NorCal Kayak Anglers
Kayak Fishing Zone => Hookups and Fishing Reports (Viewable by Public) => Topic started by: Tote on September 24, 2006, 05:39:30 PM
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I might as well get the ball rolling.
If you missed being there you missed a GREAT time with a lot of great people. The fishing was better than last year. Five fish were entered at weigh-in time but more were caught afterwards. Since there was no love for me I will let those who did catch fish tell their stories.
Catching a fish would have only been icing on the cake. Just hanging out with everyone was worth the trip in and of itself. The food was off the hook!!!! I enjoyed putting faces to names on the board and seeing old friends as well.
Cudos to the Whites for hosting such an event. I know there was a lot of work that went into it. Fantastic job!
Here are a few non fish pics; even though CHUB and I did our best.
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Nice pics, Tote. I've been waiting for someone to post something about the event. I wasn't able to make it and am curious who took that belt buckle home!
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HINT: It isn't the first tournament he has won.
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A huge thanks to everyone who put this fishin-dig on! Fun, fun, fun! Lots of happy campers, young and older gathering for the love of fishing and food! Bait delivery, home brew and great prizes. I started out with no FF, and then found I left my radio on - blind and deaf. But I stuck out a tough seven hours in the saddle, nailing a seven and a half pound fighter, earning me third place. I feel pretty lucky, it was just a slowish day, everyone tried HARD doing the same thing.
20 # specta, carolina rigged with a live minnow on a split ringed live bait hook, a"la Mooch. Also got a 13 inch smallie that I would have released but had a fatal encounter with my hook. Mooch caught a great big huge fat stipeless striper but never found the garter snake. Maybe next time...
Im beat, wish I had a hot tub, NCKA rocks and see 'ya! Ben
Anita will post her own report with the pics.
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Well it was another fantastic GWKC/NCKA shin-dig. We ended up with 52 anglers about 6 more than BAM I. I saw a lot of new faces at this event, missed a lot of the regular O-G crew. Weather was nice, and the fishing was better than last year, but not as good as during the SBA Tourney. We weighed 5 fish for the tourney, but more fish came before and after the event.
The Winners:
1st Bsteves with a 10.5 pound slug of a striper! Brian took home $500 bucks and the gorgeous buckle!
2nd Bill broke his Mendo curse and went home with $250 in cash for his 8.75 pound lineside!
3rd Guitarzan placed with hhis 7.56 pound striper and took home $100 in cash.
Jdyak won the big kitty with a 8.25 pound channel cat and went home with $50 and a drybag from Surf to Summit
We raised a pile of cash for the Ukiah Chapter of the SBA and the raffle also was extremely successful. The potluck was the usual NCKA food orgy,but I did hear MANY people lament the absence of ChuckE and his world famous fish-fryer. Mark Shimizu however stepped in and filled the void with a huge pot of coconut and sweet potato curry that was insanely tasty! Lots of other delicious meals including Troys soul food delicacies and much much more.
We drank a full keg of Boont Amber and Molbassers5 gallon keg of home brew... :beer3
People were getting bit before I even showed up. Randy and Ty Nellums had this 30 incher first thing Friday am...
(http://www.norcalkayakanglers.com/index.php?option=com_gallery2&Itemid=81&g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=7317&g2_serialNumber=1&g2_GALLERYSID=766fb46d15480d22cf426c37c81f39c8)
Not to be outdone GTO and his dad got this beauty early on Friday...
(http://www.norcalkayakanglers.com/index.php?option=com_gallery2&Itemid=81&g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=7320&g2_serialNumber=1&g2_GALLERYSID=766fb46d15480d22cf426c37c81f39c8)
JD with his jackpot kitty...
(http://www.norcalkayakanglers.com/index.php?option=com_gallery2&Itemid=81&g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=7323&g2_serialNumber=1&g2_GALLERYSID=766fb46d15480d22cf426c37c81f39c8)
Bsteves showing that the Bodega Posse can "fishsniffer" anything!
(http://www.norcalkayakanglers.com/index.php?option=com_gallery2&Itemid=81&g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=7326&g2_serialNumber=1&g2_GALLERYSID=766fb46d15480d22cf426c37c81f39c8)
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Papa Bill with his 2nd place fish...
(http://www.norcalkayakanglers.com/index.php?option=com_gallery2&Itemid=81&g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=7341&g2_serialNumber=1&g2_GALLERYSID=766fb46d15480d22cf426c37c81f39c8)
Fishhunter getting his big raffle prize, a Roleez cart courtesy of GWKC...nice haircut Adam...are we related???
(http://www.norcalkayakanglers.com/index.php?option=com_gallery2&Itemid=81&g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=7344&g2_serialNumber=1&g2_GALLERYSID=766fb46d15480d22cf426c37c81f39c8)
Tote won the pimp GTS seat with a pocket and rodholder provided by Surf to Summit...
