AOTD

Becky and I showed up at Bodega Marine Lab for the 2pm tour. I highly recommend it.
Saw BSteves as we were leaving. His son Owen had a fever so he was on the way to pick him up from day care. It may also have altered the AOTD winner as he and Inseine had a pretty good master plan for raking in the points. I will let them explain.
Pitched a tent at Jim and Jessica's place. Thank you both for the incredible hospitality!!!
I decided to launch at Ocean Cove. Got there and it was FAC with a pretty low tide. Talked to one guy who was poke poling and doing pretty well.
Duane and frankfishing showed up after I was already on the water.
I managed a 27'' ling ( released ) and a 16.5 blue as my entries. I caught over 15 fish, probably closer to 20 all day and had an absolute blast on the water.
had to have the "sticker" of the day in the photo if you wanted to release your fish.
Bodega Bay Marine Lab was the sticker.
Made it back just in time to figure out I was not the winner. But I did come in 3rd.
Loved the company before, during, and after the tourney. This should definitely be an annual event. I would do it again in a heartbeat.
I will let the winner tell his story.

Thanks for the report Tote (I'll try not to mention to the folks at the lab where one of their stickers ended up!),

Jim and I had a plan, but my son's fever took precedence and we took it as a sign to with plan B.  Plan A was to drag minnows at Lake Somoma in the wee hours for a chance at trout, smallmouth and largmouth, then head over the hill to Ocean Cove or Fort Ross for a chance at Ling, Rockfish, and Cabezon.  We figured that because of the point system more fish (even small) was better than two or three big ocean fish.  In the end a two fish combo won so our plan may have worked.  Going with Plan B we decided to fish with pretty much everyone else at Fort Ross.  It was really nice in the morning, but the wind picked up around 11am.  I managed my biggest vermilion to date (23") but couldn't get that legal ling and cab.

Made it back to Jim's a little early to help out with the food and weigh in, but I had to leave just when the party was starting to check in on my son.  I'm looking forward to hear about the after party report.  The few bites of food I did manage certainly lived up to NCKA standards.

Brian

  Sorry to hear about your son and hope he is well......


  Nice vermillion!!!! should push ya past me aoty,...

   Nice job setting everything up and sorry you could'nt enjoy it more...

  Be there next time for sure!!!!!!

   Really bummed I could not make it.........Danglin

Danglin, I already had a decent vermilion, but this one added another 30 or so points. Not quite enough to overtake you.  The salmon I didn't catch this past week was supposed to do that for me.

Oh, and I should have mentioned this, my son seems just fine now (but my wife Amy seems to be coming down with it now).  It seems to be one of those 24 hr bugs.

There seems to be two AOTD reports going on.  Congratulations Dustin on the win.  Glad to see another local Sonoma County guy take it. 

Brian

Thanks for the report Tote (I'll try not to mention to the folks at the lab where one of their stickers ended up!),
Brian

Hey, it floated! I didn't want to take a chance of losing the sticker and end up having to keep a fish instead of releasing it because the sticker blew away. I am sure they will all be proud. 

Thanks for the report and pics, Mike.  Sounds like another cool NCKA gathering for sure.  Nice red, Brian.   

The 2007 Angler of the Day-Bodega Bay was a big success.  We had 20 anglers participate with groups fishing Bodega head for salmon, Fort Ross and Ocean Cove for groundfish.  Dusting and Becky, Janice arrived Friday eveing and had dinner with us.  Then Frank and Duane arrived in the kayak motorhome (sweet ride Frank).  Dustin and others also camped at the farm.  At O'dark 30' we caravaned to Fort Ross and Ocean Cove. 

The fishing was pretty good, but the wind picked up early than I expected. My first drop of the day I hit something really hard.  Started to reel up and it starts peelin me off big time.  I'm thinkin yeehaw, lingcod.  I make some headway and then this fish decides enough is enough and makes it's way back to the rock it crawled under and snap, no love.  Then I became the gopher king.  I'm not asian, but is this the year of the gopher or what?  Wind picks up and bsteves and I head inside the outer cove to get some wind break.  I catch a small black, send'er down and my rod loads up.  Now I am thinking Yeehaw again, but it lets go just as I begin to see color.  I drop it right back down and he is right back on the bait again, but just couldn't get it to stick.  Oh well, I ended up with one red and releasd a lot of gophers. 

Back at the farm people poored in and we measured in the fish on my fillet table.  Dustin takes the $400 pot with a 29.5 inch ling and a 23 inch vermillion.  Not a bad days work. 

Adam fishunter graciously provided his paradise halibut for grillin and Doug lent his expert frying skills for tacos.  All in all the group had a great time and ate like pigs NCKA style.  I can't wait for Elk, and next years AOTD tourney....stay tuned. 

Jim InSeine Hobbs

I gotta give props to my personal guide for the day, Erik!

We were on the water just after 6:00AM and fished straight out of the cove and drifted south, almost to Pidati(?) Reef, then would paddle back north and start over. This is Bob and my usual drift, also. Luckily later in the day Erik decided to head north and I followed him 'cause I didn't want to be stuck in the fog all by myself...lol. JUST as we got near the cove the wind started HOWLING from the NW big time. It definitely would've sucked to have had to battle that back from Pidati.

