Striper Fishing at Rio Vista

This past weekend we took the boat out to Rio Vista for some striper fishing.

On Saturday, it was just me and Dad. We launched at Rivers End and traveled all the way up to Rio Vista through the Delta. It was a very long boat ride. And at the end of the day it was pouring rain.

Sunday it was me, Dad, Mark and JR. This time we drove the boat to Rio Vista and launched near the bridge.

Both days were good fishing. Saturday Dad caught a 20 incher, I caught an 18 incher. Sunday we were one short of being at limit. The biggest was mine a 21.5 incher. Dad was the luckiest. He caught 5 of our 7 fish.

Saturday - Dad's 20 incher


Sunday - JR's 18 inch striper. JR landed the first two fish.


Sunday. Dad's first catch.


21.5 Incher








Rio Vista Bridge


Mark's weird shaped shaker


Our catch


JR's starry flounder

A Day On The Delta

A couple of weeks ago I saw a craigslist ad that said "Free Boat". It was posted 20 minutes before I saw it. I emailed the guy, he replied and to make a long story short, I got a free boat. It's an older fiberglass, tri-hull boat from 1975, but it was in decent condition and the engine supposedly ran.

Why did he give it away free? His wife said he had to get rid of it quickly because it had been sitting for 3 years and they needed the room on the side of their house for their dog.

So, after taking it in for service, getting the registration stickers and cleaning it up, we decided to take it out for the maiden voyage this past weekend. We launched from the River's End Marina about 10 minutes from Mil and Jimmy's house in Mountain House. We cruised up the Delta to Discovery Bay and back. And we did a little fishing too.

On board, it was me, Jimmy, Dad, Justin, Mildred, Ei, Jacqueline and Max. Here are some pics:

Launching the Boat, lots of yelling because it was our first time launching plus Capt. Marvin drove the boat up the pier because he had it in forwad instead of reverse ;-) Rookies...


Admiral Bernie, fishing expert


Ei, Marvin and Max. Max slept through the whole boat ride.


Deck hands... Jacqueline and Justin. This was on Saturday. We went out again on Sunday and Justin caught a nice 18.5 inch Striper!



Capt. Jimmy and crew

The "skipper" and his first mate

The Aguilars and Max at the dock

The free cheeseburger boat... maiden voyage successful

Flower Power

IMG_0537
Originally uploaded by marvin_paule

This is a test blog post using the Flickr Beta integration.

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Another Flickr Test

This time I posted a pic from Flickr using the picture's URL.

The Pines

Have you ever gone to a place from your past that brings back nostalgic memories? I spent a part of my childhood growing up in a neighborhood called The Pines in Milpitas. It was the 70's. We moved there when I was around 5. I went to Kindergarten through 4th grade at the neighborhood school - Pearl Zanker Elementary.

We lived on Sunrise Way. The street led up to a hilly park that had a curved path ending up at the school. It was a fun time. We rode our bikes there over and around the hilly mounds. We had kite fights at the park. There was even an old rocket at one of the playgrounds.

On the way home last night, it was still light out when I picked up Max, so I wanted to take him somewhere where he could run around and let loose. The Pines was sort of on the way home so we stopped there and he went wild. He climbed and ran and even wanted to play tag with the older kids. The slides there were really tall and fast so I went down with him and he loved it. As Dad would say... "Oh he lob it".

BMW European Delivery

I got to chatting with an old friend from work today. His name is Mike. I hadn't talked to him since this time last year. Back then he told me he was going to order a 335i Bimmer and pick it up in Germany. I've heard of people doing this and it's cool he got to do it for his new car. Check out his pics on Flickr.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/20688436@N07/sets/72157603157982412/

What's European Delivery? It's a program where you purchase the car in America, and then go to Germany to pick it up. While there you can drive it on the autobahn, around town, basically anywhere you want. They register the car and even include 14 days of insurance. They even have drop-off locations throughout Europe for your convenience.

Claim Jumper

Last night Sasha celebrated her 10th birthday at Claim Jumper. They just opened a new one in Fremont on Auto Mall. It's just like the many CJ's in the chain that are out there. Service was good, food was good and I got to chase Max around the building a few times.

Happy Birthday Sasha!



Check out the "brontosaurus ribs" that Ei and Dar shared. The plate looks reasonable in the picture, but when they first brought it out, the ribs were hangning off the side.




I had the Top Sirloin, a wannabe Filet Mignon, but still pretty good. The baked sweet potato was tasty with butter and brown sugar.

Falafel's Drive-In

Read my review on Yelp http://marvinp.yelp.com/ This place has been here since 1966. My parents had a restaurant down the street from this place back in the 80's and we used to drive by all the time. But I never tried it until recently. Glad I finally did. Ei and Max liked it too!

My Yelp

http://marvinp.yelp.com/

Check out my latest reviews... Kalesa and Frozos.