(http://www.norcalkayakanglers.com/index.php?option=com_gallery2&Itemid=81&g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=7347&g2_serialNumber=1&g2_GALLERYSID=766fb46d15480d22cf426c37c81f39c8)
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I ended up fishless for my first ever BAM, but I, along with my whole family had a great time nonetheless. I want to thank Sean and Leah White for their hard work is putting together such a great event. And I also thank not only Bill and the other NCKA people involved in the planning including Chris Baugh (MolBasser) for the beer and the pig roast (others helped but names escape me now), but all the NCKA group. A special thanks from my daughters Gabriella and Isabella to the security team led by Jefe White, the Wonder Chihuahua.
Congratulations to those who got well-earned fish and prizes. The money went to a great cause as well. It was great to put faces to names and a more courteous, friendly group of fishers and campers cannot be found.
My whole family (wife and daugthers) felt right at home and my wife's complement to me sums it up nicely:"The girls and I don't fish much but we felt like part of the 'family', the White family and everyone there were just plain great people. I never imagined we'd have such a great time camping at a fishing tournament. Sign us up for next year."
I've got some photos including Joel's (Mooch) brush with the 'Claws of Death' but I'll have to upload later.
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I had very little to with the pig roast, all that goes to kayakbuilder (aka "Pigboy")..... But the beer was good.
I will have a detailed report later. I'm sort of burnt tonight...
Excellent time. The food, as usual, was the bomb! Looks like we need to get a full barrel of beer next year as the lampreys of the club latched onto Scwafish's and my keg and just sucked them dry!!!
Good times and good fish.
MolBasser
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I'm sorry I missed out on what I knew was going to be another epic event. Glad all you guys had a great time!
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ChuckE ...we missed you bro. Somehow when all the eating carnage was said and done, someone asked "what happened to the fried fish?". Yup, without ChuckE, WE HAD NO FRIED FISH. What's the world coming to?
-Allen
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nice pic insaneduane
once again i had a blast
to the folks that put this together great job
shout's out to the g.w.k. n.c.k.a family's
pat & randy mol bassertote and son nice to see you guy's
all the new folks nice to meet you also
untill next year
:icon_r&r:
scwafish you have my number call me lets talk solar
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Looks like you guys had a great time. I wish I could have joined you. Congrats to all the winners! Can't wait to see you guys at the next event.
Jason
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The curse has been broken! I really owe it all to Joel who told me to go with light line so I went wit 10 lb main line and 8lb leader. That did the trick! I landed my fish after a 10 minute fight, my largest striper ever, first Mendo striper and first ever tournament I placed in! If it was not for that darn Bodega crew I would have won! :smt003
Thanks again to the White family for putting on a great event and letting my family crash at the casa. Also sharing a tent with me! Outstanding job as always!
The raffle went really well, thanks again to all the donated prizes or gathered prizes! Grand total raised in the raffle was $1,126 (someone slipped me an extra dollar) That is outstanding!!
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Nice haul on the raffle!!! What's the Chef grand total now?
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BTW, I left my shovel.... :smt013
PM me if you picked it up anyone.
MolBasser
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Chris,
How can you post on a fishing web site without your shovel :smt003 . I looks like you guys had a great time up there. Congratulations to the winners. I am still waiting for a photo of the pig.
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I don't know if we even took a picture!?!
I do know that Jelly and his buddies went Godfather on Mooch and put the pig head in his hatch... :smt005
MolBasser
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We found your shovel amongst all of the abandon pig roasting debris. I believe mickfish passed it on to Mooch.
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thanks for a great event! good to meet everyone out there, a great group of people there, with a great positive vibe!
looking forward to the next event, hope to see everyone @ paddlefest!
-greg d
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We found your shovel amongst all of the abandon pig roasting debris. I believe mickfish passed it on to Mooch.
Thanks buddy! Mooch, can you please bring it to the paddlefest?
MolBasser
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another successful event :smt003 congratulations to the winners.
thank you for everone support....words can't always express on i feel rafther than all the positive power i getting from it :smt003
chef
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BAM II was some good fun. I got there Sat night to fish early morning so unfortunately didn't think too much abut what I was gonna use and just how to fsh the lake. I tried all Sat and got nothing. Not even a lttle strike. Luckily I wasn't the only one so it didn't hurt so bad. was pretty frustrated about going so far (3 hour drive) and going away without even a strike. The plan for me was to go home at 10AM Sunday mornng so went out @ dawn to catch something. Had a much better day. Got about 10 strikes with one that stuck, a 17 inch/2# Largemouth. Not by any means a huge fish but my best LM so far so it was a success for me.
Thanks to GWKC for putting on the event and everyone for being super cool. Great to meet some new NCKA'rs and see some regular fishing buddies too.
PS. Anyone know where can I get some NCKA stickers for the yak and the car?
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I had a great time this weekend. Thanks to everyone who worked hard to put this together. I feel deprived of Chuck's fried fish! I was looking forward to it. :smt011
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Chuck owe's us all a HUGE apology!!
:smt002
MolBasser
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The jink has been broken!
This was my first time at Mendo and I really had a great time. Thanks to Sean and Leah for all there effort in making this event so enjoyable.
