Just got back from a two-day fly fishing trip to the LA marsh targeting bull redfish. It was cold and super windy both days but we did manage OK, thanks to guide Miles Larose.
The first day we managed three reds apiece with one of my buddy’s redfish being a nice bull, his first, below:
A couple of funny incidents happened. One was a pair of redfish coming down the bank with a tag sticking out of the water which is what gave them away. Another was a fun race that kicked off when I cast my fly into a little school. Two redfish started chasing my fly, getting in each other’s way as the fly advanced with finally the larger of the two pushing the smaller fish aside and winning the race by grabbing the fly.
When we got back to camp, a really funny story was told to us by two Montana fishermen staying in the adjacent room at the camp. Their guide apparently had to do some kind of maintenance in the back of the boat and was possibly tinkering with the engine. He must have opened a compartment and didn’t notice when a small cat jumped out of the compartment and ran the gunnels up toward the bow and dove off into the water when he ran out of boat. Well the two anglers were surprised to say the least but they jumped into action to save the little cat which had quickly become numbed by the cold water. Things were looking bleak for the little fella until the two Montana anglers plucked him out of the water, dried him and warmed him up in a towel.
Well the funniest part was when the guide finished his tinkering and turned around to see his two anglers comforting a wet cat and in an astonished voice said “You brought a cat!” Too funny.
The happy ending is that the guide adopted the cat for his kids. I’m not mentioning any names here because I didn’t get any permissions other than to re-tell the story from the two Montana anglers. I will add here that the launch we were using has a large population of wharf cats that feed on the shrimp and fish trimmings that drop on the dock, so it’s not surprising that one took up residence in the guide’s boat.
Our second day of fishing started out dismally with even higher winds and colder weather and a long lull of looking for bulls and not finding any. After a couple of hours though, Miles found the fish and my buddy caught yet another bull, putting him solidly two bull redfish ahead of me.
As I was having difficulty getting a fish to take, my spirits were falling and it just didn’t seem like I could get the job done. Finally I had a shot and only by aiming my cast a full fifteen feet upwind of the fish I managed to get the fly to land by the fish, which quickly accommodated me by throwing his gills open and sucking in the purple and grey bunnytail fly.
A little later I hooked and fought another nice bull to the boat which came unbuttoned due a bent hook. I was using a 80/60/50 lb leader so I guess I was a little too confident and putting too much pressure on. Then we got into black drum and had about four that came to the boat and another two that came unbuttoned.
It was a great trip and I can’t wait to get back at them soon.
I was checking an old photo of my personal best fish to see how it compared to my best bull on the trip. And just for comparison, (of me) here’s a fish I caught with another guide about six years ago. Damn. I look so much younger. I’ve gotten old.
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