Extremist backlash from Elk

FYI-A few uninformed eco-extremists from Elk are putting our supporters (aka Vince) at the ECC through the small town wringer.   Apparently our human powered vessels collecting sub-limits for fish has decimated the north coasts population of rockfish.  

Should they chime in here, please don't think they reflect the overall attitude of the town or the ECC.  There always at least one person who has to be the turd in the punch bowl.

As an old friend used to say..."there is no reasoning with the unreasonable" so I would respectfully ask that we help Vince out by not engaging any of these folks if they show up here.

Like all of you, we had a great time and feel absolutely great about every aspect of the event.

I have read all of your reports on the trip. I couldnt make it but did want to go, although I do see that the pictures you posted on the internet of the trip would abviously create problems...
#1 Environmentaists would obviously see this as a ton of people taking all the fish in that area.
#2. Now that place will definately be hit hard by everyone wanting to catch a big lingcod and it will definately affect the fishery in that area..

I am not saying anything derogatory to any of you. You are all very talented fisherman, just whenever there is a get together or tourney of sorts there will naturally be repercussions unless its not posted for the world to see.

My personal opinion is 40 kayaks on the water is way better than 2 party boats

Concern for the environment is the reason that -

1 - No Cobra Kayaks Products are tested on Animals.
2- I forego eating Beans, or anything containing a high amount of sulfides, prior to paddling. In this way I feel I classify as a "LEV" (Low Emmission Vehicle)
3 - I only smoke cigarettes with organically grown cotton filters while on the water.
4 - I have seen the evilness of my ways and no longer kill wild Nauga's to take their hides.
5 - I use only Tofu-Squid for bait.
6 - All of my fishing rods are made without the use of leather.
7 - I try to only use "Free Range" sardines, and refuse to use any bait that contains any Human Growth Hormones.
8 - I refuse to take whales from my kayak for fear of depleting the species. (Not from any silly instinct for self preservation)
9 - All of my fishing gear is PETA approved (People Eating Tasty Animals)
10 - I ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS practice "Catch and Release" on Starfish, Kelp, and stray rocks I bring to the surface.

Ric

That seems as silly to me as Hollister, California banning Harleys on the 4th of July....

Mr. Matt,

#1 - So the real problem is one of perception I think. It seems like a lot of people showed up. What is the right number? 1, 2, 0 , 39 ??? I would guess (rough guess) the average string was 4 fish x 40 people so we took 160 fish. A typical party boat with 40 people would more than likely take limits of rocks a lings so it would be 12 x 40 or 480 fish. I think we all did our best to limit our impact. I personaly released about 20 fish as did the others I was fishing with. We could have easily keep limits but we did not.

#2 So does anyone honestly believe no one knew Elk was a good spot to catch fish? I mean come on people, look at a topo map of the coast. You can easily tell that Elk would hold fish. Hell you can tell the entire north coast will hold fish at various spots as well as the central coast. The further these spots are away for ports the less pressure thus more fish. It is not rocket science here. Nothing has prevented someone from launching at Albion and fishing Elk prior to us being there. Nothing we have done will change anyones mind about fishing there. I will most likely not go back there because it is to far for me to drive to catch rockfish. I would much rather fish HMB or Linda Mar.

All these people at there secrets are so misguided  

All these people at there secrets are so misguided

Shhhhh! Dangit Bill! That was supposed to be a SECRET!

Ric

Bill:

Exactly.  We have had many posts about wide open action at Big Sur...was there a tidal wave of yaks afterward...nope.  People were in Elk for the EVENT as much as the fishing itself.  Good fishing, especially for rockfish, isn't all that hard to find for kayakers.

We posted a bunch last year about hole-in-fence.  Its the same as Elk, isolated and hard to get to.  Over run since then?  Hardly.

