I've been wanting to try and catch some saltwater fish on the fly ever since I started fly fishing. For one reason or another, I've always headed north to the mountains rather than south to the Gulf when I've had the opportunity. After this past trip, I see more trips south in my future. Later in the summer, some friends of mine started planning their annual mecca to LA for kayaking around the marsh, primarily for redfish. After a long drive in, I was finally seeing the LA marsh for the first time.
After settling in the house, conveniently located for an easy paddle out to the marsh, we enjoyed the awesome views...
....and began to get into some libations, good food and conversation.
Deer tamales
Bacon-wrapped deer tenderloin
Boudin
Hung over, we all drug ourselves out to the yaks to start the day...
Crawfish pie at 6am, why not?
Paddling out, the tide was out, which made paddling a little interesting in some spots. I actually got stuck for a while and had to wait until the tide came in more to make an escape. I learned quickly that the LA marsh mud is like quicksand.
After spooking quite a few fish as I paddled (read "scooted with a paddle") across the marsh (read "mud"), I found an area that had several smaller channels flowing into one. I staked out the yak and began to cast a gold kreelex redfish toad fly. I was using a 9wt, because that's all I own above a 5wt, and it wasn't long before I hooked into my first redfish. He snapped my shotty knot as quickly as I hooked him and I was left with equal parts excitement and being pissed off. I re-tied, put the same fly on and waited. I saw another cruiser come in and put the fly a few feet in front of him, gave it a couple of strips and he hit like a freight train. After quite a tug-of-war session, I landed my first ever saltwater fish on the fly, a nice 26" redfish.
Multiple pics of the same fish
I think I actually uttered the phrase: "F&$k brook trout!" after that. I've definitely been missing out by ignoring the salt. I still haven't bought a Yeti or a salt-life sticker though.
After catching some fish, we decided to paddle up into the marsh more.
The winds picked up pretty good and were gusting above 20mph, so we tried some skinny water.
I didn't have much look trying to manage the paddle and the fly rod, so I just kind of enjoyed the paddling. We came up on a fish camp out in the middle of nowhere, so we decided to borrow their picnic table for lunch.
Lunch of champions
After lunch, we hooked into a couple more fish before the wind became unbearable.
Enjoyed a well deserved beer after a good day fishing, but a tough day of paddling.
Got back to camp to find this bounty that our cajun friends caught:
Which ended up like this:
Grilled crab was awesome, well worth all the work for a tiny bit of meat.
The rest of the trip was met with weather not conducive to fly fishing, although the guys using gear still found success. So when the weather was shitty, we rode around town making beer runs.
The nights were spent like this:
And enjoying some of the spoils of our hard work...
Redfish on the halfshell
Redfish tacos
Bacon-wrapped fried redfish filets
The tide came in pretty good the last night and drove us all out from under the house.
And also drove this little guy out, who had apparently been abandoned by its mother...
All in all, it was a stellar trip. We all caught fish, we literally ate nothing but meat, drank mostly beer and whiskey/bourbon, and had a good 4 days.
I can't wait to get back and maybe fish with redchaser next time. I had to stop and get some gas station boudin on the way out. I discovered that I love that boudin! Luckily the gas station variety didn't disappoint!
Topic: Popping my saltwater cherry... TR (Read 4054 times)