mixermarkb

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-

Absolutely. The arc of the universe bends slowly, but it bends towards justice or something similar.. He knows where he’s taken care of, where there is food in the fridge, who takes him to the doctor, and dentist and gets his hair cut and always has clean laundry. As I type this, I’m putting fuel in my truck on the three hour drive home and he’s curled up asleep. The very best feeling in my life is remembering how safe I felt around my Dad, and knowing he feels that same feeling around me.

Ham, I left some stuff out. I’ve been feeling like Job for the past year or so. I’ve still got a few more battles to fight, but I’m starting to see peaceful times ahead. It’s hard for a dad to win in court, and truthfully I don’t have to get everything I want, but if the court actually does what’s best for my son- I think I can build a new normal for him that will be ok.

Simple Orange is the way. Personally I just always let them get dirty- I look at it kinda like a fine patina of fish memories, but I’m weird.

Howdy Guys! It’s been a minute since I posted, and I don’t have a fishing report for TR or The Pond To The East where I usually fish. I hope to be down the second week of April and have some fish pics to show- But I have to post. Some of you may remember my post about this time last year about 27 high end combos disappearing from my house during the divorce. Welp- that divorce is STILL working its way through the courts, but after working a full time job, a second job every Sunday, and door dashing when I wasn’t working and didn’t have my son with me, I put together enough money to get back in the game gear wise. With the generous gift of someone from this forum of a Lews BB1, and prowling Facebook Marketplace and a pretty good Black Friday sale, my last two rods showed up today. I went with the NFC Edge rods by Gary Loomis, and I have to say I’m a very satisfied customer, even with the LONG wait times. I wanted a more modern version of my favorite G.Loomis IMX and GLX rods, but couldn’t spend the money on G.Loomis NRX. The Edge Silver Widow MBR’s feel every bit as light and sensitive as the NRX CRR-873’s I used to have, and the Black Widow, First Strike, and EFX rods all do exactly what I wanted, which is feel similar to the classic pre-Shimano G.Loomis rods, which in my hands felt better than most of the current versions of Loomis GLX and IMX pro, but incorporate the advances in materials from the last 20 or so years. I’ve not made it to the big lake yet, but from fishing these in the local conservation lakes, they are exactly what I was hoping for. I know, gear doesn’t catch the fish, and I didn’t have to have gear like this to fish, but today, I can look at this one small part of my life and feel like I’m back to normal. After my heart attack in July of 22, the wife asking for divorce and her bogus felony charge against me in February of last year (felony charge finally dropped in December), my Mom having a serious stroke and going from walking Elephant Rocks State park at 80 to being bedridden in a nursing home barely able to speak, having a rod box full of fantastic gear to fish with- well- it just means more than y’all can imagine. I’m still fighting to maximize my role in my Son’s life. For now that just looks like weekends and his Spring Break, and every other week again this summer, but this time last year I was in the middle of 61 days of not being able to see him at all. Fishing tackle, fishing, boats and all of it mean NOTHING compared to being a present Dad, but I can tell you when I back the boat into Bull Shoals in a couple weeks and have him sitting in the passenger seat ready to go catch smallmouth, I’m not sure I’m going to be able to cope with the feels. No matter how dark life gets, if you keep going, it gets better. So if you are considering checking out, like I was this time last year, stick around. Don’t fix temporary problems with permanent solutions.

It’s not child molestation, but I too was arrested in my mom’s front yard on nonsense felony charges. I’m currently waiting on a preliminary hearing, so I’m not going to say more, but yeah, I feel your pain.

LOL!!! I’ll take that bet. I’m not gonna tell it here in a public forum, but this is only scratching the surface. Things are *significantly* crazier when it comes to all the non fishing related stuff that I won’t take up Phil’s bandwidth for, because I can’t change a dang bit of it. I’m only hoping that once we actually get things in front of a judge, that the truth will actually come out. I don’t even recognize the person I’m divorcing. She’s simply not the same human as I was married to for 12 years. If I believed in demonic possession, I’d say it was the case here. I absolutely would have gone and got stuff sooner, but she waited until I was here in STL for work to tell me she wanted a divorce, and then things spiraled out of control after that. My only saving grace right now is that her dad is being very nice and letting me visit my son at his house. When you aren’t allowed within 500 feet of your soon to be ex, but you can still sit down in her dad’s living room and visit with him like normal, and he says “I love you son” when you leave, you kinda get confirmation that the issue here is not all your fault.

