Date: June 25, 2006 — To: PFIC Message Board — From: Ken Jones — Subject: Mud Marlin Derby 2006

It was 105 degrees in Ukiah when we left the wedding we were attending and hurried down to Berkeley… where the temperature was 59, the sun was missing, and the wind was blowing. I didn’t even try to fish but had a chance to say hi to many of the 70+ people in attendance who were braving the elements. And, had a chance to introduce Mrs. Jones to the event and some of the people she has heard me mention. Not too many fish (actually none while I was there) but a friendly group as always and hot coffee out at the end. Thanks to all who organized the event, provided prizes, and did the 101 things that are necessary when hosting such a shindig. I’ll let GDude and Redfish provide a more thorough report but thanks to all of you, both for attending the Mud Marlin Derby and being members of the Pier Fishing In California family.

Posted by grammar police — I had a blast Ken, ’twas good meeting Ms. Jones. Yes, a successful event is never complete without thanking those who gave their time, effort, and money. Looking forward to number 6. Long live the Raffle King! Thank you Gdude (times 2), RedFish, SSC and Ms. Bob (Sorry never caught your wife’s name!), Rita and Eric, all judges (1014, MM, etc.). My hat is off, once again for you fine men and women. A special shout out to Mr. & Ms. BaitChucker for providing the fine reel to match my new 10′ custom G-dude!

Quote of the night: “Is Joey here? I want to buy raffle tickets before he arrives or buys the whole roll!” Best advise for the night: Buying raffle tickets every 20 mins. or a chunk here and there till their gone, is how to maximize your chances. Best raffle advice: Have ungodly luck.

Posted by orkspace — Congrats on your winnings Joey. I’ll get ya next time. —Dan

Posted by 1014 — Can a Judge be a judge.. if the judge has nothing to judge? Skunk for us folks on the inside. but still nice meeting the folks: GP, Pierbum, Salty Nick, 2d (mahalos for the dvds), Jel (mahalos for the musubi), G-Dude, Redfish, Rita, Big Rich, and countless others. Sorry we didn’t venture to the end, but we shy lol.

Posted by pierhead — Re: “70+ people in attendance … 141 people RSVP’d and only 70+ showed up? Once upon a time people who failed to show up without indicating they were backing out were considered just plain inconsiderate and weren’t invited back. There is a world of difference between provisioning for 70 instead of 141 and the hosts get stuck with the extra costs for food and supplies. So what is the solution … accept every RSVP but only plan for 50% showing up? That certainly is one approach but what happens if more than 50% attend? Good luck with the GPGT … I hope it doesn’t happen to whoever is organizing it this year.

Posted by pescare — Not the first time, unfortunately. It seems that not enough people think being inconsiderate is such a bad thing anymore. I remember that the ’04 Goleta thing had about a 50% no-show rate too, and from what I’ve observed, you can pretty much count on about a 30% rate in general.

Posted by songslinger — Roster Unfurnished Each Year. It would be interesting to see a list of names after these events. And useful, too. You show up, there are a whole bunch of people and you talk to most of them, but no one is wearing nametags, it’s getting dark, and there is also the incidental thing called Fishing. Had to keep track. So, I’m always wondering why, amidst the pictures and reports, someone doesn’t provide a “final count” for the record. Not to shame those who didn’t show–that’s just a perq—but to give everyone a source to put names to faces and so on.

I agree in principle about reservations and cancellations. Still, how useful is it to say you’re not coming if you’ve only just decided? Up here in the Bay Area, weather changes quickly, microclimates brew their own rarefied systems within the System–ask anyone who arrives at Berkeley Pier wearing shorts and tank-tops because it was 50 degrees warmer on the other side of the hills. I’ve seen hopeful anglers walk to the foot of the pier and get blasted by our hellish foggy zephyrs. Bright optimism stripped away raw to disappointment and disgust. Who can blame them for turning back? There’s fun and there is futility.

            The MMD event this year lists 59 separate reservations. Of that, you can pare down several names. Eelmaster, Ken Jones, and Minnow Magnet, each are double entries. (MM’s dad RR also reserved two—same guys.) So there are 5 you can subtract. 2 of Big Rich’s 3 reservations are imaginary, and Red Fish’s 11 invitees can be chopped back to maybe 4 or 5 at best. Some people who signed up for many only arrived with a few. You can also reasonably assume that guests would be less given the weather. So if there were 70 people at the event, this could be 59 people, 11 of whom brought a guest. And not everyone registered or checked in.  My point: who knows who showed up?

Berkeley Pier can’t be compared to Goleta or other events. The ENTIRE event takes place on the pier. Few participants stay overnight; most drive there and back on the same day. No bbq or picnic areas have to be reserved. As for food, it’s fantastic that generous people put together some tasty meals and feed a lot of folks. They can anticipate a crowd, yes, but they cannot expect it. Because things change. And those who attend events should not expect to get fed. It’s casual. (It’s Berkeley, man.) It’s close to spontaneous. Or it really isn’t worth doing. Sorry Glen

Posted by baitchucker — “hellish foggy zephyrs”  Ya, maybe I ate just a little too much chili, carnitas, and cevichi! It was good to meet you while on your way down the pier.

