What Inspires You Video Contest

Okuma ran a really cool video contest this year and we asked the question, What Inspires You?  With that, we had a lot of entries.  We asked for a 3 minute or less videos telling us what inspires you about fishing.  The winner of the contest was set to receive an all expense paid trip to SoCal to fish with Team Okuma for one day and another day fishing with the TV show Stoked On Fishing.  Second place was a $1,000 Okuma gift card and third was a $500 Okuma gift card.  Not bad at all!

The Videos

As I mentioned, we had a lot of What Inspires You video entries to weed through.  It was a blast and we had some really creative stuff as well as some really funny and off beat videos as well.  But all in all, the top three were chosen.  Votes were cast and the winner of the What Inspires You video contest was Lori Carnahan.

Here is a quick recap video of the top three.  The voting was close, but in the end, the public voted for Lori’s inspiring video.

The Grand Prize

For Lori’s win, she won two days of fishing with Team Okuma.  We gave her the option of a day on a lake bass fishing with one of our pro’s, or jumping in the Okuma skiff and heading out for some local saltwater action.  As she spends most of her time in fresh water, she opted for the salty version.

Her trip started with a stop at the Okuma USA headquarters in Ontario California for a quick tour.  We gave her a tour of the facilities including introductions to key staff, who all congratulated her.

As usual for visitors, she jumped on the Okuma bear for a quick photo op.

She and her husband Tim left Okuma and headed on down to Seal Beach to check into their hotel.  After meeting Dave and Karie for a bite to eat and talking the next couple of days adventures on the water, we were all off for a good nights rest.

Fishing Day 1

The alarm came early and we met the next morning early down at Davey’s Launch Ramp in Long Beach.  We loaded up the boat and off we went running out to visit Nacho for a few scoops of live bait and then to the fishing grounds.  We had nasty Santa Ana winds the day prior so there was no boat traffic out at all.  Prior to the wind there had been great yellowtail fishing off of the Horseshoe Kelp right in front of the Long Beach Breakwall.  We looked and looked and really saw no sign of fish so we made the decision to run out to a couple of high spots I had marked on our graph.

Once we got out to the high spots we started to set up for a couple of drifts and we all got bit almost instantly but couldn’t get anything to stick.  As we brought up our sardines, we all saw raked baits and raked bait usually means one thing…halibut!

We kept at it, and probably should have added a trap rig to our set ups, but we kept on strong.  After about thirty minutes and a couple of passes on the high spot, I hook up.  First it felt like a snag as it didn’t want to move, but I got it moving and to the surface sinking the gaff into a nice California Halibut.

Unfortunately that would turn out to be our only fish of the day.  We tried all over including Izors reef, the wall, and some inside spots for Nada.  Tough day.

Fishing Day 2 – Stoked On Fishing

Day 2 was going to be our fun day and something that Lori and her husband Tim were really looking forward to.  This was a day fishing with the crew from the TV show Stoked On Fishing.

We met down at Andrews house at O-Dark 30.  Actually it wasn’t too bad as we met about 4:30 am. We loaded up the Everglades and off we went.  We made a quick stop to visit Nacho once again to load up on sardines.  The plan was to go out and chase the giant bluefin that showed back up just outside of San Clemente island.

It was very cool being in a fast boat as we made the 60 mile journey to the north end of the island and started to look around.  We really didn’t see any sign out there at all, which was very disappointing.  Andrew ran out another 15 or so miles past the island and thoroughly checked out “the zone.”  There was still no sign of fish and with that, we decided to make the run in to the island and try to get them on some fish.

We made a run out to Desperation Reef and made a few deep drops with the Metaloid reels for some bottom dwellers.  Lori was quick to hook up with this nice Ling Cod.

We stuck around the reef for a bit until we got a radio call that they would be closing the back side of the island at about 11 am.  We fished the reef for a while longer pulling in lots of good eating rock fish filling up Lori’s cooler.  Then we got to watch the navy do some bombing on the island.  It was really cool, and somewhat scary to watch the fighter jets coming in hot and lighting up the side of the island.

Yellowtail

Once we were out of time we made a run for the front side and to a couple of specific spots. Our goal was to hook into a few yellowtail and get Lori something that really pulls back.

We pulled up to the first spot and we all fly lined our sardines.  Andrews son, little Andrew, went up to the bow to start throwing iron.  We heard him yell as a giant school of yellows rushed his jig and pulled off. I instantly hook up, but it wasn’t pulling hard. As I get it to the boat and look down to see the checkerboard of a nice Calico Bass.  I set the bass free to swim on and throw out another bait.

Almost instantly Big Andrew and I get bit and these fish are pulling hard. Unfortunately we both lost them.  Right away, Lori starts to say that her line is ripping off the Komodo SS reel. Sure enough, we look over and she is hooked up.  She fought that fish hard and it took her a lap around the boat where she ultimately landed her first yellowtail. And it was a nice one too!

The fishing went on like this for quite a while.  Jonathan from the Okuma marketing department also caught his first yellowtail and he was quite excited about that.

Lori managed another nice Yellow and the rest of the crew each caught one as well.  Nothing like the size of Lori’s first fish, but they were all fun sized.  We also had big schools of bonito breezing through and making things fun and help to load up on the lobster bait.

The Return

After a great day of island fishing we decided to make the run home.  We stored all of our gear, grabbed our jackets and fired up the motors.

Once we got back to the harbor we all had some great laughs and enjoyed talking fish stories that just happened.

Here is a quick recap video of the entire trip.

Congratulations again to Lori and to her husband Tim.  It was great to meet you guys and a lot of fun.  We do truly appreciate you for entering the What Inspires You contest and submitting your video.  Hopefully we can keep you wanting to get back on the water for more.

For more fishing reports, please be sure to subscribe to Davey’s World.

Happy fishing!
Davey