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.

I won’t speak ill of her. She’s doing a bang up job of talking crap about me to my son and her son that I raised since he was four, though. The truth will come out in court, once we get there, but I have no interest in tearing down my child’s mother. Honestly I have no interest in fighting with her. I’m not going anywhere, I’m going to be around my kid the rest of my life. I don’t see the point in making things harder than they have to be.

After I get back into the house and see what is left, if anything, I’ll post up a wanted to buy add. Honestly I’ll be happy if I have something I can throw a Ned on and something to throw a spook on, because I don’t know how much I’ll even get to fish this year with all this going on. Thank God that I left all the tackle in the boat over the winter! At least I don’t have to replace all the baits…

Hey Guys- So without going into too many details, I’m in the middle of an insanely bitter divorce. My father in law has just now been letting me see my 8 year old for the last two weeks. The soon to be ex wife’s grandmother who raised her died two days before Christmas, and she spun out and lost it, and it’s gone downhill from there to places I never thought were possible from the woman I spent 13 years with, and still care a great deal for, despite all the hell she’s intent on dragging me through. Anyway, my son told me that his 16 year old brother traded two of my rods and reels to a friend for a bottle of vodka, and had a big party and most of my rods and reels disappeared that night, so I guess I’m in the market to replace enough of them to get back on the water. With lawyer fees being what they are, I need to do it as affordable as possible. I should know exactly what’s left, if anything, in a week or so, as I am going to get the sheriffs department to go with me and get some clothes and stuff from the house. So, I tell all that to ask if anyone took over selling the refurbished Lews reels that sportsman’s used to sell, or even if the Bass Pro outlet has anything worth going to pick up- Thanks for any info on some deals, and prayers would be appreciated, because this is all extremely hard to cope with. Mark

Phil- I’m posting this here because of the traffic this sub forum gets, feel free to move it or delete it since it isn’t Table Rock or even fishing related- Guys, I’m 48 years old. 5’11” and 245 pounds, and thought I was in pretty decent shape. Never a smoker or drinker, a little fluffy, decent, if not perfect blood pressure and cholesterol numbers at my last physical, and a clean stress test from 2 years ago. Last Monday afternoon I had a heart attack. I wasn’t doing anything physically exerting, and here is why I’m posting, the symptoms were WAY, WAY, WAY more subtle than I expected from the way heart attacks are portrayed in Hollywood. About 4:30 Monday afternoon, I had some very mild discomfort in my chest, like a slight bit of soreness. Nothing at all worse than how I’d feel the morning after throwing a spook or an ARig for a day. No clutching at my chest pain, no sweats, just a little feeling that something wasn’t quite right. I went in to the bedroom, took a couple tums, and laid down and took a nap, and when I woke up, didn’t notice anything. Later that night, the same mild discomfort came back, and seemed like it (maybe?) was radiating to my left shoulder. I couldn’t find a comfortable way to lay in bed, and my wife talked me into going to the ER just to be safe. They did an EKG, then put me back in the waiting room. After a 3 hour wait, I again felt fine, and having taken some more tums, I thought I must just be having some heartburn and told the nurses I was going to go on home, as I didn’t want to spend ER money on heartburn, even though I have insurance. The next day, my wife looked at the EKG results on our MyMercy online, and thought that something didn’t sound right, and insisted that I go see my primary. She bullied the desk people at the doc’s office to fit me in, and my primary didn’t like the EKG either and ordered a stress test and bloodwork. I had the stress test on Wednesday, and couldn’t get my heart rate as fast as they wanted due to chest pains and shortness of breath. As I was leaving the stress test to go back to work, my primary called me and told me to go to the ER immediately, troponin (heart enzyme that is indicative of heart attack) levels in the bloodwork were off the charts. Mind you, I was feeling fine at this point, had recovered from the treadmill, and was having no chest pain. Thank God I listened to her and went instead of going back to work as I was tempted to, because it turns out I had 100 percent blockage in the right side of my heart. The cardiac docs at St. John’s Mercy were able to clear the blockage with a heart cath and 3 stints, but told us that had I been half an hour later coming to the ER, I’d have died. So- I type all this to say, don’t be stubborn. If you have ANY pressure, tightness, pain or discomfort, get thyself to the ER or at the very least your primary care doc. Even very serious blockages can have extremely subtle warning signs!!! I’m extremely blessed and lucky to be alive, and frankly wouldn’t be, if it wasn’t for the Irish redhead from the south I married bossing me around. Don’t think it can’t happen to you.

