Gimme Shelter III - Shelter Cove - The Lost Coast (Swim Vid on Pg. 4)

My friend wasn't feeling well so I met and said goodbye to Eric at the fish cleaning station


Took a picture of Fishmaster1 and his limit of Ab


See if you can guess who's this mystery Ab diver 


Took one more picture of the beautiful ocean before leaving the cove


Good bye Shelter Cove... I'll return soon!

End of report 

 

 Ok, so whats with the yak full of water?  Saw some pictures, but no explanation.  This trip, sounds like a "sorry I missed it" trip!  Maybe next year?  That darn fish cleaning station?  Man o man.  Bad time to be a fish!

CGN-38

Yes, Alshobieoutback did get some water in his yak (about 20 gallons). we are not sure if the new Trident 15 was taking on water before the flips or after but it happened to him 2 days in a row. I  don't think the hatches on his yak seal at all.

It almost acted like it was taking on water over the bow or the rod pod hatch and after filling up with water it was impossible to handle. It acted slow as the day went on then a big wave and over it goes. My inspection of the hatches looked like the lid doesn't come in contact with the seal around the lip no matter how tight. Might be a design flaw or manuf. defect. I would be interested to hear how other trident lids fit on their seal. A good way to check is put something on the seal (maybe peanut butter) that will transfer to the inside of the hatch to see it there is contact. If there isn't good contact a new seal or hatch lid modification may be in order.

He is going to test it out and contact the outfitter to see what can be done.
It looks like he will go back to the Hobie for a while. He is not happy with how the new boat handled on rough water or the carrying capacity that it is advertised at. It doesn't seem to handle the weight on rough water, but we will wait for his research to see if the trident is the problem.

Stoggie

Yes....It was an EPIC trip.  The AbFamilly had a great time.
Thanks Eric for organizing this awesome weekend.
I forsee AbMan, AbWoman and AbChild as annual attendees.

Seeing first hand Dominic's Pacific Hali bendo, followed by the SacYak's floating gaff transfer and finalized with a gaff hook right into his lap made the day on Friday.

......Was going to tease Ab Man about his Cobra Triple rigging, but he is a big guy and I am a little guy.  .....

You can say whatever you want after turning me on to that honey hole next to the whisle bouy that got me a 31" and 27" ling.  If you don't want to see my masterfull rigging again, you'll just have to loan me that T15 of yours for Albion is ON.  I just made a reservation today.

.....thanks formost to mrs.abman for watching my daughter while i went fishing. .....

AbWoman says "your welcome, it was a pleasure and great to have a buddy for AbChild to play with."

Bummed I couldnt make it but had to drum up work, it was looking somewhat grim... but my decision to stay here paid off, I saw an ad on craigslist Friday, sent in my resume, got called on Sunday after the ARW Derby, and had my first day on the job today, great company, lots of high-end work, full time permanent position, so much for my thread jack.
You guys are the best group of folks to hang and fish with, period.
Cant wait to do it again.... Saturday!

I am still in awe of the weekend that I had at Shelter Cove. Thank you Eric once
again for making this NCKA event happen for all of us to enjoy. I only wished that
my family could have made it also. No words could describe how great all the people here. It was nice hanging out with old friends and meeting new ones.  
Before I forget, I would like to thank speedrcr for bringing some prices for the
event. I heard that Dominic donated the GPS as one of the prices for the winner
and for that, I thank you. That was very generous of you bro. Congrats once more
on the halibut. Here are some pictures to share. I will post some more as soon as
I finish my chores around the house to build some more WAF points.

Jedmo

That is one loaded ride! Know I see why you had a hard time getting over the hill. Not to mention the GIANT Ariel!

Its funny I got home and was thinking about Al's hatch issues. I was out there both days and took 4-5 breakers over the bow (mostly on Sun) and I mean really over the bow (like hit me in the stomach). And I had zero water in my boat? I looked at my hatch and noticed there is a trough in the front running around the hatch that will channel water around the hatch. Al when you get sec can you take a pic of your front hatch w/ and w/o the cover? I can do the same on my T13.

That is one loaded ride! Know I see why you had a hard time getting over the hill. Not to mention the GIANT Ariel!

Its funny I got home and was thinking about Al's hatch issues. I was out there both days and took 4-5 breakers over the bow (mostly on Sun) and I mean really over the bow (like hit me in the stomach). And I had zero water in my boat? I looked at my hatch and noticed there is a trough in the front running around the hatch that will channel water around the hatch. Al when you get sec can you take a pic of your front hatch w/ and w/o the cover? I can do the same on my T13.

