Paddlefest Report 9/30

Wow, I guess everyone is as tired as I am, or they would have posted by now.

Mike Mowrey and I got to the channel about 7:30 and Mike soon hooked up with a leapord shark.  I called the weigh boat over and in the meantime, I hooked up.  mike's mesured 33", i think, and mine was 46", putting me firmly in first place for the Derby.


......for about two minutes, or as long as it took for Freddy's leapord to be measured (49?)

Later, Stuart bested all with a 50-something leapord, and that's the way it stayed until 5 minutes before Derby end, when Danglin Don Anglin hooked up with a rare thresher shark.  The above fish mentioned are tales for the others to tell.

Bottom line, great action, great crowd, outstanding event.  My hat is off to.....US!

Thank you Bill, Chuck, Art, and Mooch and everyone else for putting on a kick-ass Derby!

Allen

Great time had by all today about 30 anglers competed in what will be renamed the shark derby in the future. Tons of fish landed. Chuck estimated over 100 fish where landed today. We had lots of really big fish as well, at least a dozen over 40" Without further delay the winners!

JTF was tied with 2 other anglers (Duane and Freddy) JTF won the draw. His 3rd place fish 49.5 inches;



Stuart was leading up until 5 minutes before the end. He got beat at the wire but this is a solid 2nd place 50.5 inches:



And the winner with a 60" Thresher (!?!?!?!?) Mr. Danglin!



I have to mention Duanes awesome 30" striper as well, great fish!



Thanks to everyone you made it out, it was a great day!

Special thanks to Art for captaining the measuring boat. Thanks again man! Chuck also needs a round of applause for working hard to get this all setup! Thanks to Mooch for manning the NCKA booth al day as well.

Wack!

I am in awe of a thresher being caught in that area!

Way to go danglin!

MolBasser

Leopards have to be the coolest looking fish of all time.

Seriously.

Are we going to get to taste some tomorrow?


MolBasser

Way to go to all of you who participated. Water looks great.
What was the winning fish caught on?
Really interested in hearing about the different baits everyone used to hook up.

Thanks for posting pictures so soon Bill, Got to show the wife and kids before they went to bed

Tried lots of things, chum salmon, squid and finally twice frozen cut sardine.....High Tech

The kool thing was, time was short, I had my bait on the bottom (50'), I saw something around 25' on the finder and decided to reel up 20' or so... " Wham" and my thresher pup bolted out of the Bay about 5 times like a torpedo!!! It was incredible!!! Would have loved to watch him all day, but I had 4 minutes to land him...He was not having it. Anytime I got close with the net, he damaged the drag on my poor corsair.

Then he made another run...Directly into the side of my yak, kind of dazed him abit , and I was able to put the drop on him

Pulled him in just in time, then he proceded to slap my face with that bueatiful tail. Cut up the inside of my mouth!!!
I love fishing injuries

Fun Tourney, Thanks ChuckE, Bill, support boat driver/owner and who ever else made this another kool tourney.

Don't know what else to say...Uh..wait a minute.... " Hasta Luego" .....Danglin

Although I didn't get a chance to fish this derby, I think I had the most fun of all being on the official derby boat with Captain Art Garcia.  He was the expert pilot and fish measurer while I was the designated shark wrestler, hook remover, and photographer.

It was exciting to see all of my friends on the water and to witness all of the battles with their fish.

Congratulations to Danglin for that spectacular last minute victory and for winning the guided kayak fishing vacation for two to the Rancho Leonero Resort in Baja.

Stu.... that was so heartbreaking to see you lead for more than 3 hours... only to be robbed in the last 5 minutes.  You're a great fishermen and a very good sport.  Congratulations for 2nd place.  That sweet carbon AT paddle from the guys at Wilderness Systems is an awesome consolation prize.  Enjoy!

JTF... congrats on 3rd place and winning the draw for the Hobie PFD against Freddie and Duane.

A special thank you to Captain Art, Mooch, Bill, all of the participants, and the following prize sponsors:

The Rancho Leonero Resort and Kayakfishing.com
Ocean Kayak
Wilderness Systems
Hobie
Sport Chalet

Also.... a big thanks to Allen Bushnell and Erik Kunz for their excellent clinics on "Introduction to Kayak Fishing" and "Fishing for Dinos" respectively.

Anyone who was at Paddlefest on Saturday knows we were the highlight of the day.  I'm sure that NCKA will be invited back again to put on another "Sharkfest" derby.

