When It All Comes Together

 
This past week has been a marathon to say the least. In the last 8 days I was able to get on the water 7 times in preparation for this past weekends IFA Kayak Tour in Lafitte, La.  Now, I get teased a lot about never working, or spending too much time on the water, but what most people don't realize is that no matter what, family and work always come ahead of fishing.  Just because I got on the water 7 times doesn't mean, I spent 7 days on the water.  In this particular instance, there were days that I fished off the road, days where I left my house at one in the morning to hit the water for an hour or two, but by 8 a.m. was headed to work in a suite and tie.  Other times I was working topwater or jigging waters after the house had settled and the kids were in bed.  I am fortunate to have a job with vacation days and a family that supports my habits and my passion, and I give a special thanks to my wife for standing with me every step of the way no matter what journey or path I choose to take.   
No matter what you do in life, you are competing, whether its sales, digging a ditch, shooting a bow, or fishing.  You may not always be competing against someone else, but you are competing, against the flight of the arrow, against the mud in the shovel, against the client you are trying to sell, against an individual, against the elements, against yourself, and in this case, against the fish.  And no matter who or what you are competing against, the sooner you realize it, and the sooner you prepare for it, the sooner you will see success.  Everything I do in life, I prepare, and I do my best to prepare more than whatever it is I am competing against.  You wanna compete and be in the upper echelon, you have to put your time in and you have prepare.  It's not always about being in the right spot at the right time, it's more about preparing for situations and knowing your response and actions before the situation ever presents itself. 
So the next time, you choose to approach someone with a sarcastic comment about how "it's not fair", or "you fish too much", or "your in the click", maybe your should step back and re-evaluate the preparation time you put in to something, verse those you are competing against.
Now that I am done ranting on preparation, lets get to the week.  I fished the waters or Venice, Buras, Delacroix, Basons, Golden Meadow, Fourcheon, Grand Isle, and I even spent some time in Hopedale.  I wanted to cover as much ground in as little time as I could for this event.  I had trips that resulted in nothing and I had trips that resulted in more numbers than I care to count.
As the week moved forward, I felt I was getting a good handle on what was going on and where the fish were.  I had fished from land, from kayak and from boat and I was finding fish in lots of directions. 
When Friday rolled around, I took a vacation day and met up with some buddies of mine to take their kids out on the boat and get on some trout and reds.  After they agreed to let me run the trolling motor and pick the spots for the first hour of the morning, we were off.  We made one stop near a shallow ledge and were able to land a couple of trout with one pig lost at the boat when we couldn't get the net out in time.  From there we made a quick 5 minute run over to a deep canal that has held trout in the past.  We threw topwater with good success and landing most of the bigger trout, while the kids were pulling in trout and small reds on Matrix Shad and Gulp under a cork.  This one canal is around 3 feet deep with an 8 foot hole at the end of it, before we left, I am confident we pulled over 100 trout out of 150 yard section of the canal, with only 30-40 of them being keepers, and of those, only 2 of them that would have sufficed for the tournament.
From there we made a 15 minute run to an open water reef where I was expecting to get into some Bull Reds, and as usual, topwater did the trick, we were able to land two good reds that were pushing the 40" mark, which is exactly what I was looking for. 
From there we cranked the motor to head north when we came across a school of jacks, and after one cast with a mirrordyne and a 53 minute battle, we ended the day with a giant jack, a box full of trout and a slot red or two.
Saturday was the day, the day were I put everything together and confirm all that I have learned from this week, to get a good predictor of what my tournament day would end up looking like. 
But in true fashion, the fish didn't cooperate.  I actually launched in the same spot 4 times on Saturday, because I knew the fish would eventually show up, but they never did.  This was a spot that I learned earlier in the week from a local, and both times I fished it, I quickly pulled out solid trout, and then quickly loaded up and left. 
