So long, Pete, until we meet again

Yesterday I received some heartbreaking news that Pete Cooper had passed away. It was somewhat expected. After a long battle with cancer, Pete had recently been placed in hospice care. Within hours of the news, Facebook was flooded with sympathies and rememberances from his many friends. And many others who had been influenced by the "Louisiana Fly Guy".

I'd known Pete since 1988. Back then, only a very few of us in this state had ever caught a redfish on fly rod, but Pete had been doing it for 17 years! Not just doing it, but writing about it. In fact, shortly after meeting him for the first time, he left his oilfield job and began writing full-time. The rest is history: he went on to pioneer offshore fly fishing in the state, write for several state and national magazines, establish the state fly rod record listings, give seminar talks across the country, author four books, and much more. For his written contributions to fishing, fly fishing, and hunting, he was inducted into the Louisiana Outdoors Hall of Fame.

Pete was the original Fly Lines columnist for Louisiana Sportsman magazine. I took over for him 17 years ago when the national magazines came calling. Since I organized countless events over the years, I was in frequent contact with him as a presenter. So we talked a lot on the phone, but never fished together. That was until a few years ago.

Most will remember Pete for all his saltwater contributions. But he loved fishing ponds and creeks. In fact, his last book was "The Fine Art of Creek Fishing". One of my favorites. He, myself and fellow warmwater fanatic and good friend Larry Offner would meet down at small pond in Jennings. It's a neat pond that offers good year-round fly fishing for bass, crappie, bluegills and redears.  One day, Pete calls me and tells me he visited the pond and caught some hefty redears. The next day I was down and sure enough, there were some big-uns! That's what made Pete so special... always willing to share a secret or two!

Another of his favorite spots was Kisatchie Bayou, just up the road from where I now live. Soon I hope to go there and revisit some of Pete's spots. Spotted bass, that is. Being the good conservationist he was, I know he left a few for us to enjoy. 

A Fathers Day recalled

With Fathers Day approaching, seems like a good time to flashback to one of my favorite pond memories.

A few years back, my two sons and daughter were all home for the weekend and decided to make Saturday "Take Dad Fishing Day". Mom cooked us all a hearty breakfast, then we were on our way to one of the local ponds in Baton Rouge.

This particular pond is managed by LDWF as catch-and-release for bass and bream, and there are good size fish of both species.

The boys - Cosmos and Tiger Jake - decided that a little competition would be fun. Cokie accepted the challenge although she hadn't been fishing in several months and her fly casting was a bit rusty.

I decided to tag with her, figuring she might need my help.

On her third cast, Cokie laid a yellow and black Accardo Spook between two clumps of matted algae.  Up from the depths came a big bass, swimming non-chalantly. It stopped just inches from her popper and stared it down.

She lifted the tip of her rod so slowly, as to only nudge the popper, and make it's legs flutter without the body pushing water.  That must've triggered an instinct, because then Ol' Bucketmouth rose a couple inches to the surface and slurped it up!  Then swam to whence he came.

Now I would've set the hook the instant the bass inhaled it. But Cokie waited just a second longer, until it turned back down.  Then she set the hook. Later I realized that action probably kept her from losing that baskeen.

Needless to say, it was a spectacular fight and the fish jumped at least three times! I kept giving advise, but I think it was largely ignored. She knew what she was doing... as if she'd been doing it forever.

As the morning went on, the bigger the deficit grew between her and her brothers. I began to realize that, while she hadn't mastered casting or knots like her brothers, she'd mastered  something more important - the art of observation.  She had taken notice of the insect behavior on the pond, the things I was doing to catch fish, and imitated those actions.

Even when it comes to fishing - being a successful Dad is leading by example.

Bass On The Fly

I've been wanting to fish Bass on the Fly since it's inception and there's always been a conflict.  Ted Warren does an excellent job on putting on this event, and the many sponsors are generous.  And it's for a great cause - Reel Recovery.  So I was very excited about making it this year.  And after a rough weekend at Paddlepalooza, a chance for some redemption!

This was my first trip ever to Lake Fork.  And while I've fished several lakes in east Texas, I discovered this is NOT one of the Piney Hills Lakes.  Rather it's a prairie lake much like Lewisville and Grapevine.  From what I researched, the best types of flies and colors were different also.

So I decided to leave on Thursday to get acquainted with Fork.  Not that it helped...  the wind was 25-30 out of the north when I arrived.  And it stayed that way on Friday.  But I was able to figure out a pattern for the bass and one for the bream.  Even one for the crappie, although that wasn't a target species for this event.

Friday afternoon got things going and there were a number of activities.  The Bream Fly Contest began at 3pm and ended at 6pm and had 14 participants.  Several went out in boats and kayaks, but I did my fishing from the bank at Lake Fork Marina and caught several big bream, of which 3 measured at 9 inches.  Eric Dilts came in 2nd with 8.5 inches.

Saturday was the main event and there were about 30 participants in each of the two divisions (kayak and boat).  I went with a Boogle Bug frog-colored popper early and landed 3 nice bass in the first two hours, largest was 19.5 inches.  An hour later, I switched to an olive Y2K Bugger and lost a bass probably 11-12 inches.  That would turn out to be my only disappointment of the day.  After that, it went dead cold.  I managed to catch a big bream on the Y2KB, so I pulled out my bream rod and proceeded to work that bed for about 40 bream, none of which was smaller than 8 inches!

