Fished the Stars & Stripes Kayak Tournament this past Saturday. Great turnout, nearly 100 kayakers showed up in spite of the really nasty weather. I thought it would be neat to document my day with photos to give people an idea what it's like to be out there on tournament day grinding for a fish. I'll have to break this up in two posts...

I got to my first spot and the wind just seemed to come from nowhere. All the sudden it was blowing 20+ out of the west. And then the rain came... if you look closely you can somewhat make out my kayak through the downpour:


I was forced to run for cover or get blown out into the bay so I paddled up on a sandy beach and prepared to wait out the storm.

My thoughts:


The rain just kept coming and I got bored. What else was there to do besides take some abstract shots?

I call this one "The Stick and Dr. B"


The rain finally let up as the sun started to creep over the horizon. I fished my first spot for a while but the it was quickly apparent it wasn't going to happen in there (horrible water clarity because of the wind and rain) so I moved back to a protected marsh in search of some reds.

Then it rained some more...


I did manage to find a redfish. He kept me company through the storms. Chicks dig the headlight:


The rain and wind got so cold that I decided to just sit down in the warm water until it passed. The marsh water felt like a hot tub compared to the cold rain. Couldn't resist snapping this pic:

Here's the continuation...

The rain is over... or or is it? (sorry for the crooked horizon)


Storms like this one passed in waves all day:


Here's my partner trying to pretend he's actually fishing through the pouring rain. Check out the storm line in the background. Almost looks like a front but this line actually came off the Gulf:


So that was that. It was a long, cold, rainy day but it was a blast. Went to the weigh-in and hung out with all the kayakers for a while. The weather cleared up later in the day and my brother-in-law and I decided to stop at a marsh on the way home to see if we could find some more reds. And we did!

Here's a few pics from the evening session. I caught two 6+ lb. reds. Sight casted to one of them 10 feet from me. Would have been nice to have those earlier in the day:


Awesome coloring on this red's tail. I couldn't resist the pic: