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.

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.

Morning wade

Sunday morning I took a solo wading trip to my hole in west bay and it was very productive. When I arrived at my spot the wind was dead and the water was boiling from schools of mullet being chased by bull reds. Bull reds were not on my menu so I just watched the action while I waded over to a marsh drain I like to fish. While I was in route to the drain there were some rat reds destroying grass shrimp on the shore line. I decided to make a cast with my skitter-walk and it was hammered by a two spotted rat red. Once inside of the drain I was shocked by the number of red fish that were in there. My second cast landed a twenty two inch red and the action was non stop until around eleven. A few times I caught myself just watching all the action instead of fishing. Fifteen reds from twenty to twenty seven inches were caught inside of the drain in knee deep water. The baits of choice were a chrome and black skitter-walk and a red and white kicker fish bait shad stick There were numerous times red fish would swim right up next to me and not get spooked, I guess they thought I was a pole or something. There were a few times reds would come completely out of the water and land on the bank trying to get shrimp. It was a very nice day to be on the water, and a shame I had to enjoy it by myself. All but three fish were released, and the three fish were mighty tasty.

There were a few strange things that happened Sunday morning. There was a large sea turtle that hung out with me for a while, not that strange but kind of cool. Then there were stingrays flying out of the water chasing shrimp and mullet, I’ve never seen that before. The best one of the day was the small waterspout that ran over me, it was neat but it got me pretty wet.

I guess I could be more Specific about the hole, I was fishing the south shore line of west bay by the pass.

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.