GS11 - Big Thank You to the Community. Much Love. Reports start on pg. 38

I welcome and appreciate the banter - you may want to actually register for the event! 

Just a note for the newcomers - this isn't a "dry event", but please keep the drinking and other partying on a level that is respectful of families and those who are not partaking in your chosen inebriant.  Do whatever you like in your own camp or accommodations.

Also, smoking isn't welcome at the safety meeting, the scoring table or the potluck.

Thanks. 

I welcome and appreciate the banter - you may want to actually register for the event! 

Just a note for the newcomers - this isn't a "dry event", but please keep the drinking and other partying on a level that is respectful of families and those who are not partaking in your chosen inebriant.  Do whatever you like in your own camp or accommodations.

Also, smoking isn't welcome at the safety meeting, the scoring table or the potluck.

Thanks. 
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Thanks for the reminder Eric.  This is in line with keeping  your goal of making GS a family event. 

Thank you, Raydon - I appreciated you reminding me of the smoking issue.    I should have added - no smoking at the Gyotaku printing event.

Camping:  I've discussed it with the owner, Jack, and he is setting up the usual group area where registered tournament participants can camp anywhere they'd like for a per person, per night charge.  I didn't  ask him what the charge will be this year - I think it was $22 per night last year.  Don't be surprised if it's gone up.  Jack has been trying to sell the campground, and economic times aren't easy at the Cove.  He always gives us ample space and treats our group very well.

So the options at the campground are:  1)  pay the group area charge per night; or 2)  rent your own spot - either individual or RV with hookups.

Everyone pays their share - freeloaders will not be tolerated.

Many people stay at inns, hotels or vacation rentals.  It can be tough to camp out and do early mornings/long days of fishing and sunshine.

Last note:  if you have a question about camping or anything else about the event weekend be sure to post it in this thread so everyone can benefit from that discussion (and I can avoid potentially answering the same question for a bunch of people on PM's  ).

It's a community gig - be part of the community.

Alex,
Thanks for the sponsorship!
We have a long history us squids hanging with marines... you guys do a fine job of kicking ass ashore but most can't stomach the waves getting to there destination. We have been known to carry a few marines home from the bars trying to keep up with us!
Looking forward to fishing with a brother in arms 👊🏻

 



Look forward to it. Was an experience floating across the equator on a ship on the way to the island of Diego Garcia from Korea with my Navy Brother's. They kept us in a hell hole at the bottom of the ship. . Pull the chain and get wet, lather, pull the chain and get out. The fastest showers I have ever taken and the worst ever boat ( ship ) ride .

You guys got showers? That's cute

Alex,
Thanks for the sponsorship!
We have a long history us squids hanging with marines... you guys do a fine job of kicking ass ashore but most can't stomach the waves getting to there destination. We have been known to carry a few marines home from the bars trying to keep up with us!
Looking forward to fishing with a brother in arms 👊🏻

 



Look forward to it. Was an experience floating across the equator on a ship on the way to the island of Diego Garcia from Korea with my Navy Brother's. They kept us in a hell hole at the bottom of the ship. . Pull the chain and get wet, lather, pull the chain and get out. The fastest showers I have ever taken and the worst ever boat ( ship ) ride .

You guys got showers? That's cute

  

I will be do my very, very, very best to get some nice big abalone this year...totally failed last year cuz I suck. 

Did manage to shoot a nice Ling at least. 

Here are some pics of my 1st 10 taken at GS8, 5th 10 taken at GS9, and last year's Ling at GSX.

 

Sincerely,

Jim

Some more GS pics...love that place, the people, and the whole event.

 

Fired up for this year!!!!

 

Sincerely,

Jim

Hey potential sponsors -

My brother (delo50) and I are looking for a sponsor in order to attend GS11 this year. We started kayak fishing a couple years ago, and attended TRW last year (you know, the one with house-sized rollers all day long). We have all safety and immersion gear, lots of fishing experience and have boat-fished Shelter Cover 40+ times over the past decade. I'm 33 and he's 29, from Chico, and are both easy going - just looking to have a good time at the Cove with like-minded friends. Thanks for your consideration and please let me know if you have any questions that may help us get a sponsorship.

