Tahoe Salmon Aug.29th..Results are in!-Great times-Thank you Participants

Nice job guys! Way to go Ben! Please let us see the magic hookup that you were using, would love to get out there and catch some of that action.

Thanks for hosting the event guys.  I don't usually fish hard at tournaments but Tahoe is truly one of my favorite places to fish so I gave it a pretty good go.

Friday - Rob and I made plans to fish early Friday morning as pre-fish.  We ended up getting there much later than expected, and didn't hit the water until at least 7:30.  We fished out in front of Tallac and Camp Rich, marking some sporadic schools of kokanee, but we had no luck even though Ricci got two.  I started making my way west thinking that the fish might be holding close to Baldwin, as I had heard in a rumor on a fishing forum somewhere.  When I got off baldwin, I started marking nicer schools of fish out in the middle of nowhere in 300-400 feet of water, tried for them for a while and kept going west.  Got over to the houses off Cascade Rd, and started marking massive schools of fish.  I mean these fish were stacked up for 30 feet, from 80-110fow.  I tried catching them for a long time, but had absolutely zero luck.  I think I might have gotten one small tap and lost one piece of corn.  But right about noon, the south shore party boats moved in and started nailing em one after another.  Rob had given up because of the wind outside of Camp Richardson, but I convinced him to come over, as well as Ghost and Hobie-Dave, since the west facing hill and trees seemed to block the wind somewhat.  Me and Rob spent another 3 1/2 fruitless hours without even a bite, but we knew the fish were there.

Tournament day - Rob and I got out to the launch really early, around 4:45 and set up on the beach so we could go as soon as we were allowed.  We knew the wind would be rough so we wanted to get back to the zone off Cascade, and made the plans to go straight there without stopping to fish.  It was a real rough ride over, and a couple points right across Baldwin I was really doubting the wisdom of fishing Tahoe on this day.  I would at times be pedaling straight into the wind and letting it blow me out just to keep my stability up.  Got to the spot about 6:30, a couple other boats around with me and Rob. The wind hadn't come from the south yet, so it was not too bad there.  Rob started up first, and hooked up pretty quick.  I hooked up quick as well, a small 11.25" kokanee.  Well he was better than anything i caught yesterday so I measured and bagged him.  Dropped down again, second fish within 2 minutes.  Repeated that on #3 within 10 minutes.  Caught #4 out in the 153' contour, so I had 4 fish by 8am.  I had tried unsuccessfully to release #3 and 4, so I knew if I kept fishing kokanee I'd either be killing a fifth fish trying to release him or be limited out and done for the day.  So I switched over to Mack jigging for the next hour or so, with just one small bump to show for it.  Fan started kicking up about 9am, and it was getting a little hairy. Rob had picked up two more fish on the troll while I had been missing with the jigs, so he was up to #4. I decided I should try to pick up #5 to keep in line with him.

At that point, the wind really started to go crazy.  We were getting sustained 15-20 with huge gusts up to 40+ from the straight south.  The waves were wild, and you had to be real careful not to get turned sideways in one of those big gusts.  I got pushed around so hard that I couldn't troll downwind, since my downrigger clips would just pop from me dragging at 2.5-3mph.  I let the wind push me all the way north and would only troll upwind.   Eventually, it just got too crazy to deal with so I decided to head home. I told the crew I was bagging it, and slowly made my way back.  Right in front of the last set of houses before it starts to get real shallow up on Baldwin beach, I got the tiniest little hit.  Set the hook, fought the wind, downrigger, and fish.  Threw him in the boat and got the H outta there.  Ducked inside of the moorings where it wasn't too bad, took pics, buttoned up and headed back.  Was pretty crazy on the way home, so I hugged the shoreline in about 3'-4' of water.  Figured if I fell out I'd just ditch the yak and walk to shore.  Luckily it wasn't too bad right up there.

Keys to the trip-
1.  Our Friday trip was fruitless for fish, but a gold mine for information.  We learned a ton, but worked real hard.  Rob and I spent at least 9 hours on the saddle and I was starrvvvinngg afterwards.
2.  Lucky lure and dodger - Red with a glow herringbone Shasta Tackle Slingblade. Red 1.5" Radical Glow Tube.  All fish caught tipping with Koke Special scented corn - that La Sueur corn that I was joking about on FB must have been the key
3. My electric downrigger was huge.  I had never really fished with it before this weekend but it performed admirably.  Being able to bring the ball off the bottom while fighting fish in the wind made it a lot safer - didn't have to worry about getting the downrigger ball stuck on the bottom. Made life so much easier getting down to 83' and back up again.  Everyone was joking about the electric rigger, but they really loved it.  I even overheard ATD and Jude talking about it for a bit...but with admiration not scorn!
4. Pedal power - Can't say this enough, but the pedals made it so much easier for me to position and maneuver myself where I wanted to be.  It helped a lot especially while fighting the fish in the wind and keeping separation from my downrigger line.
5. Kyped Kokanee - those males fought like heck!  I'd bring them up off the bottom and they'd start these crazy headshakes all the way from about 35' down into the net, pulling drag, everything.  If it was earlier in the season with their softer mouths, they would have easily been lost.  They were so fun on my light gear.

