NorCal Kayak Anglers
Kayak Fishing Zone => Hookups and Fishing Reports (Viewable by Public) => Topic started by: Tote on July 15, 2007, 07:12:38 PM
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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.
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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
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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
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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
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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. :smt002
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Thanks for the report and pics, Mike. Sounds like another cool NCKA gathering for sure. Nice red, Brian. :smt001
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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
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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!
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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. :smt013 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!). :smt007
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. :smt058 Congrats, Dustin!
Janice aka "Big J"
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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
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Ahhh...Thanks, Janice! :oops:
It was nice meeting you.
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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.
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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
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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! :smt009
......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. :smt004
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?!) :smt013
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?
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Congrats Dustin! :worship :smt023
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Congrats Dustin.
Frank too bad you didn't win, you could have pumped close to half a tank into the ride :smt003
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Out with Adam at the lil red barn and managed a fish
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Big Congrats to Dustin. He may have "mooched" off my fishfinder, but he definitely outfished me and everyone else. The positive thing for me is that I know what his secret lure was. (And I will take money to keep a secret... or to tell a secret). :smt002
It was a hot bite in the morning. I definitely had the lings dialed, but couldn't manage a big one. I lost track of exactly how many lings I caught... roughly 10 of them. None were bigger than about 26 or 27 inches though so they all went back knowing what Dustin already had in his bag. Caught countless other rockfish too... several chinas, tons of gophers, a couple blues, a few coppers, and a few vermillions. I wound up keeping a nice fat copper (20 inches and 6.5 pounds) and a medium size vermillion that didn't want to go back down.
All in all, it was a great day on the water and a big relief to finally get into some fish again. Whew! I needed that!
Thanks Jim and the BB crew for hosting a fine event. Nice meeting some new faces and seeing the usual characters around again. Jim, you have the perfect setup for an official tournament next season. What a fantastic location you are in! Hopefully we can make that happen next year.
(http://aoty.ncka.org/catch/image/129/imgp3887-medium.jpg?1184477797)
(http://aoty.ncka.org/catch/image3/129/imgp3893-medium.jpg?1184477797)
EK
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Awesome pic of yoru son with the fish. :smt001
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Thank you Jim and Jess for your wonderful hospitality!! What a great place you have. This being my first NCKA gathering my wife and I went to Jim's Friday afternoon to meet some of the gang and to get the skinny on what the plan was for Saturday. I ended up at Ft. Ross and had a great time on the water. I boated several gophers, many blues, a decent vermilion and one ling that went about 28". The ling is the featured dish in the Morgan household tonight, everything else lived to be caught another day. The folks I met, confirmed my suspicion that the members of the NCKA crew are a class act that know how to fish, cook, and have a good time :beer3
Bill
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I wanna say thank you very much for you all coming! We really enjoyed your company & very nice to meet new people!!! :smt055 We had an awesome turned out, great fun, all delicious foods, & of course some :beer3! I also wanna show huge hats off to Jim for putting this off!!! :hello2:
This was my fishing that day...
After sent everybody out that morning, I decided to launch from in front of the house. The fog was pretty deep, but the ocean was flat. I heard the report expecting some beach bite on salmon, and also, I’ve been trying to catch them every morning & evening last week but no luck at all… I was too obsessed about the salmon, so I decided to paddle out myself in the fog.
I paddled about 30 mins found some baits in the 80ft of water, so I grab some of them w/ Sabiki & drop the ball down. I kept trolling more to west. I reached 100ft of water & bait started disappearing. I couldn’t see the land anymore, but I had a radio & compass (came w/ my whistle), so I kept going to North. The bottom was flat & depth just kept going 100 after 100 & 120 after 120, but no signs of bait. I paddled out over 3 miles out & I finally reached 180ft line but no signs of bait still. I heard some PBs motor going through behind of me but I couldn’t see anything in the fog. I got scared little & decided to troll back. When I reached to 100 ft of water, I started see some birds & signs of bait, so I trolled more to North. The whale showed up & I tried to take picture, but each time I turned around & position to him/her. He/she appeared behind me. He/she was just going circle of me & getting closer & closer, so I started to paddle more North. He/she still kept fallowing me thought… After a long troll, the wind started to pick up then I finally gave up.
As I was going back I decided to drop off a live mackerel for the halibut. About 15 mins later, I got a big pull down! It felt flat & pretty heavy… halibut!?!? I pulled up & I see something big & flat thing coming up, it’s gotta be halibut!!! However, it was just big-O freakin skate… That thing bit off my whole mackerel live & only left the head. Before I tried to take picture while in the water, it got away. Next I put a big jack smelt. While I was drafting I felt some pulls, but I just figured it was the smelt cuz it was pretty big, so I just ignored & kept drafting. When I started seeing the land, the wind was picking up pretty bad, so I decided to call for the day. I reeled in the jack smelt & I realized that had bunch of chunks bit off from it… I guess it was the hits…
By the time, I got close to the shore I realized that I was drifting 4 mile to the South (mouth of Salmon Creek)… I paddled back against the wind & barely made back to the beach. A lot of people were at the beach & I saw Adam was lying down & enjoying the beach as well w/ his wife. I was so exhausted. Don came to help me out (thanks Don!). Most of yakers were already at the home. It was almost cutting of time. I didn’t know I was out the long…
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After BBQ & mingle, we had some time before burn fire, so Katie from our Lab showed more arty form of Gyotaku!
The bottom pic is Frank telling us about crazy story of his old house...
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Here is pics of the epic beach inseine style burn fire! The fire wood (we're burning old red woods!) was brought by Bill (ablover), thanks Bill...
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oh, by the way, congrats Dustin! :thumleft:
I'm glad that actual Somoman won this derby!!!
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Congrats to Dustin for winning another derby!
I'm bummed I missed out on guaranteed good time. I had to work Saturday morning. Mooch and I were planning to drive up to crash the Saturday night party, but he overslept and never made it over to my place. :smt015
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We had friends over from out of town in the afternoon, otherwize we would have hit it, it looked like a blast. I managed to hit bean hollow in the am for a nice stringer and lots of company but sounds like it was an epic weekend up there.Congrats Dustin, sounds like you got the lings dialed in man! Ill be keeping an eye on you at elk. Ben
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WTG Dustin, Glad everyone had a good time. Look forward to seeing the crew at Elk.
John
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Thanks everybody!
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Out with Adam at the lil red barn and managed a fish
Dude where did you go?
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I believe FisHunter and Sudmucker launched straight out from Jim's house and fished the nearby rocks.
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I believe FisHunter and Sudmucker launched straight out from Jim's house and fished the nearby rocks.
Actually was wondering why he didn't stick around for the banquet and company!
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Yeah, I was wondering myself why I didn't see him there at weigh in.