Still Looking For a 30"

We hit the water around three this morning and picked up some trout in the lights at the secret spot in Galveston. At five we loaded up and headed to the Red Fish hole to try for some topwater madness. The Reds were thick but not wanting to commit to any good strikes. I had numerous blowups and tail slaps but no takers until I started throwing my new go to bait (Red Daddy Assassin Spinner with an opening night sea shad). As soon as that spinner hit the water it was Fish-On, I caught five trout with one at 28.5” and one 23” red fish. There were also a few throw backs and some missed fish mixed in so all in all it was a good day. It would have been a great day if that trout would have been the 30” I’ve been looking for all my life. When I set the hook on her I was sure it was a red fish, but when she gave up and came to the surface I was shocked when I saw a black back instead of the bronze one I was expecting. As soon as I saw that log surface I was almost sure that is was the one I had been waiting for, but once again it was just a little short. After a quick measurement and some pictures she was set free to see another day.

LONE STAR KAYAK SERIES

LONE STAR KAYAK SERIES

Fished the first LSKS tournament Saturday and Mother Nature put it to me again. The wind was blowing and all I could find were trout and a few under size reds. If your looking to get into tournament fishing the LSKS is a good tournament to get started with. The entry fee is reasonable and the payout is good. 

IFA PORT ARANSAS

IFA PORT ARANSAS

I fished the IFA in Port Aransas last weekend and it was a windy one. The fishing wasn’t great but I got lucky on Sunday and the one bite I had was a nice twenty seven and a quarter inch red. That one red fish landed me in sixth place for the tournament and top place fishing from a Hobie kayak.

Prefront fishing

We made a quick trip down to the island "Galveston" before the front came through and it paid off pretty well. We managed to get four limits of trout to 24” and eight reds to 28” between four of us. Most fish fell victim to Saltwater Assassins, and a hand full were caught on Corkys. This is going to be a short post due to the fish fry we are about to have. Love them fried fishes.

Wind, rain, and a yak load of fish

After looking at the weather this morning I made an executive decision to head down to cold pass anyway. The whole drive down I was hoping the weather guessers and the radar were wrong as they usually are when it’s supposed to be nice. When I met up with Brian at the KOA camp grounds we were greeted with a cold thirty+ MPH north east wind and rain. After making another well thought out decision we decided to unload the yaks and give it hell. Once we were on the water we headed to the north side of cold pass, which was a wild ride with the tide going out and the wind blowing in. When we arrived at the secret spot it was FISH ON all day. At the end of the day my total was twenty+ reds from twenty one - twenty five inches, two trout sixteen and eighteen inches and one little flounder at fourteen inches. Brains total was two reds at twenty two inches and one I donated to him. Two reds were caught on gold and black topwater and the rest of the fish were caught on Texas roach salt water assassins sea shad.

West Bay Reds

Made a trip down to west bay Sunday morning and managed to pick up two twenty five inch reds. The wind was blowing and the bite was slow but the two bites I had resulted in two solid reds that were perfect for lunch. The first red fell victim to a corky and the second came on a saltwater assassin. I talked to some other fishermen while I was out there and most came up empty and some had a few trout. The fishing could have been better but it was still a good day to be on the water with some fellow yakers.

Last weekend I had the pleasure of flying out to Collinsville IL to help Amy and Cyril from ST Louis sail and paddle promote the Hobie kayaks at the Lets Go Fishing Show. We had a lot of fun spreading the word of how much fun you can have in a Hobie kayak and all of the accessories that are available, like the new collapsible leaning post for the Pro Angler. I can’t wait to get my hands on one, it will be nice to have something to lean against while fighting some big reds. Saturday and Sunday Jackie Smith (football hall of famer and designer of the Hobie Pro Angler) came out to give us a hand talking to people about all of the things you can do in a kayak. At the end of the day on Saturday I walked around the end of the isle that our booth was on and saw some shoes on a rack that caught my eye. I went over to check them out and was greeted by a really nice gentleman named Mike. While talking to Mike about the shoes I tried a pair on and walked around for a few minutes with them and found they were very comfortable. Well when it was all said and done I left with a bright yellow pair of ZEKO shoes and they are my new favorite shoes. I sported my new shoes from the time we left for the show Sunday morning until I arrived back home in Houston Sunday night. No more sweaty feet and my feet felt great even after being on them all day, I know these shoes will be awesome in the kayak. Photo left to right Josh MacNaughton,Jackie Smith, Amy Narishkin

Birthday Fishing

It was a perfect birthday fishing weekend. Caught limits reds, and a limit of trout.

IFA Rockport

I prefished Friday and Saturday before the tournament with good numbers Saturday. On tournament day the fish were there but the wind was blasting. I managed a twenty two inch red and a eighteen and a half inch trout early in the morning. There were a lot of bigger fish in the mix that were smashing my topwater but could not get a hook in their mouth. I want to know how a six inch piggy perch can get a hook in its mouth on a topwater and a twenty five inch red cant. My total of forty and a half inches was only good enough for ninth place, but I got a nice check for having the highest score out of a Hobie kayak. Once again the IFA and Hobie put on a great event and I am looking forward to many more years of fishing in it.

