Maybe your grade school years were a little different than mine but do you remember kinda liking that girl who sat in front of you in class but she'd have nothing to do with you? You'd try to pass a note, maybe get up the confidence to say something nice or put a flower on her desk after recess. Nothing. No response. Or more likely, she'd ask to be moved to another desk. This was crushing on my young emotions for sure.
My relationship with the Louisiana marsh for a number of years has felt much the same. I like the place. Actually quite a bit. The people, food, the music, the history, the unfamiliar and of course the possibilities of finding full figure bull redfish moving through the marsh.
All that flirting has usually been met with endless gray sheets of clouds,
wind and at times day long impossible gales and shallow water that one of the guy's
on this year's trip likened to "
fishing in Yoo-hoo", which was kinda spot on.
This trip was different however. The insistent flirting just might be paying off. Or maybe there is a benefit of coming into this with low expectations and be surprised. Either way, something was definitely different. We had better conditions, found a lot of redfish and black drum tailing and rolling in the shallows and of course enjoyed some great hospitality staying at
Lylte Farms.
Though they don't talk much about being down there, Captain Kevin Morlock of
Indigo Guide Service and Captain Steve Martinez of
STM Outfitters have been figuring out some new places to show their Michigan clients to and our rag tag crew which included
Mike Sepelak,
Dave Fason and David Moore of
Rent This Rod were all glad that the weather on this trip allowed us to get on the water three of the four days. We weren't numbers counting but we might have caught as many (or more?) fish on flies as we did on spinning rods. I call that a win win. No doubt, we found some large ones.
Gray days make black and white photographs feel right for this post and I admittedly didn't take enough photographs at all. These were all from my iPhone as it was easier to snap something here and there and continue fishing. I guess when the flirting looked like it was working, I wanted to keep the pressure on with a fly or spinning rod in my hand instead of my Nikon.
The boys have gone home from Louisiana but if you're thinking about steelhead, salmon or ready for the Beaver Island experience, give
Captain Kevin Morlock and
Captain Steve Martinez a shout. It's never too early to get your name on the calendar.
I'll circle back soon with a gear review wrap up of what worked on this trip.
