Every now and then it’s nice to break away from the rigors and restraints of the normal routine and give back for a good cause. Last weekend I fished the annual Rockport Yak Attack charity tournament benefitting Camp Aranzazu. The tournament weigh-in and captain’s meeting were at Camp Aranzazu’s beautiful facilities in Rockport, Texas. Camp Aranzazu is a not-for-profit, year-round camp that serves people with chronic illnesses or disabilities.
I spend three days fishing around the Coastal Bend. Friday the fishing was awesome. I found numerous schools of redfish along with some big singles cruising around. The water levels were running extremely low which made finding fish easy. All I had to do was find water. There wasn’t much of it remaining in the marsh but every small pool was holding fish. I caught a few fish on TTF Flats Minnows (Bone Catcher) TTF Gun Dog Dummy in bone/silver. I broke out the fly rod next and managed to land several lower slot reds on an Clear Cure Goo epoxy shrimp I tied several months back.
I checked out a few spots before heading to the captain’s meeting Friday evening. Leaving the captain’s meeting I had no gameplan. The tournament was a CPR (catch, photo & release) format with the winning prize going to the angler with the longest combined length of one trout and one redfish. I haven’t fished for trout since winter so I had no idea where I was going to fish for trout. My buddy, David, was fishing with me on tournament day so we decided to fish an area he knew well for a couple of hours to see if we could catch a trout and then head to where I found the reds the day before.
We woke up to strong NE winds on tournament day. We fished shallow structure and drifted potholes and drop-offs and we only got a few bites. David landed one small trout and one five spot red. We packed it up after a couple of hours and headed to our next spot to find some big reds. We arrived to find about 1′ more water than the day before. The high water and wind made it tougher to spot the schools but we found a few along with few scattered singles. I landed a handful of reds including a five spot red. David caught one red he spooked before he got it to eat and that’s was it. David’s red was about an inch bigger than my biggest.
We had some decent mid-slot fish but nothing spectacular. We still didn’t have a trout. We were a long way from the launch and time was almost up, so we started heading back to the launch. On the way in we found some small trout and ladyfish blowing up on schools of newl hatched shad. David landed one small trout on a Mirrolure Catch Jr. He was about to throw it back but I convinced him to snap of it. He thought no way that fish would help him place but I knew it was going to be a tough day for everyone.
We made it to the weigh-in with a few minutes to spare. I was really suprised when my name was called for 3rd place red. I thought no way a mid slot fish was going to place at all. David ended up taking third place with a 38″ two fish stringer. He was also very suprised to take home a prize. David and I also tied for redfish with the most spots award but I let him weighed-in first, so he claimed the prize.
On Sunday I fish a spot for a couple of hours on the way home. I saw a few reds the whole time until I paddling back to the launch. I found several reds stacked up in one area and I managed to catch a couple on a TTF Flats Minnows (Bone Catcher). One of the reds was missing of of it’s eyes. This is the second time this has happened this year.
I had a blast competing against and hanging out with many fellow kayakers from across the state. The tournament raised money for a worthy cause, but the food, door prizes, raffles, Team Realtree (see picture below), etc. were all welcome bonuses. I will be back again next year for the event.
