Went to try Del Valle and both my buddy and I failed the inspection. The ranger, who was a nice enough guy, really gave the inside of our boats the white glove test. I've never had to open my hatches before at any east bay lake, just an outside hull inspection.

My friend had a tiny amount of sand on the inside of his boat maybe a teaspoon. This was actually left over after he washed and drained it. Apparently, the sand didn't make it out of his drain hole. There was zero standing water in his boat, but there was a little surface moisture.

I failed when he pulled out the foam inserts in my Hobie Outback and said there was moisture trapped between the hull and the foam. Apparently, this is protocol now.

Needless to say I was steamed, but we packed up, got our refunds at the gate and skipped over to Lafayette. Same open hatch inspection there, but they didn't pull out my foam inserts and we both easily passed. We made sure to give a quick wipe to the inside of the hulls with a spare t-shirt.

Anyway, the fishing was slow (hot and sunny) but I managed to pull a nice bass out of the weeds with a baby bass swimbait. Had some 4-6lb lunkers follow my bait but they were pretty shy. At least I got to work on my farmer's tan!

At San Pablo one of 16 kayaks failed at the HOW event. It was my personal Kayak. The lady touched my seat and said it felt damp and failed it. It had been at my house in the sun for an entire day drying after I washed it and all the others. All passed but mine. It was dry too by the way, but the lady said no way.

At Del Valle, I typically run the vacuum inside the yak before going; they're so thorough there I feel like I should be taken out to dinner first.

At Lexington, most of the time the barely look at it. Sometimes they'll sort of pretend to inspect ("Is this a kayak?", "Does it have any of those opening thing so I can look inside?") and once in a while they're annoyingly thorough. At least there, I can't believe that there is an actual protocol---more like the inspector's whim.

I remembered that Rob.  I was like that crazy, she probably didn't like you very much.  I usually have no problems. 

Del Valle is the most strict. I even had to unscrew my hobie Lowrance transducer plate to show it was clean. I thought it would be an issue at other lakes so I made a clear one. The olderr women at Lafayette can be difficult too though.

The big bass at Lafayette will hide from the sun under your kayak if you anchor near the reeds and are somewhat still. I used to fish their alot and it was not uncommon to have 3-5 large bass enjoying the shade under the kayak if I didn't move too much. They were smart though and never took the bait even live worms dropped on them without hooks.

Stopping the spread of invasive species is extremely important, and one I fully support. All it takes is one jerk with a dirty boat to ruin a lake. But I think we can all agree that there need to be better consistency and clearer expectations for boat inspection. My Del Valle inspection seemed arbitrary and excessive. If I do go there again, at least I'll be better prepared.

That why I always fish salt or delta. Delta hardly ever.