GAR

A late post, but it's all good.

After I left Fort Meyers, I spent the remainder of my Florida vacation in Orlando. The hotel I stayed at had a big lake with kayak and 2 person pontoon rentals, but I only had 1 free day to do what I wanted while I was there. 

I was able to take advantage of the lake, and rented a 2 person pontoon (I should have taken a picture of it, because, it was pretty damn cool). My girlfriend and I just cruised around the lake as I fished. I was able to hook up with some small largemouth bass tossing some bait fish patterns with my 5 wt. I was hoping to find some big Florida bass, but they didn't want to come out and play.

These swamp donkeys loved my bait fish patterns.

After returning the pontoon, I fished from the pier. I was catching some more swamp donkeys, when I noticed something big cruising along the surface in the almost crystal clear water...it was a gar! (A Florida Gar to be exact.) I got excited, and made a perfect cast past the toothy fish....strip...strip...strip...across it's face and I paused...that gar had a face full of fur, and it was GAME ON! It was an awesome fight and definitely pushed my 5 wt beyond what it's used to. My one worry during the battle was my 9 lb tippet....it held. I was ecstatic! My first gar on the fly.

There was no one around to take a picture, and this was the best I could do. *sad face*

10 minutes after releasing the gar, I saw an even bigger one cruising. This one had about 1 foot and a few more pounds than the one I caught. Again, I made a perfect cast...strip...strip...strip...the gar turned and caught the back of the fly...strip...strip...strip...as the gar made a second attempt to demolish my fly, a huge bowfin came out of no where and went at the gar, scaring it off. My knees were shaking...this thing was big. The bowfin then took a look at my I gave it a few strips, and it followed...then it just slowly sank into the depths. Gasp.

That fish would have definitely tested all of the backbone my Orvis Access 5 wt had. 

When I was done fishing I saw the species list for the lake, and there was a fish on there that I would have absolutely loved to have hooked up with....an alligator gar. If I only had more free time.

Great Lakes Kayak Fishing Series: Walleye

After the purchase of my new kayak, +BrookField Angler, suggested to me that I join the Great Lakes Kayak Fishing Series.

The 3 part series is as follows:

May 3 - Walleye @ Fox Chain of Lakes

June 14 - Largemouth Bass @ Illinois River at Heritage Harbor Ottawa

September 6 - King Salmon @ Lake Michigan out of Manitowoc Marina

Yesterday was the first tournament for walleye. I have almost zero experience with walleye. I have never went out and targeted them in my fishing career. The only time they were ever caught by me, I was bass fishing.

The day had it's ups and downs, but overall it was a good day. The sun was out, but the wind was howling. It made it extremely difficult to paddle, but I managed. I toyed the idea of using my fly rod, but to decided to dust off my baitcasting and spinning rods. I casted crank baits, and dead drifted a 3" gulp leach all day. I ended the day catching 2 fish on my dead drifting leech, but none of them were walleye. At least I wasn't skunked!

I am not the fish you are looking for.

The guys who organized the event did a stellar job. There were a ton of giveaways on top of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place prizes. They were even nice enough to start the grill and treat everyone to bugers and brats when everyone returned. So, a big "THANK YOU" goes out to them.

I believe there were 15 people in the field (just a guess). Only 2 fishermen hooked up with walleye. The guy who won first place caught 3 walleye (12, 14, and 23 inches). Second place went to an 8.5 in walleye. Since there were no other walleye caught, everyone else name was thrown into a pot, and the third place winner was randomly selected.

Looking forward to the next installment on June 14th. It's my birthday, so, I have to win, right? Haha. The fly rod will definitely be joining me on that one.

DIY - Scupper Plugs

So, I didn't get scupper plugs with my kayak. (The seller forgot about them, and I forgot to ask at the time. He doesn't know where they are.)

Had to make due. +BrookField Angler told me to go to the pet store and purchase foam balls found in the cat toy section. I went, but did not like the sponginess of those balls. (I just laughed.)

Today when I was walking around  Walmart, I seen the answer to my scupper plug dilemma, in the form of foam/spongy yellow practice golf balls. They were not as squishy as the cat balls, so, I think they will do a better job, and for $2, how could you go wrong. Worse comes to worse, I could make a floating key chain for any small tools, or keys with those foam golf balls.

4 Pack Foam Practice Golf Balls - My local Walmart had a 6 pack for $2....I have 6 scupper holes. It was destiny.

I also, scored a milk crate at work. Slowly but surly I am modifying this yak to my liking, and on the cheap!

Next project...sealing those 2 hatches to make them water tight. There was some water that came in with the rain we had the past 2 days. Not much, but it's supposed to be a dry hull....not a wet one.