There are places I fish that we didn't have the tourney at for the same criteria.  There is fishing near Elk that is just as good and much easier to access via yak.  We kept that under cover so we didn't run the risk of less scrupulous folks wreaking havoc.

Jason said this in another post "Everyone has valid points regarding the issues of Secret spots. But for the most part they are only secret to us."

I think that says it all.  And as Bill said, Elk is a great place to fish, But from the north coast Alaska to the southern most part of Baja, Mexico.  The coast still has many great fishing spots, and most of us (except for the few tournament we do) will fish close to home. Elk is just not close to home for most of us.

I was thinking elk was kind of far for a typical weekend trip for me, but on account of them being a$$holes, I'll go out of my way to put 'their' fish in my cooler.  I'll probably be soliciting carpoolers for sept 3rd.

P-spark: Not helpful, and as I said before its not the prevailing attitude, just that of a few.  Turning it into a conflict doesn't help anyone, and this is exactly where I don't want it to go.

it was a great spot to fish, no doubt, but it is far away from us and that is why the people of elk live there. some of us may fish there a few times a year now, but as a group we are respectful of our resources. i fished 3 days there, i took a half limit, a 3/4 limit and 0 fish on the last day. i fish mendicino 3 times a year, this will add to my repetoire but that means only 2 trips a year at most. the elk enviros should consider building a bridge to us, that would be much more helpful, after all we have common goals-lots of wild fish forever! we have bigger "fish to fry", mlpa, delta water exports etc. it is not constructive for us to fight amongst ourselves.
 the people of elk have something beautiful there, it is honorable that they want to protect it. they have to come to terms with something however, do  they[and we] want to protect it FROM  ouselves or FOR ourselves?
'

I just want to say that all of the locals that I talked too were very kind.  I acctually felt that most of the people there accepted us kindly and it was nice getting to talk to a few of them and having a few around when we were bringing up fish.  I also was impressed witht he man who had the homemade wood row boat out there.  I thought that was pretty cool and he was a nice guy.  I'm still wandering how he gets it down to the water.

#2 So does anyone honestly believe no one knew Elk was a good spot to catch fish? I mean come on people, look at a topo map of the coast. You can easily tell that Elk would hold fish. Hell you can tell the entire north coast will hold fish at various spots as well as the central coast. The further these spots are away for ports the less pressure thus more fish. It is not rocket science here. Nothing has prevented someone from launching at Albion and fishing Elk prior to us being there.

Bill: I basically agree with you.  However, accessability is only one factor in why spots don't get fished.  Another is  "out of site, out of mind"  There are many sites were once "inacessible," but once people figured out they held quality fish, they also figured out the logistics of getting to them and made them accessible.  When you think about it, folks k-fishing there is kind of an example.  The web is just such a big stage.  When posting fish pictures there, the audience could be quite large.  Gives a lot of people ideas.

pescadero-dave

I think landing the fish on the beach where non-fishermen congregate kind of shocks them.  They'd be much more shocked if they went to the cleaning tables at noyo harbor, but they don't.  We're just more visibile, so more prone to catch flak.

#2 So does anyone honestly believe no one knew Elk was a good spot to catch fish? I mean come on people, look at a topo map of the coast. You can easily tell that Elk would hold fish. Hell you can tell the entire north coast will hold fish at various spots as well as the central coast. The further these spots are away for ports the less pressure thus more fish. It is not rocket science here. Nothing has prevented someone from launching at Albion and fishing Elk prior to us being there.

Bill: I basically agree with you.  However, accessability is only one factor in why spots don't get fished.  Another is  "out of site, out of mind"  There are many sites were once "inacessible," but once people figured out they held quality fish, they also figured out the logistics of getting to them and made them accessible.  When you think about it, folks k-fishing there is kind of an example.  The web is just such a big stage.  When posting fish pictures there, the audience could be quite large.  Gives a lot of people ideas.

pescadero-dave

 Are you suggesting that we don't talk about the tourney that we had or post any pictures?