PaddlePalooza 7 Report (Leeville/Fourchon)

[Choupique]

PaddlePalooza 7

This past weekend was Louisiana’s biggest annual kayak tournament; PaddlePalooza. This was the 7th running of the event, and even with the BP oil spill in the back of everyones mind the tournament still drew 103 anglers.

The weekend started off decently windy and we utilized the winds to our advantage. We worked schools of reds busting pogie fry and shrimp on windward banks out in the bay behind the barrier islands and in the adjacent marshes. At daybreak they big reds were smashing topwaters and the first fish of day had it deep in his crab crushers. Visibilaty was nominal, but not nearly what you would want for sight fishing. The bite started off hot each morning at the outskirts of the bay and worked its way into the marsh as the south winds filled the flats were the reds were right on/in the greass. We let the bait guide us and Backwater Surprise KFM took its toll on some big fish; we had an even mix of 25"-30" fish we were working. As the sun would break out for periods of time an inline gold #3.5 spinner was added to the mix. I was able to come back to secure a nice 26.5" red the day of the tournament. After that it was only a matter of partnering that slot with a nice flounder I picked up on a TX Roach KFM shortened up 1/2" after I had a few tails bitten off by some flat fish. Lastly I caught a couple of trout off a deeper reef near an area funneling water on Glowtruse KFM and that sealed the slam and I was able to secure 2nd place overall in the Slam division.