Red Tide!
 

Fished a kayak tourney Saturday out of Galliano called the Minimalist Challenge. Everyone gets the same 5 lures and jig heads and thats all you get to use, no corks, scent, etc.. I ended up placing 4th out of 60 as I got on big reds and just could not get away from them. My friend and I were culling fish at about 8am I would think. We moved around trying to find trout but they were nowhere around so we stayed on the reds and wore them out. I culled until I got 5 that were just under 27" and also picked up 2 trout. I would say between him and I we caught and landed over 30 reds yesterday between 22"-31". It was so thick of them we were just laughing and catching as fast as you could cast you would have a red.

1st place was 45lbs 5 reds 25 trout (1 4lb trout)
2nd place was 35.95lbs 5 reds 17 trout
3rd place was 34.95lbs 5 reds 16 trout
4th place was 30.40lbs 5 reds 2 trout

Tells you the size of my reds compared to the other placings! They were fat. One of the reds I cleaned had a rat in its belly that was half decomposed.

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2 man haul for the day

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Daddy's #1 fans dying to see me cut open the fish. Can't wait till they can do it!!!!

congrats on the 4th place finish

nice

awesome catch - congrats on the finish

Sounds like a good time, congrats on the finish!

*** have a boat tournament this time of year 5 people show up. Have a yak tournament 60 show. I see I maybe in the market for a Yak.

hahaha There would have been more but they cut it off at 60. Next one is in March and will probably be about 130 people

What is the payback?

Not sure. Most of the tourneys ar $40.00 and you get 2 free dinners, door prizes, raffle tickets. Last tourney had 3 kayaks for top prizes and also cash. I know in one of them I took home over $600.00 in one of them and less than 80 people fished it and I was 2nd place. You would be surprised by the amount of prizes you can win.

50% paid back and I think it only pays top 3 usually.

congrats of your high finish, ya gotta love hammerin on fish like that! your yak is alot lower and slicker lookin than mine.. what kind is yours?

Its a Hurricane Aquasports Phoenix 160. Its 28" wide but 16' long. Its also a different material than regular kayaks as its lighter and stronger. (trylon) definitely pretty fast. They stopped making the 160 but they still make a 140. The open fisherman is another one I just got that is great for the marsh. Check them out.www.hurricaneaquasports.com

Are yaks as stealthy as wading?

I think so as many times in the marsh I have been able to actually just jig a lure infront a red. Many times you can have them come right at you tailing and you just look down right at them. Its a trip

thanks alot fot the info.. i'm gonna check those out!

maybe, all i know, is that those fish are CLUELESS about yaks... i'm just a 10 foot yellow board floating on the water to them. silence is golden. ;)

You are right about that. How many times have you been looking the other way and you turn around and their is a slot red just sitting there looking at the kayak. Its a trip sometimes.

yep, that happens more than occasionally. my favorite is when a ball of bait erupts 5 feet from the yak and heads tword me. i've had baitfish literally bouncing off my yak! yeah, they're clueless. :smokin: