Elk Tourney Report 8/12/06

well that was a great party!  it was a pleasure to share my b-day with so many cool people. thanks to leah and sean for putting it on, the great food from steve and chuck and others and the distillers at the patron factory! it was good to party with eric and christina again, as well as pat and randy.  i think erik may have been the first non-newbie to win a tourney. after all his work on the raffle it was fitting.  my wife, jana, enjoying meeting those of our group she had not seen before, and she was really surprised at the number of us, all with tons of passion and great gear[including joel's apron].
the seas were totally sick, that big to 9 ft swell had me feeling as green as a chartreuse swimbait on a couple occasions. fishing those wash rocks really keeps your reflexes sharp. a wave caught me by surprise and broke over my port side and across  the deck, it took a rockfish off my boat right back to were it came from, what a lucky fish!
it seems that none off my photos worked, so i have none to post

Again, thanks to the White Family for all their efforts putting this great event together, and allowing us to borrow wheels for the second year in a row.  I am done building PVC carts.  Sean I'll take two orders of wheels.  Well, I was the last one in after having major cart malfunction!  I built two carts and both were casualties of the Elk Gauntlet.  I enjoyed the great food and conversations involving curvaceous wood and Jenna Jamison.  We were successful with the maiden voyage of the Team Bodega kayak trailer, so all in all a positive experience.  I only caught a few small rockies, a couple underlings and a small cab.  I think my bait was larger than the fish I caught.  But a great time none the less. 

WOW...awesome picture spread, everyone!

First off, a little redundant but it needs to be said - a big thank you to everyone involved in making this event run smoothly(Sean & family, KZ, etc.)!  It was a great setup and while I sometimes felt like I was gonna die walking up & down that @#$%^& hill, I had an awesome time! 

It was great meeting all of you & racking my brain trying to remember two sets of names(real & screennames).     Everyone was really cool & despite the challenging conditions, a lot of quality fish came up! 

My grattitude to everyone from organizers to participants for making it a special event.  Thank you!   





We've had several reports already & everyone just wants to see pics, so here are a few more from my camera:

Loading up at Chuck's place. 2am. 


 
3 yum-yum yellow prowlers loaded on Stuart's tahoe.


 
Mr. Consistency - ChuckE's friday fish stringer.

 

Couple fish from Stuart's diving catch including his first ling - nice fish!

 

Stuart's total catch from Friday diving - 6 good blacks, ling, & limit of big fat abs!


 
Fuzz, friday diving. Some fat blacks, up to 21"  Wish I brought my underwater camera... left it on the kitchen counter with my bait.   



Combined diving catch. Destination... deep fryer!



Stuart showing ChuckE his top secret fish-stalking techniques.


 
Where most of our catch ended up.     ChuckE & Chef at work.   When it comes to food, Chef is all business!



More of friday's deep-fry-fest.



Tournament day - Mahi hooked up to a huge fish off of Nose rock, fought it valiantly for ~10 minutes.  I hung around to photograph the beast.



The end result... 



Final results.



Chuck's stringer, nice vermillion!



ChuckE's quillback.



Not having enough punishment during the tournament... Stuart, Freddie, & Fuzz headed out to do a late afternoon dive.



Fuzz's post-tournament diving ling.

and the distillers at the patron factory

Chris-thanks for sharing that AWESOME tequilla!!

Guitarzan and Fuzz GREAT pics!!!

I say there should be an IRONMAN award going out to Fuzz, Stuart and Chuck E. Dive Friday, fish the tourney on Saturday then dive after the tourney, hang around for the festivities then DRIVE home that evening. Wears me out just thinking about it all.
Great job you guys!!!!!

OMG!!!  That ling looks as big as that girl standing behind it.

Great pics everyone!!  Not to get sentimental or anything but in the midst of a crazy world it is nice to be part of something that puts a smile on everyones face!  Ie.  ChuckE in every picture .

Good times.
Jason

WTG folks!

Looks like you all had a great time.
Great pics also!

Matt

Another great turnout! Missing you guys!