Got back to the launch and talked to some commie anglers who had come in.  One boat had one good bass, and another had one dink bass.  So now I'm thinking I might have a real shot at winning this event.  Turns out that despite very tough conditions on the lake - barometer was off the scale!!! - some good catches were made by the fly guys.  I ended up 3rd in Kayak Bass, only 6 inches out of first place.  But well enough to get into the money (5 places awarded).   My big bass was 2nd place, and my big bream (for Saturday's pool) took 1st place.

Later, I also took 1st place in the Distance Casting Contest after Russell Husted and I had a "Cast Off" since we both  tied for longest distance in the contest.  And I won a Simms Boat Bag as a door prize.

A few observations about Lake Fork...
1.  I plan to go back soon.  It's only 4 hours away.  The fish are big for their length and fight like hell.
2.  I catch lots of 8 and 9-inch bream in the Kisatchie lakes, but Fork bream this length are totally different.  They're shaped like dinner plates and at least 2 inches thick.  Landing them on a 5-weight almost requires a gaff!
3.   What I said about bream - ditto for bass.  The smallest bass I landed in both "practice" and competition was 13.5 inches and was shaped like a damn football. 
4.  I won't be going on a weekend due to boat traffic.  Thursday afternoon and Friday morning were okay.  Friday afternoon was bad.  Saturday was insane. 
5.  It's a big lake but with many arms, and there are many good spots within a mile or less of a marina.  So except for boat traffic, it's kayak friendly.

So I did quite well for my first Bass on the Fly World Championship.  I might even go back next year.  Just kidding, I WILL go back next year.

Hodges Gardens

Since moving to central Louisiana, I've fished several area waters with large redear sunfish - otherwise known among us Cajuns as chiquapin (pronounced chick-a-pin). Maybe not as large as the four and five-pound giants that come out of Lake Havasu in Arizona, or Merritts Mill Pond in Florida, but large by Bayou State standards. I'm talking 10 to 12 inches in length.

Two of those don't require a boat. Anderson Pond near Pitkin and Hodges Gardens State Park near Florien. Both lakes are small, do not allow motorboat traffic and have large areas of clear bank. More in the realm of pond fishing than lake fishing.

On this day I went to Hodges. The wife enjoys the gardens and I get to go fishing. Win - win!

You can rent a jon boat with trolling motor, canoe or kayak. But I decided to do the bank thing. Not that I didn't mind spending the money, just that I was feeling lazy. I rigged up my 5-weight rod with a bass bug and my 4-weight with a size 14 Rosborough Hare's Ear until a tiny football indicator.

I started with the bass setup but managed only just one in two hours. The lake has a good number of bass, but once again a late spring cool front had pushed through and probably sent them deep. So I changed rigs.

No sooner than I cast the four-weight with the RHE, the tiny float plunged underneath and I set the hook. For a short time, I thought "maybe it's a bass". Turned out to be a 10-inch chiquapin. Turned it loose, then made another cast to the same area. Same result.

Each of these chinks was in the 10 to 11 inch range and full of fight. It was good to have brought the 4-weight rather than the 2-weight otherwise I would've needed a gaff to land them! Much to my wife's chagrin, I turned them all loose.

While it was a great day at the park, I received some sad news before leaving. Turns out that Hodges is on the list for possible closure due to state budget constraints. The Sabine and Vernon parish officials are working hard to prevent this.  They need the tourism dollars as much as I need my favorite redear bank fishing spot. 

Mardi Gras bassin'

In Louisiana, Mardi Gras is a holiday. My good friend Kevin "Doc" Andry is like me. We both love fly fishing from kayaks. And we both have the good sense to stay away from Mardi Gras festivities.

Doc does his own blog, "Kayak Fishing With Kevin", which has a fairly large following. It's my favorite, for sure. I knew if I invited him to come fish for Mardi Gras, he'd have material for his blog and I'd have material for my column in Louisiana Sportsman. Win - win!

Of course, that's all predicated on us catching fish. But when we fish together it seems God gives his blessings and we do quite well. He made the 3-hour drive to my house on Sunday evening, giving us two days of fishing.

I realize this is a pond blog, but the reason I'm posting here is because that first day was spent at nearby 70-acre Valentine Lake.  For all practical purposes, it's a really big pond and fishes as such. No motorboats are allowed, so kayakers love this place. Although the lake's fertility is fairly low, it has lots of submerged grass, deep stumps and artificial structure.  It also annually produces a few bass over 10 pounds.  The state's 2nd largest bass - 15.88 pounds - was caught here on conventional tackle.

What Doc and I were interested in was each getting a solid entry into the Bayou Coast Kayak Fishing Club's / Masseys Outfitters Fish Pix tournament. This is a year-long CPR event with a Fly Rod Division.

The morning started out great for me. Using a size 4 frog-colored Boogle Bug, and with the help of heavy cloud cover, I managed to get several bass in the 10-14 inch range to eat on top.  Then in the span of 10 minutes, I landed a 15 3/4" and a 16 1/2".

Doc was way behind, but catching up. His Crease Fly was getting some vicious strikes. I often joke that he's Louisiana's Crease Fly Ambassador. But on this day the joke was on me! I watched as he hooked and landed a solid 17-inch bass.

The wind was coming up, the storm clouds were gathering in advance of a front. The bite had slacked off completely. It was time to head back for some of my wife's famous gumbo and toast another fine day on the water.