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Bill Babler

OA Contributing Reporter
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Everything posted by Bill Babler

  1. Lots of nice post on Denny's accident, but none of them will work on a megabass with the outward barb. Simply impossible to pull the barb with the old fishing line trick, and anyone that wants to slice into their diget with a scalpel, has way more of those swinging things than me. No way Phil could have gotten it out. He is good and has tended to me before, but not on this deal. The $350.00 charge is why this country is in a medical crisis today. Simply Stupid Charge for a few minutes, and this was not at an ER, it was at a clinic. Couple of dozen eggs should have been payment enough. I think he should have pulled a Ronnie Lott and just diked it off and went on about his business, but I guess some of us are just tougher than others.
  2. 5Keeps, you all know me to well. My wife just fell on the floor laughing. In the immortal words of Larry the Cable Guy,"I don't care who you are, Thats Funny." Love you guys, Thanks Bill and Becky
  3. FYI---Beck is on Diawai's national team, and he told me the Exceller's come from the factory with a heavy white grease on the gears, and antireverse locking mech. You need to disassemble the reel and clean out the "white grease and replace it with a very light coat of gun or fishing reel oil. Kind of like when you used to buy a rifle or shotgun. I believe the grease at that time was called cosmoline. Don't know about the spelling, but it is very thick and heavy and when it gets cold it keeps the antireverse from falling into the cog. I'm going to try it, but really if you got the dough the Stradic is the bomb.
  4. I like you switched to the Excelers. Mostly because I liked that 1500 series and shimano quit making it. 1 huge problem with the Excelers reared its ugly head this last weekend. By the Way, I have 26 of them. I had 4 different reels that quit on me the same day. The anti-reverse went out. I started at the Dam fishing white jigs on 4 pound line and bouncing the jigs back. It was extremely cold 11 degrees. I slammed the jig into a trout on a very hard take and the reel just flat spun out! Both my client did the same thing on two other Excellers. I completely freeked out. Picked up a 4th one and the reverse was not existant on it also. Had some other rods in the boat with stradics on them and no problem. About mid day the temps had warmed up to close to 40 and started playing with the excelers again and they worked fine. I know it was the temps on the antireverse, but 4 reels with the same problem means that is a problem. Can't have reels that don't work in cold weather. There is a reason the Stradics are higher. IF I had not had them on board, I would have been in huge trouble. I am working on the problem with the Excellers, and should have an answer. I'll keep you posted as I just love the reels for the price.
  5. Guys, thanks alot for all the referals. I don't promote my own stuff here. Not the place, kind of defeats the purpose of a non-bias opinion. I will tell you, there are other places on the lake that are just as nice as Big Cedar, and for sure much more private. I'm not talking about Time Shares or condos. If thats what you want, there are plenty to chose from. Also, at Big Cedar remember this, Wilderness Club is not Big Cedar. It is Wilderness Club-AT-Big Cedar. Frankly Big Cedar could care less if you come or not. They for the most part could care less if you have a good time or not. They could care less if what they told you is not right or not. The reason is their occupancy is in the 90 percent range on a yearly basis and is 100% during prime time. They have 50 people waiting in line to replace you when you don't come back. This has not always been their philosophy, but with the demand on their property it has become a fact. It became a fact when they put in the timeshares. It really was a blessing for us as we got their longtime clients that wanted privacy and not to be hounded by a sales force. It also changed the lanscape and the type of clients they now have verse what was there in the 90's and up to 2005. Folks that have no problem spending $300 to $700 per night, just don't do well in a situation where other guest on the very same property are staying for $39.00 a night ie the "timeshares." They just simply run in a different crowd. Not better or worse, just different. Our property caters to those persons, that are abit more disconcerning. The type that used to stay at Big Cedar. Our property was build and our business plan was constructed like this to have a minimal impact. We don't want 100% occupancy, we want 45 or 50 percent on a yearly basis, and we have that. We want you to return and return. We have couples that come 10 times a year and have for years. Most all were going to BC and they now stay with us. We love and appreciate them and know them by name.interact and become close friends with lots of our guests. We care. We are coming up on our 6th. year, and we set a record for occupancy last season. The majority of our new and repeat guests were Big Cedar clients that will never go back. Our 10,000 sq. ft. Engleman Spruce log Lodge is very similar except it is very quiet and private. Most everything in the Lodge is hand made and has a story. Our views from every room in the lodge are breathtaking. Eveyday I wake up and say Wow! Becky serves fantastic Breakfasts, to start you on your day, and is always here to help you with meal and fun plans throughout your day. It is an extremely comfortable atmosphere and invites you just to lounge around the fireplace or take advantage of any of the lodge amminities. Enough on my junk, I have just seen it for years at BC and have loads of friends that work there and all will tell you it "Ain't Like It Was and it Ain't for the Better." Now, another couple of nice Log Resorts. Number 1 on the list is Indian Hills Resort out of Shell Knob. This is the old Navjo Hills. It had a 5 million dollar renovation and is by far one of the nicest log resorts on the lake. It sets at Big Indian creek at Baxter and has a fantastic boat dock, trememdious views and is a very special property. BC has nothing on Indian Hills, except the restaurant. 41-858-6243 Fishing in the Baxter area is far better than on our end, and you are situated in the middle of the lake and can go either way. Fantastic place. The Timbers Resort Shell Knob Log Cabins quite secluded in a wood/lakeside setting, very private. 417-858-2723. Guys did not mean this to be a total bash on BC, but they really had something special over there and let it getaway. Money got in the way. We still recommend their restaurants and our guests love to walk and ride horses at Dogwood Canyon. It is just that it got extremely over crowded and noisy and their guests stopped being guests and became clients.
