So despite the fact that cold temps and raging winds have thwarted all three of our recent Louisiana redfishing trips, we did as cajuns do and decided to lache pas la patate. Last Sunday we loaded up fishing gear and hope for Hopedale as we ventured back over to Louisiana to fish with Travis Holeman.

Finally. The sun came out. The winds laid down. The water warmed up. And the fish started moving around. Pretty quick out of the gate we were sight casting to reds and The Professor came up victorious a few times before lunch.

It was my turn up on the bow, but suffice to say my cast was rusty rusty rusty! I was struggling. I had half a dozen opportunities to sight cast at several reds but couldn’t deliver. Everyone was patient why I got into a better rhythm with the 8-weight. About midday I finally did connect and found some tension on the rod. Only problem? I was boogying to beat of a different drum…black, not red. And I foul hooked it.

It was wild, I saw the whole thing happen. I was urgently casting at three or four fish directly in front of the boat moving straight toward me. They rebuffed my offering and decided to scat as I watched this 35-pound lug move from left to right while I was still stripping. I felt tension but knew his body was too far right of my fly for it to be a proper eat. So this beast of a black drum took me to my backing with a tarpon hook and a redfish fly in his ass. As you can see I have some work to do on my grip-n-grin with a 35+ pound black drum foul hook fish.

Luckily mother nature started working with me and compensated for my poor casting. The sunshine continued to warm up the water so the fish started moving and eating with vigior. I finally caught my first Louisiana redfish.

And in the words of our esteemed captain, at this point we proceeded to jimmy jam ‘em. Singles, doubles, triples. My biggest was about ten pounds. The Professor’s about fifteen. But we caught a heap of reds and knocked the voodoo off. Whew! Finally.

Big thanks to Travis Holeman for a good old fashioned jimmyjam on the water . Enjoy the slideshow and remember the key lesson here: Don’t Let Go of the Potato.

Now as yall know, I’ve had more than just a wee bit of bad luck with the weather getting in the way of recent winter redfishing attempts in Louisiana. But we are all set, once again, to fish in Hopedale this Sunday with Travis Holeman. Catching a Louisiana redfish has become a little bit like looking for the holy grail, but I am undeterred. Although one could argue I’ve lost all reasonable perspective on this topic. So I’m curious what you think…

Should I pack fishing clothes or church clothes for Sunday?

Either way I must remember to take my flash drive because it has my power point presentation on it. Anyone in the Mobile area is welcome to come see my slideshow at the Bay Area Fly Fishers monthly meeting – but no heckling. It is next Tuesday March 9th at 5:30pm at Dreamland BBQ.

Am I forgetting anything?

Well, Team Paddlefish participated in another 10K race this past weekend on Town Lake. You may recall we completed the first Town Lake race in gusting winds in 1 hour 36 minutes. This time we invited friends and family to cheer us on so we could beat our time, but more importantly, so we could pass the hat for our two charities: The International Rett Syndrome Foundation and Project Healing Waters.

A few days before the race I was interviewed by Bettie Cross for KEYE, our local CBS affiliate. A portion of the interview is available to view here.

Race day was magical on all fronts. Plenty of sunshine and our friends were out in full force. I had the chance to meet two Austin-area families that I befriended online whose daughters both live with Rett Syndrome. It was so fun to meet them in person!

Meanwhile Banning and I are getting to know more paddlers at these races and events – which means we are learning more and more from all these Safari veterans. Plus, our friends provided food and drinks and various items that we were able to sell for our charities. MANY THANKS goes to:

• Nueva Onda – the best breakfast taco in ATX — donated four dozen breakfast tacos
• My sweet friend Shawn who brought these adorable (and delicious!) paddlefish cookies
• My equally sweet friend Hillary brought water and coffee
• Ted Mendrick from Sportsmans Finest handmade fish refrigerator magnets that we sold
• Eric from Eric’s Hired Hands who was on hand to offer chair massage
• Kevin Hutchison was offering flycasting lessons and donated Team Paddlefish boat towels
• 1379 brought a big cheerleading contingency and surprised us with 1379 Team Paddlefish shirts; we have lots of kids sizes that we will be able to sell as well
• Fire In The Gut outfitted us in hats and most importantly these super high-tech performance shirts – I am practically living in these FITG shirts these days. Training, running, rowing machine, paddling, carpool. They are my new uniform, so I was very proud to debut the new FITG logo on the canoe. Pssst…check out who is on the homepage
• Tim Cole, who works with Costa del Mar, generously provided new shades and visors and shirts
• John Baltzell and all the volunteers organized The Town Lake Race Series and were very gracious to include our friends, charities and cheerleaders in Sunday’s race

Little Chick was a machine manning the Paddlefish Bazaar, and since it never crossed her mind to make change, we ended up with a whopping $225 for our charities! And all the cheering really made a difference because despite the fact that there was wind again, we managed to beat our previous time: Tosh clocked us finishing at 1 hour and 29 minutes.