Just want to thank Sean and Bill and everyone that worked so hard to make such a great tournament. I would also especially like to thank Chuck and the Walrus for making us outsiders feel so welcome. I was honored to also have finally met the infamous Chefstefano (sp?). The food was outrageous, the town beautiful and the fishing outstanding. I caught a bunch of the assorted rockfish to five pounds and farmed my only opportunity for glory at yakside. Can you say "CHOKE'?. Alan also had a good time and caught a good bunch of rockies. The best part was making new friends. Hope to see everybody again next year if you'll have us back. Thanks again.

Ed Johnson (and Allen Uphold)
'The Utah Travelling Yakfishers'

What can I say other than THANK YOU to the organizers (Sean & his family) and the town of Elk for their hospitality.  It was a fantastic weekend.   The people, comraderie and great food are what this tournament is all about. 

Erik, congrats on your big ling.  You are a great angler, always consistently catching quality fish. 

Thanks Chuck and Fuzz (Harold) for sharing the driving duties and the help up Heart Attack Hill. 

Friday was my second time spearfishing.  I had every intention grabbing 3 abs, then give half hearted try at spearfishing, before concentrating on fishing.  Instead, my fishing rod never left the hatch.  It was a truly eye opening underwater experience.  I have to hand it to Fuzz.  He knows his stuff and taught me a lot in a short while.

First, he directed me to a school of blacks.  I was trying to learn how to "hunt" them without spooking them, when he calls me over to shoot a ling.  I swim over throught the kelp, where he then tells me how it's in a hole.  We go down and he's got his flash light "on the fish".  I'm staring into the hole, but don't see the fish.  He starts shaking his light on it and I can mentally hear him saying "shoot it, shoot it".  Well, I see this "dark spot" and assume its the fish.  So I aim, but suddenly a fish about a foot above/to the right moves.  Ahh, there it is.  I quickly readjust and shoot.  It's twisting violently, so I knew I got it, but it was time to head up.  Not wanting to let go, I horsed it through the hole.  I couldn't believe I actually shot a ling.  THANK YOU FUZZ!!!!

After that, I figured I needed to shoot fish un-assisted.  So, back to the school of blacks.  That was a blast, literally. At the end of the dive I was BEAT!! 

BTW, that morning, Fuzz also saw 6 other legal lings, in the 8-12lb range.  He left them all un molested in his quest for a larger fish.  We'll, the next day (Sat PM), he found a shootable fish.  22lbs of toothy lingzilla.    Fred and I were in awe!!!

Stuart

Wow big thanks to Elk, Sean and  family for another unbelievable event and everyone else who chipped in to help it go smoothly. The company was awesome as usual with everyone willing to lend a helpful hand. The food..it was awesome!

the seas where unforgiving, at times I felt like I was in a cereal bowl and some big monster was shaking it back and forth. Then every couple of minutes huge set of waves came cruising by just enough to remind me that I was crazy. fishing for me was moderate with me having to work hard for my  9.1# ling came in 95-100 feet just north of nose rock.

big thanks to Ben and the other guys who picked me out of the 1 1/2 foot surf and who ever  moved my yak up the surf line i owe you!

Tony

Thanks a million to the White family and the rest of the organizers!  

Also to:

Bill for being my "driver"  
Pat and Randy for the fresh baked cinnamon rolls  
Alfredo for the "Truckers Hat"  
Stuart for cleaning my catch 
Scott Thornley for helping me with my yak up the "dreaded hill"  
Jd,Brad Zilla and Alex / Aliens for sharing the "fear factor food"  
Mike / Mickfish for the awesome beef jerky  
Jason's wife = Gabby for the delicious home made cookies  

and let's not forget.....

Jelly fish.....for shooting me repeatedly with his rocket propelled marshmallow gun AND feeding my kayak with a couple of bananas....

MESSAGE TO JELLY......sleep with one eye open at the Bendo at Mendo derby  

FYI:

Mol - Scott Thornley won the Brewed Beer gift certificate. Scott, PM me your address so I can mail you the certificate.

Martin / Yakuza, you won a dry bag and two rod holders - I gave them to Bill since he lives in San Jose as well - just PM Bill....

Pics to follow......

I too want to add, Thanks a Vermilion to all who got the event organized and kept it running! My wife and I had a great time and it was neat meeting all the fellow posters. Maybe next time we could all wear name tags with our real name and our website handle.

Looking forward to the Mendo Bendo! But for now I'll just enjoy my 3 weeks of vacation! I just got back from an ab dive in Mendocino.

Thanks again!

CHEERS!