Bendo @ Mendo!

Definately need someone in the group to have a winch.

It all worked out ok for Bobs truck hopefully.

Had a great time what little I was there. Great weather and good people.
Congrats again RHopper. Nice fish!
And Bill those cats were huge!

And joel if you want to trade that bike for my yak anytime soon let me know....

Awesome weekend, the food was unbelievable, and it was great to meet some of the new board members.  

Fishing was slow, but when it's on,  some of the best I've done.

I broke out the camera at the end of the trip and here's a couple to capture the moment.

Pulling the Tow Truck out




Tow Truck going to pull out the Truck




Truck out






Happy Camper

That last picture reminded me of something.

Sean, I must say that you have a spectacular family and it was a joy talk to your wife and children.  In fact, I thought all of the kids were great.  It was cool to see people bring their families along.

The dogs were cool too.

MolBasser

I had a killer time!  I am still trippin on Chuck's fried fish. It is always a blast hanging out with the ncka crew.

Another congratulations to Dustin (RockHopper).  So far, Bodega Jetty fishermen on yellow OK Capers have domintated the big NCKA tournaments this year.

I also had a great time during this fishing tournament despite only catching one sublegal largemouth.  Maybe I should have fished out of my Caper again instead of the new Navigator-XF.  Hmmm.




My wife Amy and my dog Scooter were both able to make it this time and we all had a great time.




Scooter even made a new friend, James Brown (JB).




The highlight of the whole weekend of course was seeing the long awaited striper boil.  There were a few reported out on the lake but the most consistant boils occured Saturday night.  In fact I think we had at least three major boils that night and almost everyone got a piece of the action.


STIPER BOIL

chuck with his cat...


matt showing off the stability of the new cobra mariner....


president bill cleaning his cats....


mooch with a small mouth bass....



ryan,sean,chris and john chilli'n like the villain...


travis with his GAF, Farrah......


the starting line....


travis was the designated floating bar tender of the derby....


a catfish mooched by the mooch....



allen - pole pole -fishing off his triple...




the camp site of all camp sites.....


the new rod holder created by the mooch....it's the "Hobbit Model".....


rock hopper / Dustin had the "hot stick" of the weekend - besides catching the biggest striper, he also caught a nice small mouth bass...



mike / mickfish and his second place striper...


the landing strip....


allen / pole pole with his striper....


rockhopper / Dustin with his winning striper...


ryan's partner in crime = James Brown....


cobra ric's better looking half....


Bob serving his famous Chilli....


the feasting begins....


so cal cobra ric gets a "happy to see you" welcome from the nor cal mooch....


elric's delicious veggie-pork combo...


tournament director Sean getting started with the raffle draw...


president bill get's a nice carving made by TomB - in behalf of everyone on this site....


more pics to come......

great reports and pics for the homebound! thanks for posting all those!
(I'm gonna have to make some of those asparagus bacon wraps!)

-j

This was such a great event. It was really great to meet so many friendly people. True the fishing wasn't too hot but I did manage to catch my first striper ever ... woohoo! It was really the people that made this such a great event, not to mention all of that food. I can't wait for the next one!

WOW!

Awesome picture spread, everyone!

Now if I just would've hid my fingers a little better in that last picture of my fish.....  

 

I'm so tired and happy what a fantastic time I had. When I first stumbled upon this site and I started reading all your posts, I thought what a ton of great information. The more I read the more I thought what a great group of people, it was one of the few times in my life where I knew I could trust people I had never met. I know this might sound sick to a lot of you but I started feeling that I could give Mooch some of my bait and not regret it the next day.

    All kidding aside I have always been a fishing loner and was a little nervous about coming to Mendo, as soon as you started arriving that lasted about 10 seconds. Thank you all for making me feel so comfortable, conversation and food was the best.

 No one said it better than Juan " It's not the catching it's the fishing"

Sean thanks for organizing such a wonderful event and sharing your fishing knowledge,lake, campsite,beer and family with us.

Bill thanks for bringing us all together via the web site.

Congratulations Rock Hopper.

Chuck thanks for being the fry-master.

Mooch for your generosity,apron and enthusiasm.

Rick thanks for the test drive nice yak.

Can't wait to see you all again                            
Mike  

Thanks for sharing the great pics and stories.  It sounds like I missed a great event.

Hopefully we can put another one together soon!

Bill

Thank you all for making me feel so comfortable, conversation and food was the best.

Mike, THANK YOU for....

- Your good company.  It was a pleasure to meet you.

- The BEST grilled shrimp ever!... now called "Mendo Bendo Shrimp"

- Donating your striper to our fish fry.

- The cool pair of stainless steel tongs you gave me.

I hope to fish and camp with you and everyone again!

Chuck

Once again, Bill and Sean have made kayak fishing a community activity that satisfies on every level..........well, if you aren't into catching.

My total for the weekend was one small mouth bass and one Common Egret.  Many many thanks to Jenna, Brian and Randy for help uncatching the bird.  Clipping the entangling line went very quickly and the bird was back to hunting within moments......

Whoever said this is NorCalKayak Chefs was right on!  I couldn't believe that I had to turn down yet more culinary perfections as I had exceeded all capacity...

Oh, and how could I leave this out.........THANK YOU FOR THE RAFFLE SWEATSHIRT........   I was rather keen on it........

And here is a picture of what a kayak striper trolling fleet looks like heading across Lake Mendocino.



Pat

Thanks everyone for the kind words, it really is my pleasure to participate in the process.  Looking forward to the next event.

At least our timing was good, its raining and thunder up here tonight!

Here are some pics from Bill's big cat

The hookup


Joel being helpful as always


She's bustin' the surface


Joel nets the beast


And Bill is a happy camper


Thanks for a great weekend!  LETS DO IT AGAIN.