  6. Can anyone tell me when the last time on any of our lakes, either Bull, Lake O or the Rock it took a 29 pound plus bag to win a 5 fish derby? What a day! Congrats You notice I didn't include Beaver. Don't know if it has 5 that big swimming in it, that arn't white and black.
  7. Great report! Another way to prepare the goose, is my brotherinlaws reciept. He cuts up the goose like you would a chicken and places in in a pot of chicken broth, with onions, carrots and cerery. Boils it to tender about 2 hrs. He lets it cool and then shreds the meat off the bones, and chops the shreads into small pieces. He uses two cobler crusts you can get in the frozen section of the supermarket and makes a goose pot pie, using frozen vegies and a rue' It is unbelieveable. To me it taste just like a dark meat turkey pot pie. 1 goose will make two pies, so he makes two and tries to freeze one. Never work If I'm around, as we will eat them both. Yummy
  8. Know a couple of folks that have trouble with the HD10 when they are moving or using the trolling motor. Would for sure check with Marine Repair Center for their thoughts. I will tell you this, I am running a Lowrance 37 LCG it is the predessor to the HD8. Current sensitivity is set at 68% and i can see my spoon and swivel at any depth. And yes, there has been huge clouds of shad back in those types of locations, that sometimes can black you out from 70ft. to 30 ft. Don't believe the shad are the problem however.
  9. Really suprised it didn't keep on that path and gather in Rock Lane's stuff. Indian Point Resort has either two or three docks if my memory servies me. Two in the first cove of Jakes Branch, and 1 in the next cove, then a flat before Rock Lane and Village at Indian Point. Is this the correct location of the damage? I was wondering how it could have hit Indian Point Boat Marina judging from the path of the storm. This is a much more clear damage path. If it is.
  10. You know, it is kind of like farming or any other business where you depend on equipment. It breaks. For us when it breaks it is lost income and lost opportunity, you hate it, but it is what it is. Other things agervate me worse. Had a guy call yesterday and ask what it cost to take his two sons fishing for the afternoon. He said there would be 3 of them, himself a five and a ten year old. I Said I would take them for the $250.00 half day rate and take the 5 yr. old for free. There was a pause and then he said. "How can you sleep at night, trying to steal from people like that?" " I didn't want to buy your boat, I just wanted you to take us fishing for 1/2 a day." "You came highly recommended, but I can get a "Fishin Guide" anywhere in this country for 75 Bucks." He slammed down the reciever. Those are the kinds of things that get to me, not so much the broken mechanicals.
  11. No fishing line. That unit only has 10 hrs. on it since it was bolted on. Still has the bar code sticker on it. Plugs were tight and sealed with the o-rings intact. When Phil and I came in from fishing last week, I thought I smelled some burnt oil smell, but nothing on the water, so with the holidays I kind of forgot about it. When I checked it after the freeze up the oil was grey and smelled burned and it had the water in the case. Ulrich is closed till January 3rd. so I just have to wait. If I get another trip on taney, I will use one of Phil's boats. After they bolted on the new lower unit, they said to run it 5 hr.s and bring it back over for a oil change. I did that and they said it was good to go for a year. Guess not.
