NorCal Kayak Anglers
Kayak Fishing Zone => Fishing Tournaments and Events => Topic started by: The X Inn Keeper on August 22, 2011, 09:00:13 AM
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Thank you to all those who made the treck to Caples Lake
What can I say, for the 50 anglers (plus family and friends) the weather was beautiful, the scenery was spectacular the friendships were awsome. However the fishing was slow at best. It appears that in all the planning for this event I overlooked the most important thing of all .... TO INVITE THE FISH :smt005
I would like to thank the sponsors who have been so generous with the prizes this year, this truly is the icing on the cake. Also want to thank Jamie Flores for the hookup at the Rockstar Lodge.
As I stated above, the fishing was a little tuff but a few persistant anglers were able to produce a little magic on the mountian and come out with a fish or two. Of these few the top three were;
3rd Place
Dillon Gibbons (Sacramento)
with 12 inches (of fish :smt003 )
2nd Place
Frank Nunes (Livermore)
with 12.5 inches (also of fish :smt005)
1st Place (Top Angler)
Anthony Benzinger (Ripon)
with a massive 13inches (yes, of fish :smt044 )
Well as tough as the fishing was, there is no plase else I would have enjoyed getting SKUNKED as I did here.
A few asked why I chose this lake, the truth is Tahoe was my original plan but when someone seggested Caples, I knew it would have to be as this was one of the last few places I fished with my father before he passed a few years back.
Thanks for joining me,
Eric / Yakhopper
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More porn from the lake
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More porn
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In memory of my Pop
Love Ya Dad :smt006
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Thank you again Eric!
My kids had a great time competing in their first kayak tournament. I had a ball seeing all of our friends, and helping all of them out where I could. Met some new people, and some friends I have not seen in a while. We are already making plans for next year!
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Thanks Eric,
Had a great time even though the fishing was slow. Both days I was there the weather was great. One fish on Sat and none on Sun. Oh well, that's fishing. Should have tried a few more than the 50 different ways I tried. Also thanks for he hook up on the rooms. See you next time at Tiki.
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Thanks for the update and congrats to the winners!
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Sounds like you pulled off another great event, Eric - WTG! :smt001
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Beautiful scenery there and it looks so peaceful and relaxing. I am envious I couldn't make it.
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I think Caples lake was/is a good choice for the tournament. Tahoe has better fishing, but with much less boat traffic, smaller wind waves and less crowded facilities; Caples is a much better spot for a family oriented event.
The fishing wasn't great, but the fish are there and it will just continue to get better unless it is drained again.
Great job as always! I can't wait for Tiki lagoon, where you will draw my name for a new ultra :smt044
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I am convinced its just about fishless! I threw/trolled everything, panther martins, mepps, kastmasters, cripplures, swimbaits, rainbow rapalas, tipped with worms, garlic scent, top water, midwater and bottom, ended the day fishing worms and even rainbow power bait for not even a nibble :smt013
I agree, hard to beat that visual and camping, we had a great time!
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Congrats to the top 3 "catchers" . A BIG "THANK YOU" to Eric for another successful event and hope to make the next one. Let's do our best to support Fishermans Warehouse and to all the other sponsors that made this event possible.
The "fishing" to many was tough / slow......I think of it as challenging :smt045 I'll be back there again. Perhaps, do a Fish n' Chill event before the year ends. I like the fact that there are no water skiers or Personal water crafts disturbing the peace and quite. The scenery and water clarity is tough to beat! (I'm taking my stand up paddle board next time).
Special thanks to:
- to those that gave me $ donations - thank you for your support :smt008
- Jeff / iroelikethat (which I now have nicknamed him "I.road.rage.like.that" :smt002) for letting me stay at his condo for a couple of nights.
- Agarcia and Pacifico for "baby sitting" me on the drive home. I was feeling weak at the end of the day and they both offered to drive my truck so I can ride shot gun with one 'em on the other truck. How cool is that.
* Special mention to Rich / Montana for offering everyone help with their kayaks despite his bad back - you have a big heart my friend :smt008 Hope your back heals completely brother!
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My first Yak tournament and I came in tied for seventh!!!! Whoo Hoooo!!! well I guess tied for eighth if you count the person who trapped those minnows for bait. Still I am going to take that top ten to the bank. Maybe get some t-shirts made. Now, if I can figure out how I'll add it to the bottom of my posts "Fishermans's Warehouse Yakhoppers Kayak Tournament tied for 7th place finisher".
