 minutes. Now we are laughin about what we've found so I say, I wonder if you can get em on fly while the motor is going? His cajun reply was, we ARE in Louisiana aren't we? So we tried and HE DID!!! He catches 5 more with the DAMN MOTOR IDLING.
This place is absolutely amazing at times. We we arrived back at the lodge, it wasn't just us who had a stellar morning, but the other 11 guides talked about an incredible day.
I would say that we got that 18 Waterman christened and off to a good start.
Now back home and in the fishing reality of the Lagoon,...I just hope to catch 1 in the morning, but I now there'll be a great skrimp bit about noon tho.