Half Way Point

Gentlemen, We have reached the halfway point of the Summer Season and still no one has any points, however 2 different species have been submitted for big fish awards by two different anglers. Will sent me a pic of a beautiful bass (with measuring device, thanks Will) a few days ago, it will be hard to beat this time of year. Check out the picture - its a solid 15 inches.

Ryan and I ended up not going to Bayou St. John last monday due to unforseen circumstances, hopefully I get on the water this weekend at some point.

Also I have updated the side boxes where points are recorded to reflect the current standings.

As most of you have heard by now most of the state waters are now open to sportfishing - this is great news, although I won't be eating a whole lot of fish at one time for a while, this is a step in the right direction. Also, BP has stopped the flow of oil into the Gulf, also great news, but it is not over yet. They are pressure testing the well to see if there are leaks anywhere else in the system; if the pressure stays high, and no leaks are found we are home free. If the pressure drops, it means the oil is escaping somewhere else and another decision needs to be made. So while everyone is out fishing in their newly opened state waters, say a little prayer the pressure holds, the well remains capped, and BP follows through with the cleanup. Until next time.....

Well Guys, This Summer Season has been going on for a month and 7 days - and so far no fish for points. Will submitted a 7 1/2 inch Rio (see photo) and I recently fished Bayou St. John and am submitting a 9 inch Rio (see photo). It must be the oil, or the heat, or other things going on. If you have caught a fish for points let me know I'll post it. We are going with length instead of weight for big fish this season, I recommend one of those Home Depot yard sticks - they are easy to see in photos and only cost 59 cents. I am thinking about a Rio tourney forAugust/September, what do ya'll think?

Last year the winning Rio in the NOFF Tourney was 9 1/2 inches, so there are bigger ones out there; and I threw this one back - so he may be bigger now. Ryan and I are going out Monday Morning in Bayou St. John if anyone would like to join us.

And The Winners Are

Well on this the last day of the Inaugural Spring Season of the Blind Pelican Fishing League the winners of the Spring Season Are:

Top Spring Angler:........Brian
Big Bass:..........................Ryan / Ifan if he had a pic of his scale
Big Red: .........................Nick
Big Rio:...........................No One

Everyone check out the final points standings to the right. Also I am thinking for next season that all big fish will be measured in length as opposed to weight since pics of the scale aren'tvery easy to take. More on that later.

I would like to thans everyone for their participation and say that this was a test run with no actual money being awarded (since none was ever collected). Keep fishing and i will tweak some of the rules for next season (which starts tomorrow).

-Brian

Last Day and a Bunch of Fish

As most of you know by now, we had three members fish paddle palooza 7 and all three caught fish and 2 placed in the redfish category. All in all 7 reds were caught by Brock (3) Nick (3) and Will (1). Brock and Will placed and Nick caught the largest (10.53 lbs). Check out the pics below.

Also, Irfan went fishing last week at Lake Darbonne and caught a couple bass, one taking over the big bass standing at 1lb12oz. Check out the pics below.

Finally, Ryan and I fished Bayou Cane (or Cane Bayou) on the Northshore a week ago and Ryan caught some keepers, 5 in fact. I caught 1 but didn't take a pic for some reason. It was a really neat trip with birds and things. Check out the pics.

Will Fish and the Final Month

Well Gentleman, Will has caught the first Salty of the season (The first 2 in fact). Most of you received the email, but he was fishing north of Hwy 1 near Bayou/Lake Laurier. He caught a few reds (kept 1) and a few Shepshead (kept 1). As many of you know he was prefishing Paddle Palooza 7 which will be held this coming weekend at Bobby Lynns Marina. There are two kayaks up for grabs for a Cajun Slam and Red with the most spots, so lets wish him luck (I sure wish I could be out there, but there is always Ride the Bull).This Red also puts Will in the top red category although there is no proof of weight, there is also no competition....so until a red is submitted with a pic of the scale, Will is in the top spot. Check out the pic:

Also this s the last month of the Spring Season, so gt out when you can. We need to discuss the dues structure (none have been collected this season). We talked about 20 per person per season....do we want to collect for this season? or dowe want to just go with bragging rights - I am taking input in the form of comments to this post, let me know what ya'll think.

