Gimme Shelter III - Shelter Cove - The Lost Coast (Swim Vid on Pg. 4)

I'm standing up on my balcony at the potluck and I announce it's time for prizes, and my 5 year old to my left says, "I want a prize too, Dad!"     That was priceless.   

I'm standing up on my balcony at the potluck and I announce it's time for prizes, and my 5 year old to my left says, "I want a prize too, Dad!"     That was priceless.   

Just give him some marshmallows and a campfire and 6 hrs to get the 'perfect' one. I have never seen a little guy more focused!

HOW AWESOME WAS OUR WEEKEND GUYS......................

Man I had a blast at Shelter Cove. This place is friggen beautiful. I am most definitely coming back here at 3 more times this year while RF season is open. Count me in for all the future Gimme Shelter events.

Eric "Abking Almighty" it was so great getting to hang with you and fish with my brother. Thank you very much for putting this wonderful event together and bring all these awesome people to together to do what we love most. Loooking forward to hooking up with later on this year for salmon fishing.

Jedmo my brother you killed it this weekend. Congrats on the big and Unusual haul. Congrats on first place. Yohe u deserve it for fishing hard. Especially Saturday with the huge swells and rough conditions. I'm glad you played it thru because it sure paid off.

Dominic cograts on SICK Pacific Halibut. That was one incredible catch. It was a pleasure fishing with you and exploring all the far off areas past the whistle buoy. It was so cool of you, Eric, Pete B., and Padre to rough it out with me on Sat we conquered the peak of the mean swells and hard wind. It layed down bigtime after that and we were SPOILED ROTTEN with sweet flat conditions. The fishing was off the hook from then on. Salmon fishing dude I will see you up in your neck of the woods.

Its always a pleasure to fish with my buddies Pete B., Pat "Sin Coast", Sonny "Sailfish", Al, EWB, Gabe "El Dorado", Joe "Yakaroo", Phil "Northern Boy, Lisa, Andy, Aaron "Pisciform", Don "Danglin", & Bob N.

It was a pleasure meeting for the first time, hanging, and fishing with Merv "Amphibian", Padre, Matt S., Adam "Auburn Trout Fisherman" & wife, Shannon & wife, Stoggie, Banjotad, Greg "Spdrcr" & hardcore sleep on the ground no tent buddy of his, Trophy1 & son, Kayakjack (dude the food you made was awesome), Scott "Great Bass", Abman, Dustin "Rockhopper", Dr. Habanero, Fishinmike, Kent, and everyone esle who's names I forgot (I apologize their were so many people there.

Dominic, Matt S., & EWB you guys are awesome craftsman. I was drooling over all the, homemade gaffs, fish thumpers, leadheads, and jigs. Keep up thegreat work. I was just bummed that I didn't bring extra cash to buy usome cool new toys.

Matt S. next time I see you I would like to buy one of your custom gaffs (special request can you bore out the but end and fill with lead?). I can just send you a check and maybe just ship it to me?

To everyone who cooked up a dish for potluck, I tried every dish there and everything was amazingly
delicious. I had a big ole belly after.

My total tally for the weekend of fishing:

Fri- 2 cabs kept for lunch & dinner, 10 cabs released, 4 lings released, fat Verm kept, China RF released, endless blacks released.

Sat- 2 cabs kept, 9 cabs released, 1 ling kept 28", 8 lings released, countless numbers of blacks released.
 
Sun- 4 cabs released, 1 ling kept 25", 3 lings released, 5 blacks kept, countless numbers of black released.

All cabs were big in 19" to 22" range. All lings 23' to 28" range.

Forgot to mention I did my very first Ab dive on sunday and picked to legal abs. Viz was awesome, lots of shorts in shallow, picked two 7-1/2", tried several times at a spot where I found 3 Abs in the 8" & 8-1/2" hanging out togther under a rock 15 to 20 fow. Everytime I tried for them I made a stupid mistake, my iron and gauge would clank against the rock and they'd shut down on me.

I wore a 5mm Picasso with my 1.5mm NRS farmer john and it ket me pretty warm. Had a blast trying for the abs. I was so stoked I got 2. Can't wait to try for them again.

Abking - thanks for organizing the best NCKA event that did happen. Only 364 days till GS4. Be sure to thank your wife and family also. Had a great time. I released 75% of the fish I caught and will refrain from any carnage shots as promised. Had a great time fishing with some new folks like Ariel Sea, Abman and Auburntroutfisherman. Congrats Jed, Dustin and Eric for some really nice fish. Will post more details and pics later.

Scott

I released 75% of the fish I caught and will refrain from any carnage shots as promised.

What's up with no carnage shots?

