Hello All,

The NorCal HOW Team has talked to Headwaters, and we will host our 2018 Lodi Lake event on FRIDAY, August 17 at Lodi Lake boathouse!  This is always one of our best events of the year thanks to the help from Dan and Headwaters. 

We will definitely be needing some volunteers to help guide veterans on the water, as well as help with shore duty tasks such as carrying kayaks, prepping and cooking food and ensuring vets are rigged up with safety and fishing gear.

Rules:
1. No Alcohol allowed at HOW Events
2. Lodi Lake chargest $5 per vehicle for parking.  Please be aware of this or park outside of the venue on the street.
3. Please feel free take pictures of the vets, but ask them if they're OK with it first.  Some are not willing to have their picture taken, but those that are usually really appreciate the pictures.

If you think you can help join us, please post in this thread.  If you know of any veterans or active duty military that may want to attend, contact Raydon.  We'll also post up the event details on our FB page at www.facebook.com/NorCalHOW.  Please follow this thread for updates on what we need from you guys as to timing of showing up, cleaning up, etc.

The Titan 12 shipments have arrived on the West Coast!  For more information about this model, check out Native's website:
http://nativewatercraft.com/product/titan-propel-12/



Model           Length            Width           Fitted Hull Weight*   Fully Rigged Weight**           Depth @ Beam   Capacity
Titan Propel 12   12' / 366 cm   39" / 99 cm   109 lbs / 49 kg           138 lbs / 63 kg   13" / 33 cm   500 lbs / 227 kg

The boat is HUGE, of course, but did actually come in slightly under my guesstimate from a weight standpoint.

Features -
Lots of groove tracks all around the boat
Rod tip protectors and rod butt stagers
Transducer mount location in the hull
Gigantic front bow hatch
Rear Split Paddle holders
Integrated Rudder, moved closer amidships for better maneuverability compared to older models.

See walkthrough video from Ryan Lambert, Native Pro-Staff:


These boats are currently in stock at the following Native Watercraft Dealers:
Headwaters Kayak - Lodi, CA
Kayak City - Sacramento

Dan @ Headwaters is planning to put together a video soon on the Titan 12, so keep an eye out for it through his Facebook and Youtube channels. Dan will also have a demo model available at the boathouse, and we will have the entire Titan lineup available at the Lodi Lake Paddlefest on Saturday, April 21.

Thanks,
-bmb

Hi all,

We have confirmed the date of our very first saltwater event to be on SATURDAY, July 21, 2018 at Stillwater South/Pebble Beach.  We have received approval from PBGC to use the parking lot near the stairs to unload and load our gear.  They also recommend we do a BBQ on the beach, which we believe can be accommodated due to the mild tides that day. 

Event itinerary -
Breakfast on/near beach around 8-8:30am. 
Launch around 9am or before.
Return for lunch at approximately 1-1:30PM. 
All participants should be off the beach at 2-2:30PM. 
Volunteers can begin loading their gear at 2:30PM (PBGC has asked us to not take up loading space between 10am-2PM)
HOW gear will be loaded at approximately 3PM- will take about 1 hour to clean up.

Sa  21      Low   1:10 AM     1.0   
    21     High   7:11 AM     3.3   
    21      Low  12:10 PM     2.0
    21     High   6:53 PM     5.3

For this saltwater event, we are looking for a 1 to 1 guide to participant ratio, so we will be definitely asking for community help as guides. 

Please post up below if you think you can help out as a guide on this trip.  If you know of any able bodied veterans, active duty or first responders (PTSD rating is fine) who would be interested in coming out, please feel free to contact me directly.  We will have a flyer up later this evening to help spread the word, but want to keep the event fairly limited and want 100% solid confirmation of attendance from anyone who is interested in going.  We plan to get wetsuit rentals for every participant so want solid numbers and sizes in enough time prior to the event to ensure we have everyone covered from a safety standpoint.

We could also use some saltwater fishing gear and or kayaks if people could bring spares instead of using our HOW kayaks.  If you have a decent saltwater fishing rod + reel combo that we could borrow it would be greatly appreciated.  We don't need anything super special of course, beater boat rods are fine.

Special Notes/Rules:
1. Free entry to any volunteers/participants to Pebble Beach that are participating in the event.  Tell them you are with the Heroes on the Water Kayak Fishing Event
2. Please park all cars at the hedgerow parking lot or near the tennis courts. DO NOT PARK next to the club.
3. NO ALCOHOL allowed at HOW events
4. All on the water volunteers must wear PFDs.
5. You are required to have fun and/or take pictures!

Thanks,
Ben

Hello All, 

The NorCal HOW team has gathered and decided that our second event for 2018 will be hosted at Lake Camanche, North Shore on SATURDAY, May 12, 2018.  We plan to try and accommodate approximately 20 vets that day. We will be needing some volunteers to take veterans out on the water as well as some to help with shore duty tasks such as carrying kayaks, prepping and cooking food, ensuring vets are rigged up safely with PFDs and rods, etc.

We are still deciding on the exact location of the launch, we will update when we get more info.

Few rules:
1. No Alcohol allowed at HOW Events
2. If you choose to bring your own kayak, it will be subject to inspection by the lake employees. They can be strict.  Kayaks must be clean and dry, no water at all and no damp seats!  We usually could use a few folks willing to take vets out on our tandems or your own, in addition to guiding.
3. Please take pictures of the vets, but ask them if they're OK with it first.  Some are not willing to have their picture taken, but those that are usually really appreciate the pictures.