There isn’t one. You have to slum with a St. Croix Legend Elite Magnum Cranker 🤓

Shhhhh. Don’t talk about big swimbait bites. Those don’t work in the wind at all, no sir.

Got three rods rigged with Neds. Hard to beat this time of year for sure!

Hello fellow Ozark Anglers! I’m headed with a good friend of mine to Bull Shoals this week. He likes to fish, but is a once or twice a year kind of fisherman, so I always feel a little pressure to put him on some good fish. Sooo, instead of my typical after action report, I thought I’d share my pre-trip game plan and prep, and then report back how things actually went once I got on the water- So here goes- Watching the forums, and the weather, what I’m expecting to find when I launch on Monday is a lake that is high and rising, roughly 20’ higher than the last time I fished it. I’m also expecting a mix of bass in spawn, pre-spawn and post-spawn behaviors. I’m guessing there may be a bit of a shad spawn happening as well. All this leads me to make the guess that there will be a lot of ways fish can be caught, and it’s gonna take a decent amount of “junk fishing” to get on any sort of pattern. I’m fishing out of Protem, mid lake. I’ve got all sorts of smallmouth water right around me, plus a reasonable boat ride to Shoal, Big, Buck, Little Buck, and the Music Creeks. I’ve been catching quality largemouth all spring on secondary points with big rock near spawning pockets with crankbaits and swim baits, so my game plan is to start in those same kinds of general locations on the first morning, staying in the clearer water cove type creeks. Given the flooding conditions, I’m going to start off with topwater (likely a Redfin and a walk the dog bait) and small 3” swimbaits over those locations, trying to keep out of the flooded jungle on the bottom. I’m looking here for a quality largemouth or three. I’m going to put the boat near the old lake line, and fish semi parallel to the bank. I’m looking to cover the shallow bushes out to about 30’. Im looking here for clues as to wether the bulk of the fish have moved up shallow in the bushes, or are suspending outside the brush over the old lake line, as I’ve caught them both ways in previous high water years. If I’m finding I’m getting bit inside the near bushes and up in the pockets, I’m gonna play with baits like a Fluke, wacky senko, shakyhead, or flipping creature baits, as well as seeing if I can get them to chase a squarebill or spinnerbait. If I’m getting bit off the bank, I’m gonna live in topwater land as long as they will hit it, as well as slow rolling swimbaits over that old lake line and maybe run a vibrating jig around deeper bushes, as well as a jerkbait and big swimbaits we have wind. Depending on the results of this, my next step is either go to the backs of the bigger river type creeks, or go looking for smallmouth. If I go to the rivers, I’m gonna be throwing a squarebill, a buzz bait, spinnerbaits and vibrating jigs, looking in water 8’ or less, for big rocks, lay downs, sawdust mats, etc etc. If I go smallmouth hunting, which probably fits Mat’s skills better than shallow power fishing, I’m going to start the search for flat pea gravel, that doesn’t have a ton of extra cover on it. Smallmouth love to spawn on these kind of locations, and with the lake flooded, I’ve found that they can at times really stack up anywhere they can get to bare gravel. That’s where I’m gonna pick up the Ned rigs and go to work, with the good old fashioned smoke grub and of course the small swimbaits also on deck, and keeping the jerkbait handy if the wind comes up.

I’m coming down Sunday night to ride the elevator up. I had a pretty solid game plan based on what I’ve been doing all spring and where I thought the fish would have gone, but that was based on the lake being 10’ higher than the last time I saw it, and now it looks like it’s gonna be closer to 25’ up. gotta love Mother Nature and the Corps of Engineers…

Nice! what were the water temps where you were? water color?