Thanks to Joel for being so friendly, encouraging and willing to give advice to the inexperienced. I know that if the fish are not entertaining me you will be on the radio. (I don't know about that apron thing though.)
I got up around 7:30AM Friday and fished all day with minnows. Mike Mickfish and Bob were fishing essentially the same area and both got some nice bass but I came got nada. I used the same setup so I was getting the sinking feeling I've had most of my fishing life--that I must be jinked. (In the 70's there was a time when the salmon were running so thick outside the bay that every day the fish reports were saying every boat was limiting out early! Finally, I could resist no longer and scraped together the money to go out on a party boat. I got nothing. The newspaper report for that day was: "For the first time in two weeks the best salmon fishing in a decade hit a slump.") I knew I was jinked.
On derby day I picked up a small large mouth and then another, maybe 3-4 pounder. Later I found a hole in the shallows and caught four smaller bass and lost one. Crossing the lake on the way in I caught a undersized striper trolling deeper water with a kastmaster after I saw some baitballs on the FF.
The next day I decided to fish the deep water again. I didn't want anymore bass, I only wanted a shot at a striper. I knew it was a longshot since so few had been caught even by the experienced. On my first pass through my rod loaded up and my blood started pumping! I knew it wasn't huge but I thought it was heavy enough to surely be a legal striper since I was in deep water. But at first show there was no silvery shine, and when I got him close enough I could see it was just a cat. Bummer!
Crossed the lake again but nada. Figured my trip was over and headed back to camp with a slow troll over the area I got the undersized striper. While in the middle of the lake I hear Sean telling Bob there was a boil near the boater's camp. Then he see's more boils. I frantically look on my map and can't figure out where this camp is. I scan the point through the binnoculars...where are those two isolated oak trees? Mickfish refer's to Vineger Point. Where's that? Eventually, I see kayaks from all over converging toward the dam end of the lake. One yellow kayak seemed to race up the entire lake to get there. Sean continues with encouraging intel about sighted boils. Seemed only a matter of time before I'd hear the inevitable "Fish on" blarring on the radio (Unless it was Mol, in which case I'd hear it coming directly across the lake.) But I'm feeling too tired to race up to the dam, and I'm sure, that since I'm jinked, if I raced up to the dam, everyone will have caught fish and the boils will shut down just as I arrive.
I was still looking at my map, totally confused about where the reports were directing the kayaks to. I'm sure I was at a dead stop, essentially pond fishing. Then BAMM, my rod goes bendo! This time I knew it was no cat by the way the line stripped out. I don't know how long I played it for but he took about 4 long runs. I was real nervous and played it gently. The night before Mol horsed a striper in on the bank but he said he had thirty pound test on his rod. And I had only 8 pound test on Joel's advice. Now I was second guessing Joel since even Sean, the master of Mendo, had recommended 12 lb test. Do these stripers have big teeth, will he cut the line off?
It was a little erie sitting all alone in the middle of the quiet lake playing this fish alone as he slowly turned my kayak around. In the background there was all the excited radio chatter about the boils a long ways off. Finally, I could see the beautiful silver shine, and then I had him in the net--all 28 inches of him. My first striper! The jink has been broken.
So my only advice to Sean for Mendo III would be to have a map that showed where all the colloquial names for the topographic features are shown. Then the novitiates will know where you are directing us to.
But on second thought...maybe it's better to be just totally confused.
Doug
PS: Alex, sorry this is so long.
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OK, here is my report.
I had planned to be out of town at 9am and fishing at 1pm at the camp. Well, we all know how this sort of thing goes, and I was on the road at 11:30.
Charged up the east side of the bay planning on crossing the bay at San Rafael. Inexperience and traffic got me confused at the 80 junction and I ended up crossing the bay bridge into San Francisco :smt013 I just told myself that I wanted to experience the two great bridges of the bay as I crossed the Golden Gate and moseyed north.
Traffic sucked in Santa Rosa as usuall and I spent some annoying time in it. As I was approaching cloverdale I tried to call Scwafish to get the directions for the place to get rocks for the pig roast, but he was busy so I stressed untill I saw the very blatant signs to the place.
I cruised down to the river beach and loaded up to 5 gallon buckets with rocks and hauled them up to the car. Wow, 5 gallons of rocks weighs A LOT!
Got back on the road and into camp at around 4pm.
I love this campsite, lake and event! Parked the car and did the glad handing thing with all the guys and gals that were already there and saw some monster stripers and largemouths already on ice! Gonna be good!
Set up camp and just chilled because the wind was HOWLING. Chilled and drank beer and chatted late into the night to the sweet sweet sounds of Guitarzan on his axe. Dang, that guy can play a guitar!!
Got up in the morning raring to go and emediatly had issues. My guts were not cooperating and it took me a while to get away from camp. Then I forgot the sunscreen, then I forgot this, then I forgot that. I didn't get seriously fishing until around 7:30-8.
