Mississippi Bass'n

 Last week I got a call from a Russ P. asking if I wanted to go to bass fishing in Mississippi and take pictures for an article coming out in Bass Times/Bassmaster Magazine.  Well, being Bill Dance in my own mind, I jumped at the opportunity to make the trip.  Joined with us were Chris F., Nathan B., and Kent, all fairly new to the world of kayaking, but well versed in the world of largemouth bass. 
I left my house around 2 a.m. and met up with Russ at 2:30 and were on our way.  Now remember, our last excursion together, the everglades fiasco, ended in getting lost... and believe it or not, this one started out that way.  After 3 dead end roads, and I think 5 U-turns, we finally made it to the rendezvous point, where we could follow Chris to the launch site.
As we unloaded the yaks in darkness, you could hear fish slapping the water in the distance.  I felt like a kid in Candy Land, and all I wanted to do was get in my Outback and start pedaling.  As the sun began to rise, the lake we were fishing began to take shape, at least the part I could see.  We were surrounded by 128 acres of pure awesomeness.  I listened to stories about not one, but two 14 lbs bass that had been taken from this lake. Being I have only caught one bass that crept into the double digit range, you can't even imagine the things that were running through my mind while listening to these stories.
Then it happend, I heard Kent yelling, I got one, and then Russ, I got one, and then Chris, I just missed one, and finally Nathan, I got one too.  But, what I didn't hear was my own voice, I hadn't caught squat.  I know we were only on the water for 10 minutes so far, but geez, have I lost my touch?  I looked at Russ and grumbled that they must know something that I don't know, Russ only chuckled and agreed.  As if Russ isn't already a 7 foot man of giant proportions, now he is chuckling like the dang Jolly Green Giant, and NO, that didn't help my confidence at all.
Well as the next thirty minutes rolled around, the quad moved toward an island off of a point, while I tucked back into a small flat with some bream beds on it.  I sat there for about 5 minutes looking at all of my rods, while watching bass fly out from a ledge destroying bait hovering over the flats and beds.  I didn't have one lure tied on that I felt confident in.  With that in mind, I tied on my all time favorite, a Fluke.  First cast, fish on, second cast, fish on and with the next 10-15 cast I put 5 bass in the kayak and then released them. 
As I was bringing in the 5th one, I heard Chris yell that it was now time to move in to the larger part of the lake.  I was like, really...now...I get on fish and now I have to go.  But it was all good, they knew this lake better than me, and technically, I was only there to take pictures, yeah right.. that's why I had 5 rods in my blackpack and the camera strapped on the back of Russ' Pro Angler.
As the morning moved on, I went on my own way and the group was supposed to let me know when they got on to fish or landed a good one so I could come get some photos and action shots.  But it seemed that the direction I went was the right one, kind of.  I got on fish at almost every point and stump I came across, the only problem was that they were 8 inches to 2 lbs fish and not the 8-12 lbs I was looking for.
I was able to land a 4 lbs bass and at that point was the largest for the day, and Russ was nice enough to take a few pics for me.  Then Russ landed one in the 4 lbs range, but because he's such a big guy, the minute he thumbed the fish in the water it magically turned from a great largemouth to a tiny bream.  I think a 14 lbs bass in Russ' hands would likely look like a 4 lbs bass in my hands.  The pictures don't lie, and neither does the scale, had I not witnessed the scale, I would have chuckled his chuckle at the said weight of the green pig.
We then moved to another section of the lake to take part in Nathan landing a long and lean 6 lbs largemouth, the fish jumped and splashed like it had a hook in its mouth. Guess that's cause it had a hook in its mouth. It was a beautiful fish to say the least, and was even more awesome to watch her swim away.

