Bullards Bar FnC 5/9-5/11/25 - 3rd Annual

I may not be able to make it now. Mabel is at the Vet. She’s had diarrhea for 2 days but was active yesterday but now she can barely stand. Could be some sort of poisoning.

I’m hoping to make the drive up Friday after work. If not, dark and early Saturday morning. I’ll bring some desert to the potluck. I’ve got a big apple pie and some whipped cream.

My wife and 2 kids are coming. My mom can't make it this year. We will make a bean salad for the potluck. We have site 10. We will not get there till late on Friday. Looking forward to the fun!

I will be there! Won't be on a kayak though did some damage to myself on lake berryessa. I'll be in the orange monster sail/skiff POS and will have to leave noonish. (Mothers day prepping) wanted to see everyone (and chase Kokes) it is what it is. See y'all way to early on Saturday morning

I didn’t see anyone around. You must be prefishing still. I got a first come first serve site in schoolhouse. #47. See you in the morning.

Report: Since Mabel seemed down for the count I cancelled my reservation. Then the day before she seemed on the mend so we did a long day trip on Saturday. Once we arrived on site, she seemed back to her old self, pulling on the leash and trying to get into everything.  I first ran into Cory who said no one had caught a Kokanee in days!!! Then saw Weimarian on the water with his modified sailboat hull and he said he caught 1 or 2. I skunked all morning on kokanee, bass and trout without a bite. Ugh.
But Pasha pulled in 9 before noon and Kevin had 7 or 8 so it was decent for some. After a couple IPAs I felt better. (Hope it's not a pattern.) Got in a brief swim in summer conditions.
Based on the intel from Pasha, I headed out again from 3 to 5:30, surrounded by Lake Lice, and picked up 3 Kokes near the bottom, at one point having a double on with one coming off. Paid the price for touching bottom with a lost rig.
I was a little late to the potluck but there was so much amazing food leftover that you could have fed a lion.
The long drive home at night was a lot better than anticipated since the skunk was off.

It was a great day on the water, sun and low wind (Need 5mph wind chop for kokes to get on a good bite i think) I did get 2 kokes and one LARGE bass (21") while trying to retrieve my lost rod with a ling jig thought i had hooked a rock, gave a good tug, and it tugged back!!! released at surface due to the "jig" it was caught with.  had to run at noonish so the tri tip was safe. glad I got to see y'all for a bit. Maybe not on Mothers day weekend next year?

Thanks everyone for the hard work and comradery! Family had a wonderful time! Looking forward to next year!

Tl;dr
Weather was perfect, excellent company, amazing food, good fishing, excellent entomology.

Elena and I arrived Thursday afternoon, weather was perfect. Immediately realized the mosquitos were awake and hungry!  The weather was so perfect, we did not even get the normal afternoon breeze / wind, that pushes kayaks off the water, but also keeps the mosquitos at bay.  I mis counted how many trucks we'd have at 4T, so we put the trailer in the middle of the parking area - as it appeared to be the most level, next year We'll park further to the side to make it easier to cram more trucks in the space.    By the time camp was setup it was about 4, decided not to fish, just chill and enjoy.  Walked down to the point, found John and Sam already setting up.

Friday morning, slept in, made breakfast, and fished for a while, hunting kokes - but no takers.  We had a full moon, I typically don't fish the full moon.  I got off the water around mid day, walked through the point camp - and was made aware they were all catching really well, and I was behind…catching a buzz that is, I went up, got Elena and joined in.  A great afternoon/evening of seeing everyone again.  This is now the third BB FnC, and some of the people and faces, we only see once a year - always great to see and catch up with everyone.  We had a mini-potluck at 4T that night, Some of Kevin's amazing tri-tip, we did up some veggies and chicken legs, plenty of food to go around.

Saturday morning came with my alarm going off…probably should have drank less, gone to bed earlier…oh well…good times…I was first down to the kayaks…but,, clown show left his bait back in the truck…so up the hill again, grab the bait…and almost last on the water, but ready to fish by the 7am start time.  My strategy this year was to just work the coves near the boat ramp, spend less of the 5 hours (7-12) cruising between locations, and spend more time fishing.  I also decided by 10am, I would switch to bass fishing, unless the koke bite was hot.  I threw everything I had at the kokes, but they did not want to play.  I could feel some ticks on my lines, but I think that was just my lure bumping into fish. Ran into Pasha on the water as well as Jerry, they both had some luck at that point.  Found Joe on the water, Mable had partially recovered, though much calmer than usual- she was *almost* like a normal dog   I started working a cove that looked bassy with a rattler, no luck, switched to a Rapala Shad Rap with a deeper dive, on the 5th cast boom, got hit…oh it felt good to catch something, reeled it in, 13.25" spotted bass, got him back in the water as fast as I could, swam away fine.  Tried for some more, had one that followed my lure out of an overhang, but he didn't hit it, kept trying for the remaining 15' no joy.