Honorable wounds!  Way to go Danglin!!!!!!!  Your WAF must be soaring.

Beautiful animals and congrats to the anglers.  What a cool gig, Chuck, getting to see all of them.  I may be looking forward to this tournament next year..........

Thanks Seabreeze, but I must say that even I have a "Pang" in my heart for Stu and the leaders, you really were good sports, and ya WAF is high, difinetly needed a deposit!!! My boys were funny too, "Can we book the flight now?

Wow, I guess everyone is as tired as I am, or they would have posted by now.

Huh, you too Allen?  I just woke up from a nice 13hr. nap.

Hats off to the big winners and everyone who had a hand in organizing the event! I always have a blast fishing with you guys, can't wait to do it again.

Big Congrats to Danglin on the victory.  Your catch was the subject of a lot of attention at the paddlefest.   And I'm sure will draw some attention once it hits the paper.  It was great hanging with y'all again. 

I got a late start on the water, didn't get to the channel until about 8:30 or so.  I trolled a DJB halibut rig all the way out with no hits.  Then I noticed I didn't have enough anchor line to anchor in the middle of the channel, so I anchored and fished on the edge, which was plenty productive. 

I had 4 small batrays, one that wrapped in my anchor rope and consumed quite a bit of my fishing time.  I lost a nice leopard at the boat due to a damaged leader from that darn bat ray that wrapped in my anchor rope.  Also lost a leopard in the high 40 inch range when I tried to net it... it was too big for my net and it had some fight left in it... began to roll and rolled its way right out of the net, unhooking himeself in the process.  Oh well.  Also had something really big on for a minute that snapped my leader right above the hooks... we'll never know.    Also caught quite a few smaller leopaards, sand sharks, and two small sevingills.  l

I used sardines, herring, and anchovies and it all produced... thought I think the batrays liked the anchovies better than the sardines and herring... didn't catch any rays on the latter baits. 

Had fun hanging out at the booth and talking shop with all the folks.  Good times and good practice round on the sturgeon seminar. 

EK

Bill, the 3rd place leopards were all 49 1/4, that one pictured is my 3rd place leppy because I remember my tape measure bein on deck after the fight.  It was a great fight also, the leppy spun my kayak around and i was thinking about releasin my anchor line but chose against it.  Turned out to be a 10 minute fight which was real fun.  My totals on the day were real good.  9 or 10 leps caught, a bunch of them at 40 or more, released without measurement unless of course the body was real thick and then I knew it could be a contender, had 3 of these. 

My bait was mackeral on a 5/0 or 7/0 kahle hook with 60lb wire leader, 3' long, slider with a 7oz pyramid.  Pretty simple huh?  I use the same rig from a pier or shore.  Drag set real loose so the shark will gulp up the mack or bait I'm usin then swim away.  Thats when I set hook.  Sometimes happens fast, sometimes its a 15 to 20 second process.  Fished with my buddies Nate(bungle) and Rob(Redfish n dive) out south of the group anchored to 30 feet with 40 feet below the yak.  So, it was a nice defined dropoff.  I was casting out to about 50' of water with my bait.  It was alot of fun and helped me forget about my misfortune this last week.

The paddlefest was cool, I was disappointed at the lack of numbers of people attending, I guess kayaking isn't that popular or people weren't into the weather, I know that one booth, the fishing kayak one was the hit of the party though.  Thanks Bill, Mooch, Art and Chuck for your effort out there.  Good times.  JTF..

hay everyone had a great time that was a lot of fun congrats to dangling on the big shark still cant believe that was caught
in the bay. let's do this again next year for sure I think I will do a trip down there next week to fish for sharks that was to fun.
and thanks to bill and chuck for setting this up good job! lets BBQ next time maybe a potluck would be nice
 

hay chuck what paper was it that has the pics 

Congratulations Danglin'!  What a fabulous trip you all will have and I did not punish Ben too bad for not winning when he got home (hee hee).  Although, he did win some shorts which do fit me, but the DO NOT cover my whole torso, in fact they barely cover the legal defintion of "shorts".  (so Mooch, the joke's on me!).

Sounds like everyone had a good time out there regardless and I am looking forward to tasting some of this shark meat.

Cheers!

Anita

Thanks again, Uh.. Anybody Whats the best way to grill Thresher? ...Danglin

By the way CPKAYAK....I picked up a copy ( or 2 ) of the San Mateo Times...There you are.. muscling in on my photo op, with just yourself!!!   Man your Good