A Few Fish

A few more fish. Will emailed last week with the beauty below, which he caught in City Park. That one adds ten points to his score and puts him firmly in 2nd place over taking Ryan who falls to third.

Also, If you look to the right you see we have a new follower to the website, My brother-in-law Irfan. He is moving back down South this Summer and will be joining the league soon, He sent me a pic of a couple of Sac-a-Lait he caught recently (That's 16 points!!). So we give him a warm welcome.

The Pics:

Brian's Weekend at Caney Lake

Well Guys, I spent this past weekend up at Jimmie Davis State Park on Caney Lake near Chatham Louisiana. Spending time with the family was the main goal, but oc course I had to take the'noe out for some fishing and to test out the rigging I made for it. So in all 27 Sac-a-lait were caught by the family as a whole. 11 were caught by me. check out the pics....
Check out the points to the right. If anyone has any fishing reports please send them (with your pics) to be counted.

Good Friday on Bayou Corne

Well gents, Ryan and I got up early and made our way west to Bayou Corne on Good Friday. It was absolutely beautiful, and absolutely crowded. It is a good thing that almost all of the boat traffic was headed south to Lake Verret. We made our way north under the bridge and found some fish. We ended up catching a bunch, but only keeping a few. The first two pics are of Ryan's 2 biggestof the day, he gets points for 3 (even though he didn't send pics of all three) because I witnessed all three. The last pic is of all the fish I kept, 2 big bluegill, 1 big goggleye, and 2 small goggleye. I am pretty pumped that I now have points on the board. Check out the point updates to the right, and feel free to comment on any and all posts. If anyone has any updates (with pics) go ahead and send them in for your points.

RIO Tourney Update

As many of you know and participated, the City Park Big Bass Rodeo was this past weekend, and while Bass were caught and weighed, not one Rio (the fish we were after) was caught. So while no one is is at the top of the Big Rio category, Ryan put himself on the board with a keeper bass, as you can see to the right, it is giving him quite a strain trying to hold it up for the picture.

Also, we happened to have a scale on hand and we weighed the beast...... and at .54 lbs we now have a top bass, see the pictures below.

First Fishing Reports

Well everyone, we have our first fishing reports of the season. Will caught a bass in City Park as can be seen in the picture to the right. He claims he caught a second on, but there is no photo evidence, Will send me a pic of the other (or both together) and you get another ten points. By the way, how did it taste?

Jesse robbed the cradle for ten points by apparently keeping and consuming a fish that would not qualify as a meal for my 3 year old niece. So I hope you're happy Jesse, you are now at the top of the Point Whore ratings for padding your stats
(of course you are now tied for first place, which is better than pretty much everybody else.) I could not post a pic of Jesse's fish because of the format it was sent in, but you all should have the e-mail. So here is the point as they stand of today:

Will.....10
Jesse....10
Ryan......0
Brock.....0
Brian.....0
Nick......0

Monday Report

Well, I just got back from fishing City Park with Ryan. All the girls, Cassie, Kristy, Emma, and Heidi had a good time relaxing in the beautiful weather. Ryan and I however, could not buy a fish. I thought one of us would catch at least 1 Rio or Bass to put the pressure on for the big fish challenge, but alas, not a fish was caught. So we leave another weekend pointless...Although I heard Will may have kept a few bass at some point this weekend, so we may have a midweek update. We'll See.

The big rio challenge will take on a whole new meaning on the 27th of this month, with many of the competitors of this league competing as teamates for the Bucket Full of Rios Challenge, so we will definitely have some updates at that point.

