Lake Okhissa

Ok, so it's not Louisiana Fishing, but it's close. It's a beautiful lake, very deep with tons of trees - and fish. Just 90 miles from my house, and better yet just 40 miles from my parent's house in Homesville, MS.

Slabs!

Hogy and I made a quick trip to some gravel pits near the Mississippi River this afternoon. Deceivers and wooly buggers were what they wanted. Much fun!

RSFF Fall Catch And Eat

I got a late start and then got held up at the Des Allemands bridge for an hour. I fished Catfish Lake and only caught two keeper specks. Sunday I went to the coast, but the wind had been blowing all night and it was muddy. I stopped for a minute just above Leeville and caught three nice specks in a row. A couple of shrimp boats came through and muddied the water. Still had fun, even if it was more fishing than catching.

Pencil Poppers

Actually they are pencil pillow poppers. I got the idea here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgn_h9bE99w

I pretty much did them the same way, but I coated them with 30 minute epoxy to help resist those toothy critter's mouths.

Redfish!!

A friend of mine went to the beach at Elmers Island yesterday, I had to work.. :-(

He caught redfish over 30 inches on every cast! We were going today, but he needs a day of rest.

The finished "fish coffin"

I got the idea for this on the Kayak Fishing Stuff forum.
Here's the finished cooler. It's 17" wide at the wide end, 28" long, and 12" and the other end. It's 8-1/2" high. It's made of 5mm luan plywood with 1" foam building insulation glued inside. The hinge is a piece of 1/4" tubing held in place by conduit straps. It's covered with fiberglass resin outside and all the inside corners are sealed with silicon RTV. I put a couple of coats of polyurethane paint inside and outside. It's very light weight, and low profile so that it doesn't catch a lot of wind or block vision. Now I just need to see how many fish will fit inside!

My kayak

I had been seeing this yak in a neighbors yard for a couple of years. It's a Pelican Apex II. I gave them $180 for it. The biggest problem with this model is the "wet butt" syndrome. I ordered a Surf To Summit "Drifter" seat for it. Those were designed for the original OK Drifters, which had the same problem. The seat provides a 3 inch rise and has great back support.
Being that this is a 13 foot tandem yak, there is plenty of storage room. I built the "fish coffin" out of 5mm luan plywood and lined it with 1 inch foamboard. The top is removeable for cleaning. I'm painting it with white polyurethane paint inside and out.
Possibly the next project is outriggers up front so that I can stand up in it.
Total investment so far is less than $400.

(click pics to enlarge)

Running of the bulls

We went to GI today. Put the yaks in a Elmers and headed to the beach on the Caminada Pass side. Water was a bit dirty and got no action on flies. We caught several specks in the canal on the way, with only 2 keepers. I caught some big mullet with a cast net and filleted up some for bait. We put them on the bottom just off the beach and got slammed by bull reds. Hogy caught a 28" red right away and a few minutes later I hooked up a huge one. My little Shimano spinning reel gave up on me just as I was seeing the fish in the surf, the drag locked and I lost it. It looked to be about 3' long. On the way back we caught 4 more big reds and Hogy put a piece of the mullet on the bottom and caught a 25" speck! Check out the no-spots red on the right. Not a bad day at all...

Cheap waterproof fly box

Wal-Mart sells these watertite food containers for $3. They are 6.5x9x3.5". A couple of them fit in the 97c mini-crate they sell, I use one for gear and one for flies in my yak. The foam I got from Lowe's. It's roofing and siding underlayment foam. It's not too strong, but very cheap and is actually the perfect width for the box! No need to cut slots, as the foam is soft. A little quick grab craft cement will stick it well. The center section is just two pieces glued together.

Catfish Lake 9-1-2007

Slow day at Catfish Lake in Golden Meadow. Caught a lot of undersized specks, with one keeper. This flounder blew up on a DOA under a popping cork in very shallow water over an oyster bed. It was great stuffed with crabmeat and the speck.

This Blog

I started this to post pictures of Louisiana Fishing. I mostly fish saltwater from Golden Meadow south to Grand Isle in my kayak or canoe.