Paddlefest Report 9/30

Congrats Danglin.  I saw some posts a couple days ago on Coastside about threshers being caught out of Oyster Point, way to pull off the last minute win. 

Chuck, sounds like you had a great turnout at this years event.  Wish I could have made it, I would have loved to catch a thresher.  Must be nice to have a tournament where almost everybody catches really big fish.

Brian

Thanks to Chuck, Art and Bill for all the hard work into making this event happen. 

Congrats on the win Danglin.  Really sweet fish.  Right down to the wire.  Too bad it wasn't about 50lbs bigger, uhhh, and about 6+ minutes later.  I was already there, sipping a margarita.

Duane,
That was a nice striper too.  All of us, anglers and non anglers alike, were really impressed by both fish.

The paddle for second is NICE!!  I'm anxious to try it out

I had never gone shark fishing before, let alone shark fishing in a kayak.  It was a blast.  Lots of action and variety as well.  If I had a boat, it would be a great trip to take kids. 

My impression of Paddlefest is that its a great event if your are getting into kayaking, want to learn more about the sport or want to sharpen your skills by attending the various clinics.  I had intended to tryout a couple of yaks, but just never made it to the beach. 

Stuart

Awesome fish to everyone!! Thank you so much for the great day and generosity. I can't wait to fish in upcoming events with everyone!

Well it was a fun two days with you guys at the Paddlefest.  I saw some friends I hadn’t seen for a few years and made some new ones. Chuck that was some of the best fish I’ve ever eaten thanks again. Sorry I missed the tournament but I did get out early Sunday with the Mooch. Thanks again for the coffee and Banana. I completely forgot the whole banana thing I just ate the banana and threw away the peel. Was I supposed to put it on the bow of my yak even though I was in a canoe? I worked the waters around those posts that made up the beach boundary’s and the waters between them and the beach.
There were baitfish the size of your little finger all over the place but I never saw any signs of anything feeding on them. Just as I was stripping my line back in to change flies my line snagged or at least I thought. When I tugged on it tugged back and then began towing my canoe out to the bay. This lasted a minute before my flie came out, there was no fighting only towing.
I’m looking forward to next year. I assure you we will get more respect in the schedule  next year.

This was my first derby ever and I had a blast.  I've never fished the Bay and never fished for sharks before.  I went to learn and I did.  Kudos to everyone who made this possible and my next question is....when is the next trip?

I had a good time hanging out on Sunday.  I missed the derby, which was a big mistake, but it was cool nonetheless.

We had to compete with bad weather and football so the crowd seemed light to me.  I scrapped the idea of a formal seminar and just chatted with people personally who were interested.

The was some good natured ribbing with the touring kayakers about actually DOING something in a kayak 

Chuck attempted to make up for his absence from Mendo by busting out his fryer and we sampled some of Danglin's thresher which was great.

MolBasser

Thanks to everyone for putting on the event and Chuck and agarcia for doing boat patrol! It was a great event and I caught my best sharks ever as well as getting my first serious sleigh ride from a bat ray.. what a blast!! Thanks to Polepole for hooking me up with some good bait and pointers! It was cool to see so many people hooking up with so many good fish. The radio was blowing up all event long with people calling in big fish. The Striper and last second Thresher at the end were epic, what a great tourney!!

Z

I want to thank Molbasser and Ricky Mitchell for being our star attractions for Sunday.   

I scrapped the idea of a formal seminar and just chatted with people personally who were interested.

I agree.  The one-on-one approach with the audience proved to be more effective than formal seminars on Sunday.

BIG thanks to Chuck, Bill, Mooch, Bob, Chris, and all participants.    I think this was definitely THE highlight of the Paddlefest.   Everybody really enjoyed the info, great additude, friendliness, and the FISH!  (Chuck, nice job on the smoked RF. now I'm on the hunt for a smoker)

Well, I was definitely not prepared to catch any fish without  -bait, time, rigging, experience.......
but will be ready for next year!

once again I'm just amazed at the good folks involved with this board

cheers,
greg d

Anybody who missed this event shouldn't make that mistake twice.  High drama for sure.  The leader board changed often early on and there were a number of big leopards that were coming up only an inch or two shy.............then with only about 5 minutes left, while chuck and I were measuring a contender, the call goes over the radio that danglin had a big one on, possibly a thresher.  I looked his direction and sure enough his shark is surfacing and whippin its tail around.  Calls were goin out on the radio to land that puppy asap cause cut off time was approaching fast. From a distance it looked like it was a small one and a close race, then its tail stuck straight up in the air and it was as tall as danglin's upper body.  We got it on board for a quick measurement and it was clearly longer than all the other sharks.  It was a good day and very relaxing to just be cruisin around, radio chatter was entertaining. 

Kayakfishing seemed to be a big draw for the paddlefest, lots of interest and people seemed to be pretty receptive of it.  Although a lot of the ncka heavyweights were in attendance it really seemed like it could be anyone's day to win.