Congrats to everyone.  Really wish I could've been with you folks. Looked like it was a blast!!

As I was 90% packed and ready to go, I had to bow out because of my foot.  Spent the weekend with my foot up and hanging with the family. At least I still have wife points to use!! 

Thanks to everyone for putting this together.    I'll get there at CL... I HOPE.

Chavez, are you wearing pants or shorts????

Nice job guys! Way to go Ben! Please let us see the magic hookup that you were using, would love to get out there and catch some of that action.

What worked on sat did not work on Sunday. You never know from day to day or even hour to hour with Kokanee.

Nice job guys! Way to go Ben! Please let us see the magic hookup that you were using, would love to get out there and catch some of that action.

What worked on sat did not work on Sunday. You never know from day to day or even hour to hour with Kokanee my re On my way! ration is get lee to a petty boat and try to spy on what they are using.

Please excuse Rob, he's apparently been drinking.  Good thing he made me drive him back to the house on Saturday afternoon.

Right on guys! Congrats to the winners. Thanks for the great pics. And for the surprisingly-useful info, Ben 

all the party boat trollers are using the big huge Tahoe Flashers with wedding rings...they were doing great but they also had at least 4-6 rods out.  I imagine that amount of flash could call up fish from a long way.  They struggled fighting the fish though with all the weight - the boats were netting the fish with like a 6 foot long scoop net.  Didn't seem to be a very fun fight.

Holy Cow, What another Fabulous Event and Weekend with The NCKA FAMILY! Thank you everyone who attended and contributed, you all are the what drives these events. Other than the windy conditions on Sat, I think everything went well. The Sponsors did a Great Job kicking down and supplying The Slam with some great Swag for the raffle. There was quite a few happy anglers going home with some Kool prizes. Thank You John and Adventure Sports for coming Up and setting up the Demoing and Delivering tha Awesome Grand Raffle Prize, The OK Trident 15 that Richard Arevalo Happily WON. WTG Richard! The Tahoe Slam was a success.

There was a total of 19 kokanee caught, but many more would have been if the wind was down. The fish were definitely there and willing to bite as long as you put in some time to figure them out. No Macks and No trout. Once again, wx to blame. Congrats to All the winners and everyone who battled that wind, it was brutal. 

We have one more qualifying event at CL to go before the TOC at the Port. Looking forward to another great event in the Fall. Way to Go everyone, we had fun!

More Pics...

First of all I want to give a big thank you to Ricci and all the sponsors. The ventue was perfect and I had a great time despite the weather. We arrived on Thursday night and hung out at Camp Richardson for the day. It was Narisa's Birthday, so I thought it was smart not to go fishing that day .

I got to the launch around 5:40 on Saturday morning and the wind was already blowing. After I launched I headed out towards Baldwin beach and thats when the wind really started to blow. I dropped the downrigger for just a few minutes but quickly decided to bring it back up with all the wind. I couldn't believe how windy it was. I was happy that I had the mirage drive, it would have been hard to get around with a paddle. This was one of the few times I felt out of my comfort zone and I decided to head in closer to the shore. I paddled toward Camp Richardson in hopes of trout in about 40 feet of water. On the paddle back from Richardson towards Baldwin I got two hits and  Tony "novofish" confirmed he got one too, but nothing stuck. At arpound 10:30-11 I decided it was time for me to go in. Even though I didn't catch fish i still had a blast. I will have to go up there and give it another shot.

As always the potluck was a gathering of friends and delicious food.he chile verde tacos were some of the best. My mother in law even had a great time. Congrats to all the winners. It is always fun to fish with some of NCKA's best.

Again thank you Ricci for all the time and effort you put into this event. I wish I would have been able to use all the advice you shared with me, next time.

Some Pics:
1) Tony and the mighty Wind.
2) Naoaki in the distance
3) Tommy giving it another shot
4) The mirage drive made things easier in the wind. I like my paddle kayaks, but I wouldn't have made it out with them.

Just finished unloading...
Wow, Windy!!!
I must say that was the most windiest kayak fishing I have ever done (I'm a good weather fisherman)...
Glad that everyone made back okay & had a great time @ the potluck!!!
Thanks, Ricci, Mike & sponsors!!!
This was my first time fishing in Tahoe. I could not figure out the lake...
Hats off to BabykokemanBen. He was the man at there!
I finally got them the next day (much better day).
The water was so blue & clear.....crazy.
Beautiful lake for sure.

Some pics of the awards and potluck...

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