ok, joel, you can cry now

hmb with chuck, freddie, jm and pat, flat calm, ran midway between san g and pesky.  80-180 feet of water.  8 lings?  easily 10 limits caught, only three quarter limits kept, 9 humongous reds for freddie.  here are the photos.  someone else has to tell the full story.  i'm beat......

alan's pictures pretty much tell the story, but there's my slant
on it.

for me it was an honor to fish with that group of A-listers. Also
that I got to go and mooch did not.  Which I hope to never let him
forget. since it was ncka history, 

I opted to help deck hand (although thank goodness pat was there
to actually be effective) since we had freddie and chuck available
as sacrificial lam... I mean deployable kayakers... 

plus, fishing next to alan himself was a real treat. it's not only
freddie who has the ungodly "feel". Alan caught about 6
"underlings" (for alan, any lingcod under 40 lbs) (in between
about 40 other fish) on a little spinning rod and exclusively
swimbaits, even in 150 feet of water.  After fishing side by side
for a few hours, I think he only wanted to kill me once, maybe
twice!  finally I caught an "underling" myself and alan tried to
free the "underling" for me, so I beat him off with the gaff,
, got pat to help me with a courtesy measurement, it was
27" with a little stretching.

I caught a vermillion that looked to me to be the biggest rockfish
ever (although strangely I have record of a 21"er last year off
scott's creek), and then freddie paddled up to the boat with an
entire stringer, all vermillion or lings, bigger than my rockfish.
. Then chuckE showed me his "little" vermillion. sheesh.
I'm glad I know how good they are, otherwise I'd have a complex.

The grady white kayak transport and deploying of fishing units
(freddie, chuckE) was surprisingly smooth but doing it in 15 foot
seas 50 miles out with albacore blood everywhere might be a little
more difficult.  But not impossible. definiitely not impossible.

well, I still got a little cleanup to do myself, I had to take a
dinner, beer, and ncka break, but that is over now...

Best,

J

wow what a sweet deal very nice guy,s
alan you have a good heart not many people would do this with there new boat
rock on 
a lot of guys dream of stuff like this
very nice boat whats here name

Alan... Thank you for inviting me on our mothership adventure.  I wasn't exactly sure how it was all going to play out today, but I knew I wanted to be part of it.  It was an honor being your guinea pig.  It was a first for all of us, but I knew this crew could make it work!

It seemed like Alan's Grady was designed to transport our two Prowlers.  It was a perfect fit.  Your boat looked like a naval destroyer armed with two fish seeking missles.

John... it was a real pleasure to finally meet and fish with you.  Thanks for all of your help getting launched and back on the boat.  I wish we could have got you and your Scupper Pro out there with us.

Pat... you're experience out there was a big asset.  Your help made it easy for Freddie and I.  Thanks!

Freddie... you're a savage fishing machine.  Regardless of where we were, you constantly scored the best quality fish.  Your reds were huge!

Guys... it was real pleasure fishing with all of you.  Hope to do it again sometime!

Fine job fellas.  Thanks for sharing.

Holy cod destruction! nice work guys!!!

Can I book a trip? How far to that rockcod spot? It looked packed with fish.

for me personally, this was the easiest trip i've ever had.  it was maybe a 45 minute run.  everyone took care of themselves, and everyone pitched in to clean up afterwards.  the boat is spotless, and there's not a nick or ding on it.  thank you. 

as far as "ease of fishing" goes, this was like shooting fish in a barrell.  albacore will be much tougher.  stay tuned to this channel......

Great invention! Your guys are re-defining the kayak fishing - an interesting extension. As far as the quality of fish goes, I am not impressed. But, I am jealous. 

Good work Men!!!  You did us all proud with your experiment.  Wish I had more time on my hands to join in on the adventure.   You didn't happen to run into Bluekayak out there did you?   