Sabine strike out

Fished the North West end of Sabine Sunday morning with little to show for it. The bait was thick but the fish weren’t there. I managed one flounder on a corky, two blowups on a topwater, one missed flounder on a gulp jerk shad, and missed a redfish on a corky. The weather was nice, but the fishing could have been better. I guess that’s why it’s called fishing and not catching.

Good news

After a few weeks of hit and miss fishing trips my luck started to change when I received some good news from Hobie. I am now a member of the Hobie Fishing Team and I am proud to say Austin canoe and kayak is my local Hobie dealer who I will be representing. I am very thankful that Hobie and Austin canoe and kayak have given me the opportunity to represent them. Austin canoe and kayak will be having there big demo weekend April 16&17 in Missouri city where you can check out all of there kayaks and take them for a paddle, hope to see you there.

Midnight Madness II

We made another trip down to west bay Wednesday night to get some meat for the freezer. The East wind was blasting and it was making fishing tough, but we managed twenty one nice trout and a dozen throw backs. All fish were caught on purple chartreuse tail Mirror lure soft plastics and pumpkin seed with chartreuse tail. Once again the preferred retrieve was a slow steady reel with a light twitch every so often. I wasn’t able to take a lot of pictures due to the sporty conditions on the water but I did get one of the ice chest full of fish and Cody holding the first fish of the night. If anyone from Mirror Lure is reading this I just want to say you make the toughest soft plastics I have ever used. I have used the same lure on two trips and caught around forty fish on it and its good for another trip or two.

First time in sabine

On the way home from the IFA championship in Alabama we decided to stop and fish the north end of Sabine on the Texas side. After two days of punishment from the Fish Gods we caught a break and a ton of fish. The Red fish and Trout were stirring up the shrimp and the birds were getting the extras. The only word that could explain the day would be total chaos. At the end of the day we had two limits of Reds and two limits of Trout. Fish were caught on Gulp shrimp under a popping cork, topwaters, plastics, and corkys.
I could go on for days about how great the fishing was but I will let the pictures do the talking.

IFA Championship Orange Beach, Alabama

We headed out Thursday morning around one A.M. with no sleep since Tuesday night. We arrived in Alabama a little after nine A.M. and were pre fishing by ten. At the first spot all we could find was one small trout and some very fresh water. After we loaded up I did some research and found another promising spot in Oyster Bay which was about an hour away. When we arrived at our next stop we found a good amount of Reds and Trout. After a couple of hours of fishing and exploring it was decided this was going to be the place to start Friday morning.

After the captains meeting at the fabulous Cobalt restaurant we went back to Oyster Bay so we could finally get some much needed sleep. A little after five A.M. we crawled out of the truck. Yes we slept in the back of the Tahoe for three nights. On the way down the intercostal I had two blowups on a topwater just before the entrance to Oyster Bay, and I knew it was going to be a good day. Once inside the bay we saw some seagulls working on the south shoreline. After a short quarter mile paddle we were in a school of trout under the gulls. All of the trout were small but I was able to pull one out that was sixteen and a half inches. Now that I had my Trout I could go find one of the many Reds that we saw the previous day. After going to all of the spots that we found Reds on Thursday we came up empty, so I went exploring and still could not find a Redfish anywhere. I did manage to find a trout that was a little bigger. I fished until the very last minute and had nothing to show for it but an eighteen and a half inch trout.




Saturday we changed our location and fished Wolf Bay which gave me the same results as the previous day. I caught an eighteen and a half inch Trout and not a single Red. I don’t know what the deal is with Alabama fish but if I could take all of the places I fished during the tournament and bring them back to Texas they would be loaded with fish.

I wasn’t able to pull off the win that I wanted but it was a great experience. Once again I am very grateful for all of the hard work that the IFA and Hobie has put into giving us kayakers a chance to prove ourselves in a pro tournament.

The new kayak trailer

I’ve been searching for a kayak trailer for a while now and I finally found one that fit my budget and design. She needs some modifying but it will work perfect for hauling two yaks when finished. I thought I would do a little before, during, and after for those who are interested.

The trailer started as a catamaran sailboat trailer and I picked it up for two hundred dollars. The frame and wheels are galvanized so they are in good shape. The leaf springs and wheel studs need to be replaced. The wheel hubs came with bearing buddies already on them and are in good shape. I removed the cross bars that held the hulls of the sailboat so now the trailer is a little over four feet wide. My plan is to make it a double decker and make the tong removable so that it fits in the garage.

Hobie Pro Angler

The F.I.S.D. skool bus (the new yak) performed like a champ. It worked well in the shallow water with no problems, and paddling it was effortless when the water was super shallow. The turbo fins on the mirage drive work great, Cody was using my Hobie Outback and I had no problems keeping up in the bus. All of the storage is great, I can take all of the lures I use most and put them in the middle compartment and never have to dig through my tackle bag. The bow storage is so big I could not find enough stuff to fill it up, and the back deck is big enough to fish off of or carry a full size cooler on it. When I stood up on it for the first time I was very comfortable moving around, and fishing while standing up was no problem at all. The Hobie Pro Angler is defiantly in a class of its own.

