Sunrise on the Gulf

Sunday I had the delight of looking at another hazy Grand Isle sunrise over the Gulf of Mexico.  For the past 40 years, I have seen many of these stunning mornings while either photographing, scuba diving or fishing on the coast of Louisiana.  The humid air makes the haze. Then a thundercloud partially hides the sunrise,  thus making this special time of day even more picturesque. 

Sunrise South of Grand Isle

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Just about the time it was full daylight, Jim Roland gets a strike on light weight 10 pound test line while fishing a voodoo shrimp.  He quickly realized it was going to be a fight, which was confirmed 45 minutes later. That's when Macon Roland used the net to help him pull the 29-pound bull red into the boat. That’s a redfish. Jimbo posed while he grinned widely then Jacob Roland gently placed the fish back in the Gulf to breed again. A day well spent in Louisiana’s prolific coastal waters.

Big Red

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Redfish and Kayaks

After a brief safety meeting, organizer Danny Wray’s horn sounded and the majority of 523 registered kayak and similar non-motorized watercrafts launched from Bridgeside Marina in Grand Isle. “To Ride the Bull”, bull redfish that is. It’s the largest number of kayakers ever enter into a fishing rodeo. This one for catch and release of redfish. Red was not only the shade as the palate of boat paints were likened to a giant box of colored pencils rolling across a tabletop.

    

#130817_0023.  The horn sounds and boats head into the Bay.

I stood atop the Grand Isle Bridge holding an umbrella over my camera looking across Caminada Bay as the fishermen paddled and peddled to their favorite fishing spots. It rained, misted and occasionally stopped all morning. The wet hardly bothered most of the tough fisherman.  Hook up! I saw the fishing pole bend on a boat below.  The kayak which was tied to another was quickly released.  The lucky person rode the bull, the big fish pulling the kayak. After reeling in in, photographs were taken, and she released it without getting it weighed for the tournament. Perhaps she didn’t think it was big enough, or maybe she was not a competitive person. The winner was Jeff Gleason of Folsom, Louisiana with a fish weighing 32.96 pounds.

#130817_0086 Catching and releasing a red fish.

Just after noon the tide was moving out through Caminada Pass to the Gulf. Those paddlers who were near the mouth of the bay struggled against this current. Strange, August in Grand Isle and shivering cold boaters were returning to the pier, some dead tired.

Michael Mathews and The Backpacker of Baton Rouge crew were there with kayaks and GoPro cameras.  They were title sponsors. Friday night there was a GoPro Red fishing Film Festival.  Films were self-portraits of Kayakers catching fish.

Life is good.  Life has changed from cane pole fishing on a ten foot bateau with maybe a Kodak Brownie Camera of yesteryear.  To a lime green peddle powered fishing kayak with a shockproof, waterproof miniature video camera that can be shot remotely from a smartphone. It doesn’t matter how you do it, just get outdoors.

New Inspiration

Last week I finally got to see Lt. Governor Jay Dardenne’s presentation called Why Louisiana Ain’t  Mississippi; it was very inspiring.  Don’t miss it if you ever get a chance. It made me want to get out and see more of Louisiana right now.  It reminded me of the mid 1980s when I was accused of spending too much time in the swamps and marshes of South Louisiana and leaving out the beauties of the rest of our wonderful state.  So I embarked on a two year journey to do a book called Discovering Louisiana. On this sojourn I found much to like and have seen so much more since…but there is still more.

So yesterday I decided to go fishing on the Ouachita River with Jimmy Newsom.  His son Rob, a musician, mountain climber, proprietor of Boudreaux Cellars, and friend of mine, had been telling me for years that Jimmy was one of the best white perch, (sac-a-lait to Cajuns) fishermen in North Louisiana.  Rob has been suggesting that I go fishing with his dad for years. I met Jimmy in his driveway in Dubach at 5:30 AM. On our drive to Alabama Landing I find out he turned 91 years old last week.  He looked like he was 80, acted like he was 70 and moved like he was 60 when he jumped into the boat on its trailer and asked me to back him into the river.

Jimmy Newsom

It wasn’t long before he jerked in the first of 24 fish we caught that day.  I think it was 19 for Jimmy and 5 for me. The morning was cool and he told me war stories. One was about how important it was to have good pitch to be a sonar operator on a US Navel Destroyer to tell if a submarine was coming or going, which is how he served our country in World War II. But mainly we talked about fishing. We also saw a few water snakes and lots of egrets and herons. When we headed back to the boat ramp, I told Jimmy that I was inspired to see more of the Ouachita River.  Soon I will put my boat in at the Arkansas border and float down to Jonesville, Louisiana.