Whack'emGood

Mr. H and Mr. B... Thanks much for that great info, once again. My confidence had been shot down last weekend, and I have been looking for more of that great pattern-specific info to give me the confidence back (that what I am doing on the water is correct). That will get me going again. I can't wait to get after em' on Saturday!! You guys are great. Keep up the good work-- your paying customers must be loving it!!! But we really appreciate it too, as always. Good luck on the water, Whack'em

We caught a couple of clearly spawned out SM this last weekend and the week before also. All KY we caught were clearly prespawn and looking ready to pop. It seems like alot of the SM (in my experience) have been moving up and getting it done in the past couple of weeks or so, and the other 2 species are still mostly staging. However, the grub bite really fell of this past weekend for me as opposed to being really good the week before. I suppose it is because they either moved up to spawn or backed up a little with all of these little fronts we have been having. Just my two cents... Mr. Babler or Mr. House will know for sure though. I have been watching for some more really good info though... I will be going Saturday and I have a bad feeling that I won't be able to find them. Two weeks ago they were hammering it like gangbusters..... Last week, ok but not great.... This week--------? I hope it doesn't continue downhill but, like I said, I don't have a good feeling. May have to scrape for them and figure out the puzzle again.

I have a story that I would pay to see. A friend of mine, who I trust, told me this story one time... and swears that its true. This happened about 5 years ago. My friend and his wife were launching their bass rig somewhere on TR (I can't remember at which ramp) when a guy in one of those big "ride around with no apparent purpose" (thats what I call them anyway) boats came idling into the dock. He was telling my friends and a couple of other guys on the dock that he had just bought this boat and there was something wrong with it. He claimed that it would not get up to speed or on plane and said it was bogging down on him. He said this was his first boat and asked if they could help him figure out what was wrong with it. Get this........ are you sitting down?......... The trailer was still attached to the bottom of the boat!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My friend, who I trust very much, told me this story. Even though it sounds hard to believe... I believe it 100%. I will be out of town on Memorial Day... Y'all are going to have to fill me in on the forum if I miss anything even half that good.

Trav, You were doing it right then. You just didn't find them. If you would have been in control of the boat and been able to fish like that all day though, I think you would have caught em. Keep your head up, and don't give up on the pattern just yet. I think it will hold out for a couple more weeks, anyway. Of course... like I always say... "But what the he** do I know." Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't know. I know one thing... I don't know as much as alot of these guys (the guides and others), so I will keep watching the forum to see what they say and come up with. I might go this Saturday and not catch'em, but I am going to stick to that pattern because it has been working and nothing has happened yet that I think will change it. You're right... it ain't called CATCHIN. But thats what makes it so great when you finally do catch'em. I guess it wouldn't be as fun if you caught'em everytime.... Or, on second thought, maybe it would!!! Go out and get'em next time. Good luck. Whack'em

You were right and you knew it... the fish aren't on the bank. I agree with Cajun... you should've took command. When you started catching them, I'm sure you wouldn't have got any flak from your brother. If your electronics aren't working, you can still find them... the old fashioned way. Start out deep on the points (let distance from the bank, and angle of the slope and direction of the point according to what is shown on the bank, determine what is deep to start)-- fish around at that distance out. Then if you don't find them, move in about half a cast and fish around. Let your lure tell you if the fish are there and how deep you are fishing. Then go from there. I always look at it this way... most times if you get over the top of them you will spook them (unless they are REALLY deep... which does not apply here). So... you can always start out farther and deeper than you suspect they are and move in. You cannot start shallow and move out or you may spook them and then forget it anyway. Better to be safe than sorry if your electronics aren't working (or even if they are). Listen to your heart (instead of your bro's) next time and you'll get em. You say you don't have them figured out........ sounds to me like you do... you just need to go out and execute the plan you have in your mind.

Sounds like the Bills (Beck & Babler) didn't catch any bigger fish with it yesterday than they probably would have with a 4" grub though. I guess the key is... you have to get it in front of a bigger fish with any lure. I imagine that you might have a better chance at getting one to bite with the swimbait though. So they say anyway. To speak for myself... I don't mind catching 2.5 to 3.5lb fish all day. Of course, I wouldn't mind catching a 4+ once in awhile though.

You know... you are right echo... I always wonder why Stockton is different, but I haven't been able to do well with the water way up there since I can hardly remember. It seems like if the water is either really high or really low at Stockton the fishing is awful. It doesn't make sense to me either. I almost always hammer them at Stockton with the water close to normal pool, but if it is more than 5 feet up or down, forget about it. Yeah the fishing at TR is as good as I've seen it in a long time... I think I'll stick to it for the Spring season anyway. Then, when the boat traffic gets unbearable and all the idiots (boaters and jet skiers with no respect for anybody) start coming out of the woodwork, I will change over to Stockton. Good luck on the water.

Sounds like a big swimbait to me...

Vernon, If you run into a mess over there, you can always go over to Mill Creek and launch. I know you said you only needed to launch once so it shouldn't be an issue, but if something happens and you need to launch and fish-- then take out, it would be the place to go. Thats where I have been launching and, even with that big tourney about 3 weeks ago, there was no problem getting launched and finding a place to park your rig. Except for that day, even though it was fine even then, there has been plenty of space over there for the past few months anytime we have gone. The launch dock is underwater but, with a little care, you can get your driver picked up with no problem because the slope is steep at the bank. Good luck! P.S. Swim grubs slowly deep out off of main lake points and you should catch em. When you find them they will be all bunched up, so keep after them when you do.

