mixermarkb

Nice job Ham! I hope to drag the wife down Sunday afternoon to fish Monday. Sounds like things are good and getting better. Anything on top?

Guys, you should consider this one. Looks like a fun time, and a great cause. My summer season is open, so I'll be working the Charlie Daniels Band show at Riverport that day, or my son and I would come down for this one too. Nice thing about Bull is that even with a lot of derby boats, you can find places to fish without having to draw a number.

No, you were right on, I was talking about the Saturday derby. Somehow I missed the 18 and change when I looked over the board as we were leaving. That was a hell of a weight for that day!

The new ramp above the bridge at Theodosia I'm sure is fine, but it was a zoo with 178 boats in the derby on Saturday. I went to spring creek to try and miss the crowds. I got in and out, but it wasn't easy and the courtesy ramp was under water when I pulled out. Had to get my feet wet a little, lol

Oh, and spring creek ramp is tough at this level. Where did you end up dropping in?

Man, I wish I lived close enough to pick my days. May the Fourth was the day, Saturday was tough! good job on the trash patrol too, I'm embarrassed to say I've never thought of that, but I'll be doing it from here on out.

Hey Guys, No pics, but my son and I had a great day fishing the white river derby out of Theodosia yesterday. Fishing was hard, I think 15 and change won it, with a fast drop off to a bunch of guys right around 10 pounds, and most of the field not weighing in fish. My son and I weighed 3 smallies for 5.88, and I let loose one that was just barely 15" because I thought it might be short by the time I got it back to TMR. Either I didn't figure out the pattern in time (likely), or they started biting late, because I left fish biting to go weigh. One keeper, the barely/almost keeper, and one solid keeper that jumped off my son's line all bit in the last 15 minutes of the day. Our efforts were good enough for about 40th out of 178 boats, and the raffle prize of Branson go-cart tickets and coldstone ice cream made it all good in my son's eyes. I was pleased just to have him stay relatively focused on something for a day, as he's really been struggling. He has ADHD, Tourette's syndrome, and OCD, which has been causing serious depression issues. Parenting is hard, and being 11 in today's world seems MUCH harder than I remember it. Trying to balance the need to treat his real medical conditions without over medicating him into a zombie has been tough on the entire family. It was wonderful to hear him say when we were leaving to take out that the GoCart tickets, ice cream gift card, 2 free rods, bass pro gift cards, and 2 free hats were "like getting paid to have fun" Many thanks to Bill Cook, all the TMR staff, and the White River Electrical Co-Op staff and sponsors for such a well run event! Also a thank you to the other fishermen competing, as we didn't encounter anything but courtesy from our fellow fishermen on the water and at the weigh in, always a plus when you have your kid.

Wow! Forgive my trout ignorance, but is that fat belly eggs or all shad? What a pretty fish!

If I had to bet, from reading fishing reports, the hacks like me who spend too much time fishing history, in other words, fishing their normal spring spots, are having a hard way to go, and the guys who are approaching things without thinking about "where they usually are" are doing well. Again, just as an observer, seems like the same thing bit a couple of my favorite BASS guys over on Grand last week. No way in a normal spring Jason Christie and Edwin Evers aren't fishing on championship Sunday on Grand Lake. Things are weird this year... just some rambling from a landlocked guy hoping to get away from work and fish this weekend...

Thanks for taking the time to give us the update. It's great to hear of a company doing things the right way!

Pete Wenners and Mike McC are a heck of a pair of draws for a TR tournament though. Good job to Mr. Allison for getting it done.

Just a thought, but I think your tin boat would float just fine. Maybe not the same as what the locals run, but if It was me, and I was retired, I'd want to fish more than one day a week. I'd be tempted to keep my boat, use a guide a couple times a month, and put around on my own some too, weather and health permitting.