My second donut for Caples. Beautiful place to get skunked though.
My favorite parts: Using the Mormon-Emigrant road on the way up in the pitch black darkness (sky clarity for days) and on the way back - beautiful and no traffic. Being my first event outside of a couple of Hookups, finally getting a face to screen names. People are even nicer in person. Getting my hog trough and meeting Mooch. Hot dogs after a lot of scenic paddling. Now having some history so that in future events I can say, "yea- fishings been tough. You remember back at that Caples Lake Tournament..." and to be able to not sound like such a newbie. Winning a swag bag. Looking forward to the next event at Tiki.
Thanks for all your efforts Yakhopper and all those who contributed.
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Had a great time Thank you to Eric and all of the sponsers!!!!! Fishing was REALLY slow but pops managed to still get one it was 11 1/2 inches tie for fourth oh well he missed it by a half inch for a tie for 3rd. Great day on the water couldnt have asked for better conditions or better company. The best part of the trip was getting to introduce my Dad to kayak fishing and all the nice people I have met through this site. I still have yet to get the women out but still working on that one im convinced its gonna take a Raptor or A.I to get her out she doesnt have the best balance and isnt to fond of water yet............ :smt005 Oh well tournament was awesome got a swag bag too, and had a great time fishing with everyone, hope to make the next one !!!! :smt004
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Thanks again Eric and all of the Sponsors! It was my first NCKA event and I had a GREAT time! Its to bad I caught my two fish the day before though! My 9 year old son got to fish as well and it made his whole weekend winning a raffle bag! It was really cool to put some faces to the screen names. It was a great group of people! I look forward to the next outing. I wont be able to make Tiki Lagoon but you can let me know where to pick up my new Ultra :smt002 :smt044....
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Thanks again Eric for hosting this event, I had a blast as always. I was stoked about getting up to caples and wasnt quite sure i was until last minute, Thanks Gary for carpooling it sure helps a lot and is nice to hav a good buddy along on a long drive. It was also great to see so many of the Sac Crew Guys up there as well, We cleaned up! :smt003...Congrats to all the Winners, You all are obvisoulsy a lot smarter than me for using quality made stringers!! Damn China! :smt010....Yea the fishing was pretty slow, but Ol' Num nuts here still managed two fish, 1 of them being a SURE placer too! :smt013. I have never caught a brown before, and was stoked when I did right off the bat in
the morning over by the dam. I did everything right except take a Damn picture of the fish on a the Ruler and put it on my game clip! Instead, i put the fish on a cheap chain stringer, made in china, took a couple of paddles and looked back, it was gone! NOOOOOOOOOOOOO....But why my 1st brown! I had a feeling all morning and day that fish was gonna haunt me and it did! :smt013....That makes two rookie mistakes now, and Mooch knows the first! shhhhhhhh mooch!....Im still pretty stoked tho for getting up there and fishing Caples with all my NCKA Buds, it was fun!.....
One more yakhopper event left, I WILL BE READY!
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I'm so bummed I had to miss this - I was REALLY looking forward to it. I've read so many Caples reports that it's not even funny and thought what a better first time out ... NOT! Don't get me started as to why.
Congrats to everybody that made it and those that placed.
Sadly, it looks like I won't be able to make the final Tiki event but that's how it goes. I've got a final camping trip already planned. I've got my eyes set on next year's event though!
Thanks again Eric, Fisherman's Warehouse, and sponsors!
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Congrats to the top three on your win. Frank so stoked for you to take 2nd you
fish catching machine you. :smt003 See all at Tikki if not sooner.
Jedmo
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I would like to thank Eric, Fisherman's Warehouse, and all the rest of the generous sponsors for such a wonderful event , had a blast cant wait for Tiki. see you all there
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just a couple of pic to add....
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OK, just stopped sulking from a Caples Lake BEAT DOWN!
But, I did had a great time up at one of my favorite spots, fishing with my bro's, hanging at the Rockstar motel, partying at yet another cool Yakhopper/FW tourney! Got a chance to meet some more NCKA'ers, and even met up with a childhood neighborhood friend from the 60's - great to fish with you dergib!
Weimarian, thanks for securing the lodge and making things livable, Rob, your BBQ chicken was damn tasty!
Arrived Sat. at 4pm to pre-fish and got a pre-skunk.
