First off I want to thank Kellen and all of the moderators for keeping SDFISH up and running. They allowed us to advertise our event on line and oh what a wonderful event it was.

Today was our first, “First Light on the Water,” event. As scheduled everyone began to arrive at 5:30 and we were gathered at the Hubbell Sculpture at Shelter Island. Beginning at 5:45 Pastor Paul, or as you all know him Fisheromen, lead us with a wonderful sermon, followed up by a wonderful prayer by Scott(Fomen), and we ended with all singing Amazing Grace.




After the service we had some doe nuts and grouped and launched the boats. Not one person was left standing on shore, and Lawman had his boat in the water and ready to go before anything ever started.

Once we were all in the water we all kind of buddy boated from all over the bay. If someone was catching fish, they would report out. The bite for most was very slow, but the ones that were catching fish were those who were fishing on Lawman, Fomen, and James Nelson’s boats.

At noon we all met up back under the structure we started had a great BBQ or burgers and dogs. Believe me the food was great, but the time spent with each other was more fulfilling that any food that was consumed.

I personally want to say it was a true blessing to meet all of those who were able to make it this day, and I am looking forward seeing you all again each month, and hopefully seeing more of SDFish’s faithful come out and join us. It truly is a get together you do not want to miss.

Fish photos were taken by Jame Nelson and he'll post some up soon.
Otay Mike lost what appeared to be a legal Halibut on the last cast of the day.

I landed a 20 Halibut and that was the only fish I caught all day.

It was reported to me that Lawman had more than 15 fish on his boat in about 4 hours, but was planning on going out again later this evening.

Fomen and his crew have over 30 fish on their boat

I'm sure the others will post up their catch reports.










Again, thanks to all that attended, thanks to SDfish for this wonderful website, and Thank you to all who have read the threads and who may be thinking of joining us some day. Everyone is welcome.

Great report Jimmy. I got all enthused about bay fishing again, especially after fishing with Paul (fisheromen) and seeing the patterns that work as well as the many places to catch them out there. Great meeting so many of the board regulars as well as some newbies not on it yet. Looking forward to the next one.

First Light on the water ROCKED! It turned out better than I anticipated it would. I would like to thank each and every person who showed up to participate, but especially those who weren't professing Christians. I believe we broke down a barrier of misperception about what it means to be a Christian, and that we can have just as much fun as anyone else- minus the alcohol and profanity. I would encourage those gentlemen to PLEASE attend the next time. I'm hoping that this will catch on, and we can make it an ongoing event every 4-6 weeks. Word of mouth will be the best tool. ANYONE is welcome to come, as long as you RSVP. That way we can calculate who's riding with who, and how many boats we will have to distribute those riders. Everyone I met was AMAZING! Thank you for an AWESOME event.

Pastor Paul- than you for your message. It was SPOT ON! I felt convicted as I recall the times I've tried to defend my faith in a not so Christ like manner. Let's be Salt and Light!

On another note- I wanted to give props to Mike Ryba, and his amazing lures. If you've never tried Reebs Razorback Lures, YOU NEED TO! I've been using them for several years, and once again they proved themselves to be tried and true. The color patterns we used yesterday were Sandcrab, Candy Apple, and Razor Clam. The majority of the fish however were caught on the Sandcrab pattern. I also want to give props to Tommy Gomes and his amazing product Uni Butter. He was kind enough to give me a tub of Uni Butter a few years back, and I've savored it ever since. Reebs Razorback lures have dimples in the tail section that hold the Uni Butter in place- even after 2 or 3 ravishing hits by fish.

Our total on the boat was 30 fish (approx), but when nothing else was producing- the Reebs lures soaked in Butter were the ticket.

I can't wain until the next event. We need to look at a calendar, check out the tides, and throw out a date. Lets make it happen.

~Fomen~

Being one of the non-denominational participants at this event, I would like to say that it was good times with good people.

Great meeting all of you. I'm not the best with names but I should get better as I plan to make it out on the next one.

I even met up with Lawman that night to do some night Calico Bassin' (I'll post a report a little later as I'm sure you guys want to hear about it)

Dan

Somebody send me a PM next time, did not know about this gathering. I have been to a couple of SD Fish events before even the one where it was Rotten, myself and one other person at Santee Lakes. Got to see some SD Fish people today at day at the docks. Good to see Macro, Paul L, Lawman, and Mr. Ed Rees!