Ham, I've had one tied on at Bull every day I've fished this spring, and yet to catch a fish on one there. I keep thinking it will work when everyone else is throwing spinnerbaits or warts, and be something a little different for fish that can name the color numbers on the baits they have seen all week. I've caught enough fish on them when we lived on the private lake a couple years ago that I have a certain amount of confidence in them, and the BASS guys seem to like them in cold, colored to dirty water. I just haven't had any luck on them at Bull. They should work, it's a great idea, but I'm done with that experiment for this year. I'm hoping to be down Weds/Thursday, and I'm looking for topwater fish. I think by then things will be warmed up a bit. All in all though, I have a lot of pent up anger at the green and brown fish in Bull this winterspring. They haven't co-operated very well for me, and I'm ready to poke holes in as many of their faces as I can!!!

It's been a weird year. Hopefully I can get down this week, I'll give ya a shout if I do.

No. Just being a smart mouth. Us liberals do that sometimes lol

I saw a carp in a pond eat a golf ball once.

If I ever win the lotto, I will have a spot lock troller. I used to run Pinpoint trolling motors, and loved them until I couldn't get parts anymore. I'm sure with today's technology the spot lock and other features work a thousand times better than the pinpoint system, and I learned a lot from using it to follow depth contours.

It's just me, but I kind of like the ones with the dimple for the line tie. Lots of guys swear by the clear bill ones, but of the pre-rap warts I have, I feel like the best of the best are the dimple ones. Could all be my imagination though...

Truthfully, I think they are a cool invention, and the newer longer ones with the drift paddles seem cool, but holy crap are they too much money! I'm sure if I knew the R&D and manufacturering costs, I'd eat my words, but at half to a third of what they cost they would still be somewhere between ridiculous and a crap-ton on the cost scale...

Do they come with sublimated jerseys?

Hey Champ, as the resident liberal I resent that hashtag, just a little, lol But seriously, I enjoy tourneys, and yet I think that fish treatment can always be improved, and that experimenting with new ways to do things like the MLF guys have done, is the 100% the right way to go. I also believe that more data is necessary on our fisheries in general, and that as fishing and boating pressure increases, data based management of the resource also has to increase. It may hurt some feelings, and change some traditions, and it's for sure going to require tax dollars, but we fishermen have to demand hard scientific data from the folks in charge of our waters, and be willing to support folks like mojorig when they tell us what the lakes need to stay healthy. I'm not willing to accept that the best days are behind us as far as fish populations and fishing in general. If we listen to each other, and share ideas with respect as most of us do here on OAF, and most have done for the large majority of this 20 page thread, we can make a better future for fishing in the ozarks. Hows that for hope and change???? tight lines guys- get out there and catch em this week, I'm working every day till next Tuesday.

I have a falcon Cara Reaction Deep Runner for sale, used but in very good shape. It was designed for deep cranks and works very very well. Also doubles as a nice swimbait rod for the bigger keitechs.

My weather app is showing lots of red boxes tonight across the Ozarks. Hope y'all are keeping the hatches battened down...

-and for the record, I am very much in favor of the MLF or electronic type tourneys. It is 2018, we can do better than keeping bass in a livewell all day then dumping them on a scale.

I agree with wrench and champ about migrant big bass in open water, but I'm not sure derby release has anything to do with it. I think it's as much about adapting to the most abundant food source than it is about looking for home territory. We have taken a fish in the LMB that was genetically adapted over many years to being a shallow water ambush predator, feeding on sunfish, minnows, craws, etc, and placed it in an environment where the easiet, most abundant food source (giant shad schools) spends much of its life offshore. It only makes sense that over the years, the smartest and biggest of that species would adapt to the habits of the food source that is the best way to fill its belly with the least amount of effort. Prior to man made lakes, that used to be hiding behind a lay down waiting for a small bluegill to wander by, now I think it's following the shad schools, some of which are so big and thick I think they become both cover and food for the bass. I'd be curious if the bass in natural lakes that don't have offshore schools of threadfin shad but have lots of tourneys exhibit the same "homeless" behavior due to being relocated?