The Official 2014 Albion Open Results and Party Thread

My journey started out with Hojo swing by to shuttle my Revo to Albion, loaded them up and hit the road. We stopped off at the Brewery in Boonville, where we met up with Ariel and his GF; picked up some brewskis to share, then blasted over to Albion!

As usual, it took for ever to set camp due to all the socializing with long missed brothers and sisters; was really glad to be back with the club after what seemed like forever off the water...

Thursday was mostly a liesure day, with no intentions of hitting the water; just mostly fired up the grills, threw back some beverages and chill'd with the clan.

Friday, decided to hit the water, dispite the questionable conditions; just kept to the cove for some ground dwellers. But this time decided to do it only with a hand line. First participant was a 6" inch black; and you could have heard me scream like a little school girl with excitement! Picked up a few more blacks, but decided a want to try and tackle something a little bigger; so I moved in tighter on the south reef.  Drop'd in and felt the huge tug, battled him for a few minutes before getting him on my game clip. Turned out to be a nice size Red; What a RUSH!!! Thinking I was skilled enough to taking on the reef king; I switched over to my go to fish trap and scouted for some good structure on the sonar. So  what appeared to be a nice point with some smaller fish on the screen, I dropped in. As I manually bounced the swimbait on the bottom, I felt this MASSIVE strike! Being a newbie to handlining (and no, its not built into my asian genes), I tried to muscle the creature to the surface. I continue to  force line onto the handreel, rather than wait until the ling was tired. the more he pulled, the more I pulled right back; in essences, is was a tug-of-war between me and it. Unfortunately, the battle for me was lost due to the wrong swivelsnap attached to the swimbait; but that was one of the best fishing battles I've had in a long time!!! I'm definite hook'd on handlining!!!!

Tourney Day:
Again, could seem to find my devilfish (Cabbie)!!! Got a nice size Rockie and 2 nice size lings early in the morning; which left me alot of time to get a cab and maybe even a salmon.... but NO, could find a cab even if someone would have gave it to me; spent 2+ hours on the sucker, with no luck. The weather started to clear, the seas and wind were laying down; so I decided to go hunting for salmon... spent an hour or so on the troll, with no luck and my "rubber legs" where starting to give way, so I decided to call it a day.... However, due to fog issues and the laziness of switching to the GPS screen, I ended up in Salmon cove and dis-oriented...  I finally put the GPS map on the screen, plotted my course back to port and headed back tired as hell! Tallies for the day were 3 rocks, 2 lings (actually caught 6 keepers and released larger one because I was too lazy to rearrange fish on the gameclip).

On shore, the our camp was already in full swing with grills and fryers cooking away!

Awards and Raffles:
Congrats to all the winners, great job; in those conditions, your win was well deserved!!!

Congrats to Dennis on the new yak!!! She's a beautiful boat and should compliment your quiver of kayaks well!!!!

And to our gracious hosts and organizers, Linelle and Craig, what an awesome job you both did this year!!! One of the best events I have participated since being a member of NCKA... Thank you for all your hard work, time and effort you put into making this a top rated event for all!

My Highlights:
> Seeing all my NCKA brothers and sisters!
> Getting on the water after a 7 month absences
> Catching my first fish on a handline
> BBQ Cook-off

My take-aways from the event:
1.) where a hat, shades and don't fall asleep in the sun.
2.) where gloves when handlining.
3.) fix the rv toilet!!!!!
4.) expect the unexpected from GB2
5.) do stay away too long from NCKA family and friends

Wow what a weekend. So great hanging with ncka brothers. My wife  had such a great time she never called me in once. Lol. I was lucky to find the salmon and stay with them all weekend and Monday. Can't wait for next year.
thank you for all the hard work Craig and family.

Great report, G! The hand lining adventure sounds supercool, great fight story, sorry to hear about the swivel failure.

Did you make your own hand reel?