Thanks for the info guys. Great detail echo. That kind of stuff is helpful... gives me a picture of exactly what is going on up there. I have been itching to try it. I love bass fishing at Stockton. You don't get all of the crowds and hubbub that you do at Table Rock... just good fishing. Table Rock has just been too good lately for me to come up there though. Maybe I'll try it in the next few weeks or so. I will give a report when I do. Good luck on the water.

Good luck tomorrow Trav. Go get'em. Swim that grub sloooooooowwwwwwwwwww.

What are the water temps up there at Stockton?

Pepperoni pizza color... would that be yellow/orange with red dots? We caught em on Smoke yesterday. Yeah. Just try any shade that resembles a shad color when swimmin em off the bottom.

Color = Smoke Size = 4"

Thanks. It was fun. Not quite the numbers or size that some of the guides were reporting last week... but pretty decent for us. No telling how good we would have done if we had some more wind. Right... no problem holding the boat in the light breeze that we got though. We fished the middle of the day for about 6 hours. We caught them on the second point we jumped on. We really worked it over for a long time until they quit biting. Then fished two more with nothing. On the next one we hammered them again and stayed a long time again. Then the next one we caught, I think 4-5. Then fished two more with nothing, and after that we went back to the first one we caught them on and caught more. Then went to the second one we caught them on and caught them real well there again. We figured there were more there on those two than we were catching, so we let them settle down and came back and caught more. We fished a couple more later with nothing. So really we caught most of our fish on three points and fished 6 or 7 others and didn't catch a fish on them. So we really had to stay and milk them if we found them and leave quickly if we didn't get bit. They were either there in a big way and very catchable or they weren't there at all. Hope this info helps. Whack'em

As Mr. Babler wrote in post a month or so ago.... "Sometimes you're the windshield, sometimes you're the bug." Apparently there were alot of guys today who were bugs, but believe it or not me and my dad were the windshield today. Fished the Kimberling City area on main lake points. It was just like everybody was saying a few days ago-- depending on which point we pulled up on, we either caught 0 or a bunch. We caught them all swimming a grub-- counting them down. We would start out about 2 casts from the brush and fish around the point-- counting to 10 and then if we didn't catch em counting to 15, then deeper, then bottom-- until we found them. If we didn't find them like that 2 casts out, we would move in to a cast and a half and repeat fishing the various depths again. If we didn't catch them then, we would move in and cast just outside the edge of the brush and counted down again. We caught fish at various distances from the brush, depending on which point we were on. Most fish came swimming at a 10-15 count down and then slow rolling the grub all the way back to the boat. Like I said though, depending on which point we were on, we either caught 0 or a bunch. We caught 24 fish with approx 75% keepers-- all released unharmed of course. The five biggest would have been 15-16 lbs. Mostly SM with K mixed in and one 3.5lb LM up close to the brush on the fall. Man, I forgot just how hard a 2.5 to 3.5lb smallmouth pulls. We caught alot of those. That was fun. Even though there was little wind... the points that we caught them on had what little wind there was blowing right in on them. Oh, and a bonus-- I caught 1 nice fat 13" crappie, 1 good sized white bass, and 3 goggle eye-- one bigger than my outstretched hand. It was a great day... nice to see the smile on my dad's (my favorite fishing patner) face. I can't wait to go again! Thanks alot to all of the guides and guys on here that have shared with us your knowlege and experiences... especially Mr. Babler. Like I said before, it gives us a running start... and we ran with it. Good luck on the water! Whack'em

Congrats on good fishing guys. Hey... I went to High School with Shane Long (2nd place). Congrats Shane (if you're out there reading). Lance Knight

Now THAT'S telling it like it is Crappie!!! Way to go man. Like everyone is saying... nothing personal and easily forgiven. Just a bunch of good guys here... nobody should get riled up or take anything personal on here... like Lilley said. No biggie. We've all done it to some extent... not quite the extent that you did though (just kidding ). Good luck on the water.

Way to go!!! I am going tomorrow myself and, like you, I hope to profit from all of the great FREE (by the way ) help that all of these great guides give the average fisherman like you and me.

You are right on Mr. Lilley! Everyone knows there is not a nicer guy than Mr. Babler. Can't blame him for calling it like he sees it. Guys that think they own the lake and can cut people off and disrespect other people like that need to be taught a lesson. Way to go Mr. Babler... thats a win for the good guys!!! P.S. Thanks for the great report Mr. Babler and congrats on the great day! I am going tomorrow, and I will be happy if I have 1/10th as good of a day as you had today.

Congrats on your retirement. My grandpa worked the railroad for MKT in Kansas for years. Good to hear about the fix. Yeah, I stay off the water when any bad weather threatens too. Its just not smart to risk it. Good luck next week on the water.

By working class... you mean me. Sorry to hear about the problem. Good luck with remedying the situation. Then get back out there and get'em.

Good report Gobbler... and sounded like good fun! Thanks for the info. I am hoping to maybe try it this weekend.

Way to go Gary. Nice to hear.

Wow. Awesome info Mr. B. Thank you very much. As always, you are the man. I am going Saturday and am looking forward to getting after it with the running start you have given me. Great stuff. You are a huge asset to those of us who are just average fisherman and need a little help. Good fishing. Lance. P.S. I agree with tkite... What an awesome guide trip you have done for that lady and her husband. Top of the line.