Report for Fish Fest III with Pictures

[Damon]

The event kicked off on Friday evening, August 18th, with the following FTC member boaters and their team mustering:

1. Hav'nfun
2. Moby11
3. Hpcast
4. Brand X
5. AJ
6. Scrapper
7. Exodus
8. Offshore Gary
9. Magic Rod
10. Warfdog

Special guest and sponsors at the event included:

1. Bo of Palmer Marine/Shamrock Boats
2. Darren of Palmer Marine/Shamrock Boats
3. "Kurt" and his Lovely wife from Havertown, PA (FTC Member)
4. Mike of Pelagic Gear

After the kick off bash, some of the members and their team headed out that night to the fishing grounds while most others slept it out until the next morning.

The water has been very warm and the fishing has been HOT off the coast of San Diego and Dana Point prior to the event. Everybody was jazzed and looking forward to wide open fishing. But with fishing being fishing, the day of the tournament turned out to be a difficult day for everybody. Three of the boaters went into Mexican waters while all the other boaters fished west and north west of Mission Bay (i.e. San Diego). It was all about finding the "magic" kelp paddy. One of the members (i.e. Exodus) did hook into a Marlin for a short time of fun before if came off the hook.

Here are the results of the Fishing tournament in the Boat Team category:

1st Place went to Team "Offshore Gary" on the Kathryn Ann with 2 Dorado and 3 Yellowtail:
http://members.cox.net/dstannard1/Crew%20OffshoreGary%201st%20place.JPG

2nd Place went to team "Scrapper" with 5 Yellowtail and one Calico Bass:
http://members.cox.net/dstannard1/Crew%20Scrapper%202nd%20place.JPG

3rd place went to team "Magic Rod" with one Dorado caught by Danny's very own fish magnet Lisa:
http://members.cox.net/dstannard1/Lisa's%20Dodo%20and%20crew%20Magic%20Rod%203rd%20P lace.JPG

Here is the result of the Fishing tournament in the individual catagory (i.e. largest fish):

Roy with his 22 lb. Bull Dorado from team "Offshore Gary":
http://members.cox.net/dstannard1/Biggest%20Fish%20OffshoreGary%20Crew.JPG

I want to thank all the members, guest, and sponsors who participated and/or contributed to the event. You all made this a very fun time!!

[Damon]

Photos on the Bay
These are my favorite shots! The following were taken when everybody was heading back in from the tournament:

Jason (i.e. Exodus) with his 219 WA and guest "Kurt" from FTC with his wife:
http://members.cox.net/dstannard1/Exodus%20in%20Bay.JPG

Zach (i.e. hpcast) and team on his 22 WA:
http://members.cox.net/dstannard1/HPCAST%20in%20Bay.JPG

Gary (i.e. Offshore Gary) and team on his 219 WA:
http://members.cox.net/dstannard1/OffshoreGary%20in%20Bay.JPG

Here are some micellaneous photos:

Mike (i.e. Scrapper) in his 26 Commercial PH:
http://members.cox.net/dstannard1/Scrapper%20in%20PH.JPG

This is Gary with a Yellowtail that he caught the day after the event:
http://members.cox.net/dstannard1/OffshoreGary%20with%20YT.JPG

[Damon]

If anybody else has photos of the event, please post them.

Thanks.

[Exodus]

I just wanted to thank Damon and Danny, once again, for putting this event together and making everything happen. You guys are very generous for spending your free time and money on this proud and passionate group of boat owners. I had a great time and I'm already looking forward to next year......

BTW, hooking into that Marlin is a thrill that I won't soon forget :mrgreen: .

Jason

[AJ]

Thanks Damon and Danny for all your hard work making FishFest III a success. Even though we got skunked on tournament day, it was a blast seeing everyone and enjoying a cocktail together. Congrats to Offshore Gary who did a fantastic job trading in his "Team Vessel Assist" nickname from last year, and replacing it with "FishFest III Champion". Plus, I think he was quite pleased with the swag and $$$ he and his team received for their efforts. Great job guys! Congrats also to Team Scrapper (Mike, JD, and Damon) for their 2nd place finish. Looking forward to spearfishing on the paddies with you guys sometime soon...I think. :)
And...nice job Lisa (Magic Rod's fish killing spouse) on your 3rd place dorado. You go girl!

It was great meeting Ted (Kurt) and Gail who flew all the way out from the right coast to visit SoCal and check out all us left coast Shamrock owners.
How was the Salton Sea? Did it meet your expectations? Hope you two had a nice visit and made it to all the sights you were interested in seeing.

