First Trip To Truman A Bust!!!!

[Doctor Slabbenstein]

Well let me just start by asking a question. Do you ever get the feelin that Jesus just doesn't want you to fish? I mean everything seemed to be against us catching a limit (or A fish for that matter). I haven't posted in a while so I'll make up for it now. LOL

It starts like this. Planning has been going into this for months. My buddy Ed and I took a couple youngsters fishing down at LOZ about 3 1/2 weeks ago only to realize that my tilt n trim was jacked up on my boat. His boat was hittin the rev limiter every time he tried to plane it out. So we just fished close to the ramp all night and limited out and went home. Fixed mine by adding some fluid when I got home. He took his to the boat mechanic that was recommended by somebody. They said it was the water pump. $300 and it did the same thing when we put it in on the Osage river at Jeff City. Took it back to the shop to the tune of an additional $200 for some flow switches. never even needed the pump. Picked up his boat on Wed the 21st. Went to work on the 22nd and burned out at noon to get ready.
Left Columbia at 5pm so we could get to Truman and get our fish groove going:p. I pulled my boat, Ed pulled the camper and our buddy Tim pulled Ed's boat. After all the construction delays on 52 and 65 we hit 7 and were almost to Tightwad when it really started. 8pm Tim had a flat and wouldn't you know it he had no spare, no jack, nothing to even take the tire off that 3/4 ton truck of his. Ed rolled on to Bucksaw and left the camper with his kid and two dogs while Tim and I sat on the side of 7 highway and waved to all the passers by. Just trying to stay positive. We left his truck in some driveway where a nice gentleman said it would be safe. Got to Bucksaw and made camp. Decided to fish early the next morning so we ate sandwichs and went to bed.
Friday morning: Headed out to fish and whammo wind blowing like hell. Now I have no trollin capability cuz my battery decided to crap out. I mean I charged it on 2 amp for like 28 hours Okay no biggy gotta go find dummy a tire somewhere so I'll just go to Clinton and make Japmart warranty the battery cuz it wasn't that old. So we just kinda got our drift on in my boat for a while. Thats when we realized my graph was shorting out. Called a buddy who was coming down to meet us and had him go pick up a new Eagle Cuda for me and a spare for Timmy the dimwit.
We ran into Jiggin 15 on the way to the ramp. I introduced myself cuz I saw his CDC stickers on his boat. Now let me tell ya thats one nice fella.
Went to town and got my stuff lined out and grabbed a quick burger. Flew back to Bucksaw to fish. Now Ed realized his battery has a bad cell. We gotta go find the guy with the new graph and spare at 5pm anyway. So off we went back to Clinton and got a battery for him. About the time we get everything done its close to what we figure would be the evening bite. Now Ed's better half shows up and wants a 5 course dinner cooked for her and turns up the cramp real good when we explain how "bad" our day has been and we're gonna have a sandwich and go fish. Well now we're cooking chicken and corn and taters and blah blah blah. So we got her appeased and caught some shad to drift for cats and went to bed about 2am.
Saturday: Got up in the morning and headed out. Couldn't get the crappie to bite for nothing. I caught one on blue and silver while fighting the wind and cussin when I was hookin stumps with the boat. Fished like that all day. We were hot as hell and went way out and blew up a tube to drag the kid around. Now Ed's boat is clanking real loud when we try to get up to speed. So we send him idling back four miles to Bucksaw while I drag his kid around on the tube. Well once the kid calls it quits we pull him and the tube back into the boat. Now my boat won't start. I'm not talkin about the not starting where it's flooded or out of gas or plugs fouled. It wont do anything. Won't turn over, won't click, nothin. Ignition switch is completely fried. Hmmm now I'm the dumbass for not having any tools in my boat.
Meanwhile we can see Ed turning the point and can't do anything but watch him go. Now the kid says, "great now its gonna rain". So I try to hot wire the switch and it starts gettin real ugly real fast. Timmy's on the trolling motor but it was no match for the 40mph wind blowing right at us. We flag down the only other boat we finally see and he tows us back to Bucksaw with 3 foot whitecaps rollin over my bow and the wind driven rain stinging the hell out of us. The Kids freaking out, Timmy wants to go to shore and I just wanna get back, alive. That was a long ride back 4 miles like that. We passed Ed while under tow and he is in utter disbelief that we were stranded. He's dragging a crankbait and catching fish in the rain. Finally get back, its dark as all you can imagine. Get the fella who towed us loaded up and gone. I get my boat loaded very luckily what with the wind and all. Ed shows up we get him loaded and head to camp. I'm staying in a tent that is now full of water and almost submerged by runoff from the campground. The awing is blown over Eds camper and the awning legs busted up. Wow. What next? So we made the best of it and took showers to get warm. I mean the temperature had dropped like 20 degrees in a matter of like 50 feet on the way back. We finally start grilling burgers in the rain at 11pm. We ended up grilling right outside the C-loop bathrooms because thats the only halfway dry place to cook and ended up eating right there. My new camp specialty, "Outhouse Burgers".
Went to bed in a wet tent and wet clothes and I couldn't even tell you when it stopped raining except that when I woke up it wasn't raining and we were ready to go. The wind never stopped blowing the entire time we were there. Now it's time to head home with 2 busted boats and theres not a breath of wind to be had and we are pretty sure the fish had to be biting that Sunday.

Alas back to my question. Do you ever get that feeling that Jesus thinks you should be doing something different besides fishing? I mean nothing seemed to go our way, but I don't think I would trade it for anything. Really brought some good friends closer together and we met some really cool people while staying down there. I guess thats all just part of it. I'm sure there are little items of chaos that I'm forgetting. Anybody got somethin that could top all that mayhem. I'd sure like to hear about it and maybe get a chuckle. Thanks for listening.:o

[CONCRETECRAPPIE]

you said it WOULDNT TRADE IT FOR ANYTHING...that what campn an fishn is all about MEMORIES....BUT BETTER LUCK NEXT TIME

[Jigging15]

What a trip. It is all up hill now though. Was good to run into you guys down there. The cdc decals are for letting people know who are members. Have met a bunch of guys on the lake from them seeing my stickers and asking who I am. I have others ask what crappie.com is. Been nice to recruit a few guys that now have been on here for a few years. Don't let one bad trip to Truman run you off. Het on here before you come next time and we will try to point you towards some fish.

[crappiedave55]

sounds to me like you need to chop the head off a chicken or something like that,those days happen,just hope not very often,.glad you seen the bright side in the end .may your next trip be full of 14 in. crappie,an a calm sunny day......

[Pole Bender]

Wow is all I can say! Sure I have had stuff happen but never that amount over a weekend. Glad you came away with such a positive outlook. Better trips ahead for you!

[bwillaub]

Sorry to hear of your troubles, Doc. Now you have all that bad juju out and your next trip will be a goodun. Like Jared said, let us know ahead of time and we might be able to point you in the right direction.

[buzzmanmo]

Sounds Like You Been Around Beagle

[Bigby]

I always look at the bright side, nobody got hurt , the boat didn't sink and you will probably never forget that camping trip. Next time has to be better!

[Jigging Tournaments]

What a trip......wow

[Bulletman]

Good for you for keeping your chin up.......... here's hoping your next trip is a GREAT one.