Blazerman

I have been watching the live feed and also watching them fish my cove and it has been fun. I talked to Jordan Lee from my dock and he is a nice kid. After watching many of them using spinning gear to throw small finesse baits around docks so much I decided to try it myself yesterday evening. I put a small finesse straight tail worm on a very light ned type head with a weed guard and skipped it around a little. In less then a hour I had 4 keepers (15"). Including this dandy. Best part was I never started the big motor because they were all in my cove.

Like usual seeing a ton on fishing boats flying all over today along with a bunch fishing my cove. Imagine how you would feel if you caught a 7 or 8 lber today?

This one has the makings of being a disaster. In years past I have seen some crazy small boats fishing it and many times they have 3 people in them. I'm talking about 14 -16 foot john boats that have no business being on this lake. I would definitely not be surprised to hear about boats swamping or capsizing. Just hope nobody drowns. I fished a small tournament a couple weeks ago when we had the three days of 20-30 mph winds and it was brutal. I plan on sitting this one out. I would suggest anyone fishing this weekend wear your life vest the whole time.

Yes A rigs are allowed in the BFLs.

Man, i cannot imagine how much fun it was hooking and trying to land those things. From the few times i have caught them at LOZ i know how hard they fight. They pull like freight trains and when you finally do land one, they still fight like crazy in the boat. Good job dude!

When i was a teenager me and some buddies decided to wade down to the big cave that was downstream from our cabin on the Meramec. Think it might be called Fishers cave but not sure. It has a big opening that faced the river and went back a long ways. We got there and were hiking around in it and the bats were everywhere. They were spooked and flying around and eventually will all had bat monkey dodo on us. But right as we were leaving my one buddy ended up with bat monkey dodo on his face and turned around hollering and we started laughing and he ran down to the water and started splashing his face. Then he said "stop laughing. You don't understand. It got it in my eye. Now i have to get rabies shots" When we got back to St Louis he called the health department and they told him he was right. And he ended up getting 14 shots in 14 days right in the stomach.

This boat is sold. This Tuesday i will be getting a new to me Skeeter. Because of that i am selling my Blazer. My plan is to list this boat on a couple of the jetboat group sites on Facebook and also on FB Marketplace. But I thought i would list it here first. In 2016 ordered this beautiful boat from Blazer boats in Ellington and then had it outfitted at Y road marine at the lake of the Ozarks. I finally got it at the end of 2016 and then got a few chances to use it on the river at the end of that year. We had a place on the Meramec river at the time i ordered it and my intend was to use it there full time. But we got flooded out in 2017. Then we ended up selling the property in 2018. Once that happened we bought a place at LOTO and the boat has spent most of it's life there. It is an 1856 Super Sport with a 90/65 merc. When i ordered it I got the modified v at the front because i knew i would be using it both on the local rivers and also local lakes. As it turned out i have used it mostly on area lakes and it has been a great lake boat. But it will also run the ozark rivers with no issues. The boat is set up beautifully for fishing but i had two extra seats added when it was setup which makes it great for hauling a couple friends when needed. For fishing i have two Garmin Echomap 73SVs and the one at bow was just bought new in May. Both have downview and side imaging. I also have the Minn Kota Ultrex on it which i love. It has the extended front deck and also has an 18 gallon fuel tank under the back deck. I have had absolutely no issues with this boat and still love it. If i there was a way i could keep it i would. But i doubt i would use it much to make that work. I own it free and clear and have all the titles, Boat motor and trailer. Right now it is sitting on my lift at the lake and i have not cleaned it up at all. But will be before i sell it. The electronics and trolling motor were upgrades from when i bought it. So they are newer. Based on everything i have looked at i am thinking the boat is worth $18,500.00. I plan on getting it cleaned and and more pics of it next week and then will list it on the other sites. If anybody here wants to check it out before then, call me at 636 448 3303.

Last week we got into them in. We went into Indian creek and the whites were busting and we caught a few. But not as many as we would of hoped. So we went back to my buddies cove and they were busting all over there and like you said, it was a white, a white and then a hybrid and man that was fun.

If you go to the Meramec trout park and wade downstream out of the park you can wade quite a ways upstream or downstream. Downstream you might get any of the 3. Upstream you can get smallmouth and google eye. in winter you can get a brown upstream as well.

i was in my boat in the far back of a cove across from my cove last evening right at dark and under a bunch of trees. After being there a bit i had the feeling things were crawling on me and was scratching everywhere. Think they could get you on the water? I got out of there and and never ended up with any bites so maybe it was something else. Or maybe i am not the allergic to them?

They were all over Truman Saturday along with a bunch of pelicans.

Agree. I try to stay between 1.5 and 2 but the wind and waves will slow you down or speed you up and i sometimes think that helps. The changing it up i mean. But right now i think you might have better luck doing what you're doing. Jigs tipped with minnows over deeper brush in coves or shooting docks. I usually save the trolling for July and August when the crappie are chasing shad in the river channels. Right now it is the time of year when crappie follow the shad into the creeks. My neighbor across from me has been standing on the corner of her dock and casting a jig out past a deep brush pile and swimming the jig slowly back and getting good crappie on almost every cast. By deep i mean 15 to 20 fow. Of course, i had to try it so took my boat over and did the same thing with the same results. I then went to some deeper brush piles i know of by deeper docks and caught them both from the brush and shooting under the dock. I caught about 20 and cleaned 10 in about an hour last week. And i am at the 31 but i would think the same thing is happening all over the lake.