Got back to shore, met by my wife with a cold beer! Life doesn't get much better than that.

Kevin had the awards ceremony at 1, great prizes from Kevin and some nice donations from Pasha, 3$J, and Joe DubC. Congrats to all the winners!  I'll let Kevin announce that - he does a great job every year organizing the friendly competition.  When Kevin asked to do this for the first BB FnC, I wasn't totally for it, thought it might detract from the chill aspect.  So I asked if he'd organize it.  Now that we've had the third, and looking back, I think the competition is central to the whole FnC.  The comp is friendly enough, and low key enough that it's really fun - but also gives a focus to Saturday and the event over all - Thanks Kevin! Much appreciated!

The potluck was at 5:30 that night.  Too much food as always, and also some really really good food.  Elena and I did our grilled veggies, they are simple to do, I think they taste good, and we've found that potlucks tend to be short on veggies - strong on proteins!  I can't call out everything, but Kevin carved up his famous tri-tip,  John and Sam had some amazing sliders, Julian and Bree brought their Lumpia again, this time 1/2 pork and the other 1/2 were veggie.  The veggie were out of this world.  Everyone really did an amazing job with what they brought, home made cookies, enchiladas, salad, potato salad, too much to list!!

It was an early night for us, two nights of staying up late drinking was catching up with me, and Elena had an event on Sunday in Placerville - so we wanted to get back early enough for her to participate.  I think I counted about 20 ppl participating, from young to old.  Really a nice size group, and a very fun and friendly group.  I'm looking forward to #4 next year, same bat channel, same bat time.

See ya,
Brian.

Potluck photos (awards photos after Kevin posts)

Thanks for organizing this, Brian. As I was skunking and fuming over the long drive for unwilling 10” fish, I was thinking the event should be moved to Berryessa, where there is a chance at large fish of multiple species. But Berry is harder to predict and has less shade in most places.
Once I got a few in the afternoon, I felt better about BB.

Brian, Kevin,
Thank you very much for organizing this fun event.
Tanner and I had a wonderful time meeting everyone.
We really appreciated the warm welcome and good vibes.
And echoing what’s already been said: the food was out-of-this-world good.
Definitely learned a lot about kokes and BB this trip.
The friendly competition was a great time.

Sunday had a similarly challenging bite and a lot more wind.
We were able to scratch out some more fish sticks (one was 13.25”) and a trout before heading home.

We’re already looking forward to next year.

Man, really wish I could have made this - looks like a good time!  Next year ...

Joe, glad Mable is feeling better!

Glad you guys had fun, I really missed fishing with you cool dudes this year.  I wish I could have made it as well, and sadly I could have if my agency had told me before Friday that I wouldn't start my new position on Monday.  Next year I guess...

Sorry for the late post. When I got back to work on Wednesday, I was up to my eyeballs with issues at work.

Another fantastic FnC at Bullards is in the books. It was great seeing old friends and making new ones. I had a great time and it seemed that everyone else did too. Thank you to everyone for making this such a fun weekend! I was enjoying myself so much that I completely forgot to take any pics, so I'll rely on the rest of you to post what you have.
The fishing was a little tough for everyone. The heat and the full moon definitely killed the bite. I was there two weeks prior to the event and easily CnR'ed two limits. I hear that easy limits are the norm again. That's the way it goes sometimes. When prefishing Friday evening, I was beginning to think that one or two fish may just win the tournament!

The winners:
1. Pasha, longest stringer, 9 Kokes. Edged me out by 1. Congrats on your first time joining us and walking away with the trophy, cash and prizes!!
2. Troy, longest Koke 12.5". Edged me out by 1/4"
3. John, longest non Koke - Bass 14.5. Edged me out by 1".

Obviously not my year. Revenge is sweet. I'll get you next year!!!! Thanks to those that donated to the prizes. It's people like you that make this event what it is!!!

Side note: I brought my friend Jerry, he used my buddy kayak. Jerry had never been on a kayak before. Friday night, I showed him the basics and off he went. He did well Friday evening and on Saturday morning, he had it down, and needed very little assistance from me. He caught fish both days! We decided to hit the water one more time Sunday morning before we headed home. We get set up and get 50' from the bank. I hear a sploosh, turn around to find that Jerry had just baptized himself. I motor over to him, flip the kayak and attempt to get him back on board. He struggled a bit so I just towed him back to shore. To my amazement, he didn't lose anything! All of his gear and tackle stayed in the kayak. Even his hat stayed on his head. We had a good laugh and I told him "Welcome to the world of kayaking!" Dude didn't even want to change into dry clothes. He just jumped back in and went fishing. I think he's hooked!!!!
Kevin