I headed up to the dam trolling a shiner and a castmaster, but got about 3/4 of the way there when I decided that I wanted to fish near camp due to earlier success of others and the fear I would get caught far away from camp when the wind kicked up. Turned around and headed back. I knew that Bill already had a fish in the boat and was stoked when my castmaster rod went off. Fought a scrappy little striper that turned out to be short.
Headed back to camp and trolled around the 20 ft. flats and the channel near camp for nada.
Went in for some beer at noon, but got right back out and mooched right off camp for a while and then trolled around a bit more. I got to shore right at the 3 o'clock bell with squat to show for it. Ah well, the food was coming!
Ah yes, the food. This is, in my opinion, the best part of this tourney. All the great people and their even greater food. I had noticed the fire going for the hog during the tourney and saw it was going well and got back to glad handing and munching. Brought out my keg of homebrew and the lampreys of the group quickly attached their suckers to the tap! :smt005 I was very happy to see that people liked my beer.
The highlight for me was the carne asada and shrimp tacos. Whole hog was pretty dang good too. The amount, variety and quality of food was off the hook as usual!!!!
Before eating I had dropped a big chunk of mackerel marinated in my special sauce right on the drop off outside of camp, set the clicker and locked the rod to my yak and went to eating. Zeelander came up to me about an hour later and advised me that I ought to check my rod. Line was stripping off and it looked like I was hooked up so I grabbed the rod and set the hook. Solid! I figured it was a cat, so seeing as how I had 30# power pro mainline and leader I just horsed that baby in. Lift, wind, repeat. About halfway in it swirled at the surface? Why would a cat do that? Well, as I got it in the shallows the small crowd that had been attracted by my volumnous "Fish ON!" shout claimed that they saw striper. I was still in denial....naw its a cat. Well, what do I drag up on the beach?
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v168/MolBasser/striperlate.jpg)
8#14oz and about 3 hours late!!!
Back to eating after a few pics. :smt003
Finished the night roasting marshmallows with some future kayak anglers and chilling by a beachside fire.
Excellent.
Can't wait for next year!
MolBasser
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:busy Could not make the tourney, but I knew making the trip would be worth it. Great to see everybody again and sorry about using the " Twin Mojo " on the raffle :smt052.. Love the Rod Building kit and the Boys Mounted the
" Iron Fish " right on top of one of my wife's antique Russian Tables, compleat with lights strewn through it,
She is @ a Loss :smt012... Great time with my boys, great people/food, kool rod building kit and one awesome piece of fish art........PRICELESS..........Danglin :smt005
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Hey, Everyone
Had a great time , could not have asked for a better group of people or location. The weather was perfect and the fishing was great. My bro GTO19 (Eric) pulled out a nice stripper on Fri, We weren't there for even a hour and he hooked up. You could hear his scream all through camp. Me and his Pops new it had to be him. Pops pulled a nice catfish late in the Derby on Saturday only for Eric to drop his rod &reel while netting the fish :smt013 I still had not hooked up , so me and Bob went out on Sunday determined to catch something. We rolled out after a Phat breakfest thanks to Bob, He is a awesome cook. We headed out to the first point when we heard on the Radio of a Bust by the Boat campsite opposite side of the lake.
When we got there I think it had moved on but I got my first fish a decent Small Mouth, we started trolling back to the first point once again after no luck for the strippers. It was slow until I reached the point. Bob had got there before me and was ready to go back in, I stayed to stick it out for that stripper. I am glad I did FISH ON :headbang: next thing I know I'm hooked up on both of my poles. The first one I got in was a Stripper and was stoked first one of the year, I thought my other line had gotten of but I was still hooked and it was a battle on lite tackle after a 5min battle it surfaced a nice Large Mouth I was done. No more bait and a Hat Trick on the stringer the perfect way to end the weekend.
I can't wait until next year to fish with everyone again , BAM was ON. Thanks to everyone who made this weekend possible you guys are awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Hi Everyone,
Well, this is my first official post as Anitafish (I've been piggy backing on iguitarzan for too long) and I cannot think of a better event to share my frist post about.
I did not make it up to the Lake utnil Saturday afternoon but knew I was in for a great time looking down at the view from Hwy 20. I have never seen that many kayaks merged in one location before, well at least kayaks not for sale, and all the different colors dotted along the water looked very cool.
The first thing I saw when I pulled into camp was the huge pig roasting on the fire! It was all wrapped up, but not hard to tell that was one big hog cooking! I have a photo below, but it does really not do the piggy justice. I am quite impressed of those of you who put that thing together.
Camping so near the water was wonderful and made for a gorgeous evening of star gazing. And the small lights of evening yakers out on the water only added to the uniqueness of the whole scene.
And speaking of scenes - the food! I have never attended any kind of outdoor potluck where the picnic tables were adorned with delectibles not only on the top but on the bench portions as well. Everything was truly delicous and the home brew was fantastic. It was so nice to finally meet the brew master himself after hearing such praises of brews past. And the wine...I am not sure who made the two reds, but those were very tasty as well and thank you for the treat.
