Guess I'll Start: GS5 Report

first big NCKA event for me, and all i can say is............................YAAAAAAAA BUDDY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
our NCKA family is like pringles, once you pop, the fun dont stop! as soon as dpshim and myself arrived, it was party party party party! seeing old brothers, making new ones, good eats, drinks, great fishin, nothin more one could ask for. i just cant wait till the next one, and im sure after that one, i'll be anxiously waiting for the NEXT one! i had the time of my life. thank you so much to everyone who worked so hard in making this event possible and unforgettable! WTG to the placers for donating your prizes to the pay it foward, i'm quickly learning how big our NCKA family's heart really is! and how quickly it will swallow you up!!! also thanks to the rest of our family who showed up and showed me what the madness is all about!~!~!~!

special thanks to the A-Hulls, who have adopted me into their dysfuntional and loving family!!!!!

Here are some pics from Monday. It was like Alaska. The views, the birds, the fish, the weather. It snowed on the peaks around Shelter Cove after a huga shower passed to the north. I found a pinnacle that came up to 22 ft from 60 ft. We worked that spot like crazy for about 2 hours. Between 3 of us we caught over 40 fish off that spot. I should have been where Darius was though. hahahaah.

Man, I missed it.  What a great time!  It's fun just looking at all the smiles.

Here are some pics from Monday. It was like Alaska. The views, the birds, the fish, the weather. It snowed on the peaks around Shelter Cove after a huga shower passed to the north. I found a pinnacle that came up to 22 ft from 60 ft. We worked that spot like crazy for about 2 hours. Between 3 of us we caught over 40 fish off that spot. I should have been where Darius was though. hahahaah.

I hope you marked that spot.

Hey, at Albion can you show me how the GPS feature works on your FF? 

Guess what I just had for dinner guys? 

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Hard boiled eggs?

Hard boiled eggs?

No...baluts...

It's ok of you throw out the little feathery bird inside.

i agree those loke dhorrible man!!! fm1 throwing it up was the best thig ya coulda done

Totally stoked to see everyone had such a great time.
Congrats to you Eric for throwing one helluva shindig!!!
Will definitely have to plan ahead for next year.

Congrats to all, looked like a killer trip. Sorry I missed it again.

I like the balut almost as much as the ab gonad!!!!
 
 
Sincerely,

Jim

Friday was fun handing out tournament packets, seeing returning GS'ers and meeting new ones, and the safety meeting at the launch was sunny and warm with beer and several dozen good friends mixing for a good hour after I gave a bit of info about the launch and the nearshore reef.  That evening was a blur as I tried to track down as many of the participants as I could, and the aforementioned beers fueled that madness...  Saturday after getting over my seasickness I hung with the fam for some boogieboarding in the Cove.  Multiple osprey were fishing amongst all the folks playing on the beach and at the ramp.  One osprey dove and scored about a 12" rainbow perch - another osprey started fighting for the catch, the fish was dropped, and neither bird seemed to notice where it ended up.  I jogged down the beach and grabbed it, hoping I could toss it up to them, but the birds lost interest.  My wife and daughter did their best to revive the fish and it seemed to go on its way!  Later we had more sunshine and a mild breeze for the first potluck - Brandi's hamachi was good stuff, Martin's Gimme Shelter 5 homebrew didn't disappoint, and all seemed to have a good time.  Sunday came and our team had agreed on launching at 6AM sharp.  Brandi was lagging, so we ditched her - she's tough enough to handle it though, and she found us on the water after a little radio assistance from Dan the Boogieman.  Even though it was windy and very cold the fishing was great.  Dom and I were working the 'Magic of the Chove' - I kept salmon gear on the entire weekend.  After a while our team split into sub-teams and I was out at the Whistle with Jason/redwoodfox.  The wind started to come up and I had to start making my way in to get the check-in station open by 11.  I heard on the radio that Jason had a huge halibut follow his bait up from the depths, and it was a preview of things to come...  I got in by the Bell and wished I could keep fishing, but by the time I got on the beach it became evident that I was the coldest I'd ever been on the water!  I stumbled around, got out of there quickly, got to The Tides, stowed gear quickly, jogged toward my room to grab a shower and even 15 minutes after getting out of the water my legs weren't working...     A quick and very hot bath and I was sprinting back to the launch with the scorecards, my assistant, and an EZ-up.  The scoring went very well - 3 straight hours of calling out inches and my daughter calling back numbers, checking numbers, re-checking, having people measure their own fish in front of me on my tailgate under the EZ-up, stuffing down a sandwich that my wife brought down around 1PM, and enjoying the nice stringers and big smiles coming off the water.  G-Whiz was the early leader with 5 species, then Patrick Leepin was on top with an all catch and release score, then Ravensblack and Saltydog checked in with amazingly close scores.  When Terry brought that monster 47.75" Pacific Halibut ashore along with 5 other species it was apparent that we'd have one hell of a fat winning score - as it should be, Terry erased any doubt about who would be champion.