First time in Freeport

We met up with bogdog (Clint) if Freeport Saturday morning and hit the water by six fifteen. After a short paddle we reached the first stop, we split up and started looking for some reds. It didn’t take long for the action to get fired up and the reds were exploding all over our top waters. Between the four of us we landed seven reds between eighteen and 30 inches on top waters in an hour, and a couple of small trout. The tide was super high and you could see reds chasing shrimp and mullet way up in the grass, so I put on a (Kicker Fish bait) strawberry white tail shad stick. I rigged it up weed less and sent it into the grass after a red that was chasing some shrimp. When I say way up in the grass I mean about twenty feet in from the waters edge. As soon as the shad stick hit the water that red inhaled it and the fight was on, and then it was over. My twelve pound line was no match for a big red in thick grass, so if anyone sees a red swimming around with a strawberry white tail shad stick bait in his mouth watch out he’s a feisty one. After that we paddled back to the trucks, loaded up, and headed for our next destination.

When we arrived at our next stop we unloaded and started fishing. The fishing was a little slow but we managed four nice reds on top waters. Most of the fish were caught out in the middle of the lake we were fishing, and some were caught out of a school we found that was running bait on the bank. After about two hours the bite was over and we headed home.

Thanks for the trip Clint we had a blast

It's official now

Click for Official Results.

The fishing was great on Sunday; there were schools of huge reds all around and all you could hear were mullet getting smashed and running for there lives. Once the sun came out and I put on my Costa Delmar sunglasses everywhere you looked you could see tails and big bronze backs sticking out of the water. A school of big reds caught my eye about fifty yards away and the chase was on. I eased my way over towards them in my stealthy Hobie outback and made a cast with a skitter walk. With a few twitches of my Castaway rod tip they all turned towards my bait like a group of synchronized swimmers. After two more small pops it all broke loose, reds were going nuts trying to kill that skitter walk, they were fighting each other and completely forgot about my bait. I made another cast at them and it looked like some one threw a grenade in the water, red fish were flying everywhere. During all the commotion my skitter walk disappeared and the sleigh ride was underway. I knew it was a good fish when it instantly started taking line off of my Shimano Castaic reel. After a short battle she gave up, I pulled her on board, made a short paddle to the bank, took a measurement (26 ¾”), and took her picture. After the picture I made sure she was in good health and watched her swim away to fight another day.




The next four hours were spent in search of the elusive mustard mouth. I was catching everything from six inch specks to ten pound black drum on Berkley gulp jerk shad. The Berkley ad is true about out fishing live bait because it will catch any fish out there. Finally, I set the hook on a fish and got that wonderful head shake on the end of my line and it was pulling harder than the other specs had been pulling. I knew I finally found the one speck out there that was at least fifteen inches long, and low and behold it was fifteen and a quarter. After a short photo session it was set free to see another day.



After a little more fishing we packed up and started the hour journey to the weigh in at Seaworthy Marine. As always the ride to the weigh in seems like an eternity, especially when you think you have a good stringer. When I heard my name called for the biggest red fish I knew I had a good chance to be in at least the top five. The next thing I remember was hearing my name again for first place, I could not believe it. With the win for Port "A" put me at number one for Texas angler of the year. Now I get to go to the championship and represent all of our Texas fishermen.

IFA Kayak Fishing Tour 2010

IFA Kayak Fishing Tour 2010

Josh did it again! Biggest red fish, this was a clean sweep winning the Biggest Red in ALL 3 tournaments. 1st place for the tournament and Texas Angler of the year. Josh said “the fishing was awesome and I had so much fun”!

Winnings were $200 for biggest red fish, a New Hobie Pro Angler Kayak $2,499, representing Texas is the Champions tournament, and entry fees paid for all 3 Texas tournaments next year.

Thanks to all the supporters of the IFA Kayak Fishing Tour:
Hobie Fishing,
Cabela’s,
Kayak Angler Fishing Magazine,
WFN World Fishing Network,
Columbia,
321fish.com



A BIG THANK YOU to Seaworthly Marine and all the workers who helped put this event together!



Special Thanks to my personal sponsors:
God
Tatum MacNaughton TX Realtor.

Thanks to Jay and Tommy Zachry for letting us use their Condo on Mustang Island! Having my family there meant so much!

IFA REDFISH TOUR

The fishing was tough this weekend with the 20+ mph winds and two tide days, but I was able to catch one fish on Sunday (with the help of my fishing partner Travis) and luckily it was a 28" red. That one fish was enough to take the biggest red for the tournament (second time in a row) fifth place, and now I am tied in first place for Texas angler of the year.

The picture was taken in the pelican not the Hobie. I needed a confined space to keep this monster under control, and the Hobie has no confined space.

I couldn't have done it without a Berkley GULP jerk shad, my Hobie mirage outback, Shimano reel, Castaway rod, and a spool of Pline.