Eric, you have to have some pics of that. That would be sic to see.

I wished I didn't get sick so much while I was out there fishing. I wonder if I was
the only one constantly getting sick every outing. Anyhow, more pictures to
share.

Jedmo

Couldn't go to the EPIC trip so I ended up waiting all weekend for the pics and videos and you guys did not disappoint.  Glad to hear Jedmo got Ist.  I hear from him that he's still chumming..  
Congratulation to all the participants.

Ok, so now that I made it through the day of work and got to get in some hot water and relax the muscles from a weekend of paddling, I'll get back to the posting! 

Thursday: Arrived and immediately began making friends and popping open brews getting to know the early arrival crew.  Awesome hanging with Merv, Tad, Mat and Stoggie in our little camp.  Got to meet Eric and Domenic at their swank room at the Tides  Got all the tackle ready for the opening day.  Just took it easy the rest of the day and feasted on Matt's fresh cooked abalone, YUMMMM!!!! 

Friday: Stoggie and I made it down to the water around 7 or so and launched in the best conditions of the weekend.  We fished around looking for structure and eventually met up with the group out by the red buoy.  Saw Tad catching his first ever rock fish(s) (go Tad!) and snapped a few pics of him and others in the group.  Heard someone talking about lings being caught and finally started catching some fish.  Think I had around 5-6 blacks, 2 small cabbies, 2 kelp greenlings, all released.  Got to feeling a bit sick, didn't take the Dramamine, and chummed a little bit.  Started heading in, but met up with Eric and others at the close reef and fished a bit more but started having the "funny" feeling and this time projectile puked overboard a few times, finally decided to head back in. 

Some more pics:

CGN-38

Yes, Alshobieoutback did get some water in his yak (about 20 gallons). we are not sure if the new Trident 15 was taking on water before the flips or after but it happened to him 2 days in a row. I  don't think the hatches on his yak seal at all.

It almost acted like it was taking on water over the bow or the rod pod hatch and after filling up with water it was impossible to handle. It acted slow as the day went on then a big wave and over it goes. My inspection of the hatches looked like the lid doesn't come in contact with the seal around the lip no matter how tight. Might be a design flaw or manuf. defect. I would be interested to hear how other trident lids fit on their seal. A good way to check is put something on the seal (maybe peanut butter) that will transfer to the inside of the hatch to see it there is contact. If there isn't good contact a new seal or hatch lid modification may be in order.

He is going to test it out and contact the outfitter to see what can be done.
It looks like he will go back to the Hobie for a while. He is not happy with how the new boat handled on rough water or the carrying capacity that it is advertised at. It doesn't seem to handle the weight on rough water, but we will wait for his research to see if the trident is the problem.

Stoggie

I've noticed on some of the Tridents on the sales floor that the hatch fit looks of less than stellar quality.  There's a thread over on NW commenting on another Trident with a water filling issue

http://www.northwestkayakanglers.com/index.php/topic,2876.0.html

Looks like I missed one helluva weekend!  Still need to get myself a yak.

Saturday: Boy was it sweet! Hit the water around 7:30 again just as the sun was peeking up over the hillside.  There was a ton of folks out there and hookups were happening all over the place!!!

My goal was to head out deep and look for a verm and some huge lingcod giving Matt's tinsel lure a go (man did it look sweet in the water!!) and started catching some nice sized blues again.  I made my way around trying to get some pics of the action for the reports.  It was BENDO's galore!!!   

I came up upon Jedmo and Matt as he was reeling in the monster eel and winner of the tourney!  Video taken, but didn't come out so good.  You should have seen the smile on his face!  It was classic, and how I will always remember Jedmo

Wow, what a trip!  I had a great time and it was fun meeting everyone.  I drank and ate way too much.  I had a great time camping and hanging out with Banjotad, Stogie and Alshobieoutback.

I really enoyed meeting a fishing with everyone.  Jedmo congrats on the eel!  It was really cool to be there to watch you catch that.

Domenic and EWB, I had a great time talking tackle and gear!  We will all have to stay in touch to share tackle ideas.

I got in a great dive with Abking and Domenic for a couple of dinner sized abalone.  The water clarity was fantastic!

