For those who don't know what Ride the Bull is, a brief explanation. It's basically a big weekend party for kayak anglers, with a tournament thrown in. The tournament takes place each August in a confined area of Caminada Pass. Usually by now the pass is flooded with mature red drum doing their spawning ritual. These fish can weigh anywhere from 10 to 40 pounds. Hooking and landing these brutes from a kayak is more fun than the law allows!
RTB is a contest of luck as much as skill. Folks gather in pods to fish and at times, you can watch dozens of fellow puddlers waiting for a bite. Add all the other activities and it's the reason why there are usually over 500 participants, with 732 anglers in 2015 setting a world record!
When my plans got delayed, I thought about going down to Grand Isle and registering onsite. But the delay is only a week, and there are still a number of things that need to get done before I leave.
So yesterday morning instead of heading to the coast, I put my kayak in at the nearby launch here on Cotile Lake and did something I've not done in a few weeks - fished for bream.
The full moon of late August is a good starting point to the Fall bream season. The shadows of the trees have gotten longer, and there are many good shaded bedding areas. Thanks to radiative cooling, the water temperature has already dropped in the last couple of weeks from 88.1 degrees to 85.3 degrees. Not much of a drop, but trust me, fish do notice!
Got to the launch about 9:00am and slid my Native U14 in the water. The peace and solace was almost unreal. Only three boats on a 2,000 acre lake. Along with an osprey, a blue heron, and a small alligator. Quite the antithesis of the world's largest kayak tournament!
I began working a shoreline. Almost immediately I had bream attacking a size 10 blue popping bug. Most were small, a few keeper size (7-inches or more). As I came past a point, I could see a large group of beds in 2 feet of water descending past the point of visibility. A cast anywhere in this huge circle brought a dark shadow to the surface. Most of these shadows rushed up, then quickly rushed down. In a few cases, the shadow smacked the bug with great verocity.
For the next half-hour, it was as good as it gets. While most of the surface eaters were between 7 inches, when I switched to subsurface fly, the bream got bigger. It's very rare when the water temp is this warm for bream to fight this hard, but they put a big bend in my 5-weight rod and even pulled my kayak inward to the bedding area. On many occasions, I had to paddle back out after hooking one up. Most of these were bluegill in the 8-inch range, with the chinquapin (redears) slightly larger up to 9 1/2 inches.
Continuing on, I worked the shoreline for another half-mile, occasionally finding a small bed here and there, with very little action in-between. Just before noon, I hit another large bed. Mostly hefty redears. Again, most of the action came in 3 to 5 feet of water on either a Coma Minnow or a Rosborough Hares Ear.
I was just amazed how strong their fight was in 85 degree water. Anyone who fishes bream in September and October will tell you about "fall vigor". When the water temp drops below 80 degrees, sunfish - especially redears - get very active, have more energy, and start putting on weight that was lost during the hot summer months. This is my second favorite time (after early Spring) to fish redears.
Total count was 53 bream, 37 keeper size. Kept 8 bream for the skillet, released the rest. A few came on popping bugs, with most on a chartreuse/pearl Coma Minnow or a rusty Rosborough Hares Ear tied on jighead.
I guess I do miss all the comradery and fun of "Ride The Bull". Will probably be back next year. In the meantime, there are many more days of "Ride The Bull Bream" this Fall and next Spring.
