Bass Boats and Hawaiian Aloha Shirts

It’s summer here in always sunny southern California and prime time for outdoor activities. There are tons of outdoor activities that are challenging and entertaining, but one thing that’s does suck in San Diego and most of California is the fishing, the shore fishing is one of the worst things you will ever experience if you decide to try your hand at fishing California. When you want to fish our so called public lakes you will be required to have a expensive state fishing license, as well as pay for daily fishing licenses for that particular location and in some instances an additional parking fee. What our state fishing license fees are used for is anybody's guess. In my opinion it’s all just one big rip-off because you are paying to fish from shore with very limited shore access to most of the areas that actually have fish. And when you do manage to locate fish, they are numb to your lure presentations. That's most likely a result of all of the fishing pressure our lakes receive in general, not to leave out that the bass here are the ever finicky Florida strain bass.

Sure you can rent a small aluminum boat from one of the concession stands, but you will pay a lot for it. Take the sucky, nearly void of deep water Lake Hodges for example, a lake access/fishing permit and boat rental for 2 people will set you back about $75 for a unreliable boat (image below is what you actually get) that has to be returned by 6pm or something. I mentioned unreliable because in the past we have rented boats from Lake Hodges and every single one of them quit running at some point, most appear to run out of fuel or lose spark. Hodges solution was to give you another piece of crap which had the same characteristics. When they are out of replacement boats to give you, they prorate your rental fee and tell you that you now have the option to fish from shore or go home.

 

 

Nonetheless I tried to brush things off and give things the old college try and adopt the mindset that even though its Lake Hodges (which is close to my home), it’s still better than being in the office. I was also very easy to find on Lake Hodges, one just had to look for the bass fisherman wearing one of the (almost predictably) bright Hawaiian shirts from Wave Shoppe Hawaiian shirts, and yes that was a shameless plug for our business. But then one day not to long ago my wife and I got totally fed up with the local fishing scene and decided that we needed to go elsewhere for our outdoor entertainment. Being an old Mississippi river rat that's far from home, the only logical choice for me was to head to the next closest big river, that being the lower Colorado river.

It took just one excursion / trip to the lower Colorado to realize just how much Lake Hodges and California in general is screwing its residents and visitors. Everything in Yuma and probably most of Arizona is actually accessible to the public, do you see a body of water from the road? Just pull off the road onto one of the many paths through the sand and head to the water! But there was still one major annoyance (ok, frustration), that being access to the actual river. With few roads in the area you are still extremely limited on what you can access and ultimately end up to going to the public fishing docks and a sprinkling of cleared bank areas to fish. The good thing is that most water access is free, unlike California parks that charge you an access fee just look at the water.

So what was my solution for straightening out this dilemma you ask? Buy a bass boat of course! So off we went to our local Outdoor World (Bass pro shops) to look at boats, while we started out looking at a aluminum Tracker boat (which would have suited our needs well) but somehow ended up buying fiberglass boat, in particular a 2013 Nitro Z-7. We have not taken delivery yet, but in a few days we will have a boat similar to the one pictured below. (I snagged the picture below off the internet because it does have the same paint scheme, less the Mercury 150 fourstroke) Our Nitro Z 7 has a 2013 Mercury 150 Fourstroke, which I am really looking forward to running, Lowrance on the bow and Lowrance color sonar with GPS capability and chart plotters in the console, KeelGuard, hydraulic pedestal, hydraulic steering, etc.

Sadly I didn't see an option for a Hawaiian print bass boat, but I certainly would have considered it. Thinking out loud... I guess I still have the option to do a Hawaiian themed wrap for my bass boat.

 
OMG Not that it's a new low for me, but I just realized that I have already resorted to blogging some of my "line sheet" and I don't even have the boat yet! I guess that's what happens when you have bass boat fever. and of course my wife has taken every opportunity to buy boat related stuff for herself, if there was ever an excuse to needlessly blow money this is it. My wife has purchased more stuff in the last few weeks than she has all of last year (nonetheless I still love her).


I will update the Nitro Z 7 bass boat picture once I take delivery, which is this Saturday, but if you see someone wearing a bright Hawaiian shirt and standing on the bow of a bass boat in the vicinity of the Colorado river, it's probably me. Am I going to change my clothing to fit in more with the local fisherman? Hell no, my personal opinion is that there is no reason that we can not have a dress code that's somewhere between covert camouflage and sponsored tournament apparel similar to a NASCAR drivers suit. But because of my preferred clothing choice I am sure that someone will tag me with a funky nickname that will be hard to shake off. Next week we take the boat to the lower Colorado river for it's maiden voyage, so stay tuned, this could be a very interesting year.

Back in the day I used to fish Red Man bass tournaments and a whack of club and pro am tournaments, there is a voice in my head telling me I have some unfinished business in my future.

I previously stated that I was going to post more pictures here but have since changed my mind and started a new blog called Fishing Safaris which is 100% dedicated to our Nitro Z-7 boat and bass fishing on the Colorado River

Mahalo