BAMIII Highlights / October 5,6,7 2007

A really GREAT event! Thanks Sean for puttin it on! I love to hook em on flies but I'll know next time to bring the bait bucket baby! Got a lot of exercise though! I got skunked but still had a great time and I think that's what it's all about. It was really nice to meet so many people from this board and put real faces to the names. Awesome food! What can you say? Looking forward to doing it again!                                          

   I happened to be passing Danglin on my way back in right at 3:00 PM as he hooks up with a nice 29"er. Photo to follow.

Thanks for the great pics and reports for us home-bound folks.

So looks like chuckE is not so asleep at the wheel of AOTY! 

if there had been a catfish entry, he'd be way out there, eh?

Nice to see freddie competing at a high level too, but I think he had
a big striper already?

J

 Wow, a lot of stripers in this lake and caught by you! Congrates winners (chucke, freddie and andy). Interesting to see AOTY shuffled. Pretty close on the top contenders.

Looks like you guys got a perfect weekend up there weatherwise. Looks like the fish went on the grab just in time too. Wish I could have been there, but had to work. Think I'm going to try and get up there soon. Sounds like Chucke is the fish magnet!! Congrats.

Great weekend! Sorry I had to bail out early Sunday morning but I promised the wife I would be home early Sunday to give her a break. I arrived Friday around noon and Chuck, Freddie and Mooch where already there. I setup and chilled out a bit, did a little kitty fishing, no luck. Decided to go out for an evening paddle with Eric K and we greeted with a great sunset.



I ran into Chuck on his way back.



Clearly he was already on fire. Then Mooch showed us how it is done on the cleaning table.



Saturday I started a bit late and headed down to crappie cove. It was dead down there. Made my way back to Barn, still nothing for me. Saw Zeelander doa long distance release on a fish on the fly. Saw a Terry with a  double hookup on a smallie and a striper. Nothing for me until around noon then I got a nice 29" and missed 2 more . I was beginning to think my Mendo curse  was back.

Then the food started and oh man was it insane. I fried 200 lumpia, about 50 spring rolls and a bag of chicken wings, I still smell like a fry chief! The highlight for me was the fried oreos, man they where awesome.

I got to play pyro with the fire to top of a great day. Thanks to the White's for once again putting on an amazing event!

Ditto everyone on another excellent event hosted by GWKC.  Top notch all the way around! 

I had to bail at around 7:00 on Saturday night while the potluck was in full swing.  I reget to have missed the fried oreos... the idea kind of blows my mind.  The bacon wrapped dates were the bomb (thanks Mahi) and the mexican corn on a stick was both tasty and entertaining... what's not to like?  What an awesome group.

Fishing really couldn't have been better... I landed three stripers and lost one early on right off Vinegar... two were in the 27 inch range and one 21 inch dink.  The two I kept were so skinny they were difficult to fillet. I was happy to fill out three spots on my AOTY board this weekend, which was my goal.  I did battle with 5 smallmouth and 4 largemouth bass as well.  Lost a huge largemouth that would have been AOTY gold when it jumped out of my landing net... definitely in the 5# plus category... doh!  Biggest smallie was 17 inches, and I actually had two that size... lots of fun. 

A highlight for me was helping direct Janice on how to clean her LMB.  I told her that if she was going to harvest a fish, she'd need give it the "wood shampoo" for herself.  She didn't hesitate... and then she grabbed the knife and got to work...

Nice smallie there KZ,

  and ya just past me on the AOTY!!!!!

  I was on a 3 way tie with with Adam and Insane @ 1019,

 But something seems to have happened...

  Maybe Bill Docked me for bring a Electric Guitar to  a CampFire  

 

Scratch that, Looks like it just kicked in again for a 3 way tie for 6th place .... Danglin

