Blazerman

First weekend of October is the fall Big Bass Bash at LOZ which is why you will not see me on the river.

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Did i call this back in Febuary or what? http://finance.yahoo.com/news/gopro-ridiculous-172-since-june-175536055.html

Beautiful fish. Great job. The Meramec just keeps on producing nice fish.

Yeah, from your pic you can see the rounded head which lets you know it is not a copperhead. If you had seen a diamond shape head, stay away.

Very nice boat. Looks like you did great.

My sister has a condo at LOZ. I was talking to her the other day to see about availability as it is almost time for me to start hitting the lake again for fall fishing. She asked me if I was fishing any tournaments this fall and when I said no, she said good, those guys in their bass boats are crazy. Her place is right be PB2 so she gets to see a lot of them. She said they fly around like maniacs and could care less about how close they buzz by or where they go. They think they own the whole lake. Guess it is all in your perspective.

If you flipped this when it doubled, you left a lot of money on the table. Glad i got in when i did. Not the hard part will be deciding when to get out. GoPro hit a high of $63.72 on Monday, or a whopping 164% above its June IPO price of just $24. http://money.cnn.com/2014/09/08/investing/gopro-movement-stock-high/index.html?source=yahoo_quote

Great post. I am 57 and have gone through all these stages and come back to the point of just being happy to be out there. But it is nice to know that if i decided to get serious and catch fish i usually can- but not always. There are still times i go out and think, "what the hell is going on? where did all the fish go?". Also, my number one always have on a rod and normally throw first lure is a spinnerbait. I love how verstile they are. Fish them on top or just under the surface, or slow roll them for deeper fish. And they normally get bigger fish.

We were there for a little while but didn't stay late. Went to another gathering just upstream and hung out there. I got up and went fishing Sunday\ Monday. Suprisingly i caught quite a few fish on various baits, including a 24" flathead on a spinnerbait.

That is a lot of running Aaron. I was amazed at how many boats were out. Lots of shoal runners and blazers. Saw the usual wrecks too. One guy hit a rock just downstream of the k bridge and lost control and flew onto the shore on the right side. luckily none of them were hurt but they had a hell of a time getting the boat back in the water. And you and your brother and the other River Pro runners that never have any issues. Must be nice.

Beautiful pics and awesome fish.Thanks for sharing and I can see why you all love it.

I can honestly say I have never seen anybody floating bare butt naked and probably wouldn’t want too. But I was at Arkansas last year for a football game and saw people on the patio and the balcony at one of the frat houses doing the exact same thing I see on rivers. The worse part there was the rap crap music they were playing with all the language for everyone and there brother to hear. But there will always be people who want to push past the limits of respectful.

I actually did a float this past weekend which I haven’t done in years. Started at Birds Nest on the Meramec and took the bus upstream and floating back to our vehicles. I was in a canoe but there were plenty of others in rafts. And there was plenty of drunks and debauchery and I forgot how much fun it was. Brought back a lot of past memories. Guess that makes me a John too. I did bring a rod and did catch some fish too. Funny thing is, based on the crowds you see, I think there is a lot more of people looking to float and have fun then people looking to float and fish. I have always been amazed at how many people on here would like to limit what people can and can’t do on our water ways. It would seem most on here would be perfectly happy if the powers that be said no more floating on Ozark streams. From now on only people looking to float and fish are allowed. It is the same with all the whining about Table Rock now. Stupid boats with their tubes and wake boats messing up our fishing. These clowns have no respect for others and think they own the lake. Once again there are more of them then people who want to fish in the middle of the summer. That said, and seeing how we live in a democracy, the majority will rule usually and money talks. Which means whatever makes the majority of people happy and also makes the most money will rule. It is the American way. And Moguy, your right you won’t normally see this behavior on a city street but you will at party cove or most college campuses on a football weekend. Or anywhere else people are drinking and getting stupid outdoors. It is the feeling of freedom that comes with being outdoors and the party atmosphere that gets people going.

Beautiful fish and very healhy looking too. Looks like he has been eating well. Congrats.

Mitch you may as well be talking about the upper end of the jungle run on the Meramec with this comment. Heading downstream you have a 90 degree turn to the left then about 10-12 foot straight section before another 90 to the right. All in a channel about 3’ across and 2-2.5 foot deep with logs and boulders. Fun stuff. And I have seen guys run this without even slowing down while coming downstream and if there had been someone coming up, it would have been ugly. I usually stop upstream before getting there to listen for any boats and then take it just like you describe. With enough throttle to stay on plane but no more.

Glad to hear you got one. You persistence finally paid off at least for one fish. But like the others were saying, after you caught that one reeling fast, did you try reeling fast again in front of the fish you could see? If you caught that one that way hopefully you tried doing the same thing a bunch more times. That first fish can tell you what they want action wise and you should listen to what they are telling you. Many times if you reel quickly with your bait just under the surface and even break the surface sometimes the bait looks like a minnow fleeing from prey and gets bass excited enough to chase and swipe at it and you can catch fish on the reaction bite. Also,a fish being caught and reeled in will sometimes get the school active.