On Saturday I launched solo in my AI with one ama no sail at 5AM. Peddled out to the whistle  to troll for salmon. It was a washing machine in the cove and slightly better on the outside. Naoaki was behind me bitching about the swell and I told him to come outside the buoy and it laid down a little. Naoaki said he was right next to me.  And there he was.  Guess it is all relative. Etienne and I have been out in some really gnar stuff at Pinos and Moss this year on the chrome hunt. The AI with one Ama is an amazingly seaworthy boat, the best bad condition big game yak out there. Naoaki and I headed north a mile or 2 on the troll to Little River. Stopped at a reef 2 other kayakers were working and picked up a nice ling and copper. The fog and wind rolled in and I told Naoaki I was going to work my way back to the cove. Picked up a cabbie in shallow just north of the cove. By that time it was close to 11AM and went back on the chrome hunt. I was a little too far north and not quite deep enough when the bite turned on for 20 minutes. My rock, ling cabbie stringer weighed 16 pounds, more than the only other albion tourney I competed in 3 years ago and which I won, but that was B.S., before salmon. I was satisfied with my effort and called it quits at 1230. Pumped a couple of gallons of water out of the hull which is a measure of how rough it was. Really good fishing with Naoaki. Life is good.

scott

I had such a great time seeing everyone and fishing a little bit.  Marvs pizza might be the best ever, and he said it was an off day!  Other than that it was a typical NCKA event= more fun than you should be allowed to have!  Thanks for making it happen everyone!
P.S. I wondered about that "MOOCH" graffiti, it brought a tear to my eye as I paddled out in the morning, thank you Lindsie for the intention+action=emotion!

Me and the Family had a great time, especially my 4 year old son Branson who was adopted by 3 girls who dragged him all over the campground smiling ear to ear. We met some new folks and seen some of the same great smiling faces. Everyone near our camp seemed very understanding, the baby did cry a few times at night so sorry if we woke anyone. Camp WX was great and being close to the launch was real nice.
The day of the tourney, my plan as to troll north and try to catch one of those salmon thingies and then go find some bottom dwellers. Well, that plan went out the frik'n window once I got out and it was bumpy as all hell. I decided to pass on the trolling thing and went straight out to my spot with out stopping. Once I found my hump in 100' I instantly starting catching fish. I moved around the mound and realized it was really big with all kinds of great structure, pinnacles, valleys and flats. I worked it hard and I pulled a few cabs, biggest was 10lbs and a few nice lings but a quality rockfish didn't present itself. I settled on a 17" black  . Pretty soon we had a bunch of company so we moved on just as the water got real nice and the sun struggled to peak out. I seriously thought about trolling but I just wasn't feeling it, no confidence as of yet.

I ended the day with a bag of 22lbs and some change. I'm looking forward to getting this salmon thing down for next year  .

Mike

Had a great time hanging out with everyone. Too bad the seas did not fully cooperate with us. At least Sat was better than Fri. Tourney day I caught two of my PB fish. A 34.5" Ling and a 23.5" Cabbie. Vey happy with that. With my tiny rockfish I checked in of about a pound I had a 23.5lb stringer. I searched for chrome for most of the day with no luck. At one point I thought I had a hook up.  I did go for a 20+ minute slay ride though. I was towed at 4 mph for most of the journey. Fish peeled line most of the time on the ride. At one point I started gaining ground on it. It must have been 200 yards of line out there. Finally had gear failure. A 80lb Duo Snap failed finally. Never saw what it was, but we mostly agree it was a fairly large shark.
Thanks Craig for continuing this great gathering for all of us. Looking forward to next years gathering.

Ever since I joined NCKA, everyone has talked about Albion...that I have to go, it's awesome, can't miss it....so I finally made it! 'Super happy I was able to get the days off from work, and that our investment in a used truck was able to pull our little trailer back up the hill when we headed for home Monday morning, haha 

Fished the salt for the first time (yes, I was a salt virgin) and caught my very first rock fish. Woot! Woot! That is what made this event epic for me - it definitely takes some coordination in order to effectively paddle in swells, change rigging, jig and watch for rogue waves, and actually land a fish. Then to get it in the kayak to identify it and measure it, get it on a game clip, and start all over again. Oh, and to do all this while trying not to get sea-sick in the fog (never hurled, but got a little quezzy and had to come back in after about 2 hours).

Friday I went out in my sea kayak to practice launching and landing at the adjacent beach. It was good to get out there and get familiar with the water.

Tourney day I was in my Eddyline. Many thanks to Victor, Narissa, & Bunnie who let us tag along on Saturday (my hubbie brought his kayak and gave the swells a try as well - he didn't fish, but he was a great sport). Bio Bill helped me get my rock situated on the game clip I borrowed from Scuba Luis 

Sunday we went out again with Victor...got a double! Both black rock fish, but released the smaller one. I was trying to make it to the buoy but got half way there when I decided my stomach was too distracting.