  12. Motor problems again have me baffled. My lower unit was frozen and I could not take my guide trip yesterday. That is a brand new lower unit. Frozen stiff. Got home and took the plug out of the unit, after applying some heat, and it had leaked full of water. Bad seal I guess. Reguardless I have to give my fly fishing trip up yesterday and Chuck Grise of Anglers and Archery took it for me. Chuck started at noon with Mike and Son and just ripped them, from Andy's down. size 14-16 tandum grey scuds. Had many doubles and lots of nice fish in in 17 inch plus class. Chuck says the lower restriced area is just full of quality trout, and it showed he knows how to put his clients on them. He is a very good guide, probably one of the best on that section. Thanks Chuck
  13. Spoke to some guys yesterday that fished Holiday Island to Roaring River area and they were at about 50 up there. I believe a man cam pretty much say 50 to 52 right now and fish appropreatly. Again, above Cape Fair it is durn cold. That area of the lake will freeze quicker than any other part and it gets and stays cold up there. Good luck and thanks for the reports.
  14. Fished the same area mentioned above Thursday thru Sunday. Had 51.7 on the Lowrance 37 LCR HD, AND 52.1 on the Lowrance 537C. Both using different tranducers and temp gauges. Fished out of Beck's boat on Friday, same area and we also had a 51 degree reading, on his Lowrance 10HD. That should be pretty close from speaking to several guys that were on the water this weekend. Last week we were at 56 main lake. Up the James above Cape Fair seems to be cooler.
  15. Well, last weekends Arctic Blast and High Winds have subsided, and they for sure dropped the water temps to right at 50 most places. I have fished the Kings, White and Kimberling City to Longcreek the last few days and the temps are pretty much the same on this area. 50 to 52. Bite is for sure still on, but it is much more scattered. Did hear today of a very good off color water wart bite that I thought may be drying up a mite. Guess Not. Most warts with a shade of orange are the ticket. Work it pretty slow, and if you can get in very tight on some of the windy rock/gravel mix banks. River and creek arms seems to me much better than the main lake, as they have some color and the main lake is really clearing up. Day before yesterday fishing out of Shell KNob, I had a couple of very nice 18 inch LM on the wart. Last points in the back of the coves or up the creeks. Those fish had their backs out of the water coming no more than 3ft. to 6 ft. deep. Two reports I just heard of one of the locals catching 15 plus pounds a day on a wart, prefishing for the derby on Saturday. and I also heard there was a derby with a guy last Sunday weighing in 23 pounds on a wart. Sounds like March dosent it. At 910 there are lots of trees exposed and the stickbait bite is beginning to start. I am letting mine pause about 10 seconds between triple jerks and then just trying to turn its head. Had a very nice 4 plus pound brown bass out of the Big Indian today. Boat was in 16 ft. and I was throwing a Tim Hughes Norman Flake. Typical sickbait banks, for me mostly just "Milk Running" to points and long runnouts. Prefering some timber, but not necessary. Of course a chop on the points is always the key. With the clarity of the water I'm using mostly "Blue, Shad, Purple, Black Backed stickbaits." Lots of shad in the river arms, but the deep bite is really hit and miss. Shad off the flats and main lake point and in the creeks, but not all holding fish. IF you can find them, 1/2 oz. white or charturse spoon seems to be the ticket. Pretty tough deal however. Good electronics and lots of looking will catch you some nice fish. If you have limited time and don't want to stare thru the spotting scope for hours, work those shallow fish. Deep dock bite seems to have remained pretty good, on the spoon, but you might have to look at 30 docks to find the right one. Shallow jig bite on the shallower docks is very sketchy. Seems to be some fish on lots of different docks, but just not the right kind. Lots of Dinks. Pulled into a dock at the Knob a couple of days ago, and spooned 13 fish with 5 keeps, at 33 ft. off the front of the dock at the cable. Tried every other dock in the location, and not a bite. This dock was not on the point or had anything special about it except it was holding the fish. I'm very luck I have the time to look everywhere and try all this stuff. It takes hours and hours on each pattern to really make anyone of them work. I'm at a loss on the blade bite. If those fish are shallow on the wart, you can bet someone will be catching them on a blade. Just have not tried it, don't have enough hands. CPA Buddy Winter Series this weekend, and it will be a good one. It pays huge and it is very easy to take good care of the fish in this cold water, they are very fisty and easy to catch and release without harm. I fish very few tournaments, but these Winter series are a blast and as I mentioned it is very easy on the fish. The CPA crew, handles these fish with Kid Gloves, and the commorodery is fantastic. 40 boat is 5 grand to the winner and fantastic payouts for the top 5, plus Big Bass pot and a side pot. Saturday at Kimberling Inn at 7 AM. You and your buddy can register the morning of the derby. Jim Thompson is a great guy and supporting him is pretty easy. This derby is 100% payback. Weather is suspose to be in the low to mid 40's. Come out and meet Jim "Owner of CPA." It will be a great day on the water. Hope to see you there. Beck and I will be in my White Champion, come by and say howdy to us.
