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by Dustin Schouest
Fall is here! The outside air has that crispness of the first good cold front of the year. The trout had been reported finally biting after a drought of good meat hauls. And of course, it had to be on the first weekend I could get out fishing in almost a month.
My last outing helped aggravate outlying problems with my knees, which made pedaling the Hobie very painful. Today, I just had to get out. I was going crazy, respooling reels, buying baits, reading reports, and not being able to get on the water.
I had stayed up all night watching my favorite Saturday night gaming stream, and the only thing keeping me awake was a Monster energy drink my lovely girlfriend had gotten for me. That, and some Meshuggah blasting from my Explorer’s speakers. The skies were my favorite colors: melancholy greys, haze as deep as abyss, almost as though the clouds were crying. There is a certain beauty in those pastel blues, blacks, greys, and purples; the kind that makes even the saddest man smile.
I stopped at H’s Corner Store for some “lorje”, or minnows as we Cajun folks call them. The main reason I decided to give them a try after two years without live bait was that I needed video for a “how to” video on my own DIY live well. I only asked for 15, but the disgruntled bait boy (I checked him for weapons; he’s waaay less dangerous than a UPS worker) gave me a few extra. I knew I wouldn’t need them, but it was nice of him to do so.
The north wind was strong, with that biting sting of the coming winter. It gave me that good burn in my lungs as I pushed my Hobie Outback “Fenrir” into the water, loaded her up, and heaved off for the brown depths of my home marshes. With the falling tide and the ripping wind, the wave action at my favorite canal crossings were fierce. But, I kept faith, and kept casting out, moving around as I thought I might need to.
I had a feeling it was a catfish that was chasing my minnow at first, and when the hit finally came, I knew what I had to be. Pulling down, not coming toward the surface at all. I wanted to be disappointed, but, I was actually happy; I had a bend in my rod, I had slime on my kayak, and I had a smile on my face.
Now, when it comes to catfish, I am very weary. I don’t know about freshwater cats, but gafftops and hardheads have stingers that hurt very badly if they pierce your skin. The pain is like if you stubbed your toe…. On a burning razor sharp diamond made of battery acid. And yes, I am talking from experience. But, I have a contingency for dealing with these things; the FishGrip! While getting the bottom part of the plastic into the catfish’s fat, ugly mouth may be hard, the risk are well worth the reward. Once the FishGrip is, well, gripping the bottom lip of the ill-tempered spawn of fish Satan, I have complete control of the fish. I managed to grab the hook and wiggle it out without any fear of being stung. I cursed the little thing, and sent it back on its way.
I wanted to get out of the wind for a bit, so I went towards a bulkhead behind a set of broken islands. I casted out the lorje, and immediately a bulky grey-red head came up, looked at my cork, looked at me, and bolted. My heart was pumping; a redfish had looked me in the eye, looked at me, and decided I wasn’t worth his time. It was both magical and humbling.
I changed out the minnow with my go-to bait, the H&H Sparkle Beetle in chartreuse. I casted out past the point, popped the cork a few dozen times, and started reeling in. As soon as the cork was a foot from my boat, I saw a large wake head towards my bait, and my rod was almost yanked from my hands. Drag started streaking from the reel, bringing yells of joy and stress as the monster redfish tried to break off the line in my Mirage drive.
After a few minutes of fighting, the fish came to the boat, letting me grip his lip, and slide a tag in his dorsal fin. The redfish measured 23 and a half inches, and was more than green after I released him back into the wild.
Drifting further down the bank, I missed one or two strikes, feeling a sense of ease. I was in my element, and while the fishing was definitely not what I was hoping, I was just happy to be getting out to be in nature.
Finally, after a long and hard peddle, I decided to start heading back to the launch. But before that I stopped at one more point to fish at. While casting out another lorje, I missed three strikes. I knew I wasn’t leaving till I caught whatever it was that was messing with me. With one last cast, I managed to pierce the lip of another hungry catfish. But this one was…different. It almost looked like it had psoriasis of its skin, with white and pink hues contrasting strongly against the blue sides of this evil being.
With one more use of the ever simple and valuable FishGrip, I had the catfish handled. The wind was kicking worse and worse, so I decided to begin the arduous task of fighting the wind to get back to the ever infamous Theo’s Marina.
With one redfish tagged, a few catfish begrudgingly hooked, and a mile in the yak, I knew this was a great start to fall.