-Brian

Fishing Report and Standings

Well, I made a trip down to Grand Isle on Monday, expecting Monday morning to be like Sunday, Sunny and warm with broken clouds. It ended up being windy, cool, and overcast. I did get to take out the new canoe, though, which was difficult in the wind until I shifted some things around, then it was quite efficient. No fish were caught, but I did catch every school zone between Harahan and Grand Isle….twice.

As of now, after my failed trip and Will’s trip of non-edibles and others who have not reported any catches up to this point, the standings are as follows:

Brian.....0pts
Will......0pts
Ryan......0pts
Nick......0pts
Brock.....0pts
Jessie....0pts

Rules

Guys - below you will find the rules. I changed them only slightly, adding Rio to the Big Fish awards and deleting the redundancy in the species differentiation. By the way Rio only counts for the Big Fish Award, it does not count toward total points. If ya'll have any suggestions or rants, use the "comments function" of the website. Also if you want to create a google account (Nick you already have one)(I don't think you need gmail)you can become a follower of the site, whatever that means. Anyway, the rules...

The Gulf Coast Club’s
Blind Pelican Fishing League

Rules

1. Season Dates are as follows:
Spring – March 1 – May 31
Summer – June 1 – August 31
Fall – September 1 – November 31

2 Paddlecraft or Bank fishing only.
2a. Mothership may be used to transport a paddlecraft only, it may not be used to transport to a bank fishing location. Fish only count when caught 50 yards or further from the mothership.

3. Only fish which are kept for consumption are counted for points (see points structure below)

4 Reports, with photograph(s) of catch should be submitted to the webmaster as soon as possible following the catch. No more than 10 days after trip. At least one photograph of entire catch is required for points, but more photos are encouraged along with a trip narrative.

5. Points system is as follows:
Saltwater Freshwater
Red/Drum 10pts Bass 10pts
Flounder 8pts Sac-a-lait 8pts
Sheepshead 6 pts Catfish 6pts
Specks 4pts Gaspergou 4pts
White Trout 2 pts Bream 2pts

Bonus 1 – Slams
A slam will be any combination of 3 separate species caught in 1 trip. This will double the value of 1 of each species on the slam

Bonus 2 – “Board Game”
This bonus will be a series of fish caught in consecutive order in one season. The species will be(in order): Bream – Speckled Trout – Bass – Flounder – Redfish Points will be award in the following fashion:
1st 25 points
2nd 20 points
3rd 15points
4th 10 points
5th 5 points

6 Species differentiation:
Bass will include both largemouth and spotted(Kentucky), but will not include striped, white, and yellow bass.

Bream will include bluegill, redear, goggleye, longear sunfish, red bellied sunfish, pumpkinseeds, etc.

Catfish will include Channel cats, Blue cats, Flathead (mud) Cats. Spoonbill catfish will not be included.

7. Big fish awards. Bass, Redfish, and Rio will count for the big fish awards. A photograph of the fish on a scale with the wait visible is required for consideration for this award. The fish that weighs the most will win in each category. If the fish will not be kept for consumption the photo must be taken on the boat, so prepare accordingly.

Entry fee will be 20-25 dollars per fisherman, per season. And payout is as follows:
Out of 100 dollars per season:
40 to the season winner
25 to the Angler of the Year
10 to biggest red
10 to biggest bass
5 to biggest Rio
10 to the Award if we want one

Welcome to the League

Welcome to the Blind Pelican Fishing League. Take a look around, soon there will be a plethora of fish pictures and fish stories and a running tally of points to keep up with. We are heading into the first nice weekend of the year, so I am expecting a big push at points this weekend. Tides are about a foot, with low tide about 8:00am (in Caminada Pass). So rig the paddlecraft boys, and charge the cameras - lets see what the first trips of the season bring in.

I am trying to set up a system where ya'll can comment on each post I make, so we can communicate about each trip posting - we'll see......