Tide: -0.2ft low at 8:30am
Today was the Calusa Blueway Paddling Festival Fishing Tournament out of Matlacha, FL. If you recall from last years post, this tournament called for the largest combined length of a snook, redfish, and trout. This is one of the more organized and better run kayak tournaments I've fished in and this year was no exception. The grand prize this year was a new Hobie Mirage Adventure kayak donated by Estero River Outfitters followed by cash payouts to five places, along with many raffle giveaways as well. Although the weather forecast was very poor with lows in the mid 40s and winds exceeding 20 mph, 46 anglers showed up to catch a slam.
With the cold weather upon us, our original plan was to target redfish and trout first, and then when things warmed up go for a snook. Kyle and I arrived at the launch at 7:30am only to find the flat completely dry. With a forecasted low tide at 8:30 we decided against launching there and instead opted to mess around the canals for snook until the tide came in. We concentrated on an area I prefished on friday but the only fish around were ladyfish and tarpon. On the way back to the launch Kyle caught a 19" trout on a jig which is suprising for where we were. By the time we loaded up and drove back to the flat it was 10:15 and the tide was even lower than before.
We launched anyway (well, we walked a few hundred yards until we were able to float). At this point the wind was gusting close to 30 mph and in a shear mishap, one of Kyle's rods fell out of the kayak. We knew where it fell out but it was impossible to find in the turtle grass. With hardly any water or fish, increasing wind, and a lost rod, Kyle headed back to the truck while I duked it out. While drifting (faster than I could paddle), I spotted a big redfish tailing with 2/3 of its body protruding the surface in only 12" of water. I rigged up a gulp shrimp on a weedless hook and after a little coaxing finally got him to eat which was so difficult with the wind. After that I jigged the only pothole I could find with water in it and bagged a small trout and another red. Two species down one to go.
There was now about 2 hours left of fishing and I only needed a snook, size didn't matter at this point. We headed back to where we fished in the morning and luckily found a bunch of snook sunning themselves. The first one I caught was 14" but each one after that kept getting bigger until I settled on a 27" snook. Kyle got in on the action and caught several snook as well. I was pretty content with what I had for a top 5 finish given the conditions so we headed to the "weigh-in" 30 min early. I believe 3rd place had 56", 2nd place had 59", and I took 1st with 73". I've fished quite a few of these tournaments the past couple years and finally did well enough for first..it was long overdue!