My first fish of the day was the ling, followed by an ~18" vermillion, then the 23" vermillion. After that I got five or six cookie cutter vermillions all in the 18" - 20" range and one ~27" ling. I kept the big ling and three rockfish and released the rest.

PIGGED OUT at the barn yard BBQ then headed home to clean up my slimy gear.

The big ling did a death roll in my lap and somehow managed to break my lip gripper. He was free in my yak and bouncing all around so I did a Fishunter style double leg wrap to try and hold him down 'til I got my gaff in him. I tell you, even with a ling wrapped in my legs and staring at my jewels I was very uncomfortable. I can't believe Adam had the....uhh...nuts to take a pic of his halibut in the same position!

Thanks for everything everybody!

Thanks to all for such a great experience and especially to Jim and Jess for being such gracious hosts! I learned SO much from everyone, had a blast on the water, ate like a pig at the BBQ, and enjoyed meeting and visiting with fellow NCKAers.

I, too, launched out of Fort Ross, fished straight out, and then drifted south in the fog. In usual form, I got snagged on lots of kelp and lost two shrimp fly rigs (I owe you, Naoaki!) but not before I caught two black RF. The small one I kept and the smaller one I sent back down as bait. My last snag happened when the wind was blowing and drifting my boat away from the stationary line. I snipped the line to avoid tipping but created a major birds nest on my reel so my fishing time was over. I continued to paddle with Jim, Brian, Steve, and Bill and took some pix before I did a solo landing without swimming (the surf must have been all of 1-2 feet!).

On Friday I toured the Bodega Marine Lab, and after fishing on Saturday I walked through Fort Ross and saw the daily cannon firing demo.

Once again, AOTD was a truly great NCKA event. Did you say it will be held annually, Jim? (BTW: I owe you parking $$$, which I remembered again on the way home.)

I've attached some pix, including the ones of the Sonoma County homeboy who won the tournament. Congrats, Dustin!

Janice aka "Big J"

Jess and Jim, A big,"THANK YOU", for putting us up for the weekend and letting me park my beast next to the barn. God, you guys have a wonderful place for such gatherings with a beach to boot.
 I shared the story with my wife, Jess, about the house which brought a big smile to her face.
Everything was excellent from hospitality,company,fishing locations to just plane hanging out.
Duane and I did Doran the next day for NADA, but I did differently enjoy the paddle out passed  Bodega Rock with views of your gorgeous coast. Again bait was plentiful and I seem to attract whales lately which I saw again between the rock and the Harbor.
Okay, also congrads to Rock Hopper and next time I get the guide. First prize was nothing to sneeze at, $400 biguns...
Again Thanks, Frank

Ahhh...Thanks, Janice!

It was nice meeting you.  

Arrived at the farmhouse at 7:oo to find Naoaki's wheel tracks down to the beach, but he was nowhere in sight?  I had the intel from Brain where to start and so I did.Made the non-surf launch and paddled to the X-Spot.After my first drift over the area I double checked my line-up and started the next drift a bit closer to the rock.....BAM! FISH-ON!!...and FISH OFF...just like that!...we looked into each other's eyes,mine were filled with joy, its was filled with SAD GOOD-BYES. I did drop it right back down but with no further attacks.So I knew I was in the right spot and did the same for the next two hours.Then i started to burp a lil,then the hot flashes, then the reel-it-all-in move and a MAD PADDLE to the shoreline before I........did not make it and completed my first "chunk-toss de'yak" about 30ft from the beach.

Adam,

Get yourself some sea-sick meds and get out there again.  I can't wait to see the FisHunter style self portrait of you and your first kayak lingasuar.

Brian

  I can't wait to see the FisHunter style self portrait of you and your first kayak lingasuar.

Yea, me either Brian, cuz it's gonna be a GOOD ONE!   

......had to sleep it off on the beach til everyone came back from the cove.
I SHOULD HAVE WENT TO THE COVE.....a lesson learned!

What I really came for was to Q-up (get rid of in a good way) all my halibut fillets and turn them into TACOS (my first attempt at grillin' BUTT) I heard that there best when NOT OVER SPICED. I sprinkled some all-in-one-stuff lightly and then dusted them in chili powder. I heard no complaints of too much of this or not enough of that and after you load it into a tortilla,green salsa,guacamole and cabage and stuff it down, it all mixed well.Even the non-fish consumer(my wife) said it was good.  
HOPE YOU ALL ENJOYED IT...i made it up as i went along.

THANKs to JIM!!  and NCKA for having the FIRST AOTD in HISTORY..a smashing success......and grats' to Dustin! for out fishin me ONCE AGIAN(and he dosen't even have a F#$$%# fish finder?!)

Glad to see people i've already met and good to meet the ones I haven't.
It was a great "get together" and we should do a AOTD twice-a-year. How bout a spring time mendo thang.SMB+LMB+STRIPER+water?

Congrats Dustin!