Posted by stripesidechaser — It got a little foggy on my end (of the pier) after about the third bowl of chili!  I fish, therefore I lie!

Posted by Songslinger — Heh heh!

 Posted by ken Jones — When Pat and I arrived at around 8:30 I asked Rita how many people had signed in and I believe the answer was 70 at that time. She did say some had signed in while the friends with them did not sign in. So, an actual number versus the posted signup will be hard.

As Slinger said the signup was rough. Some people anticipated bringing several other people and that may or may not have happened. It was cold, no doubt about that and that too may have discouraged some people (it reminded me of MMD2 when Lucy was given some ultramodern NASA-like garment to keep her warm (and it worked). Bottom line though was that more than 70 people showed up, most seemed to be enjoying themselves, and fishing proved once again how unpredictable it can be.

The one I felt most sorry for was GDude who was wearing his ever-present shorts and freezing. Someone finally brought him a blanket but I sure hope he was able to warm up after the event. He said, by the way, that the raffle was successful and UPSAC resources are somewhat strengthened.

 As for the coffee and chili, I only partook of the coffee because we had just finished off a nice spread at a wedding reception in Ukiah. The coffee was hot and that was all that mattered. The coffee cup helped warm up the cold fingers and the coffee itself warmed the soul. As said earlier, thanks and well done to all.

Posted by mel — I’m binging my own hotdogs next time. The ones that Unclesteve brings are way too hot for me.”The exact names and places may be changed to protect the innocent”

Posted by dkkim — Man those hotdogs were good. I think we ate enough for all the folks that didn’t show. btw, I headed out early but right when I was near the bathrooms I hear hootin’ and hollering — “Hookup!” I looked down at the watch and it was 11:55. Glad to hear you got the last fish, and it was nice meeting you.

Posted by gyozadude — Whew, I survived the cold – Part 1

However many fish were lost last night, and however cold it was, and however tired I was driving home… I’m happy that had the chance to get out and just hang out with a line in the water with many of the folks who came out for this event.

For the folks that stuck it out in the end, pat yourself on the back. Berkeley Pier can be worse, but for MMGT, this was perhaps one of the coldest and breeziest in past years.

Yet, time flew quickly. I got there at 4pm, parking near Skates Restaurant and while it was sunny at the time, the wind was already blowing hard. Up until that point, I had been working like a dog on an emergency software project and suffering from sleep deprivation the last six weeks, so my memory isn’t all that great. But it felt like just moments after I setup tables and got cozy that the clock struck 6pm and the MMGT officially started, and there was Rita001 manning the front desk doing the sign-ups, and a pile of cool prizes were on my cart behind me. And as usual, we had crowds arrive near starting time who needed to sign-in and wanted to buy some raffle tickets, so I started selling raffle tix next to Rita.

Sometime during that lapse, I must have also handed out the judges clipboards with rule sets to the folks that volunteered. And thank goodness I spotted Raidersfan1 taking movies and stills, so I didn’t need to walk down to the end of the pier, and shoot some amateur pics with my five year old Fuji finepix A101.

But I think I blinked twice and suddenly, someone blew the fog over BP and it got really cold. Great for folks like Ken Jones and Mrs. Jones who were coming down from the scalding hot interior somewhere. But I was wearing shorts and I looked around to see if Mel had pulled this unbelievable meteoroligic trick with the fog.

Posted by gyozadude — Raffle time – Part 2

Wow! Some cool prizes we gave away. Notably, we had a donation from Charkbait.com and Baitchucker of an Avet MX reel that went with a custom rod I wrapped which I christened “Go-bo-cha” which is a Japanese pumpkin that is green and orange. We also had a donation from Gotcha Bait and Tackle in Antioch c/o Stripedsidechaser for a cool Okuma Coronado CD65 Baitfeeder. Monte donated a half dozen lure paint kits, and someone (please email me) donated another Jarvis Walker big spinning reel. And Redfish donated a 7 ft Sabre Pacifica 1 pc heavy stick. I think Davey Jones came buy and brought a fantastic grab bag of goodies too, and Matt – 2D donated some stuff too.

But there is a disturbing trend starting to happen in ticket buying that started at Catalina PFGT this year. Grammar Police took top prize at that raffle too by blowing $90 in tix. So this time around, Orkspace blew $80 on tix. And GP blew $50, and others blew $40 and $30. I was almost running out of tickets physically. And then GP came around again and pretty much bought some more tix in a second purchase, after which we pretty much sold out or only had 6 left.

At 8pm, we began the drawing with a pretty good crowd. While this raffle only had only about 25 items to raffle off. My appreciation goes out the kids at the MMGT that helped out in picking of winning tix. One by one, we raffled off items getting ever closer to the bigger items.

