BAMIII Highlights / October 5,6,7 2007

WOW! BAM , what a great event. Thank you Sean for the hard work in putting on the event. Congrats to all the winners. Despite the hot striper bite,I did not hook on to any striper.    I did catch two smallie, three large mouth and two cat fishes. All fishes released unharmed. The food was fantastic, The friendship even better. Can't wait untill BAM IV.

IM BACK FROM HIDING....  I thought I had it???  Then I heard from a distance "Sean get the scale Chucks coming in with 2 big ones"......Only to get a second beating by Freddie..  I could not think of two stronger fishing guys who deserved it.  At least Mahi didn't win, I could not handle looking at the buckle.  I'm sure he feels the same.  I did however pick up a SWEEEET Okuma rod that has some KAYAK bling to it.  THATS OKUMA, THANKS SEAN.

ChuckE-your Baidarka is here too.  I have to say these rods look well made and well thought out...very cool!  Send me a PM bradah so I can get it to you!

the SCARY MOMENT of the trip...Nate/Bungle's look in this shot(pic4) not quite halloween but close enough. 

  HA! Thats rad that you picked up on that!  My girlfriend is constantly taking pictures, and I'm used to making a face or something to ruin the picture when I catch the camera pointed at me.  I wasn't trying to ruin the picture, Adam, just a reflex I guess.

No ruining of pic bro!....just one of them "Pentex Moments" that was captured

IM BACK FROM HIDING....  I thought I had it???  Then I heard from a distance "Sean get the scale Chucks coming in with 2 big ones"......Only to get a second beating by Freddie..  I could not think of two stronger fishing guys who deserved it.  At least Mahi didn't win, I could not handle looking at the buckle.  I'm sure he feels the same.  I did however pick up a SWEEEET Okuma rod that has some KAYAK bling to it.  THATS OKUMA, THANKS SEAN.

Andy, I thought you had it too with your fat stringer early on.  Freddie and I just got lucky in finding a school of bigger fish in the last couple hours.  Also, it's a good thing that other experience Mendo striper slayers like Sean and Shimmy weren't competing.

The bacon wrapped dates were the bomb (thanks Mahi) 

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. 

You ain't kidding Erik! them dates were YUM!   and great job on the AOTY!  That SMALLIE shouldn't be called a smallie!
 i have been hunting those mammoth smallies on EVERY trip up there......got two 16.5"ers in my fisrt year, on the minn-troll

I'm over my 12hr "car lag" and the brain is finally back to full function. BAMIII... what can I say that hasn't already been said? The stars aligned and fishing was off the heez! The food was nutz! Looked forward to the ChuckE fryer and man... it lived up to the hype. I hope to command a fryer like that someday. The people of NCKA were awesome as always and hangin' and chattin' was super fun even though I was a bit on the exhausted side. It's great to put faces to all the names I've been chatting back and forth w/ for these years. Fishing was a bit tough on me w/ only 2 solid hookups that ended up unbuttoning near the yak. I definitely need more Flyfishing skills to make it look like I know what I'm doing. A few people let me know my choice in gear was a little bit brackish but no worries, when I get this down y'all gonna wanna get a bug rod too.

Extra special big ups to the White's for making this tourney worthwhile coming all the way down for!
Can't wait for BAMIV!!

Z

And thanks to vwtech329 for letting me borrow his phone charger. I had a safe drive home since I could talk to people on the way home. U da man!

Good Job Z!!!

  Way to make the effort,

  Hope to see ya soon .......... Danglin

I'm over my 12hr "car lag" and the brain is finally back to full function.

and I was trying to beat the xtra 45min tacked on to 2hrs, if I didn't leave before noon.
That is a HAUL for sure.
.....now that you've scouted it out, next time at BAM CAMP will be your time. 

sorry for this late post...  I took too many pictures & took forever to process... & also I've been working very hard to finish my work early so that I can fish tomorrow but my work never ends...

I just wanna say thanks to 
 White's family for making BAM happen & Mendo crews' help, you guys are super!!! the tourney was off the hook!  It was definitely great way to end NCKA tourney 2007!
 my Sonoma bro, Dustin, to let me fish his spot & helped everybody else out!  As I said you're the champion in my heart...
 & Juan for take easy on us...
 everybody who brought sick amount of great food to put me in food coma...!
  Frank's nice & warm coffee & breakfast store!
  Bill & ChuckE's fryer!
  Mickfish's pig n pig!
  Adam's 8 layer...  etc etc...
 everything was super good!
 & nice to meet you to Sumo152 for the sticker & Fishing-Jay & his wife to let use their grill!

My highlight of the weekend was MY girlfriend, Ash actually caught nice striper!!!  She beat me but that was great!

Rainbow & Whites welcome to us!
That was double rainbow.  One for BAM, one for me!

The nite before, not even potluck but everybody started cooking like madman...!
Bill & ChuckE already cracked open their fryer!
I caught Adam in the act...
Awesome 

found Dustin's bendo & right after Bob's too

Bob's fight & catch!

Former champion, bsteves, getting hit (1st pic), fight & catch, but he looses on his lap... you can see it on 2nd pic. sorry Brian...