Murray sent in a list of fish he thought were worthy of nomination for our infrequently used Fish of Month feature so let's take a minute to highlight a few of our RSFF anglers and fish that have been caught by the club this year:
February 2023 - Redfish - Ben Roussel
I caught a few nice redfish on a trip to Leeville back in February, the biggest went 34.75". It fell for a Fool's Gold crab fly. Thanks for the nomination Murray - I wish I had better pictures, but it's tough to take good shots of big redfish when you're solo in a kayak.
March 2023 - Golden Shiner - Emmitt Simmons
Emmitt caught this golden shiner and an orangespotted sunfish in Capitol Lake on a black beadheaded nymph using his 4wt fly rod. If you've never caught either of those species Capitol Lake is a great spot to target them, just don't wet your knots with your saliva as it is a waterbody that is quite polluted!
April 2023 - Bullseye Snakehead - Chris Williams
Chris took a couple of trips to south Florida this Spring and one of the species he caught was this bullseye snakehead, which shattered his 8wt Orvis rod. Chris gave a presentation to RSFF on fishing the Tamiami Trail back in May; click the link for that presentation. We'll have to get the full story on what prompted such a rod failure if he didn't cover it in May. The fish was caught on a Clouser minnow (they catch everything) in Ft. Lauderdale.
June 2023 - Longnose Gar - Ken Holmes
In June Ken "The Garman" Holmes caught a nice longnose gar up on Bayou Sara on a bangtail T&A, which I believe is a fly originally tied by Kelly Galloup. Ken is an avid gar fly fisherman and it just so happens presented on fly fishing for gar at the RSFF general meeting that same month; click the link to see his presentation.
July 2023 - Smallmouth Bass - Kevin Andry
Murray had nominated Kevin's chain pickerel he caught from his trip to Maine this year, but I'm going to overrule Murray and offer up Kevin's smallmouth bass only because it's a much better picture. Kevin caught chain pickerel, smallmouth bass, and fallfish while visiting New England this summer. This fish, and any of the others that were submitted to the Jambalaya Challenge from his trip, fell for a deer hair popper.
August 2023 - Hybrid Sunfish - Duaine McMullin
I get to see all the Jambalaya Challenge entries that come in and y'all may not be aware, but Duaine has caught a number of different sunfish this year that have either been hybrids or at least don't look pure, which is tough when you're turning in fish for a species challenge. He's kept at it though and continues to submit fish. This was one of the prettier ones I've seen that has come from one of the ponds he fishes down in Ascension Parish, it fell for a foam spider.
All my Jambalaya Challenge folks, y'all keep it up, we are at 354 entries this year so far, which is awesome. I love seeing the fish pics roll in and you never know when they'll be featured on the website!
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