Two things we did differently here from the Catalina PFGT. a) we had fewer prizes, but bigger ticket items, and b) I spent about a good 15 minutes separating tickets and mixing them thoroughly, stirring the tix and interleaving them between others. This would hopefully avoid one person winning too many prizes.

When we finally got to the big water reels and rod, folks were definitely paying more attention to their numbers. Then came the grand prize, and winner was…. Grammar Police!  Ironically, Orkspace did not get a single prize. And GP Joey, only won 1 prize — which was the grand prize after all. For those who envy Joey’s good luck, well, he wasn’t all that lucky. You see, while trying to unload at 4pm, a sudden burst of air lifted the custom rod off the roof of my camper shell, and the rod fell down and chipped the top ring. The rod is back with me to repairs.

Posted by gyozadude — Survival Station Lampost 20 — Part 3

 The action seemed hot down at the end of the pier, and I should have walked down there, and in hindsight, I missed out.

SSC (aka Bob) had a pot of chili and hot coffee going, which would have been great for a guy like me who was cold to the bone. They also had the whole end tarped and shielded from two sides against the wind. Some one also was toasting hot wings and sausages too, I heard.

But I was just too tired and lazy to hoof it down to the end. And certainly, while it was a cold night, Climber9′s father offered a blanket which I thankfully borrowed..

But we weren’t without a burrito bar on our end. I brought black beans and carnitas and tortillas and a case of bottled water, and we can thank Eric and Rita who did all the cooking plus brought the Spanish rice.

And before dusk, a gentleman was cleaning a very nice striper at the sink nearby. I thought he was part of the MMGT crew and we were going to have fresh striper. But that must have been wishful thinking.

Posted by gyozadude — And the winners are… Part 4

It was a slow MMGT. A few good fish lost at the end, but otherwise quiet. And only three rays landed. Throughout the evening, we heard loud “Whhhhooooaaaaa’s” of disappointment occasionally come from the end with no confirmations of any fish landed.

At 10:23pm, HikingJay finally took the lead with a 12 lb. ray with a 26 inch wingspan. But that didn’t last long when Louisana Jeff landed a 36 pound ray with a 38 inch wingspan at 10:35pm. This still could have been anyone’s contest until Mel (who lost one earlier supposedly that broke off on 65 lb braid) hooked up at 11:58 pm. The fight went past midnight, but the ray did get landed before the 10 minute grace period expired. Mel closed the MMGT2006 with a 9 lb ray with a 22 inch wingspan.

So, the winners were: Louisana Jeff (1st), HikingJay (2nd) and Mel (3rd). Each received an engraved trophy and a PolePack courtesy of Pablo-at-Polepack-dot-com. He says he can exchange it for whichever size winners want.

Congrats to the winners again on a job well done. Gyozadude – Proud UPSAC Member “Yes — I can roll potsticker skins”

Posted by AortizFish — Thanks to Gotcha Bait Shop  for their donations! I actually won the Okuma reel in the raffle, I had a great time out there. Met a lot of people, Thanks to all the organizers.

Posted by Mr. Pole Pack — Pole Pack winners…Congratulations on your rays! Email me if you want to exchange sizes to fit your rods.pablo@polepack.com

Posted by 1014 — Thanks James… and Redfish, Rita, Eric, etc.  I came with a pair of shorts and t-shirt as well, but quickly the jacket came on with my fleece wader lining, which was luckily still in my bag, following quickly afterwards. I tried to rough it out by continually walking back and forth from bathroom/food vendor and spot, but couldn’t take it. My wife withstood the cold longer than I did wearing her “skort” until almost dusk! Again no fish in our general area, or actually no qualifying fish. The scale was used to weigh a 5# striper caught by one of the old men near us and Jel’s homies caught a 31” leopard. But it was quiet on our end. I did get a nibble on squid but whatever it was refused to take the hook. Geez, I was hoping for at least third place! I will say the burritos hit the spot and reminiscing with 2d about Sandy’s poundings kept me warm. Also the daydreaming my conversation with Pierbum about threshers got me sweating. Thanks again, and definitely I’ll participate more so next year!

Posted by gyozadude — Really, thanks Red. Robert was our main guy for communications on the MMGT and he insulated me from having to deal with it, especially since I was completely bogged down in work and other activities. All I really ended up doing was hauling out the same gear I usually haul to one of these events. In years past, when I tried to organize this, there had been always some opposition that some pier regulars would feel displaced by such a massive invasion and that we should grease the locals and make them feel welcome and give them a heads-up before the event. With Robert in charge, I don’t think that issue even came up since he’s a regular there himself. So let’s hear it Robert for being the gracious host here.

Posted by Ken Jones — You both did a great job!

Posted by songslinger — JAFO’s view here from the day shift, but it was a respectable and respectful event.