  16. Thanks for the report on a great weekend of fishing. 15 fish with 9 keeps per day this time of year on the Rock is some mighty good fishin. Excellent pic of your big gal, I'm sure she will drop us a load of eggs this Spring.
  17. You can always tell, starting on a Thursday when a big derby is fixin to take place. Gazing out my window this AM the lake has lots of "Go Fast Bass Sled Traffic." CPA has a pro-am and a buddy this weekend. Judging from the nice bags last week in the Winter Series, it will as usual take a pretty nice poke to get some Christmas money. I believe there were at least 6 bags over 18 pounds weighed in last weekend. I know that was a 6 fish limit, but still over a 3 pound average to cash a check. Wart and a jig, as far as I have heard. Colored water up the James seemed to have got the big mouth bass biting shallow. Good luck all you pay for play guys and gals.
  18. Guys and Gals, when looking for these white bass up the river systems, and on the main lake flats, you really need to fish these locations with very slow precision. You are not for the most part going to see clouds of fish, and the entire flat is not covered with fish. Next week, weather permitting, I will shoot some pic's of what they are looking like. Just, no more than a heavy pencil line on the bottom no bigger than a 1/4 inch on your graph. The bottom on most of these huge flats is just that, flat. If you see that pencil line or a color change on you graph, that is usually them. They for the most part are sitting in small schools of 15 to 20 fish, lying right on the bottom. There may be 50 schools on the flat you are fishing, but they are not together, they are schooled in very small groups. The only way to know if they are fish, is to drop that spoon, on to the line, and check. It is impossible to pull onto these flats and fish them in an hour. It takes several hours unless you are extremely lucky to just drop on a school. Slow down and cover the flat with care. My gps tracker on the lowrance 37 is great for not fishing the same area, as it lays down my track. Spoke to a guy the other day using a side view and he said they are so close to the bottom and so small grouped it takes a very keen eye to see them from the side. It takes a better eye to see them from the top, so fish slow, they are up both the Kings and James Rivers. Good Luck
  19. Have you checked your surface temp gauge? Chris said the temps on the flats you were fishing for whites was 59 degree. When I was up there a couple of days ago, I was also reading 58/59. I bet you are a few degrees off.
  20. My brother caught them again really good this last weekend up in Rainey Creek. Also spoke to a buddy at the 3 mile mark, that did well. Here are a couple of tips that I hope will help. Buddy said since the cold front on Thursday, he really slowed down his presentation. He pitched a small white and charturse tube 6 ft. under a float in and around the docks and just jigged it instead of swimming it and making them chase. He also had permission to walk some docks in the dam area and they just ate this very slow presentation up. Said on Saturday he had easy 100 fish and cleaned a limit of very nice 11 inch keeps. Of course my Brother was walking docks of friends in Rainey Creek. He said he caught a very nice limit on just two docks. 6 pound line 1/32 oz chartruse marabou jig. just dropped the jig down 6 to 8 feet and very slowly walked the dock edges. He said they ate it up. He has fished these docks for years, so this may not count as a tip. They are always on these deeper docks in Rainey Creek, this time of the year. The jig and float is a great tip. Usually people just use it in the Spring to suspend the jig off the bottom when fishing shallow for bedding fish. It works great this time of the year after a cold spell to slow down your presentation. If you want to go a step further you can pitch a minnow. "Deadly" Good Luck
  21. You might get on the Lake O board, and ask that question, for some of the locals. I know my friends that went up last week, just launched at PB2 and threw the trolling motor down and fished the steeper banks, and any brush they found. I fished the 3 Mile mark with a buddy for bass and he said the dock bite was outsanding swimming a jig under the floats or in the stalls of covered docks. 1 to 6 ft. deep on your jig. Seems right now, it does not matter, the lake is loaded with them and they are munching. Had another friend that fished some docks up in Rainey Creek up the River 2 weeks ago, and he said they were just loaded about 8ft. deep on the shady side of most every dock he fished. Real nice crappie in the 12 inch class. Good Luck
  22. Dutch, they said they caught lots of small ones, but they cleaned 3 limits between 11 and 13.5 inches. For us down here that is pretty nice size. I know on Truman and Lake O, maybe not, but for us in late November, those are great crappie. The buddy I fished with last week on Lake O for bass said you could get a solid limit of 12 inch crappie most anyday if you had a little time, just fishing the docks. They seemed to be suspended in the open stalls, if the dock had a roof and under the floats in 1 to 6 ft. of water. Brush, while always good, was not required, just the shade and cover of the docks.
