BiteMeBaits

Might try looking at the place formerly known as Port Of Kimberling Marina. Its right there at Kimberling City and just a couple miles down the lake from Mill Creek. Last time I was down there it looked like it was ran by a private party but I believe it is still called the Whats Up Dock if I am not mistaken.

I got the privilege to sit and share a pizza with one of the Elite guys last night. I must say, it never really sunk in just how hard these guys work. This gentleman told me he usually practices from 6am-7pm or so just trying to find a good pattern, along with traveling with his family and being a husband/father/spokesperson/role model. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love to fish, but one would have to be really dedicated and mentally strong to make this work. I guess those who can, do. And those who can't, watch it on satellite tv.

For the State Of Missouri, "BLOCK TYPE" letters are just caps no more, no less. There is no RsMo prohibiting certain fonts. Now with that being said, use good judgment because if a WP doesn't think it could be easily read and in a conspicuous place, then you will have to go to court and see what the judge thinks. Just make sure they are over 3 inches in height and spaced more than 2 inches apart, and contrasting to your hull and there shouldn't be a problem. But yes, Water Patrol and any other Peace Officer of this state need reasonable suspicion that you have (or about to) commit a crime or violation to lawful stop/detain you. Which for water patrol sounds like they use the numbers to their advantage, just like patrol officers use a defective license plate illumination lamp to stop cars. All of this is legal and grounds for stopping if they believe you are in violation. These are called pre-textual stops. So I guess what my point is this: yes there are strict regulations regarding this, however, you are not confined to putting the stick on letters from Lowe's on your boat. If Missouri had a certain style that was required, then they would give them to you and make a law requiring you have their numbers. I also am Class A POST certified and have served since 2008.

Oh, and I believe it was around 25$ total for both sides.

I had my boat numbers made from a vinyl shop. Sign Us in Ozark done them. They have everything preset, just pick your color and font. They key is being prominently displayed and easily read. I chose a font that was still easily read but not boring and blocky. I haven't read up on any laws requiring certain positioning but I do know that they give a diagram to you when you get your tags. Overall its like license plates on a vehicle, they even have a law that prohibits improper placement of your new stickers.

We caught several little males last night on the channel swings in beaver. Seems that they were biting anything with some vibration and flash.

When we bought our Mercury 150 4-stroke the tech said up to 10% ethanol is safe in the 4 strokes. He also said Mercury recommends Stabil marine whether the fuel has ethanol or not. They are basically a car motor, I wouldn't run anything higher than 10% in my vehicles either, unless it was designed for it.

Growing up on a crystal clear creek (Swan), I learned to sight fish a lot and be patient and still. While my parents would go to work I would take off and fish all day walking up and down the banks of the creek during the summer time. I started when I was about 7 when dad showed me how to catch and rig live crawdads, then I moved onto small artificial baits. When I was 12-14 I lived with my grandpa so I could go to the right school and he is a pretty avid tournament fisherman so we would go fish night tournaments every week. The first tournament I ever fished was the take-a-kid fishing tournament when I was 12. I bought my first bass boat when I was 15. I'm 28 now and still remember what I was taught by my grandpa who still fishes religiously rain or shine and he is in his 70's and out fishes me all day long. Looking back, I think grandpa originally started taking me because he liked having someone to run the trolling motor and back the boat in. LOL

I would just make sure whatever SUV you get has a Tow Pkg. My wife's Chevy Trailblazer V6 has plenty of power to pull my z7/merc 150 4-stroke but doesn't have a tow/haul switch. And I'm sure like most boats, the tongue weight is less than 300lbs.

Sweet! thanks for the info!

I've been thinking about launching there because I work about a mile from there. I have a 18-8 Nitro z7 with a 150, is there enough room to launch a bass boat? I've dropped my old boat off before at a gravel ramp and it's definitely not fun.

+1 and truth be told, had Champion still been in business I would have bought one in a heartbeat without comparing any others just because they made some tough sleds.

Mine was a 90 and another was a 96. I know a lot has changed since then until they stopped making champs. Don't get me wrong I loved them but I couldn't stand to ride in them

I purchased a new 2013 Nitro z7 last spring and I love it. My previous boat was a Champion and the ride is so much smoother. Of course the 7's are 18-8 so you would be looking at either a z8 or z9 but at least give them a look. We purchase ours from Bass Pro and got into it a heck of a lot cheaper than we would have the same config. for a triton which is what we were looking at. I loved the tritons but Couldn't justify paying thousands extra. My z7 has the 150 fourstroke which was the best decision I've ever made. I can maintain WOT all day long and have a conversation with the guy next to you. Plus don't have to worry about mixing the oil and can run regular pump gas. I would be willing to take anyone out for a ride if our schedules match, after all that is a good excuse fo rme to go fishing. Just my 2 cents. But hey, as long as it floats and runs I would be happy with it!