But most of all, what a fabulous group of people. I have only attended three derbies thus far, but each time, the best times are because of these people. It was so nice to see and meet so many smiling and fun-loving gals, guys, kids and even dogs. And it is exta nice seieng all the ladies there whom I have had the pleasure of meeting previously as well as the new ones I had not. You all rock! I highly encourage those wives and girlfriends who have not made it out to one of these events yet to put it on their priority list. You are definitely missing something special...and laughing...you are missing lots of laughing (at some bad jokes, but still.) Chuck, please tell Michelle she was missed.
Thank you Sean and Leah for organizing the derby and Bill for the raffle. By the way, I do not have a photo of Bill's 2nd place fish ( I do have 1st and 3rd). I noticed that Duane had a pic posted and maybe I could "lift" it from the site to submit with the others for the WON article, if that is ok with Duane?
Can't wait to see all of you again and eat more fish. We ate some of third place last night - melt in your mouth delicous. Wait...that kind of doesn't sound right...
Anita
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Wow, I'm really bummed I missed yet another BAM. This time I was in tahoe for one of my best friends weddings. Not sorry that I was there though, I guess it's just the way things turn out sometimes. Lots of great pictures. Keep em coming. Nice stripers there. Hope to see alot of people at the paddlefest. JTF..
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Great report and pics, everyone.
Totally bummed I couldn't make this event.
Hopefully there is next year...
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No striper love for me but that won't be what I remember about the event. Once again the warmth and friendly support makes this group of people so special for Randy and me. Special thanks to the Whites, including the great lizard hunter, for sharing your special home and for providing for another gathering of NCKA energy.
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First post for me -- although been following the great fishing reports for a few months.
Wife and I had previously planned camping trip to Mendocino 6 mos ago. Then recently learned Bendo at Mendo was on for the weekend we were leaving. Had rigged up the camper to carry two scupper pros on top for first time. Played around lake for several days during the week. Fished some, but not for stripers. Figured we'd start seeing some REAL fishermen towards weekend. Sure enough here comes Randy and his son Ty on Thursday afternoon at the Kyen campground (North end) next campsite over from us. Great to meet someone else looking to give the fish a hard time(although I'm not much of a threat --yet!)
Friday morning I get up early and start stumbling down to the kayak with my fishing gear. Here comes Randy with a big smile on his face and starts telling me this Big Fish Story -- and I look and see Ty coming from behind him holding up Mr Striper with a Big Smile on his face (Ty -- not the fish). Wow! What a beaut! Way to go Ty!
Anyway, good to get my feet wet -- so to speak. Look forward to doing more kayak fishing and seeing more of you guys
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Wow, I missed out :BangHead:. Congrats :hello2: :hello2: to Brian, Bill, and Ben!
That lake looks rad, I don't think I can't wait till the next BENDO to get up there.
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Looks like I missed a good one! Congrats to the winners and everyone supporting Chef...
I did a family campout at Salt Point with another couple and kids. No yaks but shoredove for my first abs of the year. Big water but clear. Next time Mendo...
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I've been meaning to report, but I've been in Portland on work since Sunday. It's Monday night and I finally found some wireless access and can give me report on what it's like to be the luckiest kayak fisherman in the world. Despite what I'd like to think, winning one of these tournaments has to be at least 90% luck where the winner just happens to be the person to drag his or her bait in front of the largest fish. How I've managed to do that twice in four tournaments is anybody's guess. Once again Sean and Bill managed to put on a great tournament. Thanks again guys.
Anyway, like Bill, the secret to Lake Mendo stripers has eluded me on every one of my previous attempts (all six of them in my case). I was lucky to have my wife Amy, son Owen, and dog Scooter with me at the tournament this year. However, having them there meant I got a bit of a late start the morning of the tournament. I finally got out on the water around 7:30 am and started dragging my minnow rig south along the west side of the lake. For some reason I had in mind to try and follow the 30 ft depth contour around the lake where possible. I wish I could say I had a valid reason for doing that, but I really didn't. About an hour into my troll I stopped to check my bait and sent it back out with the reel disengaged as I paddled to let enough line out. As soon as I engaged my reel I had a very small bite and thought it might be another small largemouth. I engaged the reel, picked up a little bit of slack and my rod went "bendo" right in front of the old septic tank on the west shore north of the south ramp. I later learned from Shawn that the local ol'timers call this the "sh*t box" and that it had produced for Sean recently as well. After a decent 5 minute fight on 25 lb spectra with a 10 lb fluoro leader I manged to net my first Lake Mendo striper. I wasn't sure of the size other than it was at least 9 lbs and was about 4 or so inches longer than the 28" max measure on my Cobra Navigator's built in fish ruler.
I felt pretty good about my fish, but had no idea how well it would hold up for the next 6 1/2 hours of the tournament. From the chatter on the VHF it sounded like there were two other fish boated that were running about 9 lbs. Having already experienced catching a tournament winning fish early and trying to remain calm despite others constantly coming over to see my fish and tell me how that thought I might win, I thought I might try to keep kind of quiet about this for awhile. My plans were foiled when I found out that Andy from Ukiah had seen me land my fish. Shortly after that I ran into Naoaki and later Sean and Mark and couldn't help but report my decent fish when asked.
