St. Louis folk

[moguy1973]

Does anyone else that lives in St. Louis that has a nice bass boat to fish out of find it really hard to get out to go fishing in it?  I've had my boat (175 Tracker) for going on 3 years now and being in St. Louis with very limited numbers of lakes close  to put it in to go fishing really makes it tough to own a boat like this.  For me the closest "decent" fishing lake near St. Louis is about 2 hours away in Lake Kincaid or Rend Lake in Illinois, and I'm not sure I can call Rend a really decent bass lake.  Being a guy with a young family at home I really would like to be able to limit my fishing time to day trips, but spending over 4 hours with driving to the fishing spot kind of makes it an all day deal.  Closest launch at a big lake in Missouri is a good 3 hour drive for me.

I guess it's all about priorities.

Still looking for that perfect river jet since I'm 5 minutes from the closest Meramec  boat ramp.  That would be ideal.

[snagged in outlet 3]

5 minutes ago, moguy1973 said:

Does anyone else that lives in St. Louis that has a nice bass boat to fish out of find it really hard to get out to go fishing in it?  I've had my boat (175 Tracker) for going on 3 years now and being in St. Louis with very limited numbers of lakes close  to put it in to go fishing really makes it tough to own a boat like this.  For me the closest "decent" fishing lake near St. Louis is about 2 hours away in Lake Kincaid or Rend Lake in Illinois, and I'm not sure I can call Rend a really decent bass lake.  Being a guy with a young family at home I really would like to be able to limit my fishing time to day trips, but spending over 4 hours with driving to the fishing spot kind of makes it an all day deal.  Closest launch at a big lake in Missouri is a good 3 hour drive for me.

I guess it's all about priorities.

Still looking for that perfect river jet since I'm 5 minutes from the closest Meramec  boat ramp.  That would be ideal.

I bought a jet for that reason.  Got tired of 3 hour drives each way at a minimum.  But of course the Gnade keeps calling me for that 2.5 hour drive that I can't resist sometimes.

[liphunter]

I was wondering about you guys up there. Didn't think you had much close in the way of big reservoirs.  Hang in there! 

[top_dollar]

I'm also in st louis.  I've learned that if I wanna fish a few times a week I had to figure out the ponds and creeks around here.  I have an 18ft deep v that I use for stockton and table rock, but that's only a few times a year.  I still like to fish at least 2 or 3 times a week, so I do a lot of bank fishing, creek wading, and floating.  That's your best bet around here. 

[David Unnerstall]

I use the cedar-stripper for small lakes around here, it is not a bad experience.  I use the bass boat for one trip in the spring for crappie at Wappapello and one for bass at LOZ in the fall.

[JestersHK]

My views on it was that for me it did not make financial sense for a boat purchase.  The storage, upkeep, travel that keeps it to a weekend trip at best, the juice is just not worth the squeeze.  Way cheaper to rent one at a destination... I had a chance at inheriting my father's basscat, but i turned it over to my BIL.  Don't regret that decision one bit. 

A river jet would be the closest I would get and even as much as i try to fish it would still be hard to justify. 

I still see a ton of boats in the area every weekend though.  50k boats behind a 50k truck so some folks obviously have it figured out. Cost aside I could swing that but again I just cannot justify it at this point in my life.

[moguy1973]

43 minutes ago, JestersHK said:

My views on it was that for me it did not make financial sense for a boat purchase.  The storage, upkeep, travel that keeps it to a weekend trip at best, the juice is just not worth the squeeze.  Way cheaper to rent one at a destination... I had a chance at inheriting my father's basscat, but i turned it over to my BIL.  Don't regret that decision one bit. 

A river jet would be the closest I would get and even as much as i try to fish it would still be hard to justify. 

I still see a ton of boats in the area every weekend though.  50k boats behind a 50k truck so some folks obviously have it figured out. Cost aside I could swing that but again I just cannot justify it at this point in my life.