Many Thanks to all who came out to wave the Team Paddlefish flag!! Onward to the Safari…

So I had to secure a place to watch the episode! I decided to call the absolute greatest sports bar in the whole world, The Tavern at 12th & Lamar. I’ve been watching Carolina basketball games here for decades and delight in the fact there is still a sports bar on the planet with a little character. They have the Outdoor Channel and were thrilled to host me for my television debut on the Outdoor Channel. Only problem? The show aired at 10:30 central Saturday morning and The Tavern doesn’t open until 11am.

Breaking and entering is not actually my strong suit, sweet talk is more my forte. So with a little please please please and thank you thank you thank you we were granted permission to get inside the Tavern before opening so we could watch the episode. As you can see, now that I am a big time television star, the crowds of fans and paparazzi that follow me around are downright relentless.

Luckily the Professor was in town to serve as bodyguard. But he seems awfully enthralled with the fishing on television and not exactly keeping a keen watch for incoming paparazzi.

Of course the truth is my friend Mark from Headhunters in Craig MT is the true star of this episode. Having known Mark for over ten years I can say he is every bit as fun-loving as he comes across in this show. And fishy to boot.

Big thank you to Don at the Tavern who let us sneak in the back entrance, allowed us to come in before opening, and got the show all squared away on the big fancy tele.

I’d also like to extend a big thank you to John Dietsch, the host of Adventure Guides for inviting me to be on the show; Tim Cash who shot and edited the episode and truly captured the spirit of the Missouri; everyone at The Outdoor Channel; and of course Mark Raisler and John Arnold at Headhunters who made filming this episode nothing more than a day of fishing the Missouri with friends.

As it should be.

Actually, it first aired this morning but I missed it because I was busy hoisting my canoe down to the water about to do an interview on Team Paddlefish for our local CBS affiliate. Can you believe I had my first ever television debut twice in one day? What are the odds?

No matter if you missed Adventure Guides this morning, because it airs again two more times this weekend on the Outdoor Channel. Here are few nuggets of info to keep in mind:

• If you have Direct TV, The Outdoor Channel is 606
• The episode airs FRIDAY Feb 26th at 11pm est / 10pm cst
• It airs again SATURDAY Feb 27th at 11.30am est / 10.30am cst
• My good buddy Mark Raisler of Headhunters in Craig MT is the total star of the episode along with the fish and the Missouri River itself. We had a good day on the water and caught a few nice fish so hopefully that’s fun to relive onscreen

That’s about it, friends. Set your TIVOs, pop some corn, and enjoy the show!

(Now I just have to find someplace with the Outdoor Channel to watch it.)

A couple of years ago during my first-ever visit to Banditos in Virginia City Montana, a guy named Rosy came up to the bar where we were eating queso fundito and drenching our organs in margaritas and handed us this hand-crafted, hand-cut business card. With a packed bar of strangers focused on our conversation, Rosy urged me to pick a number so I smiled politely and answered, “Well, um…number 3?”

At which point he flipped the business card over:

Alright alright, laugh if you will, your time will come. No doubt a wave of hearty laughter rippled down the length of that bar full of locals. (Methinks Rosy had pulled that trick before on other Banditos rookies.) But really, I’d like to point out how much I love this business card! There are too many reasons to list. So let’s just start with his many professions.

Auto delivery, Bartending, Courier, Fencer (Jackleg only), Indian Artwork, Lawn Maintenance, Motorcycle Rides, Private Detective. It seems Rosy wears more hats than someone trying to support themselves in the fly fishing industry.

Rosy’s copious list of professional services is evocative of the table I’ve purchased at this year’s upcoming Fly Fishing Film Tour Industry Pre-Party. I will be at one of the first tables near the entrance spreading the word and peddling a sundry of fly fishing and river-related passion projects, including FlyFishChick the blog, Pro Outfitters, Team Paddlefish, Class V Fishing, maybe Hatch reels. I don’t know what else will be piled on. But it seems I will have the gypsy caravan table of the pre-party for sure.

Which reminds me of a very important announcement I have to share with each of you: Tickets to the Austin Fly Fishing Film Tour are on sale online NOW!