  23. Gosh! guess my comment was taken completely out of context. I ment it as a huge compliment. I don't change my Summer deep water patterns for anyone, and I did this year by reading how well Tfish was doing. I fished hard to try and replicate his success and just could not put it together. Let me tell you if I try something new you had better believe I am impressed with what you are doing. I do believe he had the strongest shallow water pattern on the Rock this Summer and was trying to congradulate him for it. Guess I goofed. Ment absolutely no disrespect quite the opposite. I went back and reread my entire post, and I don't see anywhere I was not respectful of his Shallow water fishing this year. 4 times in the post I either thanked or said I appreciated him sharing with us. How can thank you and appreciate you be misconstured? Some folks are hard to appreciate. I'll go back to that thick skin thing again and live and learn.
  24. Bill, I have never seen a PBJ ie peanut butter and jelly crayfish anywhere, but on the Rock, a Brown and Purple 1/2 or 3/8th. oz jig with a cinnamen or cinnamon/purple trailer is without equal. Army ie green pumpkin, watermellon candy, ozark craw-bit of orange in the jigs is also great. For my money right now, they seem to be hitting the craw trailers better than the grub twintails. I am using either yum or zoom in the above mentioned colors. I am dipping these in Gulp Slime and they seem to be hanging on to it better than an unscented jig. I believe right now any of the commercial proven scents are helping them hold it a little longer. Good Luck
  25. Slayer, here is the deal. There have been several guides catching them up the James, most all are main lake deep flats. Fish seem to be holding in the 32 to 50 ft. range and they "Are Not Biting Every Day." Good electronics and knowing how to read them are not a must, but pretty durn important. Most often on your graph, the fish will be lying on the bottom. You will see a dark or heavy line, tucked tight to the bottom. Drop your 1/2 oz white or charturse spoon and either snap or just very slowly reel it up off the bottom. If you see the fish start to follow it, snap it up a couple of feet and follow it back to the bottom on a simi-tight line. When you feel the snap, set the hook. Yesterday I could lift the fish off the bottom in big schools, but they would just go back and not bite. If you catch one, the bottom jumps alive. Catch as many as quickly as you can, and they will settle back to the bottom and not bite. It is called locally, making them WORM. This is confidence fishing. IF you do not have that in your location or your equipment, you are in trouble. You can fish these flats for several hrs. without a bite, and then catch 30 2 pounders in a row. When you are looking at the flats thru your graph, just drop the spoon on anything that seem to be a bit of a rise off the bottom sometimes just a pencil line, is hundreds of fish. Don't move to fast on your troller, just kind of piddle poop around. if you move to fast you will over shoot them. Look for the locals and the guides from Aunts Creek to Cape Fair, and you will see where they are spooning. YOu can find similar locatons. I am also catching some out of loose shad schools suspended. Small schools of bait are best. Yesterday there were acre size shad schools up the James and they produced NAADA. High Prussure clear blue days are completely not working. It is not an early bite either. You can catch them mid-moring till dark if the sky has cloud cover. Or NOt. I have at least a dozen White Bass trips in the books, and am just scared to schedule them, as they are not completely on fire. I caught 8 yesterday in 4 hrs., I believe I heard Rick LaPoint had a dozen, fishing all day. It is still to tough to take folks money right now. White Bass and Crappie fishing are meat fishing for the most part and it seems anything less than a limit is a failure. Water temps warmed all week with the hot weather. Should start to cool on Thanksgiving. Perfect temps on our lake are low 50's to 40. When I quit yesterday the surface temp in the James was 62. Hope this helps.
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