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

My Donations made to the "Lost Coast" for Saturday (yeap!) were:

Gaff
Fish smaker
Trevala Med Rod w/ Shimano 301a Cardiff
Scupper plugs (recoverd by AK)
Lip Gripper (Recovered by AK)
Pat's Hawg Trough
Stringer, with a few fish on it
Bait, bottles, etc stuff in pockets
10AA rechargeable battery setup for FF
ICOM Remote Floating Mic (died after the dunk)

Just got home this evening around 6:30. Departed from fog at the Cove & returned to fog blowing through the Golden Gate, with some pretty high temps in between.

My plans for the weekend got pushed back & didn't arrive at Shelter 'til early Sat AM. Missed a lot of the festivities but still had an incredible weekend at this amazing place. Despite the late start, I got some great fishing in. No trophy fish but some firsts for me and took home a nice hefty verm and some big blacks. Some of the black rockies at that place look like they're pumpin' steroids!

Great to see some familiar faces & meet some new ones. Sorry I didn't meet a lot of you - next time I won't arrive a day & a half later than planned... 

Al, glad you made it in OK from your last little swim. The response to your distress call from this group was fantastic - by the time I even had my yak turned around to head twrd you, a bunch of NCKA brethren were already well on their way and Danglin had taken command from shore. What a relief when he announced you were safely in the boat. Now do somethin' about that leaky kayak... 

FishMaster & crew, glad you stuck around another night. As usual, no one goes hungry when you're around! And, of course, the shirts are awesome...not to mention the "Shelter Cove or Bust" Man Van!   
BTW folks, please remember to pick up your shirt and/or pay up for it if you ordered one. It looked like he had a lot of unclaimed shirts...

As many have said, this was an epic NCKA event. Thank you to Abking pulling this together & introducing so many of us to this truly amazing place. 

Yeah, Al, that was quite the excitement. The wind definitely kicked up for a while there on Saturday and Lisa and I were about to start heading in when we heard some garbled transmissions on the radio which I guess were you? Then someone radioed there was a man in and we all headed as fast as we could to the drifting yak. You held it together like a trooper man. A few of the guys made a makeshift raft to support the yak and Al as he attempted to get back in, while someone else gave him a push. I have a couple of bits of video. They're not as dramatic as Mondays, which Eric has some footage of I think.

On a side note to that, once we were done getting Al back in the yak, I start hearing someone yelling "HELP, HELP". I scan the water and see it's someone in a yak about a quarter mile away. Right next to them is all sorts of commotion in the water and gulls circling and feasting on whatevers happening. It looks like a textbook shark attack. Now I'm really, really scared. I start paddling like a madman towards the guy shouting help. Abking is on the radio telling us he's watching a seal destroy a salmon. As I get closer to the guy shouting help I finally put 2+2 together and realise it's Abking, and he's not shouting "help" he's doing seal impressions to try and frighten the seal off the salmon so he can grab the carcass to enter in the tourney!! Man, you gave me a fright!

Here's the video of Al.

Abking is on the radio telling us he's watching a seal destroy a salmon. As I get closer to the guy shouting help I finally put 2+2 together and realise it's Abking, and he's not shouting "help" he's doing seal impressions to try and frighten the seal off the salmon so he can grab the carcass to enter in the tourney!! Man, you gave me a fright!

Sorry, Man.      Not used to having so many people around when I yell at the seals.   

I just got home late this afternoon after opting for the bonus night down there and catching a dive today with Dom and Shannon.  Busy busy with the kids and home responsibilities and am just now delving into some pics and video clips.  It's gonna take a while!

I pieced together some Thursday pics with my usual odd use of the mini caption.     The story Thursday was how flat the water was...

My Donations made to the "Lost Coast" for Saturday (yeap!) were:

Gaff
Fish smaker
Trevala Med Rod w/ Shimano 301a Cardiff
Scupper plugs (recoverd by AK)
Lip Gripper (Recovered by AK)
Pat's Hawg Trough
Stringer, with a few fish on it
Bait, bottles, etc stuff in pockets
10AA rechargeable battery setup for FF
ICOM Remote Floating Mic (died after the dunk)

Al, Consider the smacker and gaff replaced. I'll get to turning! Unless Matt you wanna make one and I can make the other. Regardless it will be personalized!

Sorry to hear about the capsize Al.Glad to hear NCKA crew assisted in the recovery like true brothers and watermen...I'd like to think we would have all done the same.

As for the poor fit on the Trident rod pod hatch...The Pod always scared me.Never liked the idea of a hatch on an open-deck kayak that was designed to be opened on the water.I water tested several new Tridents this season and several of them failed with poor fitting around the Pod.I personally ordered the "sport" version of the T13 because it did not have the Pod cutout or the jenky well-nut mounted factory flushmonts.IMO all Trident owners with the Pod should water test (and practice in small surf w/ a buddy) as well as always carry a pump if they are going to fish salt.

I certainly don't want to shift focus from your amazing trip!

