Lake Berryessa Salmon Slam 4/2

i realy tryed to make it loaded the truck fri. night, got up sat at 4am, almost drove off then my stomach started acting up, went back in the house and spent the rest of the day on the couch and bathroom, my fever peaked last nigh at 103*, i feel better now and hope to see you at clear lake.

Another great time with the NCKA crew.THANK YOU  Ricci ,Gary,Christina an Rick.Food was great as usual.Congradulations to the winners .Thank you to the unselfish anglers who always share their knowledge and tips.

What can I say but another beautiful day otw with NCKA!! Not many fish to fool, but thanks to you guys for putting on a geat first event, like a couple of pros!  Tons of sponsors and food, some great tshirts  I think we all had a great day, especially the fish, who got to live another day!     

Really bummed I missed this event. Been having issues breathing again and I have a scheduled surgery on Tuesday.
Anyway, I'm glad that there was a great turn and many thanks to Ricci and Co. for making this event possible.
Congrats to the winners ! Scott the "Trout Whisperer" seems to be dominating the trout scene. I don't know why his nickname is "GreatBass" 

Let's see more pics!!!!

Great event, great crowd, great food! Thank you Ricci, Gary, Christina, and Rick senior for putting together such an epic event for us. I really appreciate it very much. Fishing was only so-so for me, but I rubbed off some mojo from FishingAddict by riding in his truck and landed a tiny 12.85" king salmon, enough to win 2nd. And I want to thank GB2 for letting me pick the custom rod created and donated by Adman. It is top notch. There were so many other sponsors and swags you guys put together, there's no way this is your first gig. I think those Deadly Dicks are gonna be killer for cods. With all the free swags I got, I can't wait to catch a real kokanee with them 

Thanks for a wonderful time!!!

A big thanks to Christina, Ricci and Gary for a great event.  I was bummed to be leaving early, but had made commitments with Chryss    .  I had a great time meeting new folks and hanging with old folks and fishing the super clear Berry water.  Didnt catch a single fish, but I'm used to that  .  I will be back this week, I have some unfinished business...

Love the shirt!

Really bummed I missed this event. Been having issues breathing again and I have a scheduled surgery on Tuesday.
Anyway, I'm glad that there was a great turn and many thanks to Ricci and Co. for making this event possible.
Congrats to the winners ! Scott the "Trout Whisperer" seems to be dominating the trout scene. I don't know why his nickname is "GreatBass" 

Let's see more pics!!!!

You were sorely missed Mooch!! Take care of yourself and do what you have to do so you wont miss another event!!   

Thanks to everyone that contributed to an outstanding event, especially Ricci, Gary, Christina, and Rick Sr. Great group of people, and the food was fantastic. Also, thanks for the goodie bags to start the day, I wouldn't have caught my fish without it! It started out pretty tough, but finally two ounces of weight followed by a seps dodger and a pink buggie thing(from the goodie bag) tipped with corn got my one fish of the day. Great to meet many of you, and I'm looking forward to the next one!

Roger

Want to thank Gary and Ricci for the warm greeting. This was my first event and my freinds and I were very impressed with the whole group. One thing that was hard to believe was all the preperation that went into making that fantastic lunch. You just had to be their.
I didnt catch any fish but was more interested in trying my new Revo out and getting ideas on how to rig it. It was fun to walk around and see all the inovative ways to rig up their yak. Cant wait to join in again for another trip soon.

Thanks again John Larry and Mike who feel into the water getting out of his kayak at the end.

WOW WHAT A DAY AND WE ALL COULDNT HAVE BEEN BLESSED WITH BETTER WEATHER! I WANNA THANK EVERYONE WHO DID SHOW UP TO FISH, WE HAD A TOTAL OF 39 ENTRIES. I AM VERY PLEASED AND HAPPY TO SAY THAT IT COULDNT HAVE GONE ANY BETTER EXCEPT FOR THE LACK OF FISH! FISHING WAS ON THE SLOW SIDE, BUT NONE THE LESS, THE PERSISTENCE AND PATIENCE OF A FEW GOOD FISHERMAN CAME THROUGH! CONGRATS TO THE TOP 3 FINISHERS AND TO EVERYONE ELSE WHO CAUGHT SOME FISH. I WANNA THANK ALL ARE SPONSORS, ADMAN, ROCKFISH, AND MOOCH FOR ALL OF THIER GENEROUS DONATIONS THAT HELPED MAKE THIS EVENT GREAT, COULDNT HAVE DONE IT WITH OUT YALL, THANK YOU. THE BBQ AND POTLUCK WAS A HIT AS ALWAYS WITH PLENTY TO EAT AND THE RAFFLE AFTERWARDS IMO WENT VERY GOOD MAKING EVERYONE WHO SHOWED UP A WINNER! LASTLY BUT NOT LEASTLY, I WANNA THANK MY CO-HOST GARY, CHRISTINA, AND MY POPS RICK SR. FOR HELP MAKING THIS EVENT POSSIBLE, ABSOLUTELY COULDNT HAVE DONT IT WITHOUT YALL, LOVE YOU GUYS! I AM TRULY BEAT AND EXHAUSTED AND IM ACTUALLY AT STARBUCKS RIGHT NOW WRITING THIS REPORT CAUSE I STILL DONT HAVE INTERNET HOOKED UP YET, LOL. HERES SOME PICS FROM THE FIRST BERRYESSA SALMON SLAM 2011....THANK YOU ALL AND LOOK FORWARD TO DOING IT ALL AGAIN NEXT YEAR, RICCI CHAVEZ