That's an awesome set up!! I always wanted to catch Tuna from my kayak... maybe it's my love of sushi..  haha!! I'd love to go with you guys for Albacore but haven't really dealt with any huge fish on my kayak yet. Maybe someday...

More power to ya guys!! Looks way too fun!!!!

Alan-

Thanks again for trip. It was a blast for sure. You think I'm crazy for fishing in shorts... I think you were crazy for putting a couple of yaks on your brand new boat... I guess the verdict is still out on who's crazier. I'm glad your boat came out of the trip okay too. Your boat did resemble a WWII PT boat though. Very cool... if ever you need another yakker or a decky... let me know. I think that your Grady was made to carry two P-15s perfectly. Thanks again...

John-

Sure is good to finally shake your hand and fish with you. I had a blast. Thanks for getting the boat set up for the yaks. I'm still feeling a little bad that you did all that work and didn't get a chance to get your yak out there too though. I'm sure this won't be the last time we get to do this. I'm also sure we'll be fishing together again though... mother ship or not. Til then, take it easy.

Pat-

It was nice to meet you. Thank you for all your help getting me on and off of the boat and stuff. You made me feel like I was a professional somebody with all the help you were giving me. Hopefully, I can return the favor to you some day. I'll look forward to fishing with you again.

Chuckster-

What can I say compadre??? It was another adventure. Stringers full of fish and another epic day fishing with a good friend... it can't get any better than that. It's all good...

Mooch-

TOO BAD FOR YOU!!!

The day started early and we were ready for action. John was first in the lot followed by myself and Chuck. Alan and Pat showed up a little late but not too late. After initial greetings, we got rigged up and headed out. Fishing was pretty good. The blacks and blues were pests. It was hard to get anything past them. Chuck and I hook up regularly with double doubles. It was insane. We finally got away from the blacks and got into some reds and lings. As usual, I have yet to bring home a full limit of rockfish. I fumbled my last one on the yak. I was running out of room on my game clip and fumbled it trying to get him on. Oh well... no biggie. I still have lots of fish to munch on and I can't really complain about that. Final tally, 9 reds and 1 ling.

Freddie

Freddie don't give it a second thought,  there were rewards aplenty to being on the boat with Alan and Pat,  I learned something no matter who I talked to that day.  My experience level was lower than everybody else's on at least one front. I was not the expert in any area, but I really felt like a member of an elite kayak fishing force nonetheless, and part of the team, even if it was as backup in some ways.  As you like to say, it's all good!

Bill, launch at bean hollow and paddle out for a couple miles. paddle around a bit and drop your lines when your fishfinder tells you to.

Mooch, I noted that you were one of the better fishermen I'd been lucky enough to meet and in response, Freddie actually said a few nice things about you,  .

here's a couple post-action photos.

I never thought I'd go home with a limit, but it was hard not to do so that day. big fish came on big iron (10.5 oz Salas PL-68) deep, little fish on little iron or plastic in shallower water or mid-column. I released a lot of blues caught on a 3.5oz megabait anchovy live jig with a single almost barbless hook.  A 7" swimbait got good action, including my biggest hit of the day, but maybe I horsed it too hard and it came off,  . My 10" kalin grub on a 8oz head looked great in the water, but nobody was big enough to eat it before I switched to the big iron.

the big copper was feisty. it was full of a variety of finfish and this crab.  the cutting board is 16.25"



J

so i am sitting here-- staining my door and new window frames, and ABSOLUTELY JONESING!

Wow-- way to go with the vision Alan.  You saw the possibility, and a whole crew pitched in to make it possible, and the pics make it look like a blast.

I hope one of these days I get to hook up with you and do that.

The boat looks like its got a couple of torpedos on it.  Pretty sure that's how those plywood PT boats started out....

weel, we all want to know, was it within paddling distance?

looks like a great trip! hope you guys are going to eat all that fish as for Albie's AL ....are youpat of make a wish foundation because i qualify and have always wanted to do that on my yak....plus as a bonus used to be a decky back in my youth