 

 After that show of acrobatics, I was now ready to hunker down and chase down a beast of my own.  The sun was up and the shad were beginning to make their way to the surface in the middle of the lake.  This is a site I know all too well from growing up on the Tchefuncte.  I immediately dug in my box and grabbed an old school favorite, the Little George.  I tied it on, pedaled as fast as I could to 15 feet of water and made a cast that seemed to have traveled 200 yards.  I let the lure reach the bottom, stood up, reeled up on the lure until my rod tip touched the water, and with the largest swoop I could, I raised the rod tip, straight armed, as high above my head as possible getting on my toes at times, and then let the lure fall, and then BAM, fish on. It was a solid 3 lbs bass, and it didn't stop there.  I landed somewhere between 10-15 bass within the next 30 minutes doing this technique.  I know the others were looking back at me doing this insane looking jig & jive move, but as it has in times past, it was working, I can only imagine what I looked like out there.  Growing up on the river and knowing the ledges and holes, this technique always yielded me big bass and I can recall the day my dad taught me this move.  I can hear me saying it today, "what the heck are you doing? Are you trying to scare everything in a 2 mile radius?'' But that day was a lesson in humility, he schooled me like a 3rd grader going into a college organic chemistry class.  After that day, I rarely questioned my dads fishing knowledge or abilities, I just learned to watch and listen.  About three weeks after perfecting the move,  I remember fishing a tournament and in less than thirty
minutes, landed a 5 fish stringer that went over 20 lbs to win the event, but on this lake, the big girls weren't falling for it.  The only conclusion I could figure out was that the water hadn't warmed up enough, the sun wasn't high enough, and the shad weren't as active as they would have been later in the evening.  Unfortunately I had to be in the truck by noon, so today I wasn't going to find out if my theory was correct or not.
Before leaving I eased on over to another point covered in lilies and dropped a Texas rigged worm right in the mouth of another 4 lbs largemouth.
Although I didn't land the fish of a lifetime, I had a blast, and I was able to accomplish the goal of what we came for, getting pictures.  I just wish I would have had the camera close as Russ was struggling to get what would have likely been an 8 lbs plus bass untangled from the matts of lilies that he was working his frog across.  The look of disappointment and the sound of frustration was a devastating, I know Russ has landed some big fish in his day, but you could tell, he really wanted this one.
Overall, it was  great day, the sun shined at times, but was overcast most of the time, the rain didn't hit until I was loaded and a mile down the road, the air temps stayed in the upper 80s to low 90s with the water temps staying around 86 degrees.  I landed fish on crank baits and worms, but the real producers of the day were a Zoom Fluke in silver and grey and a 1/2 ounce Little George in white and gray.  Special thanks to Russ for the phone call, and I huge thank you to Chris F for putting this all together and making it happen.  I look forward to my phone ringing again in the near future (hint/hint), hopefully on a day that I don't have to rush home, and a day were the shad are schooled up in the deep.

Until next time,
 Stay Safe & Catch1

 

Clean Water = Sore Muscles

 

 With all of the reports surrounding SE Louisiana of fresh and dirty water everywhere, as a result of the continued West winds and rain filled days, I decided it was time to get out and explore some new grounds with hopes of finding clear and salty water.  That being said, I rarely explore new grounds alone, so I reached out to Ty Hibbs to see if he was interested in making a long trek in new waters, I could hear his excitement on the phone.
With Ty in agreement on the plan of a 20 plus mile day, I had to leave my house around 1:30 a.m. so we could arrive and paddle through the darkness to what I had hoped would be a day of new beginnings.
Apparently though, Ty's alarm clock didn't get the memo, so after umpteen text and several phone calls, Mr. Ty "sleepy Head" Hibbs showed up at our meeting point, about an hour late might I add.  With us loaded up, we headed south to Grand Isle. 
As we arrived it was still dark, and we had to hurry if we were going to make the run in time to get to our destination for an early morning topwater bite.  With the incoming tide and the north winds, peddling the two Outback's weren't as fast as what I was hoping, and before we had made it a quarter of the way, the sun was breaking above the horizon.
As we altered our plans due to the sun starting to come up, we quickly turned course to hit an old hot spot, but unfortunately there was a 24 foot boat anchored up on top the structure I was hoping we would be able to get started on.  From there we took a mile long run slinging lures in every direction with no luck.  The sun was now up, I continued to run through my topwater arsenal as Mr. Sleepy Head continued his jigging and topwater. And then it happened.  A flock of birds showed up about 400 yards away and Ty turned his bow and headed for them, while I chose to stay closer to moving water.  Within minutes, I had a trout in the yak, it wasn't big, but it was a trout.  Next cast, another, and another and another.
I kept wanting to call Ty and tell him to come back, but my phone wasn't working for some reason, and better than that,, every time I looked, his rod was bent over fighting fish. 
The water was green clear, the water temp was 86 degrees, we were sitting on the near end of a rising tide, the dolphins where everywhere, the birds were everywhere, the wind was out of the north, shrimp were jumping from one side of my yak across the hatch and in the water on the opposite side without ever touching the kayak, and as long as you threw a lure that sunk fast, you caught trout.  Eventually Ty made his way back to me, we continued to fish within two hundred yards of each and sat there anchored in the tide.  By 10 a.m. I had tagged and released more fish than I did in all of 2013.  I tagged 43 trout before I finally ran out of tags, and I had a bag full of  trout on ice.  Most of the tagged and released trout ranged from 8-12.5" and I didn't keep one that was below 13" with the largest easily surpassing the 20" mark.  Before we left the area, we had both landed over and around 100 specs each, it was a day I wish I had my kids or wife with me. 