I thought the event went very well. 16 guys showed up. Thanks Paul for sharing the word with us. I was not able to stay for the food and fellowship as I was off to a wedding. The fishing for us (Bill, Bill and Dan) was very slow. We hit up my usual spots with minimal success. I did get a beast of a SBB up to the boat, but it got away before we could net it. Water was calm. No wind. Minimal tide movement. Sunny skies. Water temp up to 62 depending on location. Fish bit plastic and crank baits.

Later that evening I returned with Dan to fish for 2.5 hours on the Jetty for some Calico Bass. No moon. Slight breeze. Water temp 57. Clear skies. Good weather. Calm seas. Some surge over the Jetty. Minimal tide movement. Fish bit plastic. We caught another 15 bass for a total of 30 for the day. No big ones. Talked with Jim Edwards at the Jetty. He fished 24 hours straight with no sleep from the Islands and all throughout SD Bay.

It was great to put faces to the names. Lets do it again.

I had a great time myself. It was great meeting all of you, and putting faces to names.
I want to thank even more the folks who did see this was a Christian gathering of sorts, and aren't so open about their faith, or are of other denominations, for not chiming in the negatives. Proving again why SDFish folks are awesome. Even though most of us involved do profess our Christian faith openly, and maintain a basic knowledge of the born again nature of the Lindner's book that inspired this gathering, we would never dream of turning someone away, or shoving evangelism down anybody's throat. This was about thanking our God for bringing us together through one uniting spirit - Our Love of Fishing.

I had two great fishermen; and all around good guys aboard my boat - Mark and Matt. Since I wasn't guiding, I actually got to fish. Yes! I was even lucky enough to catch the first bass; a nice Sandy pushing two plus. Matt caught on to what would get bites; Gulp baits smothered in Uni-Butter. And even though Mark struggled early on the hook sets, he made up for it later. All three of us had way too many noseums, but we each also had a moment to remember. There were some doubles. We moved around a bit, and got bites in every spot. All together, Matt had 6-8 fish (including non bass), Mark had 4-6, and I had 8-10. I was too busy handling the boat against the weird drift (or lack there of), the late morning wind, and the massive amount of boat wakes to get an accurate count. Sorry Lawman. We stayed deep hoping to get a mixed bag of flat fish and bigger bass. We probably should have went shallow, and just played with the Spotties. Going deep was a tough bite, and in the end, we had no Halibut. Lesson learned.

It was obvious that other boaters agreed this was a great day to be on the water.

Here are some pics:

Thanks James for the post.

Fishon and I had a lot of fun playing with the kelp in the bay, I think we both hooked up on that 2 or three times. We picked up live bait and passed some off to Rush hour2, he ended up going all the way around he point to La Jolla. Not sure if he caught anything or not.

I had one Halibut nail a 5" Dine and we both thought for sure it was going to be a legal hali with the way it hit, and fought. This butt only went 20 inches, man I was bummed. That was our only fish for the day.

We through everything out with Uni-butter, and all. I think it can be agreed upon that it was a tough day fishing.

Hey Rush Hour, did you do any good with those gulp baits I passed over to you?

It was great putting faces with usernames. Two records for me: Earliest "sermon" and shortest.

Next time there will be straw drawing for my boat; short straw loses, goes with me.

Slowest day fishing I can remember, but then, I have a short memory.
That is what keeps me coming back to the bay.

Sorry Otay Michael for not scooping your Hali. Didn't want to split her tail if she was not legal. At the last moment, before she made a dive and broke off, I realized she was easily 24+".

OM taught me a new trick. He caught two halis on two consecutive casts by tieing a 1oz weight 3' in front of a crank bait. Can't wait to try that.

Also found that carolina rigging a 7" gulp jerk shad does not work so well. Seemed like a good idea in my mind. Drop shot was much more productive.

Thanks again Jimmy and Scott and whoever else had a part in making this happen.

Nice meeting everyone out there. I had a blast. Big thanks to James for letting Mark and I hitch a ride on your boat. I would one million percent recommend your guide service to anybody looking to get on fish, learn the bay, or just go out and have a good time. Thanks for teaching me some new techniques, and showing me some new spots. I'm looking forward to exploring around the areas we hit.

The bite could have been better, but the company definitely made up for it. Beautiful day, awesome people, good memories. Awesome spot too, couldn't have picked a better place to meet up and bbq. I look forward to next time. We have some quality people on this site. The laid back atmosphere, and non-pushiness of the guys praying and speaking was very pleasant and heartfelt.

I'd recommended this to anyone out there who needs a little spiritual time.