We are not selling them on the Drake site this year, you must purchase tickets via our venue, The Alamo Drafthouse. So click here to purchase your tickets now! Anyone remember last year? The Austin sell-out? Our very own sponsors didn’t have tickets to the show last year. Trust me, those guys aren’t making the same mistake twice so the table sponsors are literally clamoring toward their online shopping cart as we speak. So grab these babies while they are hot off the press because they won’t last long.

Which begs the question…what are YOU going to be doing on Tuesday April 27th?

Pick a number:

1. Grouting the tub while watching a Real Housewives of Atlanta marathon on Bravo

2. Translating Izaak Walton’s Compleat Angler into Farsi

3. Attending the Drake Fly Fishing Film Tour in Austin TX

4. Combing the mall for the ideal shade of blush-colored silk ribbon to compliment the gift wrap paper you are going to hand make in order to wrap the Mothers Day gifts you have no doubt already woven from scratch on the tabletop loom you purchased from the Home Shopping Network

Yeah, that’s what I thought. Rosy was spot on.

But sometimes your server totally screws you.

Such is this case this week with our web server. This site was down most of the day yesterday. It’s live again but recent posts are missing. I am having trouble loading posts with pictures. Old posts are mysteriously being emailed out to subscribers. Egad.

My apologies to the Outdoor Channel who posted a link to my most recent post and sent thousands of viewers to a page that the server has since 86-ed somewhere in the alley behind the kitchen with the fry cook who’s recently out on parole and probably high and spitting in everyone’s food.

Many thanks to Tom Chandler at the Trout Underground who graciously hosts this site and is in the trenches trying to right all of these server wrongs.

So bear with me friends. We are going to be serving things family style for awhile here. Meaning we’ll get what we get and we’ll just have to be happy about it, focusing instead on sparkling conversations and lots of laughs.

Cin Cin!

First and foremost I can’t wait to try these shirts. Tim Grizzell, founder of FITG, is a former Navy SEAL, athlete, husband, father of three, and inspirational entrepreneur. He designed these high-tech shirts “for the warrior athlete”. They are made from high-tech Cocona Fabrics which maximize a flash dry effect, regulating an athlete’s body temperature and…(attention all fishing guides and single moms on this next point)…and…means you don’t have to wash these shirts after you workout and sweat in them.

Oh, yeah. You heard me. Cha-ching! Finally, high-performance athletic clothing that caters to my innate sense of laziness.

GONE COCONUTS

I really haven’t thought so much about coconuts until I started training for this race, but now I feel like they are everywhere in my life. My nutrition consigliore, Melissa, has me making hemp smoothies with spinach, berries and coconut water. Apparently the health benefits of coconuts are unparalleled.

And now Tim has me wearing coconut shirts.

This special Cocona Fabric is created from heating coconut shells to extreme temperatures, thus creating gobs of miniscule carbon particles that are imbedded permanently into the fabric. Apparently coconut carbon is also used to treat and filter air, as well as used as medicine in Europe and to remove toxins from overdose victims in emergency situations. When it comes to shirts, these coconut carbon particles manage the flash-dry process.

BUDS

I had a lovely conversation with Tim this week as we confirmed the details of our partnership. A former Navy SEAL and avid kayak paddler, he was intrigued with the intensity and sheer challenge of the Texas Water Safari. He shared incredible stories of his bootcamp experience in BUDS – Basic Underwater Demolition SEAL Training. Tim was BUDS Class 188.

Apparently in BUDS you are paired with a swim buddy and must stay with that swim buddy constantly, often tied together and/or paddling around in a boat, involved in long race exercises. Tim described extreme physical tests and recalled the feeling of being wet and sandy for days on end.

Hmm, sounds like the Water Safari all right! I just hope some of Tim’s badassery rubs off on Team Paddlefish.

FIRE IN THE GUT

The “Fire In The Gut” award is presented to the graduating Navy SEAL who displays the best attitude in 26-weeks of BUDS training. Tim has founded his company on the principles of motivation, strong will, and determination. He is focused on quality products that are eco-friendly and believes in giving back with his corporate endeavors.

Whether paddling in a race or loading a driftboat on a trailer on a steamy summer night in Montana, if you’re intrigued with these shirts, click here to learn more and purchase online.

Most importantly, I’d like to encourage you to become a fan of FIRE IN THE GUT on Facebook. Tim is creating a positive online community where he shares motivational messages for the warrior athlete in all of us.

