mixermarkb

That song really does hit in the feels.

I wish I was on that crew. She definitely took care of her people.

Around 15,000

If anyone is interested, the real MVP of modern concerts and events is the rigger. All of those steel cables in the ceiling are attached to one ton electric chain hoists. The riggers climb up into the building steel and use wire rope to wrap the beams and drop ropes to pull up the chains from the motors and shackle them to the steel. 80 feet of one ton chain gets pretty heavy when you are pulling it up into the air. When the place where we need a motor to hang is between beams, they make bridles with wire rope and adjust the length of the legs to make the chains drop where we need them, which involves some math to make sure none of the bridle legs are pulling too much weight. On this show we have around 80 motors total, between gear and motors picking cable bundles to keep them out of sight.

Life gets to lifing and I forget about my OAF friends, until it’s this time of the year- Anyway, kind of had something cool I wanted to share. I’ve mentioned on here before that I do sound for concerts and events for a living- in a first for me, my two passions kind of collided this week. As I write this, I’m in my hotel room in Knoxville, where I’ve been hanging the PA system for the BASSMASTER Classic! I have to fly out tomorrow, I won’t actually get to run the console for the show, but it’s still pretty fun! Here’s a couple behind the scenes pics for those who are interested… I might add a few more tomorrow. I hope everyone has been healthy and doing well- Mark

Both HDS units are sold.

Phil, I don’t know if it works the same way over on that end of Bull, but when there are a thousand fishermen up above the Theodosia Bridge, it means the whites were actually there a week ago- 😂 Seriously I hope everyone is catching them. They seemed to pull a disappearing act in the Theodosia arm for a couple years there. I haven’t been around enough to see if they have made a comeback at the fish cleaning tables or not, but a lot of the folks that fish them really genuinely need them for food, so I hope they are biting for them.

It can keep moving East. I’ve had a good year on Bull so far and I’d really like to see it not go all the way to 695 for the rest of the year…

Hello Guys- I have a few random boat things for sale. I have a Lowrance HDS5, $100, an HDS7, $150, a Motorguide Power Gator Mount that doesn’t function, but still works fine as a manual pull mount, $50. A Mazco RE4 26 pitch 4 blade chopper prop, $200, and a 22 pitch 3 blade stainless steel prop that I think is a Yamaha M series, but I’m not sure, $75. I’m open to offers on any of this stuff. It’s located in West St. Louis County, but may be able to meet in SEMO or SWMO, and will ship for actual shipping costs. message me here, or text (314) 313-0071 Thanks, Mark Burris

Started off with the Ned, then kept at it with a Swimbait and a crankbait. Fished Spring Creek to Point 16. Water temps 57-60.

Definitely glad to still be around. It’s been a rough couple of years. Being around has been more of a struggle than I could have ever imagined 😂

Thanks Quill. I’ve had custody of the kiddo since last July, and we have mainly been fishing the local parks and conservation areas around StL. We got the boat out for the first time since he started school last fall a couple weeks ago. Went to Clearwater for a few hours to see what all still worked, but fishing time has been pretty limited with school and figuring out how to be a full time single dad.

Howdy Guys- I wanted to post a quick review on some rods. As some of you may remember, I had my whole collection of gear from G.Loomis/Falcon/St.Croix/Virtus/Lew’s/Shimano disappear from my house when I left at the start of my divorce in 2023. Through some Black Friday sales and some other promotions over the last two years, I’ve managed to replace all my gear with the Edge rods, by Gary Loomis. Edge is the finished rod division of Gary’s blank company called North Fork Composites, which he started after recovering from the cancer that caused him to sell G.Loomis to Shimano. All their rods are made in the USA, in Woodland, Washington, with a second production facility coming online soon in Houston, Texas. I’ve now managed to put some hours on a large variety of their offerings, and overall am a happy customer. First the ugly: Their delivery times on rods that are backordered are absolutely ridiculous. In stock rods (like 6 out of two dozen or so) got to me in a week, everything else was between 60 and 90 days, with one rod taking about four months for delivery. The gentleman at the factory explained to me that they are running at max capacity on blank production, and they build blanks on a rotation, not as rods are ordered. Between all the OEM blanks they build for other rod makers, plus all the various models from fly to steelhead to inshore to pelegic to bass rods- it may take a good bit of time for the build schedule to get back around to whatever blank you want, so I would not recommend them to anyone who needs a rod immediately. Now the good: The rods are really freaking good. Like, the only thing I’ve held that can go head to head with a G.Loomis NRX is the Edge Silver Widow. They all have carbon handles, which after getting used to, I do like, and I believe do make the rods more sensitive. Every rod I have balances extremely well, which makes them feel even lighter in hand than their actual weight on the scale. They are priced under G.Loomis by roughly $100 per comparable series, and they fairly often have sales ranging from 30 to 50 percent off of their normal factory direct pricing. So- for those who can exercise patience, and are looking for the best value in high performance rods, I recommend taking a look at Edge. I now own everything from an ultralight BFS rod to 8’ extra heavy swimbait sticks, in the Delta, EFX, First Strike, Black Widow and Silver Widow lines. In rough comparison to G.Loomis, that translates as Delta=GCX, EFX/First Strike=IMX, Black Widow=GLX, and Silver Widow=NRX. My favorite is probably the Silver Widow finesse spinning rod, but honestly I’m impressed with every rod I have. There were a few that were a little different than I was expecting power wise, and some of their powers and actions listed on the website are a little difficult to translate. If anyone wants to check out the rods in person, I’m in West St. Louis county, travel regularly to SEMO, and this spring/summer I’ll be traveling back and forth to Bull Shoals/Springfield area and occasionally LOZ to fish. I will make every effort to meet up with anyone who wants to hold one in their hands, as they don’t have a dealer network and are online sales only. I’m not affiliated in any way with the company, I’m not on any sort of prostaff deal- so if you order one and it takes you half a year to get it, don’t be mad at me. I’m just happy because I was able to replace a whole bunch of gear for about a third of what it would have cost to go buy G.Loomis at Bass Pro, and I don’t feel like I’m losing anything as far as quality goes, and in some cases I’m definitely gaining something over competitive rods.

Fished with my son Sam on Friday and Saturday, launched at Spring Creek and went both up the lake and down the lake. Water is generally clear, with a slight stain the further up the north fork arm you go. Water temps from 47 to 55. Caught some keeper largemouth on wiggle warts and swimbaits, had a few more follows on the swimbait and lost a couple I had hooked up on the wart due to completely forgetting how to fish in the past year lol- the green bass were towards the fronts of creeks and pockets, on chunk rock. Caught some smallmouth in the 12” to 14” range on the Ned on flat gravel in the backs of spawning pockets in the Oakland area, but no keepers. I’m guessing they are the first wave of bucks moving up to spawn. We had a good couple of days knocking off the cobwebs, and Sam is getting pretty solid with a baitcaster. The bite was a little slower than I’d hoped, and it took me a little longer to dial in on them than I’d have liked, but my general impression is that the lake is REAL close to getting really good. tight lines all-

Made a quick run to Theodosia yesterday with my son before I took him back to his Mom’s house. Got the lay of the land on getting the ol’ champion back on the water, and of course made a few casts from the bank- I wish I could say he caught it, but the smile on his face says it all even though it was the only fish we caught-