1st place - Terry Saufferer / Jacks - 939.75 points!
     - 28.5" lingcod
     - 19" rockfish
     - 13.25" greenling
     - 20.25" cabezon
     - 11.5" perch
     - 47.75" halibut
2nd place - Craig Davis / Ravensblack - 744.75 points
     - 24.5" ling plus release bonus of one inch
     - 15" rock +1" bonus
     - 16.25" greenie +1
     - 20.5" cab +1
     - 12.75" perch +1
Craig took SOTD - Sportsman of the Day - for the highest C&R only score
3rd place - Jim Jackson / Saltydog - 742.75 points
     - 27.75" ling +1
     - 17.5" rock +1
     - 14.25" green +1
     - 18.25" cab +1
     - 13.5" perch +1
4th place - Daniel Shim / dpshim - 735 points
3 of 5 fish released
5th place - Patrick Leepin / HOLY TOLEDO - 715.25 points
all fish released
6th place - Sonny Nguyen / Sailfish - 706.25 points
2 of 5 fish released
7th place - Glen Armas / G-Whiz - 655 points
8th place - Shannon Jay / SRJ - 610.25 points
9th place - Domenic Belli / Domenic - 579.5 points
10th place - Jeff Ornellas / Shellback - 573 points

Right off hand, I think that BigJim won with around 650 last year - this year's fishing was much better! 

The largest and second largest lings ever caught at GS – 37.5” by Jim Meier / Rockfish, and 36.5” by Jeff Richards / JWR.  A few others over 30”.  Several rockies over 20”.  Several cabs over 20”.  Big greenies…  Everything but a salmon and flounder, and I’ll bet those will get caught next year. 

I was so frickin tired when I got home yesterday, but what a blast. IT WAS AWESOME!!!!!!!

Once again we partied way too hard Friday night. There was no way I was going to bed early with all the good times and friends around. It was great to hang out with so many great people. The people were awesome. The food was off the hook, major props to Zilla. The fishing was good, although the weather sucked Sunday. I could have done without the nonstop rain. It was wild having such good weather on Saturday and then the monsoon on Sunday. That's the coast for you.

As far as the fishing, well...I woke up on Sunday with a major headache and the rest of the crew wasn't motivated to fish. We didn't stay up very late and really didn't drink much the night before so I'm not sure why that happened. Oh well. We finally made it out after a while and I caught a ton of greenlings and underlings and one black. I did have one nice ling to the surface, but the hook popped out when it hit the surface. That's fishing.

On my way back in I got tossed 90 degrees and dumped by a freak wave. I was a short distance out from the breakwall when it happened. Montana came over and gave me a hand getting back on. The power boat that was in the area headed over to help too, but Montana and I got it before they made it. I'd never had a wave turn me so quickly. It may have not happened if I'd remembered to unhook the little bungee cord that secures the rudder. I couldn't put it down and I was already fighting the waves. Another item on the pre-flight checklist. I learned another lesson that's really not news to many of you, but some of us learn the hard way. I had a hard time getting over the edge with my PFD pockets full of crap. My radio was the biggie. Time for more practice with all the gear on and move the radio. The rod leash was also wrapped around my legs so it took a moment to get that undone. At least I didn't loose anything. What amazed me was that never got cold. Not at all. I got lucky.

We also went back out Monday for a bit and caught some more fish, but no monsters for us. Still, great times.

Thanks to everyone who made this so awesome. I can't wait until next year.

 

Oh.. I forgot something. The Balut was good. I had two , and my brother had one too. What's the big deal? Lol.