I am already learning so much from Tim. Not to mention, I feel like just a little bit of a badass now that I am formally associated with a Navy SEAL – a big-hearted Navy SEAL, granted – but a badass Navy SEAL nonetheless.

HOO YAH!! CHARLIE MIKE!!

Via FITG Facebook: “Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle, or it will starve. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a lion or a gazelle–when the sun comes up, you’d better be running.” Sir Roger Bannister, 1st man to run a sub-4 minute mile

So we were that much more excited for our second trip this past weekend, and we were booked with Louisiana redfish guide Travis Holeman. Spirits were high as the trip grew near. Once again I flew to Mobile and the Professor and I started monitoring the weekend weather. Unfortunately we had to pull the plug on Saturday – clouds and wind. But it seemed Sunday would be cold, calmer, clear and hopefully fishable.

Okay, one day of fishing. At least we’d get one day out of the four we’d been hoping for in January.

So wandering anglers that we are, we pointed the truck west and barreled down I-10 toward New Orleans. Only problem? I was on Day #3 of a multi-day migraine and I really thought my skull was going to implode and pulverize my brain into a dusty mass. My apologies to all the fine folks at that diner in Slidell where I almost got sick to my stomach. My head hurt so badly that I literally thought I was going to be ill from the mere presence of food and I spent most of the meal slumped over the table thinking I might faint.

My biggest concern was feeling better in time for my one day of fishing the next day.

The Professor forced me to eat a little – which helped. And strangely the familiar glow and pulse of New Orleans (one of my favorite home-away-from-home cities) relaxed me and served as a surefire panacea as we drove through town toward the hotel. Despite sleeping in the car I immediately took yet another nap and enjoyed the fact that the relentless pulsating tide of pain in my temples was finally starting to subside. Miraculously, I recovered just in time to step out for an early dinner at Galatoire’s.

I love Galatoire’s. Ages ago, I used to make a regular pilgrimage to Galatoire’s with one of my bestest friends and spend about four hours having a wine soaked lunch with every single course. Thrilled to be back, I poured over the menu options, debating between a filet and the specialty chicken but ultimately accepted our waiter’s passionate plea for the pompano, joking to the Professor, “with my luck, this could be the only fish I see all weekend!”

Grilled pompano with crabmeat, garlic french bread and escargot, bread pudding bananas foster. And a touch of red wine. Granted I veered way off my training diet, but before the migraine set in last week I had been a maniac on the rowing machine, elliptical and treadmill, so I felt I could indulge. Hey, it was only a few hours earlier that I thought I was heading toward the light and meeting my maker in a po-boy dive somewhere off I-10 in Slidell Louisiana, so I was going to celebrate my astonishing recovery at one of my oldest and most favorite restaurants.

After a lovely dinner we tucked ourselves away early despite the call of the quarter. We set three alarms and scheduled a wake up call and fell asleep with visions of big redfish.

We ventured out just before light, followed directions we’d been given and met Travis at Penny’s Cafe for breakfast. Unfortunately the clear skies we were counting on were tucked behind a thick blanket of clouds, and Travis calculated the wind chill was going to be about zero. Nevertheless, we ordered veal cutlet po-boys for our boat lunch and swapped fishing stories over eggs and coffee while we waited to see what the weather was going to do. After a full meal the night before I was trying to exercise a modicum of self discipline with my scrambled eggs but I am here to tell you the roasted biscuits that Travis ordered looked sublime. I can’t tell you how many times I almost stuck my fork over on his plate and shanghaied a bite for myself. Next time at Penny’s, I am getting the biscuits.

We grabbed our veal cutlet po-boys to go and agreed to journey on to the marina to assess the weather.

We kicked around the parking lot for a spell but Travis called Time of Death on the expedition about 9ish. It was brutally cold, the wind was whipping and the clouds were locked-in overhead. As disappointed as we were to lose out on yet another fishing day, we cannot say enough nice things about Travis. He was cool as all get out about it, totally honest and direct about the diminishing prospects and we all agreed to re-book as soon as possible. I was thrilled to get to know him a little and truly look forward to getting on the water with my new friend Travis soon.

Thank God for the pompano. A couple of fishless vagabonds, we hopped back in the truck and hit the trail back to Mobile where we ate our boat lunch on the couch watching Robert Redford in “The Great Waldo Pepper.” New Orleans was great fun, Travis was cool as hell, the po-boy was yummy and my migraine was gone. All good stuff. But when you really break things down, this isn’t exactly the red I though I would have in hand at two in the afternoon this past Sunday.

Winter fishing has driven me to day drinking.