Got to the Rockstar and proceeded to party like one...(a OG rockstar :smt044) BTW, had a blast with all of the roomies! :smt006
Finally went to sleep at 2:30a - Alarm went off at 4:30a :smt009
Got to the ramp and fumbled around forever finally getting on the water kinda late.
Decided I was gonna fish big lures for big fish :smt044 - that didn't work out so well.
Switched to trolling med. sized Rapalas in various flavors - nada.
Started stripping Wooly Buggers - not.
Jigged with dead minnows over what I hoped were Macs - Zero.
Went back to trolling, then finished up tossing a Kastmaster and trolling it back to the ramp. - To complete the circumnavigation and resultant SKUNK!!!!! :smt013
To top off the day I dropped my wet fly box in about 30 ft of H20 by the inlet, I've had that box since 1983! :smt009
Maybe it's time to start tying my own flies.
So, I'll conclude with a hearty CONGRATS to those lucky NCKA'ers who scored podium spots and to everyone who caught a fish or scored one of those sweet swag bags!
Oh, and thanks Eric/Yakhopper, it was nice to meet your family, and many thanks for putting these events on.
It was sure fun to fish with friends!
Hope to see everyone at Tiki - novofish
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Art and I didn't make it to the lake on time to fish but we were there, my first event in a long time. I hadn't been to any of the Yakhopper events but now I understand why everyone likes them so much...he throws on heck of an event and regardless of the fishing you can't beat the places he picks.
The RockStar Lodge was great to stay at. Not only was the price right but the location is great and the guys running it were mellow and made staying there pretty relaxing.
Thanks to Yakhopper for putting on the events and congratulations to the winners...it sounds like you definetely deserved the win.
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Great event! Thanks Eric for all your hard work. I managed to get three people to come and fish who probably would have not otherwise, I think they are hooked on these events now.
After doing my research I knew fishing was going to be tough so I got/brought everything I could think of. And down sized lure and line size. I went so far as to re-tie my spinners and hooches in 4lb fluorocarbon (good idea bad implementation) :smt013
I ended up catching one brown on the east side of the lake in between the rocks. Trolling in the first few feet with a 4" watermelon dodger, and a pink/purple spinner with 4lb fluorocarbon and a night crawler. It was a little guy in the 8-10in range. My leader broke off at the boat and I watch the fish swim away with my spinner in its mouth. I trolled back though with no results and saw Anthony so I told him what happened and moved on. He ended up staying there and caught his first place fish, so congrats to him.
At first I thought the loop knot on my spinner that connected to my dodger broke. But after recalling the event very vividly a few times (I was pissed :smt013 so naturally I remember it well) I came to the conclusion that the snap on my dodger must have damaged the integrity of my leader from the constant action and the 4lb line test. Plus I put too much pressure on the fish at the kayak trying to get it in.
Lesson, use a small swivel instead of a loop knot when dealing with light lines and lots of action.
Ryan
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Strong work again Yakhopper...
you really have captured what a kayakfishing tournament trail should be...
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Great event and I great time camping with the family. I would like to see the next tournment earlier or later in the year and without the full moon. It was the first time at Caples and it is absolutely gorgeous! The fee's in the area are a little on the high side, so we launched from the shore, by the dam.
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Caples was BEAUTIFUL!!! :smt007 What a nice place to fish (not catch :smt044) Sara and I really enjoyed the scenerey and glassy clear water. No fish caught by us, except I got one at the Carson river on Friday. All in all we had a great weekend staying at Jeff's condo near Tahoe, hitting the hot tub morning noon and night :smt007 Thanks again for the fun event Eric! :smt002
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Another successful, Class A, Yakhopper- FishermansWarehouse Event!! Congrats to all the participants and the top three finishers!!
From the looks of the pics posted so far, it looks like i missed on some good ol'fashioned FUNinTHEsun :smt001
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Very pretty lake you chose Eric. A real fishing challenge, although I didn't produce the opportunity was there. Nice gathering, we got to know and hang with Frank & Bunny. We'll hopefully camp together often. Pam & dave...
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Eric,
Thanks to you, Fisherman’s Warehouse and all the sponsors that made it another great event. The scenery was excellent, fishing not so much. Dave & I went out on Friday and I was able to get a couple of planter rainbows which Dave used for a crawdad trap. As you can see from the pictures, Dave’s trap was successful. Thanks for the swag bag with the FW baseball hat; I left my other one at Pardee, I seem to do that a lot. Also enjoyed meeting with all the NCKA brothers and families, camping with Pam & Dave and visiting with Snapperhead and family. See you at Tiki Lagun where I’ll bring tie downs for my new Kayak; even though it doesn’t have peddles, I’ll make it work.
