NWKA is almost Two Years Old!

Okay a bit premature, but I'm just letting everyone know that NWKA was started on April 14th, 2006. (Were there tax incentives Allen?)

I really was just trying to add this to the calendar.

Thanks polepole for putting this together for us.

Brian

Awesome! Big thanks to everyone who makes this site tick everyday. PapaPole, Bsteves, PapaBill (of NCKA) and everyone else. NWKA ROCKS!!!

Z

TTT

POLE is my hero....he got me away from the NCKA site from the start
 I only go back to visit and read some tips occasionally, my Yakking Family is here at NWKA.
Thanks Allen, et.al.

TTT once again 

I guess today is the day.   

NWKA was born about a year after I moved back to Seattle.  Until that time, we had been borrowing space on a few different forums.   Fishin-T and snag-a-but were hanging out on KFS.  floatin cowboys and Pisco Sicko had been hanging out on NCKA.  A few people were checking out the Northwest forum on kayak4fish.  In April 2006, something magical happened and the stars aligned.  We wanted our own place, a place we could call home.  We wanted bigger and better things for kayak fishing in the NW.  With Papa Bill doing the work behind the scenes, NWKA was born.  We already had a trip planned to Sombrio on April 21-24, and this was our very first get together, which resulted in the first fishing report on NWKA (http://www.northwestkayakanglers.com/index.php/topic,2.0.html).  Soon thereafter, Fishin-T was on the front page holding his butt.  Anyone remember that?  BTW, Fishin-T is on the cover of the new CanadianKayakAnglers.com, again, holding his butt.

Anyways, thanks for the ride guys.  We're at 260 members today.  I fully expect to hit 500 by the end of the year (with a little help from you guys getting out fishing).

Let's play a little game of "where are they now?".  Here's a list of the first 10 members and something about where they are now.

• polepole: still here.
• Fishin-T: still here and checking in with pearls of wisdom.
• snag-a-but: hibernating for the winter, but I suspect he'll show up any day now.
• floatin cowboys: still here, originally checking in from Central WA, now our resident OP guy.  Our resident chef.
• Pisco Sicko: still here and catching fish.  The rowboat man.
• charliefl66: still here, first kayak angler I met in WA.  We met at a West Marine store.
• Mooch: NCKA rockstar.
• bill: The man.
• getbent: No clue, but I know he sold his yak.
• Ferndale Solar: No clue.

Where are WE now?  We should be pushing 1000 unique visitors a month some time very soon.  We had 790 last month and already have 456 this month.  We also should be pushing 100,000 page views per month some time soon as well.  We have  67,132 already this month.

We're back at Moutcha for the 3rd year with Moutcha being on its 5th year.  In NWKA's first year of participation, 2006, only Fishin-T and snag-a-but made it.  Danglin from NCKA tagged along with them ...  http://www.northwestkayakanglers.com/index.php/topic,31.0.html.  The reports they made caused a whole bunch of us to go up the next year ... http://www.northwestkayakanglers.com/index.php/topic,533.0.html ... with 40+ anglers participating.  This year our friends at CanadianKayakAnglers.com (me and Jeff "Water Wolf QCI") will be running that tournament and I expect 80+ participants.  The growth in this derby mirrors the growth of the sport in the NW in general.

Hmmm ... seems like we head North alot.  But let's not forget the OR contingent who is coming on very strong lately.  I see nice reports of springers, sturgeon, and lingcod already in OR.  I'm going to fish in OR sometime this year, for sure!!!

And now we have 2 additional moderators here at NWKA.  I know they don't think they do much now, but you just wait, I know you'll get busy.  In case you didn't know Zeelander and bsteves are helping out here with moderation duties.

Shoot, bsteve put together the AOTY software and has been tooling around in the NWKA wiki. Yes, we have a wiki ... http://www.northwestkayakanglers.com/wiki.  Perhaps we need to officially launch that soon.     And Zee did up the logo and handled the logistics on the soon to come NWKA stickers.  Thanks guys.

Anyway, it's been quite the ride.  Thanks for sharing it with me.

Let's raise our glasses to 2008 and the promise of good things to come!!!   

-Allen

Congrats and thanks to all those that got this started and keep it going strong. As a newbie to yak fishing, you provide a wonderful resource. 

Let's hear it for an even better 3rd year!!! 

Jay

 Happy Birthday NWKA !!! 

heres to an even bigger and better next two years.. ...

Thanks Allen and everyone else that helped to get this thing going !

Thanks for the update, I had no idea the growth numbers were so good.   

Thank you so much Allen, Zee and Brian and all the other contributors.  I'm glad I found my way to NWKA and kayak angling.

-Jesse

It has been great to see this take off. Reminds me of watching NCKA. I've enjoyed meeting everybody, even if it is only online.

Don't tell the NCKA guys, but I really prefer this site right now.  Maybe it's the fact that it's more relevant to me right now, but I think it's more of a matter of size.   I'm starting to feel lost when I read NCKA, so many people I don't know and too many posts (most of which I don't really care about).

I'm so glad to have a new home here.

Brian

 

Here's to many more years!

I'm sure glad this site was up when I bought my yak.  It's made a huge difference in my learning curve.  Thanks Allen et al!