Yep. This one isn’t about cheating either. It was supposed to be “we can be good friends and good co-parents” and that lasted about a week.. I’m not blameless, but she’s just not the person I was married to for 12 years. I have my suspicions as to why, but I won’t voice them in a public forum, and we will just have to see if they turn out to be true or not as we move through the process.

Bill, the sheriff was there with me when I found it was gone, and because it was all listed individually in the property filing as part of the divorce, he basically said that the court will make her pay for it one way or another in the divorce settlement. Honestly, compared to going from putting my 8 year old in bed and laying down with him and getting him to sleep every night and getting him off to school in the morning to not being able to see him for 61 days, the gear is nothing. It’s just another thing to pay lawyers $200 an hour to deal with.

East Prairie

Yup. At least a few of the kids at the party were on high school fishing teams. I think it’s more likely than not that the gear is just in the hands of kids who aren’t thinking about anything other than a free NRX

So much for keeping them from being stolen out of the boat storage! Hahahahahahahahahanaha

Of course, if returned to me, no questions asked, I won’t file any charges, for all I know my ex gave this stuff away as party favors. It’s probably in the hands of some otherwise decent teens, who didn’t really know what was going on.

Hey Guys, I was finally able to get back into my house and get some clothes, and I got a list of the the gear that was stolen. The story I was told is that my 16 year old step son traded two combos for a bottle of vodka, and had a big party and everything else disappeared while everyone was drunk, so if you see teens with any of this stuff, let me know, because it is stolen property at worst, and at best it’s property protected by the court in a divorce filing. Here’s what’s out there in the wind, it went missing from South East Missouri, about a month ago as far as I can tell. Baitcasting- 2x 7'10" St. Croix Legend Tournament Bass Magnum Cranker, Lew's BB-1, 6.4:1, Sunline Sniper 12# 2x 7’5" Falcon Cara T7 Super Duty,Lew’s Tournament MG, 6.4:1, Sunline Sniper 16# 2x 7'3" G. Loomis NRX CRR-873, Lew's Team Gold, 7:1, Sunline Flipping FC 20# 1x 7'2" Lew's Mach IM6 MHJR, Lew's Tournament SK, 7:1, Sunline Shooter FC 14# 2x 7' G. Loomis GLX MBR-843C, Lew's Team Gold, 7:1, Sunline Shooter FC 14# 1x 7' G. Loomis IMX PR-845C, Lew’s Team Gold 7:1, Sunline Shooter FC 14# 2x 7' G. Loomis IM6 PR-844C, Lew's BB-1SHZ, 7:1, Suffix elite 14# mono 2x 7’ Jewell Virtus Blue Medium Cranker, Lew's BB-1, 5:1, Sunline Sniper FC 10# 1x 7’ Falcon Cara Reaction Medium Cranker, Lew’s BB-1 5:1, Sunline Sniper FC 12# 1x 6'8" Lew's Mach IM6 MTJR, Lew's Tournament SK, 7:1, McCoy Mean Green 10# 1x 6'6" G. Loomis IMX MBR-782C, Lew's BB-1SHZ, suffix elite 14# mono 1x 6'5" Falcon Cara Reaction Jerkbait, Lew's team gold 7:1, Sunline Sniper FC 10# Spinning- 2x 7' Lew's Mach IM6 Tube/Grub Spinning, Mach spin MS-400, segaur 101 10# braid to 7# sniper FC 1x 7' no8 blackout medium, 13 fishing source X 2000, segaur 101 10# braid to 7# sniper FC 1x 6’6” bass pro mega cast Med spin, Lews laser speed spin 300, Sunline braid to 7# sniper FC 1x 6'10" G. Loomis NRX SYR-822, Lews xfinity speed spin 300, Sunline sniper FC 2x 6'9" Lew's Mach IM6 Finesse Spinning, Lews xfinity speed spin 300, Sunline sniper FC 7# 1x 6'6" G. Loomis GLX SJR-782, Shimano symetre 2500FI, Sunline sniper FC 7#

Bull Shoals is a flooded cesspool. Can’t launch a boat without wading waist deep, no place to eat, no place to stay, nothing at all for the family to do, terrible roads around it, and is just all around HELL. y’all quit talking like it’s special over here in the TR forum. I mean it. Hush.