Greg (G-Force)

Great intro Greg. I'm positive somebody will sponsor you.

Ha ha ha ha yeah man cant wait Jim!!!

On Gimme Shelter...  Here's a post I put up in the GS5 thread.

December 28, 2010:

"...early this century, a group of hearty, fun-loving, tough, individualistic yet uniquely fraternal kayakfisherman created what would become a tradition along Northern California's Lost Coast.  They called it Gimme Shelter, a name with many meanings including, of course, the obvious - 'get me to Shelter Cove for some of the west coast's best fishing!' - but also it came to mean 'I want in on a gathering that, through camaraderie, competition, sportsmanship, adventure, and, just pure passion for life and the outdoors, can provide shelter to any of us in our hectic lives.'  The spirit of this gathering was created by the founders.  It was Abking, Swellrider, MBYakker, Sailfish, Sin Coast and sackyak.  It was an NCKA hookup with a focus on salmon in early March of 2007.  No fish were caught that weekend, but the group bonded on the water in tough conditions, and the adventures continued along shore and in the camp.  The next year around the same time a thread popped up for Gimme Shelter II - it was planned as a great hookup like so many other NCKA events and chills, but, even after much hype and a mini-epic lead-up thread of its own, it was cancelled due to hurricane-like weather.  A few dozen people were disappointed, but enthusiasm for the event's future was not altered.  The next year, 2009, the GS3 thread came alive - a few years of shortened rockfish seasons had led to a new phenomenon - people were so anxious to start the new rockfish and lingcod season with a bang after a long winter of deprivation that the idea of meeting along one of California's most remote and productive coastlines became an obsession!  The thread took on a life of its own and it was apparent that the Gimme Shelter series had formed.  That year we were lucky enough to have great conditions and we had an informal tournament, but, honestly, it was much more than just a fishing competition. There was talk of putting 10 or 20 bucks into an MBF - that's 'Money Between Friends' - type of competition, and, tournee or not, people were glad to be there.  Having received some generous prize donations, the call was made to make it a free tournee.  Anyone who competed could bring either their fish or a good photo of it to the potluck at The Tides Inn - because we'd filled that fine, ocean-front establishment - and enter it for a chance at a prize.  Overall length of longest fish was the determining factor for the prizes that year, and we had some wonderful surprises.  With no salmon season, the anticipated winning fish would be a lingcod, but some special things happened that year.  First, on pre-fish day, Friday, Domenic caught a beautiful Pacific Halibut!!!  39" and 25 pounds, and a PACIFIC HALIBUT!!!  Everyone was stoked, and it made anticipation of the next day's tournee that much better.  Tournee time came - we had around 55 competitors I think.  There were so many nice fish caught, and the numbers were ridiculous!  I'd say the 50-something of us caught and/or released a thousand or more fish that weekend!!!  The tournee title went to Jedmo with a 56" Wolf Eel - that was a shock and so cool.  34 and 32 inch lings made up the balance of the top three, and I think all the other fish that placed were lingcod, with quite a few over 30" caught for the weekend.  The tournament and potluck that followed were everything that we know that great NCKA events are, and the rest of the weekend, with ab diving, spearfishing, beach discovery, checking out the Lost Coast and surrounding 4000' ridge, was awesome - so many happy people having such a great time!  It had to be followed up, there was no option!  Early in 2010 the GS4 thread started up.  This year would be different  - there was pre-registration, t-shirts, a $1000 yak for a grand prize, other prizes!  This had become a bonafide tournament!  Another bonus of GS4 was that we had a salmon season!!     We had high hopes of many salmon being caught, but only a couple shakers were caught during tournee time, and a beautiful 14 pounder was caught by Bird during Friday's pre-fish.  We had 85 paid competitors and went with AOTD format - that's Angler Of The Day, and it uses AOTY rules for the most part.  Big Jim won the new OK Trident Fishing yak, and so many people were in awe of how that all went down - Jim's demeanor was nothing short of ideal in terms of humility and grace, and the prevailing feeling was that he deserved it more than anyone!  The tournee, potluck, prizes, winner(!), diving, gatherings, uni, family time, and all the rest of what was GS4 were totally awesome.  When the dust settled and all the "Sledgers" had cleared out, NCKA had put its mark on not just Shelter Cove, but really we had created a dream. 