I have the luxury of molding my own plastics and playing with colors. I have had a lot of luck lately with a smoke color with purple flake. Seems to be a pretty constant color for me. Seems like any color, even green pumpkin with purple flake seems to work well on TR. Best of luck!

We have a lot of luck of black/blue, black/red, black/purple combinations. I mold some soft plastics and just got done with a batch of all three of those combinations for a customer. A black spinnerbait with a large Colorado blade, or a tube, or my favorite, a black/blue jig with a black/blue craw trailer. The thinking behind the darker colors and bigger baits is that a bigger profile is easier to see and the black makes it stand out because its not 100% dark outside. I've caught several fish over 3lbs in the past week or so on a smoke colored (very dark) tube with purple flake that I had made up playing with colors. Nothing like catching a hog at night and not really sure what ya got until it gets in the boat!

Over the past two weeks I have had a lot of luck with flukes around the docks. I have caught a ton of fish up shallow in the brush on them but most are 13 inch males. While fishing a tournament out of Cape Fair a few weeks ago I noticed that some of the bigger fish we caught came from around docks. Ever since then I always have a fluke tied on and try to hit the docks when the sun gets high. I skip the fluke into every little nook and cranny I can find and usually end up with a couple fish per dock. However, most are right around the 15 inch mark but I have had a few good ones take it. For me it seems better when its a clear day and the sun is out. Usually I try to skip the fluke all the way under the walkways and out the other side, then when it flutters into the shadow from the walkway I get nervous! I found also that they were short striking the 5 inch fluke so I went to the 3.5 inch and had a lot more hook ups.

Great tournament guys! Really glad we got the opportunity to fish this event and met some old and hopefully new friends!

Not really sure where Holiday Island is but we put in at Cape Fair and fished the back of some smaller creeks. There were a ton of whites chasing shad all over each creek we pulled in. I ended up catching 3 big sows on a wiggle wart while I was bass fishing. Hope this helps some.

We went out of State Park a week ago and fished in water that was very clear. We saw a ton of shad ranging from 3-8 inches running the banks and into about 10 ft of water! Nothing chasing though.

TRRANGER, I have already pre-entered this a few weeks ago by mail. How early should we get there since we have pre-entered. The last Take-a-Kid tourney I fished I was about 15 and when I saw one of your flyers I couldn't wait to ask a kid to go!

Just my 2 cents but I recently purchased a 2013 Nito z7 with the Merc 150 fourstroke. I have only got to use it a total of 5 times but so far I am glad we decided to go with the Nitro. There were some features on others boats that were awesome that I wish Nitro had but overall I am very pleased with the boat. Now with that being said, we almost didn't buy one because of the sales staff. Maybe the sales person was having an off day or something but it wasn't pleasant at all. I showed up, told the person exactly what boat I wanted and what options I wanted added on and I would pick it up when it was done. We had cash in hand and was hoping for a quick deal and be done no financing, no haggling. After about the 3rd hour I eventually told my my wife lets just drive down the road and get the triton because it was taking forever and we had a screaming one year old. Thankfully she really liked the Nitro better so we stayed and eventually got the transaction completed. Now with that being said now that the purchase is complete and I am back on the water, we couldn't be more happy with the boat. And the $1000 gift card is kind of nice too. Any large company is going to have issues but I believe BP is doing a great job at supporting and changing the way we all look at hunting and fishing. So I guess if there were two things I would recommend to BP management is 1.) For the love of all that is holy, tone down the big cedar timeshare guys at the front desk. When they ask where you are from and you say "here" let them know that I have probably heard of Big Cedar and either already go, or don't really care to go. And 2.) Maybe some training on features and options of some of the boats. I understand that there are a thousand options and a hundred different boat models, but for models they claim to be the best selling boat model like the z7, at least let there be some sort of answers to questions. On a lighter note, who else is staring out the window at the snow wondering where May is? Just Wednesday I was sunburnt and caught several nice Smallies of beds near the State Park Marina and today I am spreading salt on my deck to keep the snow melted off!