Bill Babler

Let me reiterate I’ve never caught fish in September and early to Mid-October like I have this year. Today they were back on the channel swing Locations with the wind, 15’ to 35 feet completely thru the water column. Caught them on a flutter spoon and a 2.8” Keitech in Gizzard Shad. About 10 am they went to the bottom and we started dragging a 1/2oz. FB jig. They simply ate it up. Since Bo has passed I can get away with strolling the FB jig. This time of year that technique is deadly. Neighbor and I had so many 15” to 17” K’s today it was insane. Don’t know if you follow Eric Olliverson but that dude is hammering them. Walleye, K’s and Jaws. Looks to me like he is fishing the dam. I know he has been taking 3 trips a day. If you want to get healed in a hurry and see where they live. I’d see if he has an opening. I know he is mostly fishing crawlers to catch that many walleye, but regardless it would be a total blast. Surface temp at Shell Knob was 77 when we put it on the trailer with 6-8 ft. Visibility. If they’re not on the swings in the morning we’ll go back to the piles and lay downs. The-wind helped us today.

That’s very true. No reason with the exception of perhaps a clean up problem or the old stand by of drug sales. From what I can pick up at this point the camp ground was in excess of 100 acres. With all 100 acres being lake front property on both the White River and Viney Creek. It had 43 camp sites with both electricity and water to all the sites. In today’s lake front property market I probably guessed lite at 10 million. Truly one of the most beautiful locations on Table Rock Lake.

Last time they put boulders in front of Viney Creek and H. hiway Closed Viney permanently but removed them from H. At the town hall meeting they said there was just not enough traffic to keep Viney open. Two ramps, the back ramp was the best That Viney Creek point is worth 10 million. Water front both sides. If it was developed with water and sewer. 1 acre lots would sell out in a year at $175.000.00 @. I really miss it. Then they spent a total fortune at Sweetwater and there may be 1 or 2 rigs there a week. Most days nothing. Also heard there have been some truck break in at Sweetwater. If you launch there leave nothing in your rig.

On another note there were deer running all over the shoreline and in the yards. Becky said they were at least 1/2 dozen come thru our yard today while I was fishing. This is my last week to fish for a while. Headed to Camdenton and the farm on Sunday after Church till November 1. Home for a week and then back up till after rifle season. Guys you need to be on the water, just not between point 9 and Campbell Point. 😂😂😂

They were biting, we both found them. I caught mine between the Kings River and Carter Creek. Sounds like you were a bit further up. Another friend fishing up our way caught them good on a frog. He had some nice LM. up around Eagle Rock. San Souci up the White is very good right now, I’m guessing clear past Holiday Island. I maybe saw 2 blowups all these fish were not pressing the surface, just hammering the bait at depth. I had some real toad Ky’s today. Hope like heck that we can let them live.

Lots and lots of folks are telling me they just will not bite from point 9 to Campbell Point. I was out to prove them wrong today. Launched out of Baxter at 6:50. It was still pretty dark. I fished the Big and Little Indian a bit and then headed down stream a bit and then up towards CP. Spent 3.5 hours, deep, shallow brush piles and every thing I could think of and never had a single bite. Nothing else to do today, I’m retired. I headed to the White above Shell Knob. One of Bill Becks favorite saying was when bass fishing it’s not necessarily what your using but where your using it. Got above the Kings River and it was a totally different world. Was going to start on a long flat point with a pile on it in about 18’. Stopped the boat in 50’ and when I dumped the troller in the scope and the 2D just flat blacked out. Solid shad from the surface to about 35’. I fished a 200 yard flat point for 4 hours and I’m simply toast. The entire area was just covered with bait and fish. Huge balls of shad with holes in the middle with bass by the dozens in the shad schools, just incredible. Spoon and a fluke. Good buddy said they had been hitting it better than a swim bait and he was right. I could not get them to touch a Keitech or a C-tail. If they were within 15’ of the surface I’d use the fluke. If they were deeper, the Dixie Jet. Have no idea on totally fish, I would have needed a clicker. I’m guessing 20 plus keeps. Best fish a 3 pound LM. Surface temp at 77.8 both in and out. 5’ to 8’ visibility. I brought a school of fish out of one of the shad balls and there were at least 30 in it. They buzzed around the boat no more than 2’ to 5’ deep and gobbled every shad the one I had hooked spit up. It was insane. My boat looks I was netting shad for cat fishing. It’s a really good mess. By far the best September and October I’ve had on the Rock in 50 years and that’s a lot of fishin. On another note, they ain’t bitin between Point 9 and Campbell Point.

Enjoyed it Dave. I subscribed and liked. Keep em coming.

Got out for 3 hours this morning and all the channel swing fish are GONE. Looked like a waste land. Steven and I last weekend caught fish out of piles so after I wasted an hour on the deep fish, I started on the downed logs and piles It was surprisingly really good. Caught about 20 with 5 keepers. Never lost a fish, but no monsters either. Everything was old school Texas Rig 7” worm with the hook buried. Surface temps at 75 this morning and still the same when I jerked out the tub. Quite a few fishermen out of both the SK ramp and Viola today. Here is the type of stuff I fished today. Lots of lay downs and some limbs that property owners toss in. Fish on really every location, but only had a couple of hours to poke around. 6’ to 15’ was ideal. Good Luck

Campbell Point is a BEAR to back in. Front truck tires have to be in the water. If you have a buddy it’s ok but by yourself you’re going to get wet. The Marina hosts the weighin, there is no way the launch facility could do it as the ramp is terrible and there is no boat parking access as the launch dock is really a one boat dock. Also, they covered the entire shoreline with huge boulder riprap so that’s out. Quite a few launched there but the SK bridge ramp was the main launch for the derby. 6 minutes to CP Steven and I launched at H Hwy. We were the only truck at the ramp. 6 minute run to CP. The guys that won last year skunked. Fish were biting but just limited size. Over 1/2 the field didn’t show up at the weigh in. Everyone showed up at the steak dinner 😁 Steven and I waded thru 50 + fish to nab 5 keeps. Glad we did as he doesn’t get to fish much and he had a ball just catching fish. Pleasure boat traffic in the SK Baxter area Saturday was totally insane with wake boats and big Cobalts all over. Warm water and a beautiful day had them enjoying early Fall weather. Results are usually only posted in the Rattler and it takes 2 weeks. Not this coming Thursday but the following one. Ya’ll come fish next year.

10-4-25 Son Steve and I fished the HSD out of Campbell Point it is the longest running Bass Tournament in the country. This was its 57 th. Consecutive year. 39 boats this year. We came in 5 th. Stringer 10.14 and 5th. Big bass 3.9. 15.02 won the derby and 3.14 was big bass. It’s 6 fish so that’s why it didn’t take a kicker. There is absolutely no more fun I could possibly have than fishing with Steven in this event that helps the SK Chamber. Fantastic steak dinner afterwards and thousands of dollars in donated giveaways. I probably blew it for us