Contributed by Travis Billings
Fall’ n Tide was approaching, so I booked a hotel at Cypress Cove Marina. I was joined by my best childhood friend who shares the same obsession with fishing as I do. I could hardly contain my excitement all week. Studying reports/maps/past tournament history, we figured we had a good plan. Wednesday after work I got the hobies loaded up along with all our gear ready to head down toward Venice, La. To say it felt like a kid during the xmas holidays is an understatement.
We planned on prefishing Thursday and Friday to know the pattern for tournament day. Then the weather took a turn for the worst. Thursday’s forecast was 25mph+ N winds, Friday’s the same and Saturday was supposed to die down with winds near 15mph. So we tried to prefish Friday where we planned on fishing tournament day. The winds had blew all the water out the marsh and made access to our spot impossible. Felling down we decided to load the kayaks back in the truck and try to develop a new plan.
Friday night after a delicious meal prepared by the guys from Bayou Coast Kayak Fishing Club, we decided to drive an hour north and launch from there on tournament day. After rigging up our rods, we weren’t very confident considering the weather and the unfamiliarity of the area. Trying to keep the attitudes high, I keep saying to myself “one of use can get lucky”. Tournament day is here, I barely slept the night before but felt so ready, adrenaline pumping, like I could run a marathon.
We launch at our agreed location at 0530 and started casting, within minutes my buddy lands an almost keeper speckled trout. And all I can think was its going to be on today. Several hours later that thought couldn’t have been more wrong. Cast after cast, bait after bait, nothing was working. I got skunked and the one almost keeper trout was the only fish we even saw. Feeling down and completely dominated by the elements, we loaded up and headed home.
You would think these past 3 days were a total waste of time and money. But to me it was a very productive time. I learned a new area, got some more tournament experience and best of all, got to share all this with my best childhood friend. Sometimes it’s not all about fishing or the prizes. Sometimes it’s about hanging with loved ones doing what drives us the most.