Used Matrix and Vortex Shad

I was using matrix shad in every color they made, but the Kamikaze seemed to produce more consistently, and I could only catch them on a 3/8 ounce jig head, I tried a quarter ounce time and time again, but apparently they only wanted a fast falling bait.  Mr. Sleepy Head was throwing the same, but at times he was throwing a double rigged, 3/8 and 1/4 ounce headed matrix shad and was bringing in two at a time. 
With comfortable winds, and the tide stopping we decided to move another three miles in an attempt to find some reds and flounder.  At this point, we could have gone home having a perfect day, one rat red, more trout than we could handle, and not a catfish in site.  As we made the run and entered into some skinny waters, Ty yelled, "Watch this," and then he dropped his line off the side of the grass and within a second set the hook.  The next thirty minutes or so became comical.  Ty had just hooked in to a giant Black Drum using his rod lined with 14 lbs monofilament.  I have never seen a "big nasty" with this type of endurance, he pulled Ty what seemed like a half mile, from the tiny canal deep in the marsh to more open water where he could then roam free.  Finally after several failed netting attempts, by yours truly, Ty was able to get the beast yak side and bottom out the Boga grips.
I've been asked several times since this trip, where did you fish, and to give a definitive answer, the best I can say is Grand Isle.  We fished the south side, the north side, in the marsh, in open bays, and beyond.  The one thing that mattered no matter where we stopped or where we launched was clean moving water.  Sometimes we had to paddle a couple miles, sometimes we had to pull over land, or get back deep into the marsh to find it, but when we did, the fishing was hot.  It may sound like a lot, but we only ended up paddling just over 10 miles.  Our original plans would have netted us well over 20 miles, so I guess the alarm clock fail helped us out in the long run.  One thing I do know, is that I got to explore areas of Grand Isle I have never been too, and likely would have overlooked had we been on time.
High tide was around 10 a.m., the winds shifted from north to southwest around 10:30 to 11:30, tidal range was around 1.2 feet, and water clarity was an easy 3-4 feet when we found clean water.  Very few fish caught on topwater, but the ones that were, made the bag.  Nothing caught under a cork, although we didn't try it much, Matrix and Vortex Shad without a doubt owned the day.

Leaving at dark and getting home early is always nice, but arriving home to a rainbow sitting over a true pot of gold, my family, made for a memorable ending.