 My first BAM and hope to never miss another.
Friday I got spotted by C-lake locals walking out of the bait shop, bucket in hand. I have some rep repair work ahead of me but the minnows were key for this adventure.
 Started the predawn saturday off with a FF that was non-op and then my kayak tried to escape me. I attempted to play it off like I was just being quick on the nab, but it was obvious to all that I came close to a early morning swim.
  Blasted off to the southend and got thick into a surface fog coming off the water like a white fire. Loved it. Thanks Bungle, for getting a shot of one of the many mistdevils that were all over the surface that morning.
 Had first shot at CC and the entire dam area dragging a minnow and slinging the bluefox or swim bait. Nothing.
 It was starting to feel like just another day for me at mendo, only this time I had to hear people taking victims on the radio as well as witnessing many stellar catches. I was headed back around noon and saw Mr Hopper putting on a clinic, where Bungle and I had spotted a big boil during the CSB tourney. I drifted into the cove and got some hot doubletime action. Smallmouth in the left hand and striper in the right. Very exciting! The striper hit the surface and shook loose. The SM came in at 16".  Kept heading north and ran into Freddie. Shortly after that we got into a pack of standard issue stripers. Took 2 victims, got the photo op, and released them unharmed. Still have permagrin!  Next year Im in for the complete BAM experience and Ill camp/feast.
What a amazing tribe of freaks, thanks for being who you are.
 

Congrats to Chuck, Freddie, and Andy!

As always the food and company were excellent (even if Mooch did bring the apron).  It was nice to meet some new faces as well as see some of my NCKA friends one more time before I leave for Portland at the end of the month.  I'm going to try real hard to make it back down next year.

Although I still haven't seen a Lake Mendo striper boil, Saturday's striper fishing lived up to the hype I keep hearing from Sean regarding the "best striper lake in the West".  I manged to hook up with about 7 of these fish and had a blast despite managing to weigh in only two of them for something like 12th place.

I also had fun with an inexpensive video cam that my wife picked for work (Oregon Scientific ATC2K ~$90 on line, water proof to 10 ft, a 2 gig SD card holds a few hours worth of video) and I borrowed it.  I decided to mount it on a PVC pole on my stern rather than go for the helmet cam ala SCWAfish.  Next time I may try an underwater mount or a Hydrospider vanity mount.  I think with a couple of these going at once you could edit some really cool videos from different angles.

I still need work on my editing skills and some music would be nice, but here is a first draft for your BAMIII fix.

Brian

Wow looks like you guys had a great time those are some great pics and storys. I wish I could have made it , but I was too busy up in the snow trying to track down the Bucks and Bear. I hope I can make it next time.

I couldn't fish or camp this year because of business commitments. But I did go up to deliver the trophy buckle I made and watch the weigh-in.
 The fish cooperated this year with big numbers hooked and a lot were released. The group as always was great and there was beautiful weather. The potluck was off the hook and the beer and wine was flowing. Bill warned me not to eat InSeine's deep fried Oreo's--I didn't listen,but neither did he!
  Congrats to ChuckE, Freddie, and KicknBass for their wins !
 
   Here's a few pics.
   
   The crowd at the weigh in
  in
   
   Sean weighing ChuckE's fish
     
   Chucks stringer
   
    Freddies fish
   
     Big J-Janice with her 5.5lb largemouth
     
     Our Papa Bill with his stringer
     
      Some of the usual suspects
       
     
      Juan-Mako 1 using his kid skilz
     
      Happy Chuck with his prize
     
      close up
     
   Itas another great NCKA outing! Gotta go...

Thanks for the reports and pics.

Take a closer look at the double rainbow and you will see the colors are inverted in the second rainbow.
Why does that happen?  I have no idea, just sometime cool to look at.

Lets do it once a month! Lots of fun hanging with the crew, and the food is always INSANE!
The long day made for a guilt-free snooze till 6:30, I hooked up as soon as I got to Noaki and Brian's "secret" spot with a 4 lb striper, weighed and released, ended up with two more at 6 and 7 lbs, for the dinner table, putting me close to the top, but out of the top three, then Chuck and Freddie paddle in...

Sunday, Anita and I took the canoe out and tried to blend in with the yaks... Its now designated the BBQ/ beer cooler platform. Anyway, I managed another 27 inch striper and a whopper LMB at , yes Big J, 23 1/2 "
It was a twin of yours! It had 2 soft-plastics in its gut. I keep one lmb a year, and this was it! Had more meat on it than the longer stripers.
Lots of fun meeting and hanging with all!!

Oh yes, and congrats to the winners!!!

Congrats to all the winners and a BIG THANK YOU to Sean and Leah for making BAM happen again    Already looking forward to BAM IV.

What can I say....the food, the fishing and the camaraderie was EPIC  

Joel "Proud member of NCKA"
 

more and more pics to follow.....