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