Bad Luck and Finishing Strong- 03/09/24 Report
I don’t know about you all, but every tournament for me always starts the same- jittery. I can’t sleep the night before as I go over the gameplan in my head a billion times, have intrusive thoughts like “did you pack your PFD” right before nodding off, or quadruple checking the conditions of the day. Then, before you know it, the alarm goes off and you’re already dressed and ready to go. Today was no different. After grabbing some snacks and kolaches, I met up with Jay at our launch location. Despite the 6:00 AM first cast, we wanted to get out to our location and get a lay of the land. I’m glad we did.
The Conditions
The forecast had a front running through the Galveston area late Friday night and into Saturday morning. The balmy spring weather would turn towards winter, if only briefly. The North winds, projected to sustain around 20 miles per hour with gusts up to 30 miles per hour, coupled with peak high tide and outgoing for most of the day, sort of created our gameplan for us.
1. We would look for relatively protected areas.
2. Within those areas, look for a drain and deep water access.
With the higher tides, this would be a perfect time to just post up on a drain and catch the redfish coming out. Generally, in these conditions, they would either post up and ambush the bait on their way out, come out with the wait and gorge, or a combination of both.
We were also looking for deeper water access to open up options. As the water levels get lower from the front and tide, fish tend to move deeper. By having deep water near by, we had the flexibility to move and fish another type of area if and when the drain stopped producing.
The Morning Start
Upon arriving to the drain we wanted to stage up at, I saw white foam floating away from the drain. As we got closer, we discovered the source of the foam- absolute mayhem. Even with the winds howling at over 20 miles per hour, we could hear mullet being destroyed by redfish. Jay and I exchanged excited glances. The fish were here. And now, the hard part. We staked out and had to wait while we witnessed this spectacle. The minutes leading up to first cast were exorbitantly slow.
We had staked out about 30 yards from the drain. The water was flowing to us, but the wind was to our back. This made conditions quite tricky as the combination of current and winds threw our kayaks around. Before first cast, we opted to go really shallow to hop out and wade. This gave us more control of where we were to hopefully take advantage of the feeding onslaught before the conditions changed. Luckily, the ground was a combination of shell and mud, and we posted up waiting for that first cast.
At 6:00 AM, we timed our first casts into the drain. The drain was literally only 5 or 6 feet across. Combined with the fact that it was still dark, and that we had swirling winds around us, it made it difficult to get the right casts. In fact, despite bait fish being blown up on, our first few casts were off the mark as we got used the conditions. Eventually, we dialed it in and the first cast that made it to the sweet spot, was Jay. His bait sailed over right into the drain and his bait naturally flowed out- only to be demolished by a nice slot red. With a locked down drag, he drug that fish away from the drain in an effort not to spook the rest of the fish.
A few casts later, I figured out how to make the perfect cast and watched my bait sail right onto the drain. My Knockin Tail Lure flowed out of the drain to an immediate thump. I set the hook hard and with my drag locked down, I horsed the redfish away from the drain. It was a good one. Even locked down, the fish managed some short turns of the spool. Since we were close together, Jay managed to net the fish for me before returning his attention to another cast at the drain.
By 6:15 AM, we already had our 2-fish limit and were now keen on upgrading. As the sun started inching up, Jay managed to hook another red. His rod bowed over, his line peeled off. Then nothing. The fish had popped off. No worries, we still got some time. Unfortunately, this was just a taste of what was yet to come.
Bad Luck
After the initial flurry of action, the activity started to slow. Jay decided to stay put while I went 50 or so yards to target another drain. It was a bust as hardly any water was flowing out of this drain due to some debris blocking the way. I quickly fished around it, but the lack of any activity made it easy to leave. While I was poking around, I could see Jay making cast after cast into the drain. Every other cast, he seemingly hooked up with a fish. He showed a trout, a flounder, and a gosh darned catfish. Then he hooked up with a red, which spit the hook again. Maybe I should head back, as there’s obviously nothing happening over here. While heading back, Jay hooked up again. This time, it was a bruiser of a red, peeling drag and making a beeline for the deeper waters. All Jay had to deal with was the current as there wasn’t much out in the deeper…
“He’s rubbing up against something.”
“I think he’s got me wrapped!”
“!@#$!”
I vaguely remember an old crab trap that I can sometimes see on my fish finder and the red probably went for that and got away. The bad luck continues.
After this, we decide to start targeting the deep water drop offs. We’ve found that once the action dies down, the fish will still be roaming around these drop offs. We have to pass our launch point before getting to the drop off which isn’t too far away, so we decide to put our reds in the livewell to avoid unneeded stress from us pulling them around on our stringers. We set up Jay’s O2 system to give the fish plenty of refreshing water for a lively weigh in.
We set back out and make our way to our next location. I head a little further down current from Jay in the kayak and begin to work a stretch of shoreline. In seemingly quick succession, Jay pulls up a couple of nice slot reds that looked like potential upgrades, and a couple of trout. We briefly talked and decided that he would head back and figure out our fish situation. I went back to working my stretch and picked up a couple decent trout. I heard a shout in the wind, looked up, and saw Jay holding up an empty stringer at the launch point. Turns out, he inserted the float incorrectly and it came off as he was picking up the stringer. Both reds swam free. Even from where I was, I could see he was absolutely dejected at this turn of events.
Jay would later get another red to upgrade one of the fish, but not after losing a couple as well. After taking that one red back to the launch to add to the livewell, the fishing Gods decided to add insult to injury. As Jay went back to put that redfish back into our livewell, he found that he put our 02 oxygen system valve on fully open, which depleted our O2 for the fish. Back on the stringer they went.
Lessons Learned
As the day wore on, the redfish became hard to find. The trout started showing up in large numbers and that kept us busy for a bit, but the lack of redfish and no kicker fish was beginning to weigh a bit on my mind. Keeping in contact with Jay really helped keep my spirits up as we grinded it out for a few more fish. While we didn’t end up getting another red, he did keep me from going insane while on the water.
As the afternoon wore on, we decided it was time to pack it in. We took our time loading up and made it to the weigh in at 4:30 ish. At the time, we were the only team to bring in a 2 fish limit and were now in the lead with around 11lbs. I jokingly said to Jay that we should take a picture of the leaderboard since we were currently in 1st, and it probably wouldn’t hold. A lot of heavy hitters fish these tournaments and they constantly bring in 16+ lb bags. His only response was “we’ll see.”
I always preach to read the rules of every tournament. And i’ve said as much in our Tournament Prep episode. For some reason, I thought the weigh in ended at 6:00 PM. With that in mind, we decided to go and get some food since we both haven’t eaten since breakfast. While eating, I found out that weigh-in actually ended at 5, and we hurriedly headed back. Upon arriving back at the weigh in at 5:30 or so, we came up to the end of the raffles but had made it in time for the results. Since we weren’t at the weigh in until then, we had no idea who brought in what. I was hearing the chatter around us about how tough it was for everyone. In the end, our two fish held up for first place- our first tournament win.
I want to give a big shout out to the Saltwater Survival Series. They always put on a quality kayak tournament. It’s a unique format with each tournament targeting the big 3 in Texas for the series. If you’re interested in joining this great tournament series, the next event is March 30th, 2024. Sign up!
I also wanted to mention this tournament was benefiting Heroes on the Water- Galveston Chapter. John Stapleton leads this chapter and does a great job helping vets find peace while kayaking and fishing. If you’re looking to volunteer, donate, or to learn more, visit their website.