Ariel you got it brother.  I will get a new hook and tie up a gaff for you.  That octopus was awsome.  I was on shore filming Domenic when I heard you hook up with that.  You have got to let me know how it tasted.  We will have to get together for a lobster dive!

I took a lot of pictures and a couple of videos.  i played around with the movie creator to do a couple Abking inspired videos. Our Uni experiance and Domenic hitting the swells.  I will post more as I get them finished and loaded.

Some Pictures:

Headed into town, guess we were the biggest thing in Shelter Cove!


Ariel heading into the fog:


Shelter Cove from the Water:


Jedmo with his Eel!


Some nice lings!




Amphibian with a nice ling!


Abking anouncing the prizes~


Dinner:


VIDEOS:

I am still learning, but these turned out decent.  I was playing with adding music and am learning to add text and fade in/out on later videos.  Here are the first few.

Domenic.  It gets a little grainy when I zoomed in, but it was awesome!  Domenic should be known as the swell rider!


UNI!


Enjoy, I know I did!  Matt

That last pic was the last one I took before I decided to head in closer to shore and fish the small reef again.  My camera time is off, but it looks like it ended up being around 9:30AM. 

As I'm paddling back from the red buoy its getting a bit rough for me out there.  Swell and wind were making it hard to make any traction.  I radio that I'm heading closer in cause I am getting beating up out there.  Swells were getting pretty large, some of them breaking next to me.  I've still been in worse conditions, but not on this boat before. Heading with the waves seemed fine, but they weren't pointing twards the launch. 

I'm at the point where I decide I need to get to some calmer water as fast as possible, and wait for a swell to pass and aim left to point the yak at the cove.  A wave flushes right over the side of the yak and I roll right out of it and am now in the water.    From here, my details are a lil' fuzzy, cause it all seemed to happen so fast.

After the initial shock and catching a few breaths I saw that I could still reach my rod that was in the holder and my net was floating near me.  Grabbed those and then was able to push the kayak back over with my free hand and get it upright again.  Toss the stuff up inside, and then started hailing that I need some help.  I remembered seeing Bob not too far back as I was paddling and I heard him call out too me.  He pulled up along side and checked to see that I was ok. 

He instructed me on what I should be doing to get back in, and I gave it a shot, but lost my balance and felt like I was going to pull Bob down with me.  Others were on their way so decided to wait for more assistance.  I was reaching for my radio to stuff back in the pocket and felt my camera...  I for some reason couldn't resist, and took a little video of me in the water and the guys helping me. 

With another person helping to balance bob, and someone giving directions to me from behind (NB?) we gave it another go, and this time it was successful except for when I was trying to bring my knee up in the boat with me instead of laying flat on my stomach.  I got rolled over and just held onto Bob and his Hobie while I caught my breath and let my nerves calm down a bit.  Once I was ready, and tried to thank everyone I set myself on my way back to shore and the others I think went back to fishing.

Coming back in, I felt like I had no balance and ended up having my feet over the side of the boat to help balance me.  I was being cautious, moving slow in the water and only with the waves figuring I'm going to have to head twoards the shore however possible and hope to hit calmer water to turn the bow into and paddle to the launch.   Every time a wave came from behind me it felt like I was having to counter balance it 3-4 times.  But I kept moving, my legs were really cold, but I was determined to get back in under my own power. 

Stoggie came up on me and I told him how the yack was feeling to me, and explained that for some reason I have no balance.  Keeping up the balancing act was getting hard, and for the first time I started to feel a bit afraid of dumping over again.  He looked at me and didn't see anything that looked wrong.  I was still sitting high in the water, and he didn't know what was wrong but stuck it with me all the way back to shore. 

Eventually I came back in without tipping, using my legs to balance, and when I hit the shore I couldn't pull my yak 5ft out of the water, it was heavy as hell!  Tad and Matt were there and some others we opened up the hatch and saw 3-4 inches of water inside.  We flipped it over and it took a WHILE to drain it out, even with most of it flushing out the front hatch. 

Matt gave me some warm clothes to put on, that I was really thankful for and grabbed a smoke from Tad and just kept going over the whole episode in my head trying to figure out what I did wrong.  I really should have expected water in the hull after being flipped, but I was too worried to check it out there on the water, and just wanted to head back in. 

I'm still looking to figure out what went wrong with that scenario ( and the second one...) but I am not sure, but will be doing some testing to find out what I can.  I'm not going to point fingers at problems before having some answers.  Will be posting more on this later...