BAMIII Highlights / October 5,6,7 2007

I'm super tired, but here's the breakdown. I'll post a better report and some pics later.

- 53 stripers weighed by Sean on the weighboat (the vast majority released), plus at least another dozen or so stripers not weighed in.
- Third place went to Kickin' Bass
- Second place went to Freddie
- And congratulations to this year's BAM Champion Chuck E.!
- The Food = OMG! Carne Asada, Panko fried Salmon Shark & Striper, Lumpia, Prawns, sides, fried Oreos!?
- Pre tourny double rainbow Friday night.

Must sleep. This pic pretty much sums up the atmosphere of the whole week-end.

Wow!  Awesome rainbow shot, Rock Hopper.  Thanks for the early report.  Sounds like another great NCKA event.   

Nice shot Hopper!!!

 Great weekend, 1st time fishing this lake, and flew by the hot spot that turned into a " Striper Pond "

 with a Armada of Yaks fishing a 40 sqft area ..

 Lots of Fish,  Caught my Largest right @ 3:00 on ultraLight, 29" BENDO @ MENDO ,

 Sorry Sean, these went Belly up upon release, long fight ,

 Great Time,

 1st shot, Cold Start to Morning
 
 2nd, Big J " I never Catch Anything!!!! "

  " Hey Big J,  You might want to talk to PolePole and Scallen about Sponsorship on that one!!!! "
          ( I'll sign the waiver!!!!! )

 3rd, One of the many " Chunky " LMB's caught,  " Where was My HUGE Small Mouth!!!!  "

 4th My Carnage, would have liked to release, but they were done....

  Wish I could stay for the swap meet, but decided to build WAF today instead ..

 What are we doing next? ............... Danglin

Great NCKA event. Good to reconnect with some old friends and make some new one. Too many great moments to write about without getting EMO, however congrats to Chuck E, Freddie, and Kickin Bass. Hate to say it but did the Sonoma Homeboys lose the BAM title or did Chuck move to Santa Rosa?  Here are some other thoughts...

#1 Big J - Janice WTG!!! that is a real hog, what did it weigh?
#2 Rickie - WTG on the striper on a fly. I gave up on artificials after 3 hours. Got busted off on a fly and lost my sink line  .
#3 Allen (PolePole) - hope the minnows worked for you. Freddie was still laughing about your minnow request on Friday night.
#4 The American Canyon team - Don and ? Hope those minnows worked for you. See you at DV next week. Don't forget my bait bucket. I need it for a trip next month.
#5 Dustin - you owe me a video game for that would-be swap meet. Hope your buddy enjoys the rod.
#6 Adam - WTG on slamming them on Friday. Sorry Saturday wasn't as good.
#7 Fishin Jay - great dogs. They brought me good luck. Bagged two 5-6 pounders right after your wife walked by with the dogs. BTW you look alot like Jimmy Buffet. Maybe some Kareoke next trip?
#8 Joel - love your new P15 in sunrise. I didn't recognize you in anything but yellow. BTW, that apron is nasty.
#9 Kayak Jack - thanks for letting me hang at your campfire Sat morning. Didn't bring the right stuff for cold weather. Froze my butt off.
#10 Sean - thanks for organizing another great event and nice to meet your family. Good call allowing live bait. 

Here are my pics including my pair of stripers. They had good length but too thin to make the grade. Next year I will work on my tactics.

Scott

Thanks to everyone that made it, GREAT turn out with 57 registered anglers, and INCREDIBLE fishing.  The stars aligned and the fish were on the munch.  We weighed 53 fish on the weigh boat, and there were several dozen more fish that were caught and released w/o being weighed.  Also awesome to see many folks get there fish weighed, pics snapped and then released in good order.

A few pics...

Mahi weighed and released a limit before 0830...



Sharkbait with a nice lineside from the spot...



GTO held the early lead for most of the morning with this solid pair of fish...



Mike Dilbeck cashed in numerous times on the artificial bonus weight...



Local favorite Juan Salinas with an early fish...



Frank with a nice pair of fish...




Former champ Brian Steves with a limit plus a LMB...



The "Secret Spot"...



Guitarzan with and early fish...



Double trouble.  Dustin and Bob had a SOLID day.  Dustin is also a former BAM champ and was in the top 5 again...



NCKA luminary Erik Kunz with a nice little striper...



Greatbass with his first Mendo limit...



and now the TOP 3 finishers!!!

Coming in 3rd after holding the lead almost the entire time Ukiah local Andy "Kickin Bass" Cash took 3rd with a combined weight of #16.35 to take home a Okuma Baidarka Rod courtesy of Okuma.



Taking 2nd with just moments to go, long-time NCKA fisherman Freddie Horio won a full carbon Accent Paddle courtesy of GWKC.  Freddies limit weighed in at #16.80...



ChuckE showed everyone that he not only knows how to cook stripers, but he can also put them in the tankwell!  ChuckE slid in at the last minute to weigh in a fat #18.2 pound two fish limit. 