I wish I had some photos to post, but the only pics I have are of an empty cockpit...void of fish scales and blood. How boring.:(

Looking forward to FishFest IV! No back to back skunks!

[Golden Dog]

Darn, am I the only one who can't see the pics??

[OffshoreGary]

Damon, Danny - just wanted to chime in and add another thanks for all your work in planning FF III - I was going to say that coming home on my own power (instead of vessel assist) was the best part of the event, but really, the best part was seeing everybody and finally putting faces to screen names. Swapping fish and shamrock stories at the firefly was a great way to kick off the tournament - and it just got better!! - Thanks again for all the work you guys did - I'm already ready for next year!! By the way, conditions had radically changed on Sunday - all that 70 degree water between the 181 and 182 had moved out, but I found 71 degree water (and yellowtail) 8 miles off mission bay; we sacked 2 and farmed 2 more.

[hpcast]

It figures, on Sun my crew and I slept in and took a strool/drool on the beach. I also cant wait for next year. Gonna try to stay an entire week this time.

Thanks again

Zach

[Kurt]

Ali... We sacked the Salton Sea (someone said it was ~110 deg out there) and, instead, did an auto loop of the SD/Coronado (Silver Strand) area on Sun, the SD Zoo on Mon, La Jolla (Birch Aquarium - as close as I got to a live Yellowtail all week :oops: ) on Tue, Mt. Palomar (Hale telescope) on Wed and strolled around Balboa Park and the museums today. All-in-all a very good week.

Congrats to all the winners - Gary's, Scrapper's and Danny's crews, it's a shame that things were slow in general tho' but the whole point was the get-together anyway.

I thought Jason was gonna go off the stern of the boat when he dove for the rod that had the Marlin on. I swear the hair on the back of his neck stood up when we saw that fish jump - twice. It sure would've been great to bring it up to the side of the boat and get that trophy photo - maybe next year.

Damon, Danny, et. al. thanks for getting this shindig together and making it such a memorable weekend for us "Right Coasters". Again, it was great meeting all you guys and both Gail and I would definitely be up for it again next year.

Gail took some pics at the Firefly after the fete and when I get home, I'll squeeze 'em down to a postable size and put them up here. Damon's pics on the water and dock are better than ours so I think I'll let them stand as-is.

Golden Dog... They're showing up fine for me - wonder what the prob is for you?

[Mistress]

Kurt, Next year try to incorporate the San Diego wild animal park. I've yet to see it myself, but have it on good authority it's fanatastic.

Sure missed seeing y'all down there. My truck didn't make it back from the shop until the following Tuesday.

[Magic Rod]

First off, I would like to thank my wife for putting together the goody bags for us. She made some awesome cookies, which didn’t last too long. I think we ate most of ours up while drinking at the Fire Fly after sign ups.

http://www.allcoastsportfishing.com/photos/data/500/106533DSCF0002_edited_.JPG

Now on behalf of Fish Fest III, I would like to thank all that participated in purchasing shirts and entering into the jackpots. A special thanks to our sponsor’s. We ended up with some great prizes, raffle prizes as well as give a ways. And we can’t go without thanks to all the anglers who made it possible.

For our 3rd event I think we’re starting to get the hang of it. Too bad the fish didn’t cooperate. It was a pleasure meeting and seeing everyone again.

Can’t wait for next year!!!

Congrats to all the winners and all who attended!

Tight Lines,

Danny & Lisa
Team Magic Rod

[El Bombero]

Hopefully I'll be able to attend next year. Lost the port head this year due to a leaking gasket. Boat should be back in the water this week (fingers crossed). Are there any T-Shirts left?

[Magic Rod]

Yes,

Let me now what size.

PM me your address

Thanks
Danny

[Kurt]

Finally got the #$@%!^ laptop to talk to my home network again - what a PITA that was!

Anyway, here are some more pics from FF-III showing some of the after-activties and awards:

1 - At the Paradise Point dock before going back to the Dana marina, jus' hangin' out.
2 - Cap'n of the Exodus - Jason.
3 - Damon lining up Scrapper's boat's catch.

[Kurt]

Here we are back at the Fire Fly, handing out the "booty"::

1 - Offshore Gary counting out his boat pool First Place winnings (with complimentary poses from the "Surly Mermaid" (Ali) and "Hpcast" (Zach) in the background).
2 - Scrapper getting his Second Place due from Damon.
3 - Danny (Magic Rod) collecting as #3.
4 - Roy (Mr. "Big Fish" :D ) clutching the award goodies for his winning 23# Dorado (I think there's some $$$ buried in there somewhere ;) ).