My first deer, my first gobbler, my first trout, striper, sturgeon and king.I remember them all in vivid Technicolor detail. That's the way it is with firsts. You might shoot a hundred bucks or catch a 1000 salmon, many of them you'll remember, but seldom will any of them be remembered as intensely as your first.

Now I love to fish, heck that is one of the top requirements to capture a job at the Fish Sniffer Magazine, the West Coast's premier fishing publication! Anyone that knows me well and has spent time with me on the water knows how excided I become when a hot bite occurs even though I've experienced hundreds of hot bites over the years.

As much as I enjoy catching fish, I've got to confess that these days, I get as much or more satisfaction from helping new anglers catch fish as I get from catching fish myself.

A few weeks back I got a call from the Tim Jacobs, general manager at North River Marine in West Sacramento. "Cal, as you know, our dealership is committed to helping both anglers and our fisheries," Tim began. "If you look around the fishing industry, most of the fishery advocates are guys in their late 50's, 60's and 70's. These guys are doing great work, but to sustain their work we've got to recruit young anglers into the sport."

"We'd like to start a program in which we take youngsters out on the water and put them on some fish as a way to get them hooked on fishing. We've got a brand new 24 foot North River pilothouse Seahawk offshore boat we are planning to use for this program. Would you like to help us out?"

I couldn't agree with Tim's assessment more and wasted no time is saying yes. Checking our respective calendars, we settled on November 18 as the date for the event and the west delta as the destination. What better way to get a youngster excited about fishing than by introducing them to some hard charging stripers?

We met up at Suisun Bait and Tackle on the morning of November 18. Our group included Tim Jacobs and his son Austin, Rick Dodd and his son Alex, Russ Crowell, North River Marine's resident guide and fishing expert and myself.

After picking up some live bullheads, to supplement the shad I already had soaking in brine, we headed across Grizzly Island Road to the Belden's Landing launch ramp on Montezuma Slough. Despite the massive size of the Seahawk, Tim and Russ handled it like true professionals and had the boat in the water within a few minutes of our arrival.

The incoming tide had already entered its last hour by the time we motored away from the ramp. The first and last hour of the tide is the prime time for hooking stripers, so we didn't want to waste any time cruising around in search of fish. Instead we headed up the slough to one of my favorite hot spots and quickly dropped the anchor in 14 feet of water.

Russ rigged up a pair of his rods with filleted shad, while I'd armed two of my rods with threaded bullheads. I tossed out one live bullhead and killed the other, since you can never be sure what the stripers want on any given day. Next I cut up half a bag of anchovies into small chunks and pitched the chum out behind the boat. "That's our calling card," I said. "Now all we have to do is wait for a big 'ol striper to pick off one of our baits."

We waited and waited and got a lot of action, in the form of taps, tugs and pull downs, but we never got anything we could set the hook on. When the tide finally stopped running, I couldn't believe we hadn't picked up a keeper.

Russ had been catching quality stripers at Buoy 14 near Chain Island and I'd had an excellent trip with Captain Stan Lewis a few miles downstream near Pittsburg only a few days before. After a short strategy session, Russ and I decided we should motor up Montezuma and head out onto the main Sacramento. Our plan was a pretty good one, but there was one problem. When we got up to the locks on Montezuma, we found out that hydraulic doors were broken and we couldn't get outside.

Disappointed, we decided to make a long run all the way down Montezuma, into Suisun Bay and out to the west end of the Mothball Fleet where anglers had been enjoying some very good striper action. As we motored, I had the opportunity to talk to Tim about the 24 foot Seahawk.

"The pilot house version of the Seahawk is a great offshore capable boat that is still trailerable. As you saw at the ramp, two guys can handle this boat very easily," related Tim. "This boat holds 120 gallons of fuel and is powered by a pair of 115 horse Yamaha motors. Those motors are very fuel efficient, so your fuel economy is good and that 120 gallons of gas gives you a lot of range."

We found about a dozen boats anchored near the Benicia Bridge. After marking a few fish on the boat's Lowrance LCX 38 HD sonar unit, we anchored several hundred yards above the other boats and threw out our lines. We'd only been anchored for about 10 minutes when a fish picked up the dead bullhead and made a run. I picked up the rod, fed the fish several yards of line, slammed the hook home and passed of the rod to Austin.

The striper wasn't large, but it gave Austin a good fight. Austin kept the pressure on the fish like a champ and soon had his first ever keeper striper, a beautiful 22 incher in the box. I was hoping for something bigger, but Austin was pumped.

"That is the biggest fish I've ever caught," Austin related later. "It fought really hard. My fingers were hurting and my arms were tired by the time I got it in."

With the quick success we enjoyed we figure we had found a concentration of willing fish, but when no more bites developed, we were once again on the move looking for action. Eventually we found ourselves back in Montezuma with about 90 minutes of fishing time left in the day.

I directed Tim to a shallow flat bordered by deep water. We marked some good-size fish, so we anchored on the outer edge of the flat, tossed out our rods and pitched out the last of our chum. As the minutes ticked by, Russ and I were thinking the same thing."We've got to get Alex a keeper."

We were planning to leave at 4 o'clock. At about a quarter to 4 p.m. we got a short run on a bullhead, but the fish dropped the bait before I could set the hook. Finally at five minutes to 4:00 p.m., a fish took off with one of the shad. Russ thumbed the reel lightly, allowing the fish to run, set the hook and passed the rod to Alex.

Alex's patience had paid off. The fish was firmly hooked and fought him all the way to the boat. When the bass, a twin of Austin's, boiled to the surface off the port corner I scooped it into the net and Alex had his first ever keeper!

For Russ and I the fishing had been disappointing. Naturally we were hoping for lots of action and limits, but in big the picture we'd accomplished our mission. The boys got their first ever keepers and I'm sure they can't wait to get out on the delta again, I know I can't!