The maiden voyage of the new boat. Nico came. My buddy Eddie from work came. We left the house around 9am. Stopped to put air in the trailer tires and gas up. Stopped at Boatmasters in Livermore to buy oil. They were closed.

Got on the water around 10:15 at River's End. Got right back off the water after I forgot to put the drain plug in. Classic rookie move. Had to laugh. Learned that the auto-bilge works great and also learned that it's impossible to reach the plug from the boat if you forget to put it in. That was kind of strange to realize it's designed like that. The boat didn't take on much water anyway.

Went over to Grant Line to look around. Nothing. Tried around Widows, nothing. The current was scorching! Never see it so strong down there. We were drifting 2+ mph without any wind. Decided to take a ride up to Mildred hitting a few spots along the way. The boat handled real nice. Got it up to 67mph with 3 guys in it. I figured not bad for someone who has no clue how to drive a bass boat (me).

We caught 6 or 8 small stripers in Mildred. They were all small, one keeper. There was a little bit of bird sign but not much. I would have gone out to Franks but didn't have enough oil. Yeah San Ramon boat center doesn't carry Optimax oil either, tried there on Friday. Called the Hook to see if they had any on the water. Nope. Anyway, learning curve.

We headed back down Middle River then back to the pumps around Del's. Nico caught about a 3lb bass on a jerkbait on 6lb screwing around. He caught a few more tiny stripers.

There were tons of boats fishing striper everywhere all day. The only fish we saw caught was about a 10lber on a live bluegill. It seemed pretty dog slow. Overall it was a good shakedown cruise. The only thing that didn't work was the console graph, which stopped marking bottom mid-day. Gotta look at that later.

What else... The water is 65 to 67 degrees. It was hot and pretty calm down south, breezier as you headed north. I don't know where the stupid stripers are right now, this was our first attempt to find them. Maybe try again next weekend out toward the Break and Franks.

Boat
http://www.calfishing.com/files/Images/daily_reports/10_25_09_boat.jpg

Nico catches first CA bass in boat
http://www.calfishing.com/files/Images/daily_reports/10_25_09_nico.jpg

Derek, not old enough to go yet
http://www.calfishing.com/files/Images/daily_reports/10_25_09_derek.jpg

Congrats on the nice boat!

And nice job on the drain plug :+ I guess it's good to get it out of the way early. I'll be out west next weekend somewhere along the San Joaquin stop and say hi if your out.

I fished with Lzyfish on Saturday and we stumbled into some activity on the main river near franks. The fish were pushing bait up into a flat, but they were moving through really fast, they would eat a punk if you could get it out far enough to reach them. Ran all the way down south and we caught fish were ever we stopped however, they were all small our biggest striper was probably about 5. After about 10AM I switched to a spoon to catch them, tossed the rip bait and swimmer for nothing.

Congrads on the new boat. So what did you end up getting. Looks like a newer Champ. 68 mph with 3 is real good for a Champ. It helps taking advantage of riding the tide. Sounds like your going to go through all the thing I had to go through with learning a new and bigger boat. Fun times.

It's a 2006 Champion 198 Elite. Bought it in Missouri. Sure is a change of pace from my little boat. I kept the little boat, don't worry :) Can't wait for a new series of adventures that are sure to come.

Congrats on the new boat Rob. As for the drain plug thing..I have heard the perfect solution for that one is a product called "Bass Boat solutions Drain Plug system" it was developed by a local pro here on the central coast named Gene Gray. You might of ran into him on Margi a few times....

Thats pretty interesting. Here is the link

http://www.bassboatsolutions.com/The_DPS.php