As you might imagine, I am partial to a Blazer. Although War Eagle is top of the line as well. Truthfully I think you could do fine with any of the major Ozark jet boat builders like Legend, or Alweld. I have noticed I have been seeing a lot more brand new Blazers this year though. I have the 17/54 with the 40/60 but mine is set up different than most you see on the river. For starters I have the modified V at the front end with a front deck and trolling motor and butt seat. I also have a full floor with carpeting and four nice seats. I have two live wells, plus additional dry storage under the front deck and seats. I have taken mine to LOZ in the off season and other smaller lakes as well and the modified V does help some on the lakes. I love my seating set up because I can carry 4 people comfortably but I do lose some clearance with the added weight. My boats is 10 years old now and I am sure I will be replacing it fairly soon. And when I do, I will be getting the exact same boat set up the same way with a few minor changes. Like aerated live wells and a bigger gas tank.

Yeah, Nice to finally meet you HW. Did you get the walleye on one of those crankbaits you showed me?. Oh wait, you probably won’t tell me. By the way, right after you left the guy who was fishing across from me and was wading, said he had caught 3 walleye right there. And he them go. He said he never keeps anything. He was using a crankbait too. I was using minnows, looking for whatever will eat them, which is pretty much everything, and got into some nice cats plus a big white bass/Hybrid. My brother-in-law caught this decent smallmouth, which was let go right away. I caught the one cat and white in the morning, and cleaned them. Then later, about midmorning, I got together with a buddy of mine, who is a big into cat fishing. I told him how I got the cat fishing in faster water about 3” deep and he didn’t believe me. So I finally said, ok grab your rod and bait and let’s go. I had been telling him about my honey hole where I have been getting these catfish and finally broke down and showed him. He promised to only fish it with me. So we get there and he couldn’t believe where we were. It is so shallow there I usually just run the front of the boat right up on shore and wade it, because we are on fishing about 5’-8’ from shore in water about 2’-3’ deep. He loads up his rig with a big gob of stink bait and I throw out my minnow and in 20 minutes we had the three cats in the pic. Made a believer out of him.

The crawfish you are using sound right but you want to hook up through the tail like you say so that the hook point points up so it doesn't snag as quick. The weights should be 12"-15" from the hook to give the bait some freedom to move around and there should be enough weight to let it sink slowly. A bobber might work but you are better off having the bait sink to the bottom where a crawfish would normally be. You don't have to worry about the fish passing yours up for one without a hook. Even though the river might be full of them the bass knows to eat the easiest ones first. So they will grab yours if it is in front of them. Most people who have fished for a while have got bass with crawfish pitchers showing in the throats and you wonder how the fish thought they could eat another one. But they still are trying too. If you try this setup and dont get a bigger bass, especially if you try it real early, then it is time to head to different water.

Nice to hear there was a little rise. You know i was still out there every weekend in my little Blazer but it was getting hairy and if i didn't know my stretch of river i would not of been. i will be there tomorrow so hope you right about the topwater bite. the green slime has made it impossible to fish much of anything subsurface.

i do not know the rivers you fish but i do know if i fished most any ozark stream the way you described with a crawdad or minnow i would expect to catch at least a few decent smallmouth or green bass. By decent i mean one bewteen 12"-15". So my guess is they are not there or they are there and just too pressured to be active. if you have to fish those areas try going at sunrise for an hour ot two or go at sunset. This is when they should be most active and maybe more willing to bite. I agree though with others that have said sounds like you might be better off trying some where else.

HW. I did not run down very often. I have been to the 30 bridge a few times but it seems like there is always more boats and people downstream from me then up. i know Shady Beach usually puts groups in wth rafts and canoes that go down to the 30 bridge.I also still have the floaters mentality from all the years of floating in canoes. I know if I go up I can always get back.

Goggled Eye- With as low as it is right now I may not be getting the Blazer out again until we get some rain myself. Wrench -I have not been running a jet as long as a lot of the guys on here but the one thing I’ve learned is you can run over some off the low shoals on plane and even if it is really low and you scrape, you keep going. You might hit but your momentum will keep you going until you can get to deeper water. You can do this if you know the river and know the deeper water is not far. If you don’t get to deeper water and end up being slowed down, your screwed because the jet starts sucking rocks which goes through and also get stuck to the bottom of the boot. Nothing to do then but shut down and clean out and then push the boat until you can get back to deeper water again. And , of course you don’t want to do this with big rocks and boulders which can dent the hull, or worse, put holes in it, and cause you to come to an instant stop like the guy in this story. Which can cause injuries. Knowing the river will help with the navigation. But if you don’t know the river then it comes down to trying to read the water and hoping you guess right as to whether a shallow spot will end quick enough for you to get to deeper water or is too long which means you are gonna be stopped and cleaning out and pushing. I have done all these things and my boat has the dents to prove it. Luckily I have not been hurt yet but the boulders and shoal rock ledges on the White river can make you think twice about running on plane. Hog Wally, what about you? You gonna keep running the River Pro around? How long would you run in 1.5 -2.5 inches? Can you do that all day?

Wow, flying around on a jet ski at 9:15 at night. Hit’s a pontoon, flees the scene and then kills himself hitting a concrete catwalk. Amazing. Think alcohol was involved?