Randy Fry RFA tourney

I drove down to Ocean Cove from Elk with Jelly @ o-dark-thirty.  We got there as folks were just starting to stir.  Within a 1/2 hour many of the usual suspects began to arrive.  Jim from the RFA was very helpful, and got us all checked in.  Once light hit the water it was apparent that the ocean was going to cooperate.

We went down to launch and I had planned on backing my trailer down their ramp...hhmmmmm.  Kinda steep for a minivan.  Ended up borrowing a cart from Inseine (thanks Jim!) for the trip down.

Fished with Kunz and Bluefin17.  We went south towards Stillwater while most went north towards Gerstle.  Somehow I got the rules goofed up and was fishign for a heavy stringer, when the rules were for heavy 2 fish.  Ended up putting togeter a decent string for OC/Stillwater, but no lings.  Had a few hits of the right kind, but nothing stuck.Kunz hit a ling at the end of the day, but decided not to weigh in.  Ended up going for it and backed the van down the ramp to leave (getting tired) and it was no problem.

Me and Jelly weighed a big red and a copper for 3rd.  Jelly was THRILLED to get a trophy/plaque.  Wish we would have had more time to hang and BS but we ate quickly, as I had to go pick-up the girls back in Elk, and then back over the hill to Ukiah.  Put the halide light over my cleaning table to good use...took a shower and PASSED OUT.  I was TOAST. 

The food was also pretty good, but the RFA needs to get ChuckE onboard as a frying consultant, the fish was not NCKA certified.  Thanks to Jim and the RFA for setting up the event, we had a great time.

 

Congrats on the trophy! Was there a lot of people? Do you know what 1st plase was?

All of the awards were little plaques with a pic of Randy Fry.  I will let 1st and second chime in on their tales of conquest....don't want to steal their moment.

Congrats to team White.  Does this mean that all three placements went to NCKA?!?!?

1st and 3rd. 

 

Thanks for the report Sean, but I was kind of hoping not to have to toot my own horn.   That's right I won... again.  This time however, I have to give all the credit to my teammate Jenna "the elinginator" Shinen. Okay that's not her official handle, I don't think she's even signed up on the forum here, but she proved to be a ling slaying machine.    Jenna works at the marine lab with me and is the only female member of "Team Bodega".   Last year at Elk, I watched Jenna catch about a half dozen lings, all hitch hikers, on blue rockfish that she sent back down on her shirmpflies.   When it came time for picking a teammate for this event I knew her skills would come in handy. 

The other "Team Bodega" representing at the tournament, Jim "InSeine" Hobbs and Naoaki "Uminchu" had spent the last two weekends scouting out Ocean Cove and had decided to head north.  Jenna and I went north as well, but not nearly as far, just to the first little point.  Our plan was to have Jenna use her "use a shrimpfly, catch a blue, and send it back down" technique while I tried for lings with hex bars and swimbaits.   Her method was far better.   We ran into Sean "Blondstallion" Parks fishing alone (his partner was fishing out of Salt Point) and once he saw Jenna catch her first ling, he stuck around.  I ended up with one underling and some nice rockfish and Jenna managed 5 lings, one undersized, two just legal, and two blue ones in the about 30 inch range.  Not huge, but we figured two decent lings would put us in contention.  For my part, I suppose I selected the spot to fish, coached Jenna on landing some of the fish and was there with the gaff on a couple occasions, but who am I kidding the only thing I did to win this event was to pick the right partner.   We made it back to the weigh in with plenty of time and everytime someone made a remark about my nice fish, I had to chuckle and point to Jenna explaining that she caught all the big fish.  I think Jenna has some pictures and I'll try and get them from her tomorrow at work so that I can post them.

Brian

There are many steps to a triumph.  Way to go king Brian!!!!!

Had a great time fishing with the Whites and Bluefin19... Our action was a bit on the slowish side as far as lings go. 

I had two lings in the 24 to 25 inch range that I decided not to keep since I know they can shrink a half inch or so(cutting it too close), and lost one nicer ling at the boat earlier in the day.  Then it was mostly a battle of the blues and blacks with a few assorted gophers and chinas.  I also released a young Yelloweye rockfish and caught what is probably the smallest cabazon ever caught on a swim bait (pic below).  Couldn't figure which species it is... but it took a hook in the side and did not survive the encounter. 

Finally at 12:50 (ten minutes to weigh in), I landed a decent ling about 28" long.  Joe and I considered hightailing it in to try to make the weigh in, and actually started heading that direction until reality struck... there was no way we were going to make it in time... and we knew Jenna had the better of us, so we deciede to keep fishing till about 1:30 or so. 