Now it's time for GS5.  It's time to live the dream again."

****************************************************************************

GS11 is coming together - the tradition continues. 

Since GS4 I've handed out between 30 and 40 ten inch abs as trophies.  I'd come to realize that many of these beautiful shells were rotting on my fence, so over the years I've been cleaning up the ones that are still solid and giving them away.  I'm glad to have others take possession of what are icons from my past, and new tens that I find usually go in the GS mix as well.



Along with the ceramic ab tags I have built funky little mini-troughs as trophies too.  They're fun to make and fun to hand out.  Fun is a central theme of GS.



I think it was GS5 that brought about the oldgrowth redwood Trophy Troughs.  Jim Meier/Rockfish brought in a beautiful lingcod that he was calling 38" (maybe it was 37.5", but you know how fish stories go...  ).  I put it on a Hawg Trough with the Hawg Trough Extension, and I thought I was so right in correcting him - this ling's not as long as you're claiming!  He was firm.  I was incredulous...  Then I realized my HT Extension was reamed out and stretched, effectively stealing a half inch from every large fish measured!!  Oh damn!  I knew right then and there that I needed to build some big troughs...  The Trophy Trough was born as a concept, and now I've built maybe 15 or so of them.  Several of those have been handed out as prizes for the AOTD, a few have been raffled off, and I retain a few for measuring GS fish and other catches during the year.

Here are this year's twin forties - one for AOTD, one for the raffle:



So, this is how GS works.  It's not about winning a kayak or prize money - BTDT.  It's about a community gathering where families are encouraged to participate, kids are given opportunities to discover the sport, friends are able to get together and strengthen their bonds, new relationships are forged, the beauty of nature and the fish is celebrated, and the true meaning of camaraderie plays out all around us.

If this looks and sounds good to you, I look forward to seeing you at the Cove. 

Ha ha ha ha yeah man cant wait Jim!!!

Ana and the girls will be with me. I'm sure the girls are gonna dig hanging out with Zack, and Ana will dig seeing Tiff again...been a long time!!

 

Sincerely,

Jim

so here is a question...lol....if i dont get a sponsor....if i dont have a fishing partner....and i wanna come camp and hangout...bring my wife and kids...is that a problem....im very familar with the cove been going there or 20 years..or so ever sinice i was a teenager... i dive for abs there....i would fish and dive on my own...but would like to camp with everyone...

hope im not causing anyone any grief...

thanks, aaron

Hey potential sponsors -

My brother (delo50) and I are looking for a sponsor in order to attend GS11 this year. We started kayak fishing a couple years ago, and attended TRW last year (you know, the one with house-sized rollers all day long). We have all safety and immersion gear, lots of fishing experience and have boat-fished Shelter Cover 40+ times over the past decade. I'm 33 and he's 29, from Chico, and are both easy going - just looking to have a good time at the Cove with like-minded friends. Thanks for your consideration and please let me know if you have any questions that may help us get a sponsorship.

Greg (G-Force)

Ill sponsor you guys if you help us out by washing dishes for the fishtacoshack on Saturday night. It only takes like half hour and I will throw in a cool tacoshack hat and all the fish tacos you can eat

so here is a question...lol....if i dont get a sponsor....if i dont have a fishing partner....and i wanna come camp and hangout...bring my wife and kids...is that a problem....im very familar with the cove been going there or 20 years..or so ever sinice i was a teenager... i dive for abs there....i would fish and dive on my own...but would like to camp with everyone...

hope im not causing anyone any grief...

thanks, aaron

The way I understand it is if you don't have a NCKA sponsor, you can't participate in the fishing competition. Correct me if I'm wrong, Eric.