Mardi Gras Fishing

Brian and I decided to avoid the crowds Mardi Gras day and go on the first fishing trip of the year. It was cold that morning, cold enough that the cars had frost on them. Still I knew the day would warm up and we should be able to land a few fish. One thing I hadn't planned on was the wind. By the time we got to the launch the wind was blowing around 10 or 15 mph, still we prepared the boat for launch. As I unpacked my 3wt fly rod the tip caught on the case and broke off. I should have taken this as a sign that the day would not go well. I managed to unpack the other fly rods without destroying any more of the fishing equipment. We launched to boat without incident... until I tried to start the engine. The motor would start and then die. After several attempts we finally got the boat to stay running in gear. We motored to one of our favorite fishing spots. By now the wind felt as if it were blowing at gale force. Brian had brought along an ultralight spinning rig and crickets. He started fishing with this. I tied on one of my handmade flies. Brian almost immediately caught a large bluegill. I fought the wind with my 6wt Albright rod in an attempt to present my fly to the fish. This would be a battle that would repeat itself all day.

Brian rigged his 3wt rod and tried his luck with the fly rod. He had previously broken his rod which I repaired. The rod broke again on his first cast. I guess I'm not going to seek a career repairing broken fishing rods for a living. Brian went back to bait fishing with spinning tackle.

The fish did not seem to respond to the first fly I had tied on, an orange Simple Fly. I switched over to black Wooley Booger and found a bit more success with this fly. I then switched to a black Simple Fly and landed a small bass.



After landing a couple of other small fish and losing a fish that put a serious bend in my 6wt rod, and also noticing that Brian was outfishing me 5 or 6 to 1 with live crickets, I switched over to a live cricket on a #4 hook. This landed me a couple of fish but still I had to fight the ever present wind. In order to cast my line any distance I had to make full backcasts and then power through the forward cast, roll casting was not an option. This unfortunately would cause the cricket to fly off the hook. I went back to using flies. Because of his success with the crickets I tied on a brown soft hackle fly. I had more success with this fly but because of the wind and wave action it was had to place the fly where I wanted it or to fish it correctly.

In a small cove we found some fish hitting on top of the water which caused me great excitement. We were somewhat protected from the wind so I tied one of the poppers I make and started casting to the rising fish. Brian continued to cast live crickets to the rising fish and caught a large bluegill. I was not having success with any of my poppers then Brian caught one of the rising fish. We were very surpised to see it was a mullet. Not that seeing mullets are rare in this environment, in fact they are quite ubiquitous, but the mullet actually took the cricket as bait. We had never seen nor heard of this happening. This explained why the rising fish did not take any of my poppers. I switched back to using a live cricket to no avail. I must admit Brian did everything he could to put me on the fish. He would show me the spot and postion the boat so I could easily cast into the area. I think I may have caught 1 fish from this spot while Brian caught several. While in this spot I switched over to a brown soft hackle fly which I had more success with but still not anything to brag about.

At some point after this I lost the soft hackle fly and switched over to a Warm Fly. I thought for sure this fly would produce for me. Shows what I know. I did not get a single hit on the fly. Back to using a live cricket on the fly rod. Because I could not cast the rod Brian manuvered the boat close enough to the shore for me to use my fly rod as a cane pole. By this point I was totally disheartened and fished a bit more with the cricket. I got no more strikes that day and eventually admitted defeat.

We, meaning Brian, managed to catch a total of 23 fish large enough to keep for a fish fry. I added 2 fish to the pot while Brian caught the rest.

Looking back on the day even with all the problems, the broken rods, the winds and waves, the reluctance of the fish to take our bait, it was a pretty good day. Definitely better than standing on a crowded parade route or working.