I would have stuck around the "sh*tbox" all day for my second fish, but I promised my wife I'd make it back to camp by 10 am to help her manage Owen and Scooter as well as say hello to my in-laws who were coming to visit from Clovis (Fresno) and had decided to drive the extra hour or so to "see Brian in action fishing a tournament". After a quick diaper change, a trip out on the water with my dog Scooter, and an early lunch I went back out fishing and joined the pack of kayaks that hung out in front of the campground. I'm still not sure why everyone was there, other than maybe they were too lazy to paddle to the south end to catch a fish. I sat out there with everyone, too anxious to fish as I waited for the official weigh in to begin and then end.
At this point in my "career" I think I've almost broken even, with winnings just about making up for what I've spent on kayak fishing. (At least that's what I'm telling my wife!) My $500 should keep Owen day care another two weeks or so with some left over to buy myself a new leather belt to go with my sweet championship buckle. Mark I didn't get a chance to thank you at the tournament, but that buckle is amazing!! Chef, good luck on recovery, I hope the money we raised makes a decent dent in your medical expenses.
Oh, and as two time NCKA tournament champion I'd like to plug some of fine products I prefer to use (in case they're out there listening). Cobra kayaks for keeping my butt so dry on the the Navigator XF and Surf to Summit seats for keeping it comfortable. Shimano rods and reels for never failing my during a battle. Seaguar fluorocarbon leader material for making my line invisible, and Gamakatsu hooks for always true hook sets. Okay, enough shameless plugs for sponsers I'll never get. I would like however to plug Jim "InSeine" Hobbs for providing storage and transport of my kayaks including use of his Roll-Eaze carts.
I think I have some pictures back home and I'll post them as soon as I get back.
Brian
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I hope someone has a picture of the buckle to post as Mark had polished it up to a precious shimmer.
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Brian / bsteves ....being awarded for his First Place Finish :groupwave
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followed by 2nd placer = Papa Bill :smt038
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Ben / guitarzan placing 3rd :smt041
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Doug / marmite did pretty well with good stringers form a weekend of fishing......
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....a few of our brothers did pretty good with the "kayak drop" method (invented by Papa Bill).....basically, you paddle out and use your FF to locate a drop-off / ledge. then drop your bait - leave your reel on free spool- and paddle back to shore and enjoy a cold one :party
Chris / Jellyfish with a nice small mouth bass and Chris / molbasser (the self proclaimed champ :smt109) with a nice stripper :smt023
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The Surfing Marmot family enjoying a beautiful day on the water......
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......here's Craig / Kayakbuilder and Chris / molbasser preparing the pig :smt007 Later on, after the pig was cooked, the "head" happened to find it's way inside my kayak's front hatch :smt118 I could only guess that it was the doing of the little rascals running all over the place ....headed of course by their fearless leader, The Jellyfish. The whole incident reminded me of the movie "The Lord of the Flies" - which I found VERY disturbing :smt088
anyway, revenge will be mine at the end....to Jelly and his crew....sleep with one eye open :smt077
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LMAO at that pig smile! WTG, Jelly and crew! :smt003
What a great event. Hopefully I'll make it to one of these before too long...
Excellent community, people. :smt001
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I had a great time. thanks to Sean Leah and all who helped put on this event. I did catch the winning catfish 8.25 pounds with an overnight soak of bait. Saturday tried for the winning striper but had no luck. Came in around 12:30 to try and beat the heat and then tried for one last hour around 2:00pm. Droped my bait, paddled in and then drank some excellent beer that Molbasser made mixed with the boont amber ale. Came down to check my bait around 9:00pm, picked up my rod and saw there was no line left on the reel :smt013 I should have known this was going to happen, next time I will use a reel with a clicker and set the drag much tighter. Also thank you to surfing marmot for the cuban cigars, I enjoyed them alot .
John/jdyak
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Excellent community, people. :smt001
Now I know who is "Hobbit Nation", NCKA-style. Fine young lads! :baby
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"Hobbit Nation"
Members - as of now......
Joel / Mooch
Sean /Scwafish
and we recently drafted our new member = Randy aka rrnelums
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What are the requirments? I'm 5 ft 8in tall (with boots on)..What else qualifies, back hair? toe hair?
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"Hobbit Nation"
and and we recently drafted our new member = Randy
I knew that, honestly!
He started the whole pig's head idea, then enlisted the young ones, etc., etc. etc.
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To be a member of the Elite "Hobbit Nation" a "sub-culture" of NCKA.....your feet have to be:
1) LONG
2) WIDE
3) HAIRY
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Excuse Me? Long, Wide, and Hairy? Exactly who does the screening for this subculture?
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After looking at Randy's feet, he is our new king! All hail!!!
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:metal
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:smt006
Thanks to all who put on the event.
