September 13 And 14 Table Rock Lake White River Arm

[Bill Babler]

Had good friend and Client Ed Shawbaker out of Eagle Rock hoping to repeat the performance I has on Friday. It was colder than a well diggers back side and the wind was just howling out of the North.

Took us a pretty short time to about an hour of throwing the buzzbait and the fin to determine that was not the deal for us today. Switched to a 3/4 oz. pigsticker jig in the wind with a Fat Baby Craw trailer and it was on pretty good.

27 fish to the boat, the only problem was not a keeper in the bunch. Had at leat 10 fish nudging the line but would not have thrown one of them in the box if we had been in a derby.

Sunday started a much better day as we went out of the Shell Knob ramp. Already about 30 rigs in the lot at 0700 for a derby but it did not bother us. On the first locations with Rod and Wil from Arkansas we put 17 fish in the boat. Mostly on a dropshot. Fish were at 30' suspended over 90' Yamamoto brown/purple 4" laminated cuttail was the ticket.

Fish were pretty much everywhere we stopped up there yesterday as long as we had the boat at the correct depth. I usually start at 100' and edge in till I see them. They were just eating up the dropshot. I have not had a day I had so many follow ups on the shot. We had fish rising from 45' to the surface following hooked fish.

Ended with 60+ fish a mixture of K's-LM-MM and Jaw's. Today we had a small limit with one good LM about a 3 pounder.

Last two days my clients have put close to 90 fish in the boat and only had 5 keepers. You can see why they really struggled in the CPA derby this last weekend with small limits and no limits.

Lots of fish to be caught however and its as fun as it can be.

Lake at 911.43 surface temp at 79.8 and water clarity about 15ft. on the white spoon test.

Good Luck

[Quillback]

Sounds like some good fishing, thanks for the report!

[Champ188]

Well done, Mr. Bill. I stopped in 100 feet of water, too, on Saturday when my hat blew off.

[Fish24/7]

sounds like A rig bite?!

anybody still using those things?

[Champ188]

Not an A-rig fan. No ethical objections to them and I own a bunch of em, just rather throw something else.

[Bill Babler]

Yes it could be, however these fish the guides are catching for the most part are really deep. Saw a lot of fish yesterday setting at 50+ feet suspended and they would just come up to meet the dropshot as it went down. They seemed to want very little bouncing or movement on it, just hold it down there and they would just pull your rod down.

Good Luck

[Fish24/7]

exactly, A rigs are great for really deep suspended fish even when it's hot , but rarely do you see anybody using one while still wearing shorts and a t-shirt

Bill why just the one hook bait on the ds rig?

you might be interested in "stacking" VMC spin shot hooks and using a jigging spoon for the weight.

helps put a few of those "followers" in the boat.

[Bill Babler]

Have you ever guided clients that have never fished? 1 hook ok, two hooks very, very bad, especially if one of them is a triple hook.

On another note, lots of folks use a jig on the bottom, instead of a drop shot weight. As far as the jigging spoon, it catches the line and the drop short hook way to often. If your fishing it and you are an experienced fisherman you can tell if its fouled. Most clients have no idea and will fish it tangled. I can see it on the graph and tell if its tangled, but that is just another avoidable problem.

Pretty fun to catch them one at a time at the rate we are snapping them.

Thanks, great point however.

[Fish24/7]

I don't guide but I can imagine what happens w/ that

I said "you" ,not your clients, might be interested in hook stacking.

the way I use a spoon on a ds rig it seldom if ever gets tangled in the hook or line because i modify it.

[Laney]

I have seeen several references to a "pigsticker jig" but don't have an idea what this is, can you enlighten me, Bill? I fish down around Indian Point a lot but don't seem to have the luck you are having/ I guess I need some help as well.