Week at the Jax Kayak Fishing Classic 4-30--5-2
Posted: May 3rd, 2009, 9:07 am
Suber, Liam, and I headed for Jax on Wednesday nite. (Thanks, Chappy(UptheCreek) for all the hospitality and for putting us up for several days. We prefished Mill Cove on Thursday. Jax has big tide swings, lots of oysters, and lots of mud. There were a lot of big trout there, and we all caught lots of reds and trout that day on topwater plugs. Later on in the day, while fishing for reds I caught my personal best trout of almost 28 inches.
Friday, prefishing, I did not do well at all. I caught a few small trout while watching Jeff and Liam tear up the reds and big trout. Liam caught a nice 25 inch trout on a Super Spook, and Jeff caught a 20 inch flounder and a few upperslot reds. Other than the typical heckling by my ruthless fishing partners, I took solace in the fact that I had not yet used up all my good kharma the day before the actual tourney.
Saturday was tourney day. We got out on the water around 5:30 am and officially lauched at 6:00. Fishing for a slam, I caught a 21 inch red and an 18 inch trout on a black and chartruse head skitterwalk before sunrise, so that was a big relief. After putting several more similar sized fish in the boat, I paddled over to another area looking for flounder. Fortunately, I was able to castnet some small minnows and using one on a jighead, catch a 17 inch flatty pretty quickly. With that over, I went back to a topwater plug and finished out the day upgrading my trout to 19 inches, and catching a few more reds with the largest being close to 23 inches. It was a good day of fishing, but I wasn't able to find any real big fish. Suber had a very similar day to me basically matching my slam fish for fish. Liam had a real nice trout and red, but unfortunately wasn't able to grind out a flounder. Upthecreek caught a giant 30 inch red, a flounder, but couldn't find the keeper trout.
At the weigh in, I saw that Popeye had caught a nice trout which was good enough for 4th place in the trout division. Upthecreek won the Redfish division and a Malibu kayak with his red. I was able to grind out 7th place in the slam division and Suber finished 6th in the slam. This was a great showing by the few FCKA guys that drove over for the tourney. Out of 430 anglers, that's a great way to represent!
Friday, prefishing, I did not do well at all. I caught a few small trout while watching Jeff and Liam tear up the reds and big trout. Liam caught a nice 25 inch trout on a Super Spook, and Jeff caught a 20 inch flounder and a few upperslot reds. Other than the typical heckling by my ruthless fishing partners, I took solace in the fact that I had not yet used up all my good kharma the day before the actual tourney.
Saturday was tourney day. We got out on the water around 5:30 am and officially lauched at 6:00. Fishing for a slam, I caught a 21 inch red and an 18 inch trout on a black and chartruse head skitterwalk before sunrise, so that was a big relief. After putting several more similar sized fish in the boat, I paddled over to another area looking for flounder. Fortunately, I was able to castnet some small minnows and using one on a jighead, catch a 17 inch flatty pretty quickly. With that over, I went back to a topwater plug and finished out the day upgrading my trout to 19 inches, and catching a few more reds with the largest being close to 23 inches. It was a good day of fishing, but I wasn't able to find any real big fish. Suber had a very similar day to me basically matching my slam fish for fish. Liam had a real nice trout and red, but unfortunately wasn't able to grind out a flounder. Upthecreek caught a giant 30 inch red, a flounder, but couldn't find the keeper trout.
At the weigh in, I saw that Popeye had caught a nice trout which was good enough for 4th place in the trout division. Upthecreek won the Redfish division and a Malibu kayak with his red. I was able to grind out 7th place in the slam division and Suber finished 6th in the slam. This was a great showing by the few FCKA guys that drove over for the tourney. Out of 430 anglers, that's a great way to represent!