Yeah, there's a couple guys in my neighborhood that have sparkly fiberglass boats and I'm not sure where they take them.  They sit in their driveways as much as mine does on the weekends it seems.  If my daughters were older maybe it would be different and I could make weekend trips with the boat, but even then my small boat is no match for LOZ on the weekends for the most part unless I'm off the water early or go late.  And fishing even with just my 7 year old on the boat with me doesn't make for a really enjoyable fishing trip as I'm helping her more often than not which means I'm not getting much fishing in either.

[JestersHK]

7 minutes ago, moguy1973 said:

Yeah, there's a couple guys in my neighborhood that have sparkly fiberglass boats and I'm not sure where they take them.  They sit in their driveways as much as mine does on the weekends it seems.  If my daughters were older maybe it would be different and I could make weekend trips with the boat, but even then my small boat is no match for LOZ on the weekends for the most part unless I'm off the water early or go late.  And fishing even with just my 7 year old on the boat with me doesn't make for a really enjoyable fishing trip as I'm helping her more often than not which means I'm not getting much fishing in either.

I hear ya there.  My kids are getting older youngest is 7, I think what really brought me back to fishing was doing the whole trout wade fishing thing so thats what I prefer.  Plenty of creeks around our area to wade in, and ponds to work as well.  I feel like I fish way more because I do not have a boat if that makes sense... My oldest said she'd rather be in the water versus in a boat, and I think for the most part I feel the same.  I do enjoy boat fishing, but its just a totally different experience for me.  As for ownership its just way easier to rent one on those times when you can't wade at Taney for instance.  

I am also bad luck prone when I get into a boat as a few members here can attest LOL.  For whatever reason I have had some crazy bad luck days on boats.  They don't quite call me a banana yet but I really set my bar low when I get out there.  Theres a few exceptions (cough cough @Seth) may have something to do with daytime versus night time too.  Seth can attest the previous CAM tournament I fished okay the day before and the day after, then the day of the tourney I ended up a broken man...

 

[snagged in outlet 3]

19 hours ago, moguy1973 said:

Yeah, there's a couple guys in my neighborhood that have sparkly fiberglass boats and I'm not sure where they take them.  They sit in their driveways as much as mine does on the weekends it seems.  If my daughters were older maybe it would be different and I could make weekend trips with the boat, but even then my small boat is no match for LOZ on the weekends for the most part unless I'm off the water early or go late.  And fishing even with just my 7 year old on the boat with me doesn't make for a really enjoyable fishing trip as I'm helping her more often than not which means I'm not getting much fishing in either.

I bought mine about two years ago when my youngest went off to college.  Before then I was in your boat so to speak.  Until the kids leave for college or get that age it's kind of tough to set aside time to fish.  Pond Prowler filled my needs for years before then. 

Jet has been the best fishing purchase I have ever made.  Typically go every weekend but a few times I still have family things.

[Seth]

3 hours ago, JestersHK said:

I hear ya there.  My kids are getting older youngest is 7, I think what really brought me back to fishing was doing the whole trout wade fishing thing so thats what I prefer.  Plenty of creeks around our area to wade in, and ponds to work as well.  I feel like I fish way more because I do not have a boat if that makes sense... My oldest said she'd rather be in the water versus in a boat, and I think for the most part I feel the same.  I do enjoy boat fishing, but its just a totally different experience for me.  As for ownership its just way easier to rent one on those times when you can't wade at Taney for instance.  

I am also bad luck prone when I get into a boat as a few members here can attest LOL.  For whatever reason I have had some crazy bad luck days on boats.  They don't quite call me a banana yet but I really set my bar low when I get out there.  Theres a few exceptions (cough cough @Seth) may have something to do with daytime versus night time too.  Seth can attest the previous CAM tournament I fished okay the day before and the day after, then the day of the tourney I ended up a broken man...

 

You completely redeemed yourself this year my friend! I don't think we could have had a much better trip for catching than we did this year. I'm sure owning a rod that was longer than 4.5' helped a bit too while fishing out of my boat. 😆