Kelsey Bass Ranch Report 6/2/2012

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   What a great day! I was not able to take pic's yesterday so please post em up!

Kinda Hard to keep coming up with more colorful ways describe how Great NCKA HOW Volunteers are...

So just have to go with YOU GUYS ARE AWESOME!!!

Big Successful Event with a ton of work that started as soon as we arrived on Friday... You all were motivated and got things done,,, I arrived on fumes and just kept saying...

 " will do it later....  ..."

Not you guys... everyone just got things done, I especially liked the group effort on the poles Friday night...  even people who do not fish, kids were rigging up poles and putting the floatation on them, very cool...

Saturday, just and all sprint keeping up with everything...  The VA brought us about 2/3rds of what we were expecting, and The Warrior Transition Unit totally dropped the ball and we only got 1 father and son team...

which I have to say, is worth the Enchilada right there to watch them paddle off on their own on my Hobies...

Splashdown got them going and then they were off... They both got in to LMB's...

about 1/2 dozen other stories I heard of wounded vets who never caught a fish before just getting blown away by getting one of Kelsey's Residents on the other side of their pole...  I truly expect to see at least 2 of these guys coming to ncka... they live local and looked pretty hooked about the whole thing...gave them some ncka stickers and talked up the site... Racin rob will send them photos, and I'm sure we will see them soon and that again is part of what this is all about...

Relax, Rehabilitate and Reintegrate   

Another fun site was watching this one woman who was paddled around by " Jenny..." she said" I'll probably only go out for 5 minutes..."

she hooks up right in front of the camp and oh my the screams of Joy!!!!   

Everyone came in for lunch and then VA Therapsit wanted to pack it up...

Did not fly with the Vets.....   

They all wanted to go back out, so we relaunched everyone to more fun....

I think we got around 30 vets out on the water...

we were pretty much at our max on that for the volunteers we had... 

 Food wise, we could have taken on another platoon...

Great Job everyone....

I could spend the whole day thanking everyone for their generous contribution of time, energy and money...

Special thanks to Paddleboy84 out there at Headwaters Kayak in Lodi who basically saved our bacon on this one by bringing 22 kayaks...  and Vwool and his wife and a couple others who I forgot their names who helped Dan bring so many yaks....

Thank You HeadWaters Kayak!!!! 

Skipro3 for taking care of the meat for Lunch and getting all the tackle that led to much success...

Kayakjack for the constant work you do in the kitchen, as much as I try to get you out of the kitchen, it never works.... 

Raydon/Frank/Bigfoot,  you were just awesome keying in situations and taking control and getting whatever needed to be done , done or whoever needed talking too, talked too, so I could take care of other things...

Really helped...

Got ta go right now and pics are what ya really want, so hope to hear more about what happen on the water...

But from what I saw and heard...  this was our most fishy event so far...

and think we have brought more wounded warriors to the Madness....

  Strong Work everyone!!!

more pics

Great job to all that helped and glade to be on the ban wagon with you all to serve the Vets.  I couldn't manage to put my vet on a fish eventhough I was missing fish left and right.  So decided to stay with the last 3 buddies and fish the last hours of the day light.  Overall this is good quality place for a kayak angler (not too big not too small of a lake) to catch and release some bass given the time to do so.  Just wished I'd had more time to discover the lake.
Maybe next year.  I'm sure Don wants to.        

Here are a few pics I took.
   This was Rene's first time fishing and kayaking. We took out a tandem into heavy winds. I have never paddled a tandem and he had never padled at all. After grabbing my fishing gear from my yak we headed out. We (I) decided to head all the way across the lake with the wind at our backs with hopes of continuing to find big bass. I had found a couple honey holes so we braved the wind. After we were casting for a while I decided to change up the presentation. As I was fooling around in the back seat changing up I heard a little splash and saw a fish leap out of the lilly pads. I then noticed Rene's rod was bent. Then I saw the fish jump again and his rod bend. Fish on! Unfortunately this fish braided itself into the lilly pads and we lost it. We then moved on. As I was again changing things and he says "I think I'm stuck". His rod was big time bendo, but his line was swimming away. I shouted for him to set the hook. He could not believe the fishes power. Nice 3-4 lb'r. We moved on again and found 2 more nice fish. Rene listened very well to my instructions. He kept tossing the brush hog into the same spot, even though I think he thought I was just messing with him. There can't be fish here, we cast 50 times in the same spot he probably thought. Well, after the first fish he ws a believer. After lunch I had Scott take him out on the PB and he hooked up 2 more.
  This was another great event. I am really glad the fish cooperated this time. Thanks to all the volunteers and especially Mr Kelsey.

A few more pics.
My fishing partner
Masked man Yester
Danglin after dark
Fresh blood on my new WS Ride 135
and a little fish porn

I arrived on Friday around 3 pm and promptly withered under the grinding heat. Made the mistake of parking first and then unloading...would have spared me extra fast heartbeats if I had done the reverse and saved unnecessary walking. Saturday brought breezy weather which was fine with me but made fishing a bit tougher.

More Friday pics

Friday pics

More prep work before the vets' arrival

Friday evening pre-fish

Kids had the perfect remedy for the heat

Food prep for breakfast and lunch on Saturday

Filling out waivers; hitting the water to beat the heat

Where's the fish?