mixermarkb

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-

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