I left my house about 0530 and drove out to the lake. We all hung around the beach until about 0630 as we watched the cat get reeled in. After that it was light enough to launch. I paddled across the lake and headed south trolling. I stopped in the second cove and threw out a spinner bait a few times. I landed 2 large mouth, 1 dink, and one about 2 lbs. After that I began trolling again and went around the point to crappie cove... Nothing :BangHead: Then i paddled across the lake and headed north NO LUCK.....
I had no fish to weigh in but i could not put a weight on the great time I had. Food and company was awesome. :smt023
Two events and I am O-fer on the raffle :smt017
Congrats to the winners. Nice fish Bsteves
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ay guys its me ty. great time at bam and thanks to all for the time. mooch lets not get carried away, thanks for all the info too mooch. i cant wait for the next tourny or something. thanks mulbassor for the bait. that night i got three hard hits and brought in a good sized cat. the stuff kicks ass. thanks to all and ill be on in my name in a while
SPAWN OF BIGFOOT
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You can thank Mickfish for your last raffle o'fer. Seven prizes out of ten tickets is insane. He either should have been at Vegas or played the lotto that weekend!! :smt023
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Funky note.
My striper was full of anchovies when I cleaned it. Must have been stripping off bait from other hooks.....
MolBasser
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that is funky....
mine were all empty....
-g
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Are you sure they were chovies? The lake is full of threadfin and inland silverside, I would guess it was one or the other.
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I'm 95% positive they were anchovies.
No mistaking the nose and mouth of those fish.
Weird.
The only posibility would be silversides, but their mouths are tiny, I thought. The fish in this stripers stomach had the bulging nose and very long mouth.
I know that people use frozen anchovies as bait down south for stripers, my guess is that this guy ate a bunch of bait.
MolBasser
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mooch
the pig head is what happen's when you put a banana in a :icon_r&r: sled the pig head is the work of mojo baby
peace love & soul
:smoke
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Karma can get UGLY!
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Ok I hope I don't miss anyone. The White tribe, I can't thank you enough for the memories that will last a life time. You guys are the best! Mooch Thanks so much for the education you gave me and my Son. Take it easy on Jelly, I'm the one who told Ty to stick the head in your Yak ( I can not tell a lie.) I thought long and hard about opening that door and figured" What the hell." hopefully it's the start of a long and friendly jousting match I can tell my grandkids about. Kayak builder thanks for such a valiant effort with the oinker. It turned out wonderfull and I was snacking on it the whole next day. You took off before I could chip in on the cost so next time it's on me. Sufing marmot the cigar and conversation was a real treat.Thank you. Molbasser the Beer was "Da Kind" Those were probably my Anchovies, I had a huge wad of them stripped about 1/2 an hour before you hooked up. I think I was the only one with them for bait.
I have to admit I had high expectations for this weekend and I was more then pleasently suprised by the effort put out by one and all. Everyone was a treat to meet and wish we could do it every weekend. It was nice to finally meet everyone and wish I had started getting involved much sooner. To Pat and Randy I wish we could have talked politics more but the weekend was so full. I will be down in your neck of the woods soon and we will get a better chance to talk then. To all the rest of you Yahoo's, Kudos and I can't wait to do it again.
Now on a more serious note. King of the Hobbit Nation? You bring a tear to my eye and corns to my feet. ( in my best waynes world voice.) "I'm not worthy, I'm not worthy" Does this position pay very well? haha Thanks again for making us feel like were part of the family. Sincerly Bigfoot, the Hobbit King..... Ooooh Yahhh!
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Had a great time at mendo2 that was the most fun I have had in a long time
Thanks to all who put this thing together won’t miss it next year :smt007
Sorry about the big pics I did not know how to post that many
Sorry to you guys that are too cheap to get cumcast oh I mean comcast :smt011
loved it cant wait till next year :smt006
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HHhhmmmm....
Bait stolen 'eh? Makes sense. The fish were not that digested and certainly were anchovies.
Sorry for bogarting your fish dude (not!)
LOL!!!
Cannot wait 'till next year.
MolBasser
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I covered for Mooch during the awards, so here are a couple 'fill-ins': *the* Buckle and da Winna'!
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Hooray. Good shots of the amazing buckle. I can't believe that with one drop he gets that!!!!! Congrats again, Brian.
And Omar, to be considered as one of the hobbitons you need to post an on the water picture of a fish you've boated and your feet are in the picture with it. If you get more comments on your feet than the fish.........it's a clue.......... :smt043
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da mooch report:
Took off Friday morning at 3AM (from Millbrea) and made it to the South launch ramp at 5:30AM. The gate to the launch was open so I parked and took a nap. Met Adam / fish hunter and his nephew about half an hour later and we decided to try for some SMB and LMB. We also bumped into Bob Neal as we were paddling out. (the wind was blowing at this time :smt011) Thanks to the intel of Juan / MAKO1, I managed to catch my biggest SMB to date = a 16 1/2 incher :smt007 (photod and verified by Adam) and a nice 2# LMB right in front of the Dam. I trolled my "confidence lure" - the mighty shad rap along the rockwall of the dam and hooked up with the LMB and later on, I was drifting along the wall while casting the shad rap towards the lip of the shoreline when I hooked up with the SMB. THanks again Juan :smt023
I took off and fished the "bald Island" right across the dam and caught a few more SMB - all small dinky ones. I then called Adam and told him we should head over to crappie cove to get some cover from the wind. And just before we got there, I got a radio call from Dan. I told him we were on our way to Crappie Cove. As soon as we got there, I made a cast in between two stick-ups and got a LMB to hit. Dan was close by when I saw another LMB trying to eat the one I was reeling in :smt118 I quickly released the LMB and Dan and I began bombarding the area but to no avail. On my last cast however, I managed to get a crappie :smt001
I then got a radio call from Mike / Mickfish - he said the gate to the camp grounds was already open, so we all decided to pack it up and head over to base camp.
