My son Chris and I made a one day trip down to the Louisiana marshes. It’s a three hour drive, so down in back in one day is six hours of driving. But, based on a forecast of full sun and little wind, which would be good for sight casting, we wanted to get a shot at some fish before the hot weather moves in. We did have some good conditions early, but the wind picked up around noon and the whole day was plagued with hide-n-seek sun and a haze that kept full sunlight from lighting up the marsh like we had hoped.
I did manage one nice red, I released him so I didn’t attempt to measure him, as I wanted to get him back in the water.
The fish was a great set up, I could see fins coming out of the water every now and then. It would have been a great opportunity to record the use of the “Samurai” System. I should have turned on my GoPro, but I have to admit, I was excited and just forgot about it. I quietly pushed up to within about thirty-five feet and positioned the kayak slightly into the wind, feeling confident the wind couldn’t turn me before I could make at least a couple of casts. Not wanting to spook my first real opportunity, I made my cast land about three feet from the fish. Unlike all almost all of the smaller fish I encountered the rest of the day, this fish was interested immediately and started following the spoon fly, luckily there was enough room without grass so the fly didn’t get fouled. The fish followed for only about five feet before flaring his gills and sucking the fly in. I got a little Cajun sleigh ride out of it before I dropped my anchors.
The rest of the day was chasing nervous, spooky rat reds in thick grass and wasn’t very productive although I did get several shots, most of which became enveloped in the thick grass immediately or the small fish just spooked or simply wouldn’t have anything to do with the fly.
It was nice to spend a day in the marsh with my son, though it would have been nice to have had some bigger fish like the one I caught, which I am sure would have been more cooperative.
"Samurai" Fly Shop 