Top 3 Finishers

1) GreatBass2- Scott
2) Lucky13- Ernest
3) Barefoot1- Jeff

Epic hookup thanks mostly to the countless hours put into organizing this event by Ricci and Gary.  Thanks guys, all your hard work was obvious and appreciated.  Couldn't have asked for better weather, and wouldn't think of asking for better fishing - these things have a way of working themselves out and now I have a TON of koke gear.  I expect to work that lake hard this spring, the fish will come, they always do.  Congrats to everyone who managed to pull a king out, it was a lot of work out there.

Am I the only one who wants to Facebook-style tag that group photo - lots of new faces for me.  It was great to meet lots of guys I feel like I already know - hope to see you all again soon.

A big congrats to all who were able to score a target fish!(especially if you were on a cool yellow scrambler)

Tony you mean this kid?

More pics

a few pics

Oh and I'm totally kicking myself for forgetting to snap a pic of that King with the longliner attached - that was good for a free longliner.
Rats.

Really bummed I missed this event. I don't know why his nickname is "GreatBass" 

Joel -

Sorry you missed the event. Was looking foreward to seeing you. Let's hook-up soon for some fishing. You know I was a CNR only trout and bass fly angler for 10 years before joining NCKA. Then I was lured to the dark side and became a dedicated meat hunter and gave up bass fishing since I don't like eating them and out of respect to the bass anglers of America. I did catch 2 spots on Saturday and released them.

Scott

First, thanks to Ricci, Gary, Christina, and Rick senior for hosting such an excellent event. Really well organized and the food was excellent. No shortage of meat or beer for sure.  The tutorial on salmon and kokanee fishing was excellent and the mods should put a sticky on it. Special thanks to the sponsors escpecially Adventure Sports. I bought my OK Malibu 2 XL from them 2 years ago and got a great price and good service. Congrats to all the others who caught fish and especially Lucky 13 who scored a really sweet custom rod from Adman.

Now for my report. Was one of the last to get there and launched around 745 and trolled crank baits around the cove. Caught a small spot and released him. Headed out to the main lake and dam to join the plastic armada. Switched over to the recommended stuff, dodger/spinner/hoochie on the downrigger and a rapala TDD7 on the other. Water temp was 58-60 degrees with good clarity but a ton of floating debris which made trolling difficult.  Marked fished at 15-20' ,40-60' and 150-170' and trolled as deep as 60' for nada. Around 10 I decided to switch to spooning since everybody was trolling and not much was happening. Since the sun was still low on the water I decided to work the fish at 15-20' first then go verticle for the deeper fish. Got out my new Loomis rod and launched my 1/4 oz silver and blue Kastmaster about 150' towards the dam, counted to 20 and started a slow retrieve. About 100' from the boat I get a heavy takedown and then ZZZZZZZ. Oh yeah, I could tell it was a decent fish but thought it might be a trout. After about 5 runs I brought it to color and it was a king.  Got it in the net, then the boga and Molly gave it the lick of death which means the next stop is the frying pan. In my bass fishing days I would often have a "fish of a thousand casts" day but a salmon on a single cast was pretty cool. Made a few more casts and decided to call it a day and headed back into the cove. I beached the kayak so Molly could play fetch in the water. Had a few hours to kill so switched back to bass fishing and caught another small spot on a wacky rigged senko. Pretty good day of fishing for a guy who has logged 5 trout skunks this year and 8 WSB skunks last year.  The Loomis rod I built from a blank I bought from the Rod Rack last year at the going out of business sale. It replaced the Loomis rod I lost at Loch Lomond 4 years ago. Loomis was bought by Shimano and they no longer sell blanks so this is the last Loomis rod I will own. Just another reason to hate Shimano. Anyway, what a great casting rod. I know wat your thinking, Loomis.. So what?" 

Scott