Moutcha Bay Resort 2006 Kayak Fishing Derby, Sept 2-4

Snag,

So you're still coming up to Moutcha Bay?  What the 'ell, wear the fox 'at.

Fishin-T

Yes "T" I'll be at Moutcha bay.I'm dyin to land a Salmon in the yak. It's great that you can co-ordinate with Danglin to get up there.

The fox hat is a joke I heard today about a town called Saskatoon in one of our provinces called Saskatchewan...Saskatoon, Saskatchewan..."Ware the fox hat" cause it's cold and cause if your not from Canada you don't know where the heck it is. Where the fox Saskatoon, Saskatchewan...Anyway, I'll tell it to ya when I see you at "MOUTCHA BAY" Looking forward to meeting you Danglin and sure hope that some of these other guys that were at the Neah Bay derby can make it as well.

BTW Danglin, don't mind ATTEMPT at HUMOR...I've been a little giddy since coming 3rd at the Neah Bay derby 

Cheers,Sean

 Thats "ANGLIN" as in fishing, that is  , Humor? Whats that? All serious all the time,
No worries mate!!! Really looking forward to this and seeing Vancover Island and God knows what...DANGLIN

Sean, V.P., Danglin,

Have any of you other guys thought much about meals yet?  Don's flying in so he'll probably be at my mercy, but what do you other two think?  I figure that if we plan to have some dinner before we leave Nanaimo on Thursday night, then that leaves meals from Fri. morning until Monday morning for me and Don at least.  Myself, I'm thinking about planning for two meals a day and "catch" lunch however we can, ie. snacks, cold cuts, or maybe the resort will have decent burgers.  I have no idea on that last thought.  So that leaves 3 dinners and 4 breakfasts for any of us that are staying until Monday morning.

Any thoughts?  Anybody?  I've got some ideas I'm flirting with but I thought I'd give you guys a shot first.

Fishin-T

Sean, V.P., Danglin,

Okay, I haven't heard from any of you other guys yet so I'm gonna go ahead and throw one out there.  I'd like to volunteer to cook Sunday dinner and Monday breakfast for all four of us.  Probably that means me and Don as a cooking, cleaning team but I don't guess I'll hold Don to it.

So Sean, V.P., you guys want to reciprocate by any chance?  Nope, I won't hold you guys to anything either and I'm still going to plan on those two meals for all 4 of us unless you tell me otherwise, but if you were planning to cook any meals for all four of us then I could leave that meal out of my plans and groceries.  Remember, Saturday night is already a given... Sat night is a B-B-Q put on by Moucha Bay.  As for Sat, and Sunday mornings... I'm planning on NO cooking, just cold cereal and milk before the big derby.

Fishin-T

 Hi Guys!!! I'm Back,  We had alittle tourney up down here @ the Mendocino coast. " FRICN 10' SWELLS!!!! "   >:(I hope it's aliitle calmer up there..Food?...Thats a good one, I know the beef jerky's great up there, a few crackers, a pepsi I'll be fine What ever you all want to do, I am flexable... kind of @ your mercy Indentured servatude? Oh my!! " NO! Thats not my 20$ buck on the Ground!" " Oh my God I've been harpooned!!!!" " This done river don't go to Adre boy, you done took a wrong turn..." If I make it past airport security, it's all gravy from there.

I have tomarro off, post aliitle fishin on the Sacramento, and I'll e-mail you( Fishn-T) about the dreaded details,

Really looking forward to this trip, and please pardon the humor, it's been a liitle slow nere today... Ug.. I said the word, I'm up all night now

Talk to ya soon.....DANGLIN

Heyyy Fishin-T, Danglin & Snag...sorry I've been away camping, just got back yesterday  am catchin up on all the news.

Fishin was terrible at French Beach...ok, Snag, you can rub it in now...no fish if you can believe that.  Arrive late afternoon on Tuesday, decided to head for the beach.  Holy smokes the waves was bad...ever try launching there Snag?  My first attempt was thwart by a huge wave knocking me back a couple of feet and as I regain control, another one hit.  My net went flying, my bag was in the ocean and I was frantically pulling my kayak back to shore.

Second attempt, everything was tied down. the hard part was trying to hold on to my brand new crab traps along with my paddle and one hand holding the kayak afloat.  I was in chest deep of water...don't know how I did it, but was able to throw everything on board and pulled myself up on the Scupper.  All this done while everyone was ashore watching and one japanese lady was filming me the whole time...geez talk about pressure. 

Nothing caught that afternoon, waves was too choppy, windy after a couple of hours I started heading back in...I'll save the story in the other topics...

Thanks for offering cooking Fishin-T.  I'm pretty easy, mornings I usu. have OJ or at most cold cereal or oatmeal.  Lunch and dinner I will give you guys a hand and will cook if you trust me...I'll bring along my special Korean Ramen instant noodles (spicy ones too...mm) NOT "mr. noodles" yucky stuff.  I'll share with y'all with whatever I have, cold cuts, eggs, whatever is available.