I have read about how animals and insects give off pheromones that relay signals to each other. Like bees when they feel threatened will release the one that signals time to attack and they will come from all over to do it. And deer will flee when one of them senses danger even though the others can be some distant away. And once one of them starts the activity, they all do it. So i would think it would be the same thing with fish. And with them in water, maybe the pheromones work even better.

They do that all the time when we are coving out. My sister said one got her in the back and it left a welt.

Something else to worry about now. https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/state-and-regional/something-bit-me-muskie-bites-angler-in-missouri-first-conservation-department-says/article_0a2558b6-78ef-5ecf-bd1e-9399a7ef3d84.html

Now that i am here full time i troll for crappie often and have it dialed in nicely. This was yesterday's take. Hard to tell from the pic but there are 2-13", 2 -12" and the rest are just about 11". The Flicker shad was the top producer and like usual had a catfish and bass on the flicker shad. One thing i have done on the flicker shad is changed out the hooks. The ones they come with are too small and you miss a lot of fish. Amazing thing about this is i didn't go out till i got off work at 3:15. and quit at 6:00. Trolled in the river channel along the bluffs and got bounced around by the waves the whole time. But they still bite while the boat is bouncing around.

I have been trolling for crappie during July and August when the big boats let me and getting some good ones. I always use four rods with a bracket i have set up in the back of my blazer and usually use 300 series bandits and flicker shads. The bandits catch the most crappie, big and small, but the flicker shads catch all kinds of fish, Some big crappie, bass, white bass and catfish. Also got this walleye on the flicker shad last Friday in between the storms. Went a tad over 7lbs. I usually troll the mid lake area around the 30 and got the walleye along a bluff. While i was bringing it in had a 16" bass on another line. Also had a 14" crappie along that bluff.

Saw pics of some really nice bass being caught this past weekend. 6 and 7 lbers.

Did not see near as many boats this weekend. Cooler weather had the bigger boats staying away and even saw a lot less fishing boats. But the weather did not seem to bother the fish. Seems like the crappie have moved in to spawn. Yesterday evening just before dark I had a nice limit in under two hours standing on the back corner of a dock and making the same cast over and over. i was throwing parallel to the bank and getting hit about 3-4 away from the bank every cast. And that was after bass fishing for a few hours in the morning. Bass are turning on too.

i have this pic from our old river place on the Meramec that i took when i was planting some milkweed for monarchs. In the background is the bluebird house i put up. i think the plan was to show the before and after of the milkweed. The bluebird house had been there a few years by then. i think it was the spring of 2015 when i put it there and a week after setting it in place, there was a pair of bluebirds using it. I remember this because i saw the female going in and out of the house and when i looked, there was a nest in it. A couple weeks after that we had a spring flood and the water got up to where it flooded that field and the water was about 2 foot high on the post that held the bluebird house. And the bluebirds didn't care and never missed a beat and had a bunch of babies over the years up until we sold the place. I often wonder now if it is still there and they are still using it. Btw, i don't remember ever seeing milkweed after it flooded and i figured the seed had washed away.

i want from not having it on my old boat and then having it on my new boat and now would not be without tilt and trim. But i had a jet so probably not apples to apples. With the jet with out power trim every time i wanted to pull to the shore i was always worried about sucking gravel or junk into the jet. With power trim i just trimmed it up as i was beaching. i am sure that is the same deal with a prop, but maybe not as important.

That was the one mistake i made when i had mine built- i wish i had gone a little higher with the horsepower. But at the time i did not see me being full time at the lake. I had the river place back then and was only planning on doing the occasional lake trip. Turned out opposite of that. I keep it at the lake and do the occasional river trip. But it is still nice to be able to do either without any issues.

Yeah I have come to love mine and would not be without one. They are a pain when fishing but in the heat of summer or pouring rain it is really nice to sit under.

I posted on here before about how i think i i have the perfect river and lake boat. i ran all over the Meramec for year and ran in some super skinny water with no issues. Now i keep it at LOTO where i use it for all my bass and crappie fishing. Plus ran way up past the swinging bridge a couple of times. Also used it on the White river below Bullshoals dam and on Bullshoals, Table Rock and hauled it up to Canada to fish Rainy lake a couple times. Being an 1856 with the modified V and high sides it handles waves fairly well. And the 90/65 4 stroke is super quiet and i get decent gas mileage. Only downside (for some) is it is not a go fast boat by any stretch.

In 99 I was 2 years into my new IT career and was also carrying a pager for the big crash that never came. And I was truly happy to be out of the lawn care and landscaping field I had been in for 20 years. No more snow plowing ! I was in a great marriage to a beautiful woman and had 3 kids and I was looking forward to whatever life had in store. And amazingly things have gone better than I could of imagined. I survived two buy outs and I am still employed, although about ready to retire. Two of my kids have graduated college and the third one will this May. And my wife and I are truly in a great place. We bought a house last year in Linn creek and plan on living there after retirement. Life is good.