As it turned out, if you had your fish up there by 2:30 or so you could weigh in.  Oh well.  Sean and Jelly had some nice stringers and wound up weighing in a couple of their rockies for 3rd place. 

Nice day on the water.  All of my lings came when I was retrieving my swimbait from the bottom, the fish hitting the jig 20 or 30 feet up.  Had several hitchikers on a black rockfish in deeper (120 ft) water that did not stay latched more than half way up.  I think they were all gorging on baitfish and blues / blacks and needed something aggressive to trigger them to bite. 

Erik

This was a nice little tournament.  Lots of spear fisherpeople and ab diver folk.  Probably about six kayak angler teams.

Congratulations to Jenna and Brian.  They they were the clear winners.  Their two fish weighed almost twice as much as the two fish from the second place winners.

My team (Rockaway/Bill and myself) did not fare so well.  Our best fish were a decent copper and a decent blue.

In addition to going out on the tourney day (Saturday), I also went out Friday afternoon and Sunday.  Scored plenty of blues and one cab, but nothing really exciting.  I also showed my Dad and his buddy the ropes of kayak fishing.  They really like it.  My dad scored a 26" ling (his first ling ever) this morning right out of the cove.

I was great to see some regular faces (Brian, Jenna, Jim, Naoiki, Erik, Sean, Jelly, Tote) and a couple of new ones (Bill/Rickaway and Jim/Squidly).  I had a good time hanging out with Jim/Squidly and his friends on Saturday night ... thanks for welcoming me Squidly.

On a related note, Ocean Cove is a pretty nice place.  Nice launch and campground.  I found the other campers very friendly.  Our neighbor camper took my stepmom out ab diving and showed her the ropes, as she is a rookie in that sport.  Their bathroom facilities (porta potties) are less than desireable, as they were out of TP and needed to be serviced.  I think I'll try camping at Salt Point next time I head up that way.

Brian - As the most decorated kayak angle in northern California, I think you should write an article for this site about how to win a kayak fishing derby.  I hear Bill you give you a free shirt for writing such an article.

Later, Sean

How cute is that little fishy!!!   Poor thing was probably terrified by that big ol club in the background!

Okay, here's my report... this was the first time I ever tried kayak fishing. Thanks to my teammate Mike Malone, who brought an extra kayak for me to try. I told him I was probably going to fall in a couple times but he said that would not be a good idea, "it could get expensive" if I lost my gear. More on this later...

We headed out along the north side and I was doing great. The kayak was a lot more stable than the ones I tried before. I was able to cast, landed a couple of blues and a black, but nothing that would place in the tourney. Finally I went out a little deeper, in 100 feet of water, and landed a toad vermillion, scaled out at 8.1 pounds! I paddled over to where Mike was fishing and he had a nice red too, so we might be in the running. We paddled back in for the weigh in and I decided to move my rod to the rear pole holders. As I reached around... kersploosh... in I go. Lost a nice rod, some tackle, but fortunately I had wired by goody bag to the lkayak and all was not lost.  I got back on and we paddled in.

The weigh in was great, lots of winners, here's some pictures of the event. Joe Campi won the Ocean Kayak Big Game Prowler. Couldn't have gone to a nicer guy (well, I couldn't enter).

Thanks to all the kayak teams from NCKA who participated in the 3rd annual Randy Fry Big X Fishing and Diving Tournament. There were seven teams in the kayak angling division. Congratulations to Brian and Jenna for taking first place. I thought I might be in trouble when Brian showed up with his shiny belt buckle. Who knew Jenna was his secret weapon? Congrats to Sean and Jelly for placing third (no picture - they had to jet early.)

I hope everyone had a great time - I sure did. We raised $4000 for the RFA-NorCal Chapter and expanded the event to bring spearos and kayak anglers together. If you missed it, mark your calender for next year: s4th Annual Randy Fry Big X Tourney: October 13th, 2007 at Ocean Cove.

Wow... congrats to Jim and the RFA for putting on a cool event.  The next one is on my calendar.

Also congrats to Brian/Jenna for 1st and to Sean/Jelly for 3rd place.

I think someone should investigate the Bodega lab to see what kind of secret fish attractants those guys are cooking up and using at the derbies.  Brian winning 3 derbies is no coincidence.

Nice reports and photos.  Looks like a great event where a good time was had by all.  I'll have to ask Brandi how the spearo part of it went.  I'm hoping to be in a tournee one of these years...   

I just want to thank RFA and everyone that partisapated in the event.  I didn,t fair to with in the abs we can me in second to last. But I had a great time meeting all of the NCKA people ( TOT, blondstallon ,jenna,jelly, and all of the great people that attended.


                                                                                    JIM RICKER (SQUIDLY)