2nd Annual Salmon Slam at Lake Berryessa

This Sunday I participated in Salmon Slam at Lake Berryessa. My Sunday of fishing got off to a rocky start. I am still renting and testing fishing kayaks before purchasing and showed up on Saturday to see that Headwaters was closed for Bay Area Paddlefest. Fortunately for me, Victor was also entered in the tournament and was nice enough to trailer a Coosa to Lake Berryessa for me. With a vessel secured, all I had left to do was catch fish.

I arrived at 6:00am on Sunday and was shocked. I had expected to see maybe 20 kayak fisherman. Instead I saw one side of the Lupine Shores campground full of kayaks and their owners. I asked Victor how many fisherman had entered and he replied,"70." With that many folks to compete with I figured that I would have a nice relaxing day of fishing, and maybe catch a fish for dinner.

In the first 20 minutes of fishing, Victor hooked a 16 inch long bass while trolling for trout with a dodger and nightcrawler. I thought,"Well now that Victor got a fish, maybe I'll be next. We trolled the immediate area for another 30 minutes with no luck. We decided to head for the main lake. I switche my rig up about 4 times in the troll to the main lake, but still no luck. We arrived at a cove where fish were hitting the surface. Since the last time fish were hitting the surface of the lake, cowbells seemed to work so I broke those out and started trolling. After awhile with no bites I asked Victor how much line he had out and he said,"75 feet." He asked me how much line I had out and I said,"about 40 feet." So I let out some more line. Within 30 minutes I was getting bit. The rod went down and I heard music to a fisherman's ears; the drags was sounding. I started reeling and the I saw the fish hit the surface and dart from side to side. I couldn't see the whole fish, but I could make out the dorsal and tail fins, and the distance between them was significant. If I could land this fish it would be great for my tournament standing. I managed to do so and got it into the hawg trough. A king salmon over 19 inches long! I was one happy fisherman. Not only did I have a nice fish in the boat but I had found a rig to catch fish in this cove. I put on a fresh nightcrawler and started trolling again. In a short while I boated another fish, an rainbow trout that was just shy of 17 inches. I kept at trolling the cove and broke off one more fish. Now it was judgement time.

I paddled into shore knowing that I had a nice king salmon, but not knowing how anyone else had done. I untied the stringer and walked to the officials table. As I passed people I heard things like,"Whoa," and ,"nice fish." At this point I was beaming from ear to ear. It was then my turn to measure in. Even the judge was impressed with the king salmon, that officially was 19 3/4 inches long. I also had the rainbow, which measured in at 16 3/4 inches for a total of 283 points. I asked where that put me as far as rank and he said,"currently you're in 2nd. I couldn't believe it.

By the time all of the fisherman measured in, I dropped to 3rd. Still not bad for my first kayak fishing tournament. I left that day with a new rod, new paddle and bunch of lures.

Thanks to Ricci for hosting the event and thanks to Dan and Victor for helping me with all my paddling needs.