Ok, now that we are on the topic, let's talk boats. Am I some big expert? Nope. Just a fisherman who has had a chance to ride in a few and drive a few. Here's what I know along with some opinions. I'm interested to hear yours in return.

Tritons: Rode in a few. Chris Zaldain's and Rod Lee's come to mind. Enjoyed the speed, Rod's was hitting 74 with 3 people in it. Didn't drive either beyond just idling around. Thought they plowed through boat wakes pretty well, but didn't ride in any big water to really see. I like the layout in the Triton OK.

Nitros: Been a long time since I rode in one. Used to prefish with Felix Camacho and rode in his several times. Speared a wave at Clear lake once, broke the windshield. The windshield hit Felix in the head and cut him above the eye. It was not a big Nitro we were in. I thought it was awful when the weather was bad though, and we had that more than once. Got the crap kicked out of us at Pedro once.

Basscat: Borrowed Mark Roger's for 4 days at Clear Lake. Only ran around in some 2' waves, no big water, but thought it handled nicely going across wakes and such. Mark will tell you his boat doesn't get on pad worth a darn when the livewell is full. It took about a minute. Didn't like the layout, storage, etc. Sorry Basscat gang, just not a fan.

Ranger: I've been in a lot of Rangers. All the years fishing with John Lake in his cadillac. Hey it was fun running down swell at Clear Lake with 4 footers passing other people who were getting flushed over and over. John's boat is cool but I don't want one that big.

Cris Vanclef is my other team partner. His Ranger is a 519 hull if I remember right. Cris drives fast. We've been in some fairly crappy weather but nothing huge. I don't like how the boat takes wakes and chop at all. It will slam you good. I do like how tough that boat is. We hit a metal buoy on pad going 35mph at night and the boat was unscathed. I asked Cris about logs on the Delta in the winter. His response was, "Oh yeah I hit those all the time". There's something to be said for that.

I drove Marc Higashi's Z-20 at Casitas and fished out of Henry Shorr's and Mike Goodwin's. Can't remember if Mike had a Z-21 or a Z-20. Can't say I was a fan of those boats.

I've rode in various other regular 520's over the years, Rob Rhiel and some other dude I drew in a Pro/Am a long time back. I like the wide bow on them for fishing. Rob whipped that thing around corners at the Delta at high speed like it was nothing as well. A 520 is the boat I'd be most interested in in the Ranger lineup.

What else. 518, been in a couple of those, Matt Peters and Dan Frasier. Those boats corner like crazy, or maybe that's just because Dan knew how to drive it. I want something bigger than an 18 footer though and I don't really care if I can make the boat slide around turns.

Champion: Cameron Smith has this 196 that we've fished out of quite a few times now. Cam isn't a fast driver but we've run through some chop and waves and that boat ground through the chop like it wasn't there. I'm in to that. I like the high deck in the front for sight fishing and in general. I don't care about being a couple feet off the water at the bow because it gives me more visibility. Cam can put six 8' rods in the locker. I have a lot of 8 foot fishing rods.

The other thing I like is the space around the trolling motor where you can stand right up on the edge of the bow. I like that a lot. I never use a seat fishing and am much more likely to be perched with my toes off the edge of the front of the boat.

When I really started to feel the Champion vibe was when Rod Thigpin and I fished Casitas a few years ago in December and it was blowing a legit 30+ wind. Rod has this old 17' Champion. I was 100% impressed how that boat ran in those waves. For a 17' boat I was blown away. My jon boat would have sank in that stuff and its only 2 feet shorter. In Rod's boat we never got wet. We chatted last week about the 210 Elite him and Todd picked up recently. He said he's loving it.

So that's my slice of the world in terms of boats. Like I said at the beginning, I'm no expert, just a guy who fishes a lot and has rode in a few. After 11 years of fishing from jon boats I'm ready to get in to something that can get on pad and blow across 3 foot chop. From what I've seen so far that's a Champion. Tell me your stories.