Great things... catching fish and seeing my carrot cake get eaten-up so fast, hehe! Visiting with so many NCKA folks all in one spot. Made new friends, visited with old ones - had a blast.

Not-so-great-things....seeing both kids and dogs peeing in various places throughout the camp grounds. Let's just say that if I ever tent-it at Albion, I will be sure to bring a huge tarp. Smelly fish parts I can deal with, but all hell would have broken loose had my kayak or gear been peed on 
Speaking of biohazards - Glen, I hope all is well with your RV toilet....

Many thanks to Craig and his wife, and all those who helped him get this event coordinated (I know it was a lot of work and I appreciate the time and effort that went into it). Thank you for having this event, especially for us new folks. It's a great way to learn and feel safer OTW.

-Cherie

I met Jerry Ski Pro as he said we met a very interesting person wh went out and bought a Hobie Outback and never been in one. Ge got all the bells and whistles. His job is a real traffic stopper, he is a helicopter lineman. And they do some weird things. I hope he posts some pics. he is still ere in albion for a couple days, I met john wood-dog, where do we all get these weird names. I met HOJO gave him a seat so he could shoot pictures. I thought I had my go pro alll figured out buy no, and my cekk camera died, No pictures for me. So Craig can we do it again next month for take two, Areil was a greaf help to you as we could see. Sponsers thanks for your support and we plan to support you too.  Noe thing about staying at schooners we didn't get to meet as many people as we should have. My wife stayed at the 5th wheel most of the time but she had fun at the potluck and raffle. 

All in all it went pretty well I thought. Thanks for the comments. I have to figure out a better way for the potluck. I saw lots of people eating that brought nothing. That ain't right. Its not fair to the folks that bring a huge dish only to be left without food at the end of the line. Its going to be on the registration form next year as to what you are bringing. Don't bring anything? Don't eat. Simple.

Big kudos to those who did.

All in all it went pretty well I thought. Thanks for the comments. I have to figure out a better way for the potluck. I saw lots of people eating that brought nothing. That ain't right. Its not fair to the folks that bring a huge dish only to be left without food at the end of the line. Its going to be on the registration form next year as to what you are bringing. Don't bring anything? Don't eat. Simple.

Big kudos to those who did.

Maybe have it catered in with the purchase of a meal ticket. It might be one way to get Cameron here at Albion finally! Yea the potluck seemed to have a lot of eaters but not a lot of contributions, left with pasta salad and cookies was pretty disappointing but that was the only thing lacking this weekend and great times had the rest of the weekend. Next time hopefully we can have it figured out better.

Made it back last night. Geez I'm tired. Will post pics etc later. Haven't read most of the thread. As for food issues. We were late and the line was long, so most of the food we had was some I sneaked in to get - in order to keep my three year old under control. We brought  ribs which I took down the line, much to the appreciation of those waiting. Didn't have enough to make it to the end of the line. A couple others also took food to those waiting. Maybe we can hand out plates and have some finger food set aside that volunteers can take to the later arrivals as they wait

A couple suggestions for the potluck;
1. More tables so it's not just a single line. 
2. A check-in with your dish, not just drop-offs, gets you a wrist band that gets you in line.  That means if you have a family of 4, say, then bring enough food to have fed a family of four at least in order to get 4 wrist bands. 

Our bacon wrapped, cheese filled, BBQ roasted jalapeno peppers barely made it to the table as we walked over from Schooners.  I'm glad folks seemed to enjoy them!     

Barely got some of the carrot cake, but seems folks were too picky to go for the scrappies.  I love the scrappies!!  Yum!  Best carrot cake yet. 

Agree wrist band, a group list of four is also a good idea, every group should bring big enough to share, this way no one will feel left out. just my dos centavos. 

We never know what we are bringing.
We are there for a week before the potluck and keeping something cold for the potluck that long won't work for us.
Our decision on what to bring is usually made that day or the day before depending on how things go.
We brought 2 racks of BBQ smoked ribs to the potluck.
Wrist bands are a great idea but it's actually a shame we'd have to go that route. Just more added cost and work that shouldn't have to be done in the first place.
I remember at Elk it was like a major cook off between everyone. The majority of the dishes were top notch. Everyone contributed.