Bendo at Mendo III Report (Ukiah, CA)

Managed to hang out a bit with PolePole and Zeelander in NorCal this past weekend for the NCKA Bendo at Mendo III tournament.  Zeelander is a beast and drove down from Seattle for this event. If he's up for it next year, I'm definitely down for some carpooling and I recommend others come as well. As always the food and company were excellent.  It was nice to meet some new faces as well as see some of my NCKA friends one more time before I leave for Portland at the end of the month. 

Here's the current report thread from NCKA
http://www.norcalkayakanglers.com/index.php/topic,10274.html

Congrats to the winners ChuckE, Freddie, and KickinBass!  (Two NCKA charter members and a Ukiah local). 

Although I still haven't seen a Lake Mendo striper boil, Saturday's striper fishing lived up to the hype I keep hearing from Sean "Swcafish" (the tournament organizer) regarding the "best striper lake in the West".  I manged to hook up with about 7 of these fish and had a blast despite managing to weigh in only two of them for something like 10th place.  Sean said he weighed in well over 50 fish for the day and most of those were released.  The stripers ranged is size from about 4-9 lbs and to get in the top 20 spots you needed a limit (2 stripers).

I also had fun with an inexpensive video cam that my wife picked for work (Oregon Scientific ATC2K ~$90 on line, water proof to 10 ft, a 2 gig SD card holds a few hours worth of video) and I borrowed it.  I decided to mount it on a PVC pole on my stern rather than go for the more obvious helmet cam.  Next time I may try an underwater mount or a Hydrospider vanity mount.  I think with a couple of these going at once you could edit some really cool videos from different angles.  One of the nice things about this angle is that I can see all my mistakes and learn from them.

I still need work on my editing skills and some music would be nice, but here is a first draft for your viewing pleasure. 

Brian
[youtube=425,350]igQwxE-sZxc[/youtube]

BAM is always a great event.  I only dragged up 2 fish this weekend, one 4# on a minnow first thing on Saturday morning, and an 18"  puppy on a trolled fly.  But I got to spend a good amount of time shooting the shit with the NCKA crew.  Watched Zee hook up on the fly (and a heartbreaking loss on that fish as well).  Hung with bsteves a bit.  Talked ship with Danglin.  And a host of other characters ...

Ate too much, drank too little, slept a bit ... what a fun weekend!!!

-Allen

What Bsteves and Pole² said. It was a beast of a drive but awesome in so many ways. The people are awesome and watching some of the really talented fishermen/women was a sight to be seen. Watching the masters ChuckE and Freddie pull off a last minute upset was amazing. Fishing skills to burn!

The potluck was INSANE!!! I finally got to experience the ChuckE fryer and it lived up to the hype. The other food was just nuts. Bacon wrapped ham, fried Oreos, lumpia, Carne Asada, beeeeeeer, deserts.... oh man.

Fishing-wise I didn't do the best. I was determined to land a Mendo striper on the fly and cast that bugger until my arm went limp. I hooked up early on w/ a smaller striper that got to the yak but unbuttoned just out of reach. The next was a much nicer hookup and blazed the reel a little. He got off a bit later but Mendo is a tough lake for a newb. Some people have fished it 4-5 times blanking every time.

I will be doing this again next year. Hopefully, next year we can get a contingent of NWKA boyz to represent for the good ol' Pac NorWest!

Z

Id be up for a carpool trip as well, we are hunting for another Motorhome, I could drive to Portland and carpool everyone from there. It would be a fun trip

Skyboy

Sounds awesome. Count me in!!

Z

Id be up for a carpool trip as well, we are hunting for another Motorhome, I could drive to Portland and carpool everyone from there. It would be a fun trip

That sounds like fun except we can't get a motorhome in the BAM camp area. 

-Allen

Allen your always spoiling a good idea........ , it was a thought.

Didn't mean to be a spoiler.     I'll take that ride just for the ride which would be a blast.  We can just park the motorhome at the top and shuttle in tents and gear.

Motorhome to Moutcha sound like a plan though.  What about that?

-Allen

Well its been a while since I checked in, but Allen, Moutcha is on my calender for this year, I can't wait after seeing the pics, I will need some training for fishing there, I haven't a clue......lol. I am helping a friend move some stuff to Sutton, Alaska in late March, we are driving....Does anyone know of any stops we should make during that time....I have never been on that Highway and greatly looking forward to the trip. I am also heading back to Alaska in August to guide for the same friend. This could be my year, I have some make-up to do on the fun calender.....

Skyboy
Joe

Well its been a while since I checked in, but Allen, Moutcha is on my calender for this year, I can't wait after seeing the pics, I will need some training for fishing there, I haven't a clue......lol. I am helping a friend move some stuff to Sutton, Alaska in late March, we are driving....Does anyone know of any stops we should make during that time....I have never been on that Highway and greatly looking forward to the trip. I am also heading back to Alaska in August to guide for the same friend. This could be my year, I have some make-up to do on the fun calender.....

Skyboy
Joe

Hey Joe, good to see you pop in again.  And great to see you have Moutcha penciled in.

I did the Alaska drive in 1993.  Yeah, a long time ago.  And it was in August, not March.  Not sure you want to even stop anywhere up there in March.  The Alaska Milepost is your bible.

-Allen

Id be up for a carpool trip as well, we are hunting for another Motorhome, I could drive to Portland and carpool everyone from there. It would be a fun trip

That sounds like fun except we can't get a motorhome in the BAM camp area. 

-Allen

could you rent pop up camper trailers and use those instead?? many of the newer ones sleep like 6 and arent all that expensive to rent for a weekend or a week..

The motor home suggestion wasn't really because we need a place to sleep.  Everyone just car camps.  It was mainly so we could go down in a party wagon.   

-Allen

DOH!