Saturday - I got to watch Bill hook up - he was a bout 30 feet ahead of me and only about 20 minutes into the paddle towards the rocky point across the camp site. :smt038 A few hours after, I hooked up right on the point...unfotunately, it was LMB = but a big one :smt002 It measured 20 inches. After that, I fished the shelf right across the camp site but to no avail. I also hit the tower and drifted back and forth but no love there either. I did not give up and fished till the deadline at 3PM. It just wasn't meant to be :smt087
Had a great time as usual - got to meet more NCKA members - old and new. The best thing about these shindigs is that not only do we get to help out Chef and give a little back to the SBA of Ukiah, but we all get to meet the faces behind the names. And of course - the food was EPIC :smt007 Many thanks to those who showed support by attending and to the Whites and the Penningtons for another derby well done :smt041 Looking forward to next years event.......and I hope Molbasser wins it this time....he has been working really hard on his trash talking :smt003
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Looking forward to next years event.......and I hope Molbasser wins it this time....he has been working really hard on his trash talking
Anyone else up for renaming MolBasser to Mol-LargemouthBasser. It seems to me he does better with LMB than stripers and I think it fits better with his trash talking personna?
Just kidding Chris. Besides you really didn't want to win, that buckle wouldn't look good with tie-dye. As for myself, I'm still looking for the right belt.
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Thanks to Family White, Bill and the whole NCKA Crew!Couldn't have been planned better.This was the event I saw on the site when I first clicked it!Only one 14"LMB for me,but I wasn't pissed,after hearing it took seven and five attempts to get their first striper.Great time with GREAT PEOPLE is what I'm in this for.Glad the raffle was sucessful and I thank the "Raffle Gods" for linning-up that 1st prize to me.(I never win anything)
SHOUT-OUT to Mooch! for lugging up an xtra yak to lend to my nephew and then giving him the"Secret Lure" that he caught three different different species(LMB,SMB and a big-crappie) to boost his lure confidence :smt008 he had the time of his life paddling from the deepest-arm of crappie cove all the way to the island hearing his uncle yelling,"come on you sissy,keep your body straight and don't rock side-to-side so much.Dig harder or we'll never get back to the launch!"along with some other non-family-friendly-rally yells.He kept repeating"it keeps pulling left!"He finally looked down to see the small anchor down about fifteen feet and rolled it up as I laughed my a$$ off!Thats a long paddle draggin a five pound disc for"Moochs' Cabana Boy".
Till the next BAM,
Peace-out,
Adam/FisHunter
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Seabreeze,
I guess that I'll have to see what I'm up against at Paddlefest. I'm gluing hair on my feet and knuckles as we speak.
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heh...isn't gluing like getting an assist from a power boat?........... :smt005
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Call it what you will, either way, my dog's not happy. :sad5:
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:smt043
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jelly and Ty showing off their mad skillzz....
(by the way, Ty is only 15 years old....and is already 8 feet tall....must be the water in Chico :smt011)
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Hey Mooch,
That is a nice crappie. If I had caught that fish I would have been stuck in that area trying to get a mess more for Chuck's fryer.....Oh yeah....Chuck bailed, the whimp!
Hope to see you all at the paddlefest! You get to listen to me blather on about fishing for LMB and Crappie.
Did you gps mark the fish structure?
MolBasser
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They should get a KU KU HOE (Stand up paddle surfing) paddle and start a new way to kayak fsh eh?
And I think I know what they put in the water in Chico... my head is still spinnng from the last time I was there! :smt120
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The crappie was caught right next to some stick-ups (5 feet and drops off to 12 ft) just across the fish cribs inside Crappie cove - very easy to find - it's the most visible point once you paddle into the cove.
I wanted to stick around and fish the spot some more but when Mike called about the camp ground being open - I figured I'd get settled instead. We should have gone back during the early evening :smt011
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more pics.....
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and some more.....
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hey guys its my first post. its me ty....you know the pig and all that, sry mooch couldnt pass it up. i had a blast and thank you all, i walked away with twice as much info as when i first showed up and i got to meet you all. i had an absolute blast and thank you all for everything. this was my first fishing comp and i walked away with a 11.5 stripper. my first stripper ever. to bad it was before the comp :smt013. i still had a blast and congrats to all the winners. thanks mooch for all the advice.
ill see you all next comp or something...
ty