Summer Mixed Bag

Dog days of summer have settled in and summer fishing has taken off.  Both saltwater and freshwater fisheries have been producing consistently and I have taken advantage of both.  With a good weather forecast, my Dad I loaded up the Kraken and Cuda 14 and headed to explore some new water looking for redfish. We paddled close to 10 miles and found some good water.  I was throwing a topwater over a grass flat when it was crushed by a big fish.  The fish made a long run and I could tell that it was a good redfish.  It dragged my all over the flat and I enjoyed the ride.  Once I finally landed the fish, I could tell it was nice.  It measured out to 35” and it was really healthy.  The fish was released and I went back to fishing.  Not long after my dad hooks upon a big fish, but after a short fight it broke off.  I had a few more blow ups, but the action had slowed down.  We started working our way back to the ramp when my Dad saw a nice red cruising the flat.  He pitched a wake bait in front of the red, and his bait was inhaled.  He fought and landed the fish, and it measured out to 34”.  We called it a day, and paddled back to the ramp.

I took the Kraken out to one of the bigger lakes in the area on Sunday. My target was gar and catfish.  I caught my bait and set up on a drop-off into a deep hole looking for a catfish.  I caught one 22in fish, but the action wasn’t what I was looking for.  I was moving to another drop-off when I found a large school of gar working a bait ball.  I could see them on my fish finder and I watched them roll on the surface.  Set out baits and the bite was on.  In a few minutes I had a 37in gar in the kayak, and shortly after releasing it I had another 34” on the line.  I fished 3 rods at a time and I had several double and even triple headers.  I caught a total of 23 gar and 7 of them were over 40” and large enough for Virginia Trophy  Citations. 

I went to another lake a few days later trying to repeat my success.  I caught several gar, with a few double headers thrown in.  I was retying one of my rigs when my live-bait rod was nearly ripped out of my rod holder.  I set the hook and could tell that this was a bigger fish.  After a good fight I landed my biggest gar to date. The fish measured out to 47” and after some pictures, was released unharmed.  After that fish I switched to catfish and landed one decent one. 

Landing a 47" Gar