Until Next Time,
Stay Safe & Catch1

Dry"Tunes" for High Tides

 Growing up on the Tchefuncta river and living within a few hours of white sandy beaches, it's easy to say that most of my life has been spent on or around water.  And while I appreciate the peacefulness and solitude that the rivers and marshes offer, there are many times where music helps bring my surroundings closer, but no matter how much money I spend, no radio or speaker ever holds up to repeated use in Louisiana saltwater or the pressures of a tubing trip down the Bogue Chitto river.
Over the years, I can only cringe at the amount of money I have spent on so called, "quality" outdoor speakers, only to find out that none of them hold up to our salty, corrosive, humid environment.  I even remember building my own contraption as a kid, that I thought would revolutionize the "on water" music industry, only to find out later that even my own design was a failure. 
Then one day as I was sitting in front of the computer, next to yet another Bluetooth speaker that the charging port had become so corroded it looked like a green penny that's been at the bottom of my cupholder in my truck for the past two years, I came across an advertisement from a local company boasting their new waterproof and dustproof Bluetooth speaker.  I thought, yeah right, here we go again, another promotional box that won't last a week in a kayak or an hour under the watchful eye of my kids, but what the heck, what do I have to lose at this point.

 

I immediately got online and put in my early bird order, I even got a discount for purchasing before production began. The next few weeks of waiting was brutal, every day I kept reading more and more on this so called "Drytunes" device.  The design seemed simple, yet very advanced technologically, it was a speaker system inlaid into a Pelican box, I'm a huge Pelican Box fan, it's the only case system I trust for my high end camera equipment.  It had a rechargeable battery that was supposed to play up to 16 hours on a single charge(yeah right, been there, read that), and was Bluetooth ready or plug and play ready, depending on how advanced your phone, iPod, or musical device was.  Being well versed in the Pelican Box, I knew it would be water proof, and I knew it would be dustproof and it would likely be indestructible if it was anything like the Pelican Boxes I have abused over the years, but how in the heck is music going to come out of a completely sealed box, and not sound distorted or like your listening to someone on speaker phone while their sitting on the toilet?  While I was buying it physically, I wasn't really buying it.
Well finally, I got the call, your Drytunes is ready for pickup.  I shut down shop, ran to the car, and sped to the warehouse in Mandeville, La where the device is made.  As I walked in the front door I was met by Jonathan and Chris, and that's when the magic began.  We sat down and they ran through all of the ins and outs of the Drytunes device, it was simple enough that to this day I still haven't opened up the directions.  With box in hand, I headed to the car in a hurry to get home and start working this thing over.
I immediately grabbed my youngest daughter and asked if she wanted to take Dads new radio and go through it in the flooded ditch, she grinned as big as she could, jumped off the couch and headed to the driveway. I gave her the Drytunes unit and told her to have fun, she must have thrown that box in the ditch 20 times, and each time, the music never stopped.  At the end of the bonanza, we went inside, dried the outside of the box and the opened it, and everything inside was bone dry. Test number one...passed.
Well ok, it passed the kid test and the water test, but how did it sound?  Well, it sounded great, the clarity of the unit was amazing, especially being it was coming from a sealed box.  It didn't sound like a speaker phone in the bathroom at all, it was very clear and crisp with an amazing acoustical background.  Now for the bass factor, when I think speaker and box, I think boom baboom boom boom, but this is not a boom box.  If your looking for something you can throw on your shoulder while strutting down main street in your bright colored knee high leggings and sleeveless shirt hoping to wake all the neighbors with window shaking, deep hitting, sonic type boom then you need to look another direction.  But if your looking for clarity and crisp instrumental sound with just the right amount of bass, then this is your ace in the hole.
The speakers are actually designed to project from the lid of the Drytunes box, as you open the unit, while it's playing, you will notice the sound coming from above is now projected away from you, and if you turn it around, its going to be screaming in your face.  My initial thought was that the integrity of the units sound would be amplified by the air space within the unit itself and would likely decrease performance if the unit was open, but that wasn't the case at all.  The sound is not altered in any way whether the unit is open or closed, the completely sealed speakers hidden from the elements within the lid must be sealed so that the air space of the unit, whether filled with sunscreen, phones, wallets, keys, feminine products, or whatever else you choose to put in there, doesn't effect the performance in the least. 
