MBK Fishing Derby!

I think that I put in more effort this tourney than any tourney for several years now.  I was I think the first one to drag in and jump in my kayak, had plans to go in search of bait and make my way to the red buoy trying to troll/snag some macks along the way.  But my plans all changed once someone on the radio said they were jigging squid by the red buoy.    I high tailed it out there and think maybe one other kayaker from MBK got out there and started jigging and catching squid.  I then decided live squid was going to yield a halibut, so I abandoned my plan A) and with with plan B) = BUTTS!  I trolled from the red buoy all the way to out past the hotel a frozen mackerel and a Rapala lure hoping for that thresher bite, but nothing.  Got out to 60fow and drifted live squid from there in to 20fow, and repeated a few times, but got NO take downs, not even a rockfish.    Finally decided I was gonna try trolling back towards the launch, but heading out a bit deeper first and trolling a 3-way dodger and squid caught me a nice Ocean White Fish.  I decided to keep going and next hookup was a vermilion!     Back on the troll out to about 80fow and I got a nice takedown which was an underling.  But it puked up a nice octopi and for the first time I've ever done it, I trolled the octopus on my dodger and in like 3 minutes had a 24~ ling.  I then realized everyone else was off the water, so I trolled my ass back in to the launch, missed the whole awards, but got hang out with friends in the parking lot afterwards.     Close to 8 miles of trolling.

Oh, and while drifting my live squid for a butt, my bait got lazy and decided it wanted a snack 

Not fishing but made the drive to see the launch…

Can I use this photo? Do you have a higher res I can use?

Thanks again Ted for helping me out. I had a great time on the water and was nice to talk with many NCker's. Been a while since I've been back on the board and into kayak fishing so this helped me start off with a bang. It was a great event and while I might have been lucky getting that halibut, I feel like being on the water and with a lot of great people was the big prize.
Thank you Adam for organizing and coordinating. Looking forward to the next one.

Oh, and while drifting my live squid for a butt, my bait got lazy and decided it wanted a snack 

That was you in the red AI with one ama? I think i passed you at the yellow can around 1pm. Sorry i didn't say hi. I thought you would be in your Malibu. I've been doing wrong name for people in kayaks that i think are the people so i stopped doing hi's cuz i'm embarrassed 

Hah, yeah that was me.  Malibu has cracks in it's seat, so i'm not using it atm.  You must have been the orange (I think) Hobie?  Nice to see ya out there!  Got my ling just as you passed   

Thank you everyone for coming out! We had a great turnout with great conditions, even though we lost some to the rodeo and the tuna bite. It was good to finally meet some of you. We plan on running another one next year in the same month. If you have any suggestions on anything we can do better please shoot me a message.

I want to thank all of our sponsors. Due to covid it was a struggle but we managed to get some really great prizes and donations. I have a bunch of pics up on FB. If you dont have FB shoot me a message and I will send them to you.

Also want to thank Bushy for his expertise and his scales. Couldn't have done it without you. NCKA is a great group with many different characters, all awesome!

Congratulations to the winners!
1st! Ahmer Khan 19lb 9oz hali
2nd Nicholas Littlejohn 15lb 1oz hali
3rd Akoma Culver 12lb 8oz hali

I have pictures but I am not able to upload

Thanks for the photos and post Tedski! I was anchored on a snag near you guys when all the commotion and plea for a net broke out. Good to hear the community was well prepared to land the big but! Also sounds like you had a successful time on the water for your first time in Monterey

Only pictures I got were from the pre-sunrise launch

I think that I put in more effort this tourney than any tourney for several years now.  I was I think the first one to drag in and jump in my kayak, had plans to go in search of bait and make my way to the red buoy trying to troll/snag some macks along the way.  But my plans all changed once someone on the radio (said they were jigging squid by the red buoy.    I high tailed it out there and think maybe one other kayaker from MBK got out there and started jigging and catching squid.  I then decided live squid was going to yield a halibut, so I abandoned my plan A) and with with plan B) = BUTTS!  I trolled from the red buoy all the way to out past the hotel a frozen mackerel and a Rapala lure hoping for that thresher bite, but nothing.  Got out to 60fow and drifted live squid from there in to 20fow, and repeated a few times, but got NO take downs, not even a rockfish.    Finally decided I was gonna try trolling back towards the launch, but heading out a bit deeper first and trolling a 3-way dodger and squid caught me a nice Ocean White Fish.  I decided to keep going and next hookup was a vermilion!     Back on the troll out to about 80fow and I got a nice takedown which was an underling.  But it puked up a nice octopi and for the first time I've ever done it, I trolled the octopus on my dodger and in like 3 minutes had a 24~ ling.  I then realized everyone else was off the water, so I trolled my ass back in to the launch, missed the whole awards, but got hang out with friends in the parking lot afterwards.     Close to 8 miles of trolling.

That's a serious amount of distance covered! I don't know all the locations described but 8 miles sounds like a heck of a workout, I don't think I've covered more than 3 miles so far in a day, I need to work my way up there lol. Which hotel is this that everyone refers to? I hear it mentioned a lot... just curious.

Tedski - great writeup and photos. Really dig the video clip especially and I agree it was quite a sight to see everyone at the moment of launch. I thought I had prepared well enough but seeing people launch the moment the signal was given, and how quickly they were well out into the water (with AlsHobieOutback in the lead I guess?) was really impressive. I took a few minutes to look over all my stuff, double-check everything, and by the time I was out in the water I was definitely in the last 1/4 or so of people to launch heh.

Thanks again Adam for putting on such a great event!

Which hotel is this that everyone refers to? I hear it mentioned a lot... just curious.

If you went right, like most people did, then past the condos, the dive area, and then past the yellow buoy(s) and the last structure you see on the land is a Hotel, not sure the name though.

The large hotel on the water north of MBK is the Monterey Tides

Nice work everyone and great event Adam

Another Great Derby Adam! Thanks for your hard work setting it all up. Great to see New faces and Old ones out there.

Oh, and while drifting my live squid for a butt, my bait got lazy and decided it wanted a snack 

This is too funny 😂🤣

Not fishing but made the drive to see the launch…

Can I use this photo? Do you have a higher res I can use?

Yes, of course. I the version attached here is not sufficiently high-res, I can send you the image in original resolution. Not sure if there is some compression or something when uploaded, but original is 2.1MB.

Maybe easiest via email? [email protected]

Thanks Adam, my son Andrew and I had a fun day on the water.  He went back out after everybody left for some solo fishing time.  He finally came back around 2ish. Way better than him sitting in front of video games.  Watching him gracefully glide the AI into the beach for a landing was a neat sight.  Pretty cool for a 15 year old.