Merv - the berry cobbler was from the Abking family.  I pick 'em, she's prepares 'em.   

Tad - I think everyone probably forgot you were an ocean NewB right off the bat - you were looking very comfortable and content out there.  Nice work.   

Matt and Kent - AWESOME videos!   

GS4 date...  I'd suggested we should consider June next year, but Julie at The Tides pointed out that she can only offer an extension of the Winter Special if we hit mid May again.  So...  The weekend of May 15th it is!  (we'll save the rest of that one for next year's SuperThread!)   

Matt, AWESOME, AWESOME, AWESOME VIDEO!!!! man thanks for taking
it. I was laughing so hard my coworkers came to see what was going on,
and they all got caught into watching the video as well. I love it dude.
Thanks again for the assist on landing the winning fish. I totally appreciate it bro. I hope to see you again on the next hookup.

I still have a lot of pictures to share with everybody. I will post them
when I get home.

Jedmo

Friday started out hectic as I regretted only getting 3 hours of drunk-sleep...     There was no stopping the Madness though - we geared up and hit the water early, encountering thick fog.  The fleet headed out first toward the Bell Buoy then turning west toward the Whistle.  As the fog burned off a couple dozen yaks were revealed in a 4-6 acre area.  We were fishing it hard and the vibe in the air was excitement, but it got dulled down just a bit when there were basically no bites at all for about an hour and a half.  Then, like a switch the bite came alive.  Lings, blacks, cabs...  the free-for-all began!  The ocean was a confused mess of short-period wind swells, chop and built-up waves that would randomly cap in your lap once in a while.  Several people got seasick, and my own queaze was inspired by the hangover...  I took a legal ling to shore so we'd have some 'camp meat', we met and greeted people who were showing up, and I, like many, caught a little nap in the PM.  Before nap time though there was a special buzz in the air - the rumor was that someone had caught a Pacific Halibut!  I was like, "No WAY!"  I was running around so excited that one of our own had bagged such a rare catch, then I found out it was Domenic, and I was so jazzed!  My Home-Boy came through with Super-Epic on the first fishing day.  That was so cool.  Great job, Domenic and those who assisted him OTW.  Wife and son got there that evening and we BBQ'd some shish-kabob's and enjoyed the beach.  The ocean kicked up and got pretty nasty in the late afternoon - that would be the worst WX of the weekend, and it was even still fishable.  That evening at the campground we decided on our NMBF tournee format - that's "NO Money Between Friends" - we went with free entry and we'd just give away the prizes based on overall length.  The party centered around Andy's GS3 Man Van and some whole deep-fried fish that were looking scrumptuous.  Great job on the shirts, Andy (SIDE NOTE - I NOW HAVE THE SHIRTS, SO CONTACT ME BY PM IF YOU DIDN'T GET YOURS OR IF YOU WANT ONE).  Managed to keep from getting too buzzed around the campfire and crashed out before midnight in anticipation of Saturday's fishing focus.  It was a great day in preparation for an even greater one to come.   

Bonus!  My girlfriend had such a good time hanging out on the beach and meeting everybody that she said she misses living up North and maybe we can move back    (fingers crossed - would love to be a norcal kayak angler again).

Wish I coulda made it out with you guys.  Oh well, maybe next time.

I just got back from overseas and I am ready to go fishing!

What an amazing event. Nice job Abking. Thanks for all the stories and pics.

I'm glad everything worked out ok for Al. Sounds scary. I hope you get that leak figured out soon. That must have been pretty disappointing. I wonder if the water got in there before or after the flip.....

-FF

To much to say about the trip!...The people, the food, the beer, the water, the diving, the scenery. Man my family and I had A blast! I wanna give A special thanks out to Abking for getting us all together in A very special place. Putting faces to all the screen names is just an amazing thing! I did not fish too much just one day for about five hours... Like Sin said I can catch fish closer to home! It was the Abs that had my attention! My first Ab felt sooooo good I couldn't believe it. I will post pics latter.I also want to thank Harputmanuki for providing an Ab iron when needed and the super cool video!!!...My son was out there like A grown man braving all the swells and not giving up.. He is one awesome trooper and going to be A great NCKA angler for years to come. My girlfriend out fished me with A nice blue and A beautiful china!! Way to go Brenda!!! I caught one nice blue some under lings and small cabbies. Kris got skunked but it didn't phase him one bit! The trip was truly amazing and I cant wait to do it again!!!! To all NCKA crew that was there and too all the NCKA crew that was not, we are truly an amazing group!!! Congrats to all the participants you all took first place in my book!!!! Until next time....See you on the water.....Andy

i waited for the pics,vids and Al, before replying.........

E-P-I-C is what this trip spells out!! (even though something bad happened)

Thanks to Abking & Dominic for putting it together ( i sure wish i went)

congrats to ALL of you.....you all won!   and thanks for documenting it all and sharing it in full.

good thing the whole family was there to help and assist....just like the book said!

keep the pics and stories coming!!