If you think you can help join us, please post in this thread.  If you know of any veterans or active duty military that may want to attend, contact Raydon.  We'll also post up the event details on our FB page at www.facebook.com/NorCalHOW.  Please follow this thread for updates on what we need from you guys as to timing of showing up, cleaning up, etc.

Hello All, 

The NorCal HOW team has gathered and decided that our second event for 2018 will be hosted at San Pablo Reservoir on SATURDAY, March 31, 2018.  We plan to try and accommodate approximately 20 vets that day. We will be needing some volunteers to take veterans out on the water as well as some to help with shore duty tasks such as carrying kayaks, prepping and cooking food, ensuring vets are rigged up safely with PFDs and rods, etc.

Few rules:
1. No Alcohol allowed at HOW Events
2. If you choose to bring your own kayak, it will be subject to inspection by the lake employees. They can be strict.  Kayaks must be clean and dry, no water at all and no damp seats!  We usually could use a few folks willing to take vets out on our tandems or your own, in addition to guiding.
3. No SUPs allowed on EBMUD lakes. I am not sure whether the Hobie branded inflatable pool toys are subject to the SUP ban or not.
4. Its technically a no water contact lake so just be aware of that. They haven't been too strict on us before though.
5. Please take pictures of the vets, but ask them if they're OK with it first.  Some are not willing to have their picture taken, but those that are usually really appreciate the pictures.

If you think you can help join us, please post in this thread.  If you know of any veterans or active duty military that may want to attend, contact Raydon.  We'll also post up the event details on our FB page at www.facebook.com/NorCalHOW.  Please follow this thread for updates on what we need from you guys as to timing of showing up, cleaning up, etc.

2016 News Report from the SJ Merc:
http://www.mercurynews.com/2016/05/01/peterson-wounded-veterans-find-freedom-on-bay-area-water/
Pictures from the Merc:
http://photos.mercurynews.com/2016/04/29/heroes-on-the-water/#1

-bmb

Alright everyone, first month wrap up!

So far the competition is going swimmingly. We have 59 Anglers signed up, and most of our Humboldt contingent hasn't even registered yet! Get yourself signed up and get your friends involved.

Remember that all net proceeds from AOTY go towards Pay it Forward, a kayak fishing community group which donates money to community members in their times of need. And even if you might not be able to place overall, we give big fish awards to the anglers who catch the largest fish of each species! There are 21 species so plenty of opportunities to prove your mettle.

Anyways, recap time:
As of today, our competition is led by one f, Jef Brewer, with four fish, a smallie, LM, Rainbow and crappie, for a total of 541pts and a 135pt average. That type of score won't hold up all year, but way to go Jef in getting some fish on the board right away. Jef is using the new YakGear Fish Stik Measuring Board, and has it lined with a sharpie. His pictures are looking great, a huge improvement over years past . We definitely encourage all anglers to use boards that shed glare and have good strong contrast.

In 2nd place is Orange Chicken, Matt Wong, with 3 fish, a surf perch caught at the 2018 NCKA Crabfest, a chunky nearly 18" smallie and a nice Rainbow. Matt started participating in AOTY just last year and is starting to become a grizzled veteran. Watch out for him on the board this year.

In 3rd place is ThreemoneyJ, John with 427points. John is also a real strong competitor and fishes a lot of freshwater and saltwater during the workweek.  Real nice guy always willing to share info with others. Thanks John!

There are a few other competitors of note, but its been a bit of a slow start. Several large spotted bass have already been landed from Bullards Bar Reservoir by Archie Marx, FreshNSalty and Vonsvangoth, and those large spots have been a key for many AOTY competitors in the past.

Things are about to kick into gear this weekend as we have lots of anglers planning to hit the water at Clear Lake State Park (California) before and after the 2018 NCKA AOTY awards for Largemouth Bass, Catfish and Crappie. We expect to see lots of submissions by next Monday from our anglers who will be on the water. So its on youg uys who are fishing this weekend to catch some big ones!

Remember to tag your AOTY related Facebook posts with the hashtag #NCKAAOTY to help corral everything related to our comp. Also, if you know of any sponsors who would be interested in sponsoring us for 2018, please feel free to pass along our info!

Of course, thank you so much to Adventure Sports Kayak City who is our first confirmed 2018 Sponsor, as they will be donating a kayak fishing prize package worth approximately $200-300! Thanks so much to the guys at Kayak City!

Hi All,

The 2018 JAOTY competition will follow the same rules as last year:

•   Junior AOTY ("JAOTY") is limited to members under the age of 18 on January 1, 2018. Entrance is free. Prizes are TBD but will be awarded to at least the top three.  Fish entered for JAOTY are not subject to the AOTY rules except for the "Retention Rule".  This is to encourage participation by Junior anglers in fishing of all types, whether it be via shore, kayak or boat.

So the only rule that applies for JAOTY is the rule that the fish must be legal to be kept. We do not wish to encourage picture taking of fish that are not legal for retention as it could result in excessive handling.  Other items for JAOTY:

1. There is no specific rule that the Jr has to catch the fish from the kayak.  Obviously the preference is that they go on the kayaks with you, but take a kid fishing in any way you can!
2. The Waterway Rule does not apply, except that fish should be caught within our borders. 
3. Mouth open, posing, measurement, etc rules are not strictly enforced.  We would like you to please try to take high quality pictures of the fish so do your best but we're not strict on this for JAOTY.
4. Please take a kid fishing!

Thanks,
bmb