How about you Snag?  Are you back yet?  Give me a buzz when you get in and we'll plan the trip together.  I'll catch a ride with you if you have room.  I know how much you want my yellow banana to "infect" that Hobie predator of yours....

VP

My wife has just realized I'm gone next week I will be working hard to keep on schedual with you guys so keep me posted...What I'm tring to say is , I am putting in alot of quality time before I go  and it may be difficult to keep ontop of things, so stay in touch with the details and such...DANGLIN

Copy, on my way, I'm home for awhile now

Hey sorry Fishin-T, last minute changes,...I wasn't able to make it out to Moutcha Bay.  Took the family camping, the kids were real antsy and wanted a trip before they go back to school.  So, hope you, Danglin and Snag caught some salmon.

VP

OK Tom, spill the beans. How was the derby, got pictures? I have been home all weekend working around the house and I want to know just what I missed. I hope you guys had a good time. Soooooooo, how was it!!!!!!!!!!!

yeah, let's hear all the fishy details. I have been stuck at home this weekend as well. Hope to hear a NWKA member took the prize!

Easy now fella's, let "T" get his gear unpacked and he'll tell ya all the juicy details.

The owner of Moutcha has taken tons of pix and he will send us the cd but I did take a few as well. Here's one.

First fish caught "T"

That Danglin was anglin !!!

Recognize that yak Polepole?

All,

This will take several replies to get it all down so bear with us.  Here we go:

How did the fishing go?  I've only been doing this for one year now but I've never EVER seen any thing like this.  We had probably 15 to 20 contestants and I'd say on average, people were catching 2 or even 3 fish apiece over the weekend with almost NO fish under 20# and the biggest at almost 31#.  I had no idea that it was really and truly possible, but we had two fishermen, Al from Quadra island and NCKA's own Danglin from San Francisco, who were towed away across the bay and nearly out to sea.  Each was over a full mile from their starting point when measured in a straight line from hook-up to landing site.  No telling how far they went if you measure along all the zigs, zags, and circle-backs that they were dragged through.  This is the god's-honest.  Watch the Moucha Bay web site... no way is Jim going to NOT mention this phenomenon.

There was a third contestant, Ken from Whistler B.C., who was pulled 8 kilos (maybe 5 miles?) as measured by the chase boat (meaning Moucha Jim captaining the Chop Hopper), but I say that this one doesn't count because it turned out to be a harbour seal.  Thank goodness we were all using barbless hooks!

The weird thing was that there was no telling how big that fish was by how far it towed the kayaker.  One poor lady (I won't mention her name but her first initial is "Caroline", she and her husband Matt are from Bremerton I think, and they were both far and away THE most diligent anglers out there) was towed for probably a full mile across the bay but then was towed 1/2 mile back toward the river again; all of it except the first 5 minutes in near pitch dark and so it was hard to measure for sure, and all of that by a 14 pounder.  Myself, I was able to pull a 22# on board in about 3 minutes but a 19# took about 1/2 hour and 1/4 mile.  It was all absolute honestly like having a BIZARRE dream with boats being pulled so far away every so often and with fish jumping like the bay was boiling with fish.  One jumped within  6" of landing INSIDE a sit-insider's cockpit... again, that was poor Caroline.  He had the heighth, but just did miss the rim.  I was within 50' and saw that one myself as did maybe 3 others.

The prizes were kind of a suprise to me, as in there were a lot of them.  I knew that the Grand prize was gonna be free use of the log cabin for next year's derby, but there was a whole lot of other stuff given away too!  Don (aka Danglin) won a case of oil (probably a $500 value in today's oil market) just for having the most technologically advanced kayak in the derby.  As we all know, but I guess Moucha Jim didn't know, Danglin had BORROWED that yak from Polepole.  Cool, thanks Allen.  Your's truly won "First" prize (not to be confused with Grand Prize) for catching the *first* fish of the derby and that was my 22 pounder.  That pay off was a nice dry bag, a two day kayak rental over in Campbell River, and a handfull of nice backpacker items.  Cool, thanks Moucha Jim!  Al from Quadra island won Grand prize, second prize, AND third prize with a 30+, a 29+ and a 24+.  That lucky %#@)*&%*!!  Oh, and speaking of Danglin... dad-gum that guy is a fishing MACHINE!  He caught 8 that I know of, biggest was 29# and some, but it was on Friday and so it didn't count.  Still, way to go Don.

Lots of pictures coming up.  We'll try to cull down to just the very best.  You'll see from these that the weather was just outrageously perfect and it stayed that way for the entire weekend.  And of course, as with nearly every kayak angling event that I've seen so far, the socializing, comradere' (Sp?), and fellowship were thick enough to put a fine tuned church congregation to shame.

More later,
Fishin-T