Elk 08, GuitarZan is The Man!!!

Glad everyone had a good time....lots of people this year.  Not a record for anglers, but definitely  more friends and family...a good sign!  I also had lots of folks pitch in with camp/kitchen and cleaning chores....THANK YOU!!!!!!

Thanks to everyone we made a nice chunk of dough for the community center again, and Erik's Coastside raffle was a massive success as well. 

I generally don't get to fish much during these events but I snuck out in the Zest with paige a few times to fish a little and play in the rocks.  Paige loved going through the arches...





Moochy helped with the building the showers.  They were really good this year.  Thanks Moochy!



And now off to the winners...

Alan's 3rd place 13# ling....



Levi's 14# 2nd place ling...



And this years Elk champ who took home a brand new Trident 13 courtesy of Tsunami Sales and Marketing and Ocean Kayak...BEN!!!!!!  Couldn't have been a more deserving winner. Congratulations Guitarzan!!!!

Here is his FAT 17 plus pounder...



Thanks again for coming!!!

Thanks to all for a great event, and thanks especially to Great White and his Great wife for all their work through the year ptting this thing together.

Redyak and I stopped in the Elk visitor center on the way out, which is open something like 11 to 2 on weekends only with volunteer staff. There are some really cool old pictures of the area from the 1920's, showing logging and shipping work, but the picture that caught my eye was one of two guys fishing from a skiff, with the caption: "An afternoons fishing"

They had a pile of fish that you would not believe:  Perhaps forty fish, most of them Lings, with the small fish twenty to thirty pounds, and the big ones looked like sixty to me, and fat. I had to look again to make sure they weren't black sea bass or something-they were that huge!  Classic old school fisherman's pose, leaning on their oars and smoking. You gotta check it out next time you're there.

Best,

TallPaul

That is a famous pic, truly massive lings in that photo.

Congrats Ben on the first place and thanks to all for sharing some pictures for the
rest of us to envy. Way to go guys.

Jed

...here's a few to get started with.

pic1~ Saturday morning launch

pic2~ the north end of the beach.

pic3~Sean & Paige on the Zest

As soon as I saw the big blue I was awestruck by the beauty of the area, and I remained somewhat dumbstruck the entire time.  It's a humbling area.

I saw the pics at the community center too...  amazing.

The early morning launch pics do not tell the whole story.  Friday was great til about noon and then the wind started howling...

Saturday the swell was up and it was a weird confused choppy swell.  The wind was on and off all day, but by 11:30 or so it was pretty much howling nonstop, making conditions nearly unfishable.  

I didn'ty go out Sunday but I heard the conditions were worse.

I dunked my camera so no pics, but thanks again to the Whites, EK, the City of Elk, and everyone else.

Random memorable moments:

-Seeing Paige bring up her first ab...  she was so proud!

-Fresh out of the fryer ChuckE fried rockfish...  incredible! (and thanks for the fishing tips, by the way!)

-Fresh avacadoes from Jim's tree, those were off the hook!

-Eating fresh urchin sushi off the back of Angels kayak on the beach, (thanks again!)

And thanks to Mooch for getting Hook 1 to donate the gift certificate I won in the raffle!

My trip started on Thursday morning...Mooch and I went to Albion(20min north of Elk) to Fish,Camp&BS. Got there and had a real breakfast in the on-site coffee shop. Then Mooch wanted to "take a NAP!?"  He had been comsuming massive quatities of caffine and the 2 pull-over naps on the way up there didn't quite add up to a full nights sleep. I "made him" go out...since that was the reason for going there in the first place.

pic1~ waiting for Mooch to catch up to me in the Navarro Redwoods, along hwy128.

pic2~ emerging from the forest and Navarro River, to the open coast

pic3~ rivers edge....amphibien& his buddy(sorry, forgot name), choppin it up before we hit it.

Looks like a top notch event, as expected. Thanks to everybody for sharing their personal adventures. Keep em coming! Big Congrats to Ben! A very well-deserved win.

At the camp site, I finally met someone who REALLY liked me  Her name is "CC"......(Rocketman and Slowmo's little puppy)

By the powers vested in me, I bananad my fellow NCKA'ers (By the way, Ben did have a banana on board when he caught the winning fish   SO THERE !!!!!


During the after dinner raffle.....

....we got out and it started to blow. I looked for some structure to jig over, but after generations of RockFishHarvestingPB'rs....there aren't many left.
I did manage to CP&R a just-keeper Ling and a Black, before deciding to call it and "Blow" back to shore.
I did put in 4 miles of searchin&jiggin, durring the four hours, while on the water

pic1~ amphibien, his buddy and Mooch out at the bouy.

pic2~ Albions' last ling.

pic3~ along the paddle back to the camp.

Albion looks like a GREAT place to fish/launch. How is the camping, any trees or grass?

E-DAY -2  (Day 2 Before Elk) Adam and I secured a campsite in Albion (and were later joined by Randall / Big Foot, his son Ty, Zeelander and Bsteves.

Adam enjoying a snack and a beer....

Entering the Albion launch after a slow day of fishing (caught and released smallish Chinas,gophers and blacks)

Man, you folks had a blast, wish I could have made it.  You guys had way more fun than I did.  Next time.

Albion looks like a GREAT place to fish/launch. How is the camping, any trees or grass?

Ben, it's not the greatest...no trees or any form of shade....wind's constantly blowing....people walk their dogs but don't clean up their poop....only one bathroom on the site BUT it does have coin operated showers. Mike told me that the campsite further up the river is better. May have to check that out next year.