As I sit here and write this, I am completely exhausted from fighting the wind today on the water. The past month for me has been really busy and held many ups and downs. Some better news, my March Madness bracket won me some cash in a few group challenges I was in. Also, Chad and I placed 7th in the Triangle Tailchaser’s Tournament a few weeks ago. I believe we did alright for being the only kayak team out of the 24 boat teams. Pops purchased a new boat and finally took his boys in it. My brother Blaze was the first to put a fish in the new boat and it was a good one, a nice 30” red.
A little bit later Pops catch’s his first fish in the boat, a 15” flounder, and then brings in two more that were bigger. We all had a good time that day and am looking forward to our next trip.
April is a great month with ideal temperatures for being outdoors but it always comes with high winds. Fishing in high winds is always difficult, particularly when being in a kayak. I could tell you about the obvious of things like paddling against a strong wind is tough, but that is a given. More importantly though, the area you choose to fish on a windy day can save you a lot of trouble and energy. You should always try and find a spot that has a piece of land blocking the wind where you can fish the backside of it. For example, an island or bayou running perpendicular to the direction of the wind. Typically in Southeast Texas, the wind blows out of the South, so I try to find an island that runs from East to West and fish the North side of it. The same goes for a bayou except I fish the South bank that way I am not casting into the wind. That is just a few helpful tips when fishing windy conditions.
Now that you have found a safe haven, that does not guarantee you will find fish. I found that out today while fishing the Saltwater Boys trout tournament. They broke us up into randomly drawn teams and we all planned on where we would fish today. Of course the wind was the main factor of where we were going to fish, so we played it safe and went to the only place we knew of that was out of the wind. Arrived to our spot and was shocked that there was only one other team there. The other absent teams either knew something I did not know or they were getting blown around in a 20 MPH wind. We fished all day and only caught a few reds and flounder but could not hang into a trout. I did everything I could to catch one but it just was not happening. My partner called the other teams and no one all day landed a trout, not one! It is really hard to call it a day knowing that a 15” trout could win the tournament and the big fish pot. I guess somedays it just happens like that. On the bright side we ended the day watching the Masters at BWW, drinking a cold beer and eating some wings, and technically in first place. I will be at the beach next weekend and plan on fishing East Bay a little bit and doing some relaxing on the beach.
Enjoy Life