Fishing Bayou St. John

There was no way I was missing a group 30th birthday party for some friends in New Orleans on Friday night. Ended up parlaying that trip into a weekend affair ending with Mother’s Day festivities with Amanda’s family Sunday afternoon.

Got to fish Saturday, heading to Bayou St. John for a small get together dubbed Redfish for Research. The goal was to try and catch redfish in the bayou to be turned into UNO’s Nekton Research Lab for further study. Fishing in the morning concluded with a demo day by Massey’s in the afternoon further up the bayou.

The day started off a little rough with some strong storms moving through the area. It kept folks off the water for about an hour after sunrise, but rains held off the rest of the day. I was mainly targeting bass with hopes of catching a decent one to turn into Massey’s CPR tourney. I did catch a few dinks, but nothing had any size. I didn’t land any redfish either, but neither did anyone else. We know there are redfish in the bayou, just not in great numbers. The flow of water from Lake Pontchartrain is obstructed by a few structures. Hopefully that will improve when a dam on the waterway is removed.

Water clarity in the bayou was excellent and it seemed to me like a healthy fishery. There was lots of bait and I was getting a ton of hits on the popper from bass and bream. I ended up catching a bass to turn in for both the fly and the conventional tackle category. I really enjoyed paddling Bayou St. John. BSJ and the adjacent City Park are quite the urban oases, wish we had something like that in Baton Rouge, though I’ve really enjoyed our neighborhood ponds since living here.

The demo day by Massey’s was held after, though participation was pretty poor due to the weather that morning. Most of the guys that fished Redfish for Research hung around after and shot the breeze.

After the demo day I headed out to some drainage canals to scout for carp. Still haven’t found a good place for them in Baton Rouge, but I’ve seen some good reports from some folks in the New Orleans area for them, so I wanted to give it a shot while I was down here. I didn’t end up seeing any until the third canal I tried, and even then I really only had a few legitimate shots. None were caught, I didn’t even get an eat, but from what I understand that’s part of the carp fishing process. Gar were everywhere and I did land one just to feel something on the end of the line.

A pretty good Mother’s Day weekend despite no one catching redfish in Bayou St. John. If you do catch a redfish in the bayou and wish to turn it in for research the contact info for Patrick Smith is below, he is our contact for the research being done on the bayou:

Patrick Smith
Graduate Student
Nekton Research Lab
Pontchartrain Institute for Environmental Sciences
University of New Orleans
2000 Lakeshore Dr.
New Orleans, LA 70148
patricksmith111@gmail.com

Massey’s Demo Day

Had a great time today at Massey’s demo day, which was on Bayou St. John in New Orleans. The weather was a bit chilly to start, but that wasn’t enough to dissuade a lot of folks from coming out and paddling kayaks. I was surprised to see the Big Tuna prototype out there, I didn’t know Dave was bringing it, can’t wait to paddle the production model. It was fun seeing Dave again, hanging out with Cody and the gang from Massey’s and meeting/catching up with some of the guys from Bayou Coast. Only had one guy take a swim, but he was asking for it getting on the smallest SUP they had out there. I even managed to squeeze in a bit of fishing once everyone cleared out and had one small bass to show for it.

Demo days are here again

If you are in the market for a new kayak, are thinking about upgrading, or maybe you just want to paddle some boats around for free and enjoy a nice day on the water, there are a couple of paddle demo days coming up to kick off Spring.

For you New Orleans area folks, save the date of Feb. 25th, 10am – 3pm. Massey’s Outfitters will be at Bayou St. John across from Cabrini and will have tons of boats to try out. I plan on making it out there and lending a hand. There is no better way to get into kayaking or kayak fishing than trying out a bunch of boats and finding what you are comfortable in. A description of the event from Massey’s is below:

“Come out and enjoy a beautiful day on the waters of Bayou St. John and get exclusive DEMO DAY SPECIALS! Whether you are in the market for a new boat or giving kayaking a first try, this is the perfect opportunity for you to learn more. We will be demoing kayaks and paddleboards from a wide variety of vendors including Hobie, Jackson Kayaks, Native, Wilderness Systems, Perception, Dagger, Hurricane, YOLO, Surftech and BOTE. Participants will receive an extra discount on kayaks, paddleboards and accessories, so be sure to mark these dates on your calendar.

We will also have representatives on hand from Jackson Kayaks, Wilderness Systems, Perception and Dagger.”

Here is a link to their events calendar: http://www.masseysoutfitters.com/events.aspx

Now, for those of you in the Acadiana area, Pack & Paddle is having their annual Outdoor Vendor Expo at their shop on March 3rd from 10am – 3pm, followed by a paddle demo day March 4th at Lake Martin from 10am – 2pm. I’m planning to attend both of those events as well, helping man the JK booth Saturday and helping folks paddle Sunday. The regional Jackson rep, DB, will be there as well. We were at the event last year and had a great time, I imagine this year’s event will be no different. A description from Pack & Paddle is below:

“Come out to beautiful Lake Martin on Sunday, March 4th to try new models from Native, Hurricane, Hobie, Wilderness Systems, Jackson Kayaks, Diablo, Old Town and Mad River. We will have new 2012 boats in from most of our manufacturers for this demo! This will be a perfect time to enjoy paddling a variety of our boats and determine which one you like best. We’ll offer deals on selected boats as well at the demo.”

Here is a link to their events calendar, there you can read about the Outdoor Expo as well: http://packpaddle.com/events-and-trips/