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What a beautiful lake! Never been there. Now that I know that you can catch some mini lobsters there I will make sure we make it there next year. Thanks for the report and pics.
Rey
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Here is a link with some of the pics that my wife and I took at caples, check them out.
http://s1224.photobucket.com/albums/ee376/snapperhead71/Caples%20Lake%20Aug%202011/ (http://s1224.photobucket.com/albums/ee376/snapperhead71/Caples%20Lake%20Aug%202011/)
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I REALLY want to go back and trap some dads! nice pics! Who's up for a fish n' chill in Caples? The campsites look nice too!
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I REALLY want to go back and trap some dads! nice pics! Who's up for a fish n' chill in Caples? The campsites look nice too!
:smt006
Snapperhead,
Thanks for letting me borrow the measuring board. Without it I wouldn't have gotten an accurate measure on my mammoth 11.5 inch trout.
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I hate to miss the yakhopper events, and Now that I see what Caples looks like Im truly sad :smt010 The vibe up there looks just right :smt003
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Snapperhead,
Thanks for letting me borrow the measuring board. Without it I wouldn't have gotten an accurate measure on my mammoth 11.5 inch trout.
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No problem, I'm glad the trough was big enough and thank you for ledding my son the flasher.
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I have a 3 hr drive to Lake Caples, which I usually shore fish from and occasionally rent a boat.
Usually I do so well I don't even consider fishing other nearby lakes until Caples ices over.
A couple weeks ago most of the spots I usually see browns in when I take out a boat had them.
For whatever reason fishing has been slow. I fished off the rock at Woods Creek the day before the tournament
and saw fishing coming in regularly but only managed to catch one. At the spillway, virtually no fish to be seen,
and very little catching. Usually a nice school goes by every hour or so.
There have been days since the dam repair where its been almost a constant bite. They took fish out but my guess
is they only got a small percentage. I've had days after that I'll never forget. A couple different once in a lifetime experiences.
In conclusion, Caples can be a great place for catching. As you know, unfortunately this past weekend wasn't one of them. I was amazed to see so many kayaks out there when I was driving by. If I had known there was a tournament
I would have rented a kayak and joined you.
My suggestion is you pick a day for the tournament, but have several options and scout them the week before.
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My suggestion is you pick a day for the tournament, but have several options and scout them the week before.
That sounds like a good idea, but try to get 50-80 busy people to set aside 3-4 weekends in a row to wait for the tournament to be declared a go. Not going to happen. These things get planed out 6-8 months or more in advance to not interfere with other events. People need to plan on specific dates. With that said, we always have a good time even if there are only a few fish caught. Other times everyone has limits.
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That sounds like a good idea, but try to get 50-80 busy people to set aside 3-4 weekends in a row to wait for the tournament to be declared a go. Not going to happen. These things get planed out 6-8 months or more in advance to not interfere with other events. People need to plan on specific dates. With that said, we always have a good time even if there are only a few fish caught. Other times everyone has limits.
Well said.
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With that said, we always have a good time even if there are only a few fish caught
Amen! :smt045
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Sorry I couldn't make this event due to work. Thanks for all the reports and great pictures guys.
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No disrespect meant here runalot.
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What happens in Tahoe stays in Tahoe... :smt044
Oh, and I did not catch any fish :smt011
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First of all I really wanted to say that I had a great time! Even though the fishing wasn't hot, I can't complain. The lake was awesome, the views were killer and I got the wife to fish with me on the water. Had my brother, mother and mother in law also there and they had a great time. My brother even gave the kayak a try, on his second trip put he flipped and was able to self rescue himself.
It was nice to have the Rockstar lodge for the night before. Even though we got there at almost 11:45 PM, it helped not having to get up really early and drive for three hours. I am looking forward to the next event.
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My suggestion is you pick a day for the tournament, but have several options and scout them the week before.
That sounds like a good idea, but try to get 50-80 busy people to set aside 3-4 weekends in a row to wait for the tournament to be declared a go. Not going to happen. These things get planed out 6-8 months or more in advance to not interfere with other events. People need to plan on specific dates. With that said, we always have a good time even if there are only a few fish caught. Other times everyone has limits.
+3
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Awesome event,great lodging and great people!!!! Can't wait for Tiki event!!! Thanks again Eric!!!!