Photos and words by: Brooks Fritz

I was going to keep the story going from where I left off last week with the beginning of my trip in the NW but decided to mix it up and fast forward a few days into the trip and go straight to the Toad and Salmon chowder bowl contest before it becomes too old. Well, here’s the story. I was offered  a seat in the van of the Shrunken Head/Jivaro wheels athlete vehicle  and headed to Seattle for the weekend. The other antics from this trip will be shown later. This is just the stuff from the day of the bowl contest and sorry to say kind of pathetic chowder contest. I was thinking it was going to be a all day soup eating fat fest. When in actuality you probably could of placed  in the top 3 if you went and bought a can of Progresso or Cambel soup sand enterd it. Which now that I think about it wonder why we didn’t do that. Reguardless the day was fun. People got hyped and there were definitly some characters to keep everyone entertained. With that being said herre are some highlights from the Ballard Chowder Bowl.

The plan was to  meet up at 9am and get on the road… And it actually worked.  

Toad and Salmon last year had a chili bowl contest where it was a chili cook off / skateboard riding contest. Well, for this year Toad and Salmon were back at it again with a contest. This time it was a Chowder bowl contest at the Ballard Bowl in you guessed it, the town of Ballard, Washington. I’m not going to go into some crazy detail about the place but the above photo shows the layout of the old bowl. That bowl is no longer there.  They demolished it and built the new park a little over from the old park. I guess people are bitter about that. Some people say the old park was way better. Other people say they love the new lay out. And honestly I think they both suck. But that’s just me. Everyone has a right to their opinion right?  Maybe it’s just me but I just want to ride a race track super slip in slide water slide marble madness race track that never ends. But I guess that’s just me. Dont take me too seriously though. The place is fun. But so is a parking curb.

Chris Senn was one of the judges and Toad was announcing.

The female species even came out.

With their dogs of course.

Motorcycles are the new skateboards

Photographer, Dan Barnett

DJ Cuddle Bandit

Jack Given

Nollan Johnson

Ben Krahn

Hip Hip Smellz

Max Holbein

Bryce kanights gets in on the Shrunken Heads BBQ

Backside smith by Bellingham WA  loc Charlie Criag

Andrew Adams

with a 540

Danny Tumia with a lien to tail

Tailblock on the extension gone wrong by  Donavan Rice

Game over. Not really though.

Thumbs up!

Final Results

1. Michael O’Friel
2. Steve Reeves
3. Jerry Gurney
4. Donovan Rice
5. Danny Tumia
6. Max Holbien
7. Andrew Adams
8. Charlie Craig
9. Caleb Cole
10. Jack Given

Chowder
1. Jessei Ireland - “Jam Out With Your Clam Out”
2. Jane Goodwin - “Salmonilla Thrilla”
3. Jessie Rey Wilborn - “Soup or Sonic”
_________________

Tags: 1. Michael O’Friel 2. Steve Reeves 3. Jerry Gurney 4. Donovan Rice 5. Danny Tumia 6. Max Holbien 7. Andrew Adams 8. Charlie Craig 9. Caleb Cole 10. Jack Given, andrew adams, ballard bowl, bryce kanights, Charlie Craig, danny tumia, dogs, donavan, hip hop smells, jack given, Jivaro Wheels, marble madness, max holbein, salmon, Shrunken head skate shop, skateboard contest, toad, Washington

Back by popular demand!

Urban fishing is great and these people would never know.

It’s a $500.00 fine.

.
If you follow the right path you will find it.

All I can say is float tubing is the shit. And that’s where we took our new tubes for a test run…..

Pre Game warm up…

First fish in the tube brah! Who says Turd lake doesn’t produce?

12 incher. Not the biggest fish, but better then getting skunked.

#2

#3

“Not now chief i’m in the fucking zone!”

After I caught my third one Luke decided he had to pray to Jah fish gods….

It worked!

The only thing about these float tubes is if you gotta piss your kinda screwed. And I got a bladder of a 7 year old…..

Pretty much what I am looking for….

Make: Strike King

Model: King Rat (pre rigged)

Action: Top Water (floating)

Wally World had a clearance sale on Strike King’s King Rat Lure the other week so I decided to pick up a few. I’ve fished top water lures plenty of times before but never a rat. I really like topwater frogs, Spooks are cool, buzzbaits, poppers are all great, but there’s something about catching a bass with this stupid neon plastic rat that makes it that much better.

First fish on the lure…. I was just twitching it slowly by this rock point and kaboom!!! Fat bitch was pissed!

I was hyped on catching that first fish on the king rat lure so I let Luke have a try with it. Sure enough 3 cast into the same spot I caught mine Luke hooked into this one.

Just to make sure it wasn’t a fluke we went back the other night and I threw it again. It took a while but I managed 3.

” hey fish I fooled you ”

Try it for yourself!

There’s been alot of small males being caught so I wont overkill it with a bunch a photos of small bass. Here’s a few of the highlights of the bigger ones caught this past week.

Yum dinger worm…… 4th cast.

Taj aka RippN Lipz has been killing it lately.

Right when I hooked into one I heard splashing coming from where Luke was casting. Double hook up!

Seriously this shit head with his new rod and reel has been showing up late, catching the most and wanting to leave the earliest….. Bastard!

Right after this Luke aka Richard Lipz reel exploded so he retired and took a nap.

Thank God It’s Billy Bass Fish Friday!!! Not sure what happened to Sunday Sequence. Actually I know exactly what happened. I don’t know how to do that animated gif sequence crap and I had to email photos to Johnny so he could do it for me. Being the busy guy my boss is I see how it only lasted two weeks…..

So I decided to come up with a new one: Billy Bass Fish Fridays!

Every Friday you get to see me and my two friends catch of the week. Pretty exciting huh? Sorry, but this is what I do, this is what I love. Don’t get me wrong, I love skateboarding to death. I will never quit skateboarding. Can you quit? I don’t think so. Seriously…. who quits skating? But the days are over of skateboarding 24/7. Especially with my weak ass body ( 24 pieces of metal are in me) needs something else to do. During the day I’m busy taking care of my little girl. So my only choice of being able to fish is at night.

Believe it or not, fishing at night is good. You might not be able to see shit but that’s kinda the point when you are out combat fishing. You see, the places where we go fish aren’t exactly legal. So when me and my friends aren’t poaching your backyard pool to skate we are poaching your pond or lake at night to fish. Now, I can’t really be telling you where all this is taking place because maybe you have heard the saying: LOOSE LIPS SINK SHIPS!

So there you have it. Here’s the first installment of T.G.I.B.B.F.F - oh yeah, and of course no pussy ass live bait is involved….. click on the photo for rest of the story/photos….. (more…)