The unit comes with two foam pieces that fill the entire cavity of the box, they are both customizable if you choose to do so, or you can just set them in there as they come, or you can chunk em in the trash, they don't do anything for performance of the unit, they are more for protection of the items you put in the box.  Under the foam is an area covered in bungies to help hold down any valuables you may want secured, if you choose to chunk the foam,  and there is a molded divider under the bungies that my android phone fits in perfectly.
There are 2 ports and 2 buttons on the interior right side of the unit, one port for charging and one for an audio plug in, and the two buttons are really simple, one turns it on/off, and the other is for programing your Bluetooth.  I programed my phone, my wife's phone, and both of my kids tablets, and after two months of use, the programing is still in there, I just turn it on while one of the devices Bluetooth is turned on and the unit links up automatically, just like your phone in your car does.
A really creative and well thought out aspect of the Drytunes unit is how you operate it.  I mean, if your in the pool or floating in the gulf or tubing down the river, the last thing you want to do is open up your fancy smancy waterproof case to the elements just to change a song on your music device right?  Well the crew at Drytunes found away around this one, and it's magic, actually it's magnet.  On the outside of the unit along the side, you will see 5 symbols, just below a stylus type magnetic pen.  Each symbol is like a button on your radio, increase or decrease sound, pause or play music, and advance to next track or go back to previous tracks.  You simply remove the magnetic stylus from the magnetic clip and touch it to whatever magnetic button you choose to, and al-a-ka-zaam, magic happens.  These symbols along with the customization of what ever name you choose to add to your unit is laser engraved and won't be fading or rubbing off anytime soon.
The battery, does it really last 16 hours?  Easy answer..yes, more in depth answer....conditioning.  The battery within the unit is one of those fancy ones that needs to be conditioned.  By conditioning I mean you have to run the battery completely dead and then recharge and the run down and recharge.  I had to do this somewhere around 7 times to get what I consider great results.  When I first got the unit, it lasted somewhere in the 4-5 hour range, and now after reconditioning the battery, I get an easy 12 hours of solid use out of it without recharging.  I am confident I could have reached the 16 hour mark, but I generally play my music loud which results in lower run time.  Kind of like running your trolling motor on high all day vs low, high is going to drain your battery a lot faster than low will.
Another cool trick if your looking to wow your friends, or more likely your kids, turn the unit upside down while your in the pool, remember, the speakers are designed to project the sound out through the lid, the underwater sound of this unit is amazing.  Also, my kids like to use it as a floatation device, although Drytunes does not recommend this and I'm confident the USCG won't ever give it a flotation rating, this unit will float me anywhere I want to go, its buoyancy is great.
To add to the safety of being waterproof, the latches on the unit are locking latches, you actually have to press the center buttons that are within the latches to get them to open, it's a simple process and not hard to do at all, but my unit has been in the hands of over 20 kids in the pool at different times with them attempting to stand on it underwater (its now become the new game in our subdivision pool), and timed races across the pool using the unit as a float, and I have zero concerns that the latches are ever going to open up.
Overall, with the nearly two months of use I have gotten out of the Drytunes unit, I am pleased beyond expectations.  My unit has been from Texas to Florida, from muddy water to clear, covered in fish slime, mud, ditchwater, saltwater, freshwater, chlorine water, and in the hands of more kids than I ever want over for a birthday party, and it has performed flawlessly.  I am an advocate of the Drytunes product and the company, I love local, and I buy local, and more importantly, I am not paid, sponsored, nor do I represent Drytunes in any fashion.  I just appreciate good quality, made in America, made in Louisiana products.  If your interested in seeing or purchasing a Drytunes unit, you can check them out at www.drytunes.com
and while many retailers are now carrying them in stock, if you happen to be in my neck of the woods, I know you can find them at Massey's Professional Outfitters in Covington, New Orleans, and Baton Rouge, and if your venturing into the French Quarter, you can pick one up at Marsh and Bayou Outfitters on Chartres Street.
So, if your in the market for adding some tunes to your outdoor adventure, I would suggest investing your money in something that's going to last, not just something that will last a weekend.

Until Next Time,
Stay Safe and Catch1