ChuckE won an Okuma Baidarka Rod from Okuma, $500 CASH from GWKC, but most importantly he went home sporting the BAMIII buckle courtesy of Mark Shimizu Designs...





ChuckE completed an epic weekend by also winning the Big Kitty catfish jackpot for a first ever BAM Slam.  ChuckE won a nice pair of waterproof binos courtesy of WestMarine and Danglin...



Thanks again to everyone that came and to all of the folks that contibuted to making this one of our best tourneys ever. 

BTW-The food was nuts.  "Pig on Pig" is now a meaningful phrase thanks to Mickfish! I will let other go on about the food, but it was the best potluck ever.

WTG everyone!! Looks like the perfect time of year for the tourney.

It was indeed Tote.  Chilly enough to wake up the fish and justify an insane campfire, but pleasant during the day.  The first weekend in Oct. from now on.  I also thought the final new format was also great...keeping that too. 

But where was Tote et al???

my first NCKA event. very impressive!! sean you should write an article on how to put on a fishing tournament. don't forget the chapter on beer-tap verification. thanks to all involved. i'm sure it was a lot of work. that potluck was epic!!!

Glad you enjoyed it Jack, hope to see you next year.  Your "crumb-snatchers" were adorable.

But where was Tote et al???

Still nursing an injured shoulder. Kind of like putting a meal in front of a starving man and telling him he can't eat. I need to be up to par for the Islander Trip and I knew if I went to BAMIII I would have been paddling.

Gotcha.  Save that shoulder for the big day!

Another best event, with best fishing, best food, and best people!

CHEERS!

Great Pics so far everybody.

Bob and I got to the lake with 20 minnows at around 3:00PM on Friday. We set up camp and just chilled out that evening. The double rainbow was sick. We saw rainclouds letting loose all around the hills to the East and South, but luckily it never rained on the lake.

We BS'ed with the fellas, had some hot dogs, a few beers and half a bottle of whiskey, then called it an early night around 10:00PM or so.

Got up and hit the water at about 6:30AM and fished 'til 3:30PM on Saturday. It was a spectacular day. I picked up my first fish just north of the tower, not even 30 minutes into the day. I picked up my second, slightly larger striper about 30 minutes later rounding vinegar point. Bob also hooked up and lost a nice fish. A few others saw the action and made some drifts in the area. Since my second fish was bigger than the 1st fish I caught I paddled all the way back to camp to have it weighed and released. (Sean was nice enough to hike down to the point to weigh others' fish later). I had my fish weighed then gave it a lot of TLC to get it swimming off again.

Started back towards the point and noticed a whole floatilla had bumrushed the spot so Bob and I headed west around the point and both hooked up pretty quickly. By this time Sean was on the PB to meet us so we both had our fish weighed and released 'em. Stayed in that area for a bit where I picked up a chunky LM, then shot over to Barn Cove. While there I landed two smallies (AOTY bonus!) and a smaller striper that I didn't have weighed, then a little later I C&Red my biggest striper of the day. We stayed in that are most of the day then headed back towards vinegar point around 2:30PM. There I picked up one more little SM and shortly after called it a day.

What an awesome day of fishing. People were hooking up on fish left and right and I ended the day with 5 stripers, 3 smallmouth, and a fat largemouth. Bob caught two or three stripers and the fat LM pictured below.

After the tournie there was no rest for the wicked. Everyone got their offerings ready for the potluck and as Bill started up the fryer and tossed in the lumpia heads started crowding around. A little while later the fried salmon shark popped up, then carne asada, striper, tri-tip, prawns, sides, chowder, and desserts were being devoured with much pleasure. It was especially deliscious.

I reluctantly packed it up and headed off around sunset on Saturday with the party in full swing. Those of you that stayed and fished today are animals. I'm still sore!

Thanks to Sean for organizing another incredible BAM. Thanks to Scott for the nice rod, thanks to Erik for filleting my fish, thanks to the bait guy for delivering bait on the water all day, thanks to the fella who toted Sean around in the weigh boat and saved the lives of DOZENS of stripers, thanks to all who brought food, and Mylyn said thanks for all the compliments on the lumpia. She'll pass the word on to her mom!

Nice report Dustin.  Those lumpia were incredible, and when side by side with Tin's spring rolls, I was in heaven

Yes, all that food was insane!  So good!  I hope Freddie doesn't mind, I was taking mental notes as he prepared his carne asada.  Gonna try it on my own in the near future.  Tacos are good.

As always, it was cool to see everyone, new and old alike.

Sean, thank you for taking the time to organize/execute everything to pull this off.

Congratulations to ChuckE, Freddie, and Kickin bass.  Good show, fellas!

Thanks to Dustin and Bob for kickin' down the minnows and the grub.

No fish pics for me, the one striper I caught slipped back into the drink before I could get off a shot.

Yea, another rainbow shot.

These things were popping up all over the lake Saturday morning.

A sun-bather.