Yeah, thanks again to Eric. This was a great event. Thanks also for organising the weather; I would never have thought we'd be in shorts and T's for a potluck (effectively) on the beach.

Thanks also to Scott for the Ling co-ordinates for the triple hookup!

I also have some video of Al's Big Adventure, but I'll wait for him to tell the story before it gets posted.

I hope I'll get back to Shelter Cove one day!

What an Awesome time!!!!!!!

 Thanks so much AbKing for making this happen,  to share this place and this community of people with my family is truly something special...

 Had the sweet spot at the tides, Very Kool,  Great meeting with everyone when I could,

 wanted to keep on deck with the Fam as much as possible...

 

Danglin's a superhero for his Command Center coolness

 Thanks, but the real Hero's there were the fore mentioned getting to Al so quickly, getting a PB to assist and getting the Yak in safe...

 without going off into a thread jack, I would like to say that Communications is key,.. you lose that,

 You've lost the War... 

I was lucky to have a perfect vantage point, 2 VHF radios, one to monitor 69,

and the other to update the Coast Guard as to what we need and what was happening...

 Having one person to coordinate that radio traffic is what is key to keep confusion down...

Hard to do when things start going to Hell,

 Things went very well, and Again, ConGrats to all involve who made this a Great Story....


 Back to the Carnage!!!!!         

 

Amazing Weekend!
It was a long trip for some of us traveling 7 plus hours to get there, but it was worth it.
Thanks to everyone who set it up, my buddy Al for a great hookup and FM1 for the tee shirts.
Hooked up with some awesome people... thanks to Matt and BanjoTad for being great neighbors. Matt I wish you hadn't given us those Flip's

For those who don't know , it is a drink with beer (of course) whiskey, milk and sugar (I thought that too)  but it was a great drink. Now I know what to get the old lady liquored up with.

I haven't seen so many huge fish! most everything caught were impressive species and in great quantity too.

I caught countless Cabs, (kept two for dinner... yum) several Lings and got to keep my first ever legal ling that went between 27 and 29 inches. The black rockfish were huge and several football size 4 to 5 pounders were caught as well (I kept a full bag to take home to the wife and she was pleased, fish soup tonite for dinner as well as a grilled ling.. can't wait)

All in all, caught fish everyday and had too many laughs to count.

I can't express how much fun this was and was amazed at all the super nice people at this hookup, simply EPIC as Al said.

I vote for another trip, maybe later in the year.

The pics that are on the post and future ones (I'll try to get some online) are awesome, hope it gets people stoked for next time. It would be awesome to see 100 yaks on the water next year.

More Later

Stoggie

Well, I had a great time too. It was great to see all you guys, and terrific fishing. I only fished on Saturday, ended up with a hefty cabezon about 23", a nice copper and a couple of decent blacks. I released several fish including some small lings, six or eight rock fish and a flat fish that I think (after consulting Peterson's field guide to pacific coast fishes) is a sand sole. It doesn't have the markings that Cal. Halibut usually have, and the book says the sand sole is gray to brown or greenish with black speckles which looks about right. Also the sand sole is described as having threadlike rays at the front of the dorsal fin mostly free of the fin membrane, and the rays show clearly in the picture.
Anyhow, I also released a few nice lings unintentionally. I swear that some of them grab the bait but somehow avoid the hook and then just let go when they see you getting ready to grab em. I got a few doubles with a rockfish on one hook and a small ling on the other hook, which is disappointing because it feels like something big at first.
A terrific trip, I'd like to go there again and next time plan to stay a little longer so I can fish more. Thanks again to the AbKing for organizing, and to FishMaster for the shirts. Good job everyone on the potluck. Thanks to Hawk for the ride down to the launch and to Jedmo for towing my boat up the hill and back to camp. I'll see you all again the next time.

Had a great time. Nice to meet all of you. NCKA's are over the top guys and gals to be around!!
Kent

I had a great time and enjoyed a new location. Several of you told me you would put up some fish soup recipes so please don't forget. I hope to make the Sonoma/Mendo opening on June 13th. Who's in? My son is out of school after next week and we will be making trips up there to spear and dive for abs. Company welcome. Thanks to everyone for a great time. Who made the berry cobbler? 

The Auburn Trout Dude was on fire for his first saltwater adventure. Legal lings and more rockies than his freezer can hold. Never saw him without a smile.

Great scenery and nice people on the lost coast. Almost as nice as Big Sur. 

OK - I thought we said Martha Stewart could not join NCKA?  Actually, this salad was the coolest thing at the potluck. The little cucumber halibut and carrot paddles were sooooo cute.  I think people were afraid to eat it so I dug in and it tasted good.