Mendo Memorial weekend

Camped up at Mendo this weekend with the yak, PB, and family. Took the yak out Sun morning at 6:00am and tried to make bait at the south ramp with a blue net that I picked up from West Marine. I spent about 40 minutes and couldn't catch anything even though there were tons of shad in the water. It was torture as hundreds of shad would swim 2' from my net but those things were way too fast for me to scoop and they wouldn't go any closer.

Back up plan was to troll a bucktail jig and Rebel so I started heading out to where Eric said he caught his fish. On the way out, I see the bait guy driving his boat towards the ramp so I flag him down to see if he has bait. Very nice guy! He didn't have any but offered to take my bait bucket to the shop and bring some back for me. Man, talk about service. So he asks how many minnows I want and I'm thinking for a second as I'm still blown away that he's gonna go bring me bait back. I lose my concentration for just a second and find my upper body seems to be way off center and over I go. The yak flips and I'm like WTF just happened as I'm in confusion over why I'm now swimming next to my yak. One of the things on my to-do list has been to practice my deep water entries as I've never done it before. Well my adrenalin was pumping so fast that it took me all of about 2 seconds to flip that yak over and get my butt back in where it belongs.

It was heart breaking doing the inventory after I got situated. My hat and sunglasses stayed on and I tucked my glasses on the neck of my jacket as I looked around for gear. I ended up losing 2 rods, 1 net, 1 radio and as I turned around, I watched my glasses fall into the water and sink. So I figure it cost me just over $500. I know some of you guys have had that same sick to your stomach feeling as you add up the cost of lost gear. Horrible! Well at least the bait guy gets an entertaing show lol. He feels so bad and offers to loan me a rod so I can still fish, which I accept.

As I start making my way out to fish, I notice a Malibu Kayak sitting at the ramp. I decide to go over and see if it was someone from NCKA. I met KickenBass and he was nice enough to offer me some shad that he scored from somone fishing off of the bank. We cruised across the lake to where Eric caught his fish and spotted two boils on the way out but it seemed that the action was over by the time we made it over there. I trolled the east side for a while then headed to the south shore and up the dam. By this time I was too chilled from my wet clothes to keep fishing and decided to call it a morning and go get dried off and warmed up. I met back up with Kickenbass at the ramp and we helped each other load up our kayaks.

I took the rod I borrowed from the bait guy back and bought some minnows from him for some night fishing on the PB. The minnows he has are friggen huge. A size 2 hook is way too small for some of them. I didn't get any love on the night fishing either.

Oh ... back at our campsite (lake front), I decide to throw a line out and soak a minnow. I reeled in my line when I was leaving to take the boys out wakeboarding and it got caught on something. I reeled it in and caught a kite which was a shark. My son got the biggest kick out of that ... Sharkbait caught a shark! haha.

Bro,  I am sorry to hear about the loss of gear.  It is always a bummer to lose gear, especially when camping.  I have lost my fair share but now I leash everything. I don't want to take any chances.

Jason

Sorry to hear about the lost equipment. I must confess that KickinBass (Andy) stopped by my house right after he left the South boat ramp (as I live at the base of the dam). He told me about your "incident" and swore he wouldn't post anything about it unless you did first. It takes nuts to fess up to a flip-over resulting in loss gear on a flat lake.

If we end up with some kind of search and resuce dive call at the lake, I'll try to get the diver to find and rescue your stuff. I think I know the general area od the Poseidon incident.

CHEERS!

I was talking to a buddy in Sonoma, he is a rescue diver.  If I give him ALCOHOL and or FOOD he might do a little snoopin around with his tanks and chaulk it up as "TRAINING".  Were the rods/reels good equip.  I dont want him to come up for a snoopy pole (just kidding).  Seriously IF he comes up, I saw the general area..  Is the equipment worth the dive?

Dude... sorry to hear about your "incident".   Glad you got to salvage some fishing out of the weekend anyway.  Just goes to show that we always need to expect the unexpected. 

It will be cool if some scub diver can rescue your gears, i believe, some of which are your favorite, unless the area is too deep. What a good feeling if your favorite items are "Lost and found".

The rods were not anything special. 1 rod was an inexpensive spinning combo with a Shimano 4000 reel. The other rod was a brand new Shimano Clarus with an Abu 5500. The biggest loss was the Standard Horizon HX460S VHF radio that I just got for Christmas   . That pissed me off because it stayed attached to my PFD when I went over but fell off when I was getting back into the kayak. The radio has a lame belt-clip where if the radio rotates 180 degs, it just falls out of the clip. hmmm maybe just go out with your radio on ch69 and start talking until you hear voices lol. I think that I was only in 15' of water and I guess 50-100 yds north-east of the south ramp. There is no doubt that it will turn up for someone as the water level drops over the summer.

Had I thought about it, I could have taken the boys in the PB over to the site, thrown an anchor out and made a game out of finding the lost gear.

The radio has a lame belt-clip where if the radio rotates 180 degs, it just falls out of the clip

That's useful info right there!  I'll start securing the lanyard with a carabiner 

That's 3 rods the lake got that weekend as my wife lost hers when she rolled out at erics spot on friday and she also released all our bait.
Sorry about all the gear loss that definatly sucks
                                Morgan

That's a bummer about your gear, I always worry bout that I gotta make some leashes.

The radio has a lame belt-clip where if the radio rotates 180 degs, it just falls out of the clip.

I know what you mean about that clip,I have the same radio I loop that string strap around a strap on my vest and then clip it on so I can't drop it.
You would think they would come up with a better clip arrangement.

I know what you mean about that clip,I have the same radio I loop that string strap around a strap on my vest and then clip it on so I can't drop it.
You would think they would come up with a better clip arrangement.

That's what I usually do also but I forgot to do it that day.