Thread: Guess Who Got Their First Boat?

Jeff wasn't lyin'. He showed you how to spend money. But it's well spent on something you will get a lot from.
Stay close to the launch 'till you see how that Yamaha runs.

Had a good chat with him and a buddy this morning. I showed him how to spend even more money. Got him fixed up with a 10' dipping rod and nice little spinning reel. It is a good looking boat and will serve him well for fishing Truman. Hopefully their day went well on the maiden voyage.

Just wait for the post. It will bring back a lot of memories and maybe a nightmare or two.

I apologize in advance for this being so long lol

Gentlemen, what a day lol. Left the house around 5:30, gased up and headed to everharts. We got there about 30 minutes til 7 (I was a little anxious and left too early haha). Got to meet Jarod finally, what a great & knowledgeable guy. He got me squared away on my first dipping rig and gave another run down of the lake area around the bucksaw ramp to me and my friend Adam (ajctodd). We headed out and go to the Bucksaw launch. Got it backed into the water, I even remembered the drain plug, went to start it and I honestly didn't think it was going to start. I pumped the ball prior to trying to start it, but finally thought to try messing with the throttle a little while turning it over and she fired up and ran fine. Adam pulled my truck up and parked it. As he was coming back down he had a ranger with him. He wanted to inform us the new Catfish slot limit went into effect. We made small talk with him and told him this was my first boat and all that. He asked to see my Boaters License (I'm 28 next month) which I had not had time to get this last week with everything else I had to do to get the boat going (its a 3 hour online course or 6-8 hours in person, I know I know I should had got this done ). He was a ranger from another county off duty so he said he couldn't stop me technically but he didn't advise it because if I got stopped they would make me anchor and abandon my boat. SO.... we loaded her back up on the trailer and took back off for home .

I had at first decided to just call it and wait to get my license, but then I had a thought. Kansas law requires only those born on or after January 1st 1989 to have this license. So even though it was a pretty good drive and horrible waste of gas going to Clinton then Bucksaw first, we headed to Hillsdale Lake in Kansas lol.

Got to Hillsdale. Go to start prepping the boat, get it in the water (still on trailer) and it wont turn over. Pull it out and realize I left the "panel" switch on from Truman. So we wait a bit for the battery to come back up. Also realized I left the drain plug out this time LOL. Watched water pour out for a few minutes. Get it back in the water, fires up, and we're finally off. I must admit the first few planes were kind of sketchy but I finally got it down. She sure does fly (35-40 which is as fast as I care to go, at least on my boat lol), but it took me until the end of the day to even see what top out was. We get out away from the Marina and see some trees we want to fish, get to our first spot and not there 5 minutes "thump thump" whack first crappie caught in my boat AND I WAS THE ONE THAT CAUGHT IT YES! Haha. Throw it to Adam to see if its a keeper while I throw back exactly where it was trying for another haha. He says its a keeper but I said let me look at it again. He forgot the limit was 10 here not 9 inch, so it was 3/4 short of keeping, which sucked but it was my first fish in my new boat and the first fish I've ever caught dipping right off the bat.

But as luck turned out we didn't keep any crappie today. 5 Total all short. Did start to feel like I had control of the trolling motor by the end of the day though. We tied up a couple times and in one of those Adam landed a 5lb channel which we brought home off a Light Blue & Chartreuse Stroller on a 12'' Mr Crappie Rod Jeff let us a borrow so we'd each have a long pole (Thanks again Jeff). Later leaving the lake, I was having trouble with getting the transom saver to seat properly and went to take a bolt out of it to try and shorten it by using one of the other holes, but I was using a crescent wrench and pliers to do this and it slipped out of both of them during one of the turns and landed perfectly to bounce and land on Jeff's rod breaking the upper half so now I owe Jeff a new Rod which I'll be going to get tomorrow lol.

All and all it was a great day which I will remember for a long time. It just made the sport that much better for me having access to fish a lake as it was intended now. I learned a lot today and still have much more to learn. But I'll be logging the hours on the lake to do that, you better believe that! I will see you all soon. Tomorrows project is a taking the boaters license course online since I'll finally have time to so I can fish Missouri Lakes, along with a trip to Everharts now haha.

Thanks for posting your memory making trip with your first boat. You even had time to catch some fish. Awesome.

Nothing better than your first boat! Enjoy-

Facebook: Kevin Rogers
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congrats on your first ride and your first trip! I see full livewells in your future!

You could take a quiz on-line, pay for and get a temp permit. Library in Clinton or elsewhere, still quicker and less gas money than Hillsdale. I support MDC and Missouri Water Patrol wholeheartedly, glad they're out there. But it's not his region, you're fishing crappie and he's on catfish, and threatens you with boating laws that aren't administered through his agency. Seems he could have been an advocate for positive and how to handle your issues instead of reminding of all the things they could fine you for. Did he also warn you what the speed limit on Hwy. 7 is or that's it's a one way drive at the post office? Hope there's more to the story, maybe I've had too much coffee this morning. Good luck with the new boat and your next trip.