I think I pedaled over 20 miles and launched 7 times on Saturday.  Nothing I did was working.  I even made phone calls to people I never call trying to figure out what has changed overnight.  The wind was still the same, the tide was still minimal, the water was still clear, but the fish were either lip locked, or they weren't there.  I ended Saturday with only 24''s total, a 15" red and a 9" trout.  Now I worked harder this day than any day combined, my confidence was still there, but my results weren't.
As Sunday morning rolled around, I had so many options running through my head it was driving me insane.  I kept telling myself stick with the plan, stick with the plan, but remember, the day before, the plan didn't work, at all.  As I cranked my truck and pulled out to the highway, I began to turn left when something made me turn right.  I was sticking to the plan and I was doing it with confidence.
As I arrived at launch number one, I was excited to see minimal people there, which later changed to some company, but it was still good.  All I needed was 15 minutes in this location, and I would know if the fish were there or not.  When 6 a.m. rolled around, I took my start picture and was in the water.  Within 10 minutes I landed a 15" trout and I knew the fish were there, but 50 cast later, not another bump, so I quickly loaded up and headed to spot two.
When I reached spot two I could see others off in the distance working the flats, and rather than head their direction, I went the other way and within 3 cast, I landed a trout that I never expected to be there.  It was actually one of those cast that you just chunk out there to get any loops or knots out of your line, but fortunately the lure landed on its mark.  I walked the Skitterwalk back to me and halfway there a giant explosion went off and my lure was gone, the fish wasn't fighting like normal, but kind of anchored down with a head shake here and there.  As the trout approached the kayak, I dipped the net and in he went, I was breathless when I looked in the net to see a 22.5" trout with my lure embedded in the lower lip.  I was so nervous, I paddled to the nearest piece of land as fast as I could so I wouldn't have any chance of him flopping into the water and escaping.  After a dozen pictures on the board, I then headed to launch 3.
As I reached launch three, there were a couple people in the area that were coming in, when I saw smiling faces and high fives coming from a couple of the anglers, I knew that what I was looking for was close by.  And after nearly an hour of searching, working flats, and ledges with jigs and Gulp I finally came across some redfish.  And they were big, the first one I landed was likely the largest in weight, but not in length, he had a girth like no bull red I have ever landed.  After that beast, I stayed on them, working an area back and forth for miles and picking up one here and another there.  At one point I fought a bull that I know broke the 50'' mark and he was the perfect fish, long and skinny.  As I wore him out and got him yak side, I put the net around his head and at the same time knocked my lure out of his mouth, I couldn't fit the fish in the net, and as I scrambled to grab the small of his tail while the rest of his body was in the net, he was able to slowly slide out free and swim away.  I was devastated, but I kept fishing to end up landing a bull that went 44.25" long. 
That brought my total inches to 66.75'', a great aggregate in my book for a two fish tournament.
As I rushed back to the truck to make the ride to Lafitte for the weigh in, I couldn't help but think about that one redfish getting away.  The craziness running through my mind was endless, could I win?, could I lose by an inch, will I make the top 5, will all my efforts pay off ?  My mind was racing.

Sometimes in life, you make decisions that don't make sense, sometimes you are just lead in a direction and you choose to follow blindly.  Well the day before the event, I told Brendan B a story about numbers.  All week, everywhere I turned I saw the number 66, at the gas pumps, on signs, on my odometer,  I even had a dream about the number. But as I was trying to embrace the number in my head and relate it to inches in the upcoming tournament, Brendan laughed at me and said, "Yeah right, 66''s, if you get that you will win, but I wouldn't count on it." We both sort of laughed it off, but it was in my mind no matter what.  I later came across the number 666, and thought UH OH, that's not what I want, but believe it or not, when I weighed in, I had a 1/8th inch deduction on my trout for an open mouth, and my final aggregate came to 66.63''s.  It's a weird story and possibly just a coincidence, but for me, it was spiritual guidance, and rest assured, the next time I get that feeling to turn right, when I want to go left, you can bet your butt, I will be following the feeling.

Congrats to all the winners, to all that participated, and to all in the youth division that showed up to display their talents, it was a great event and I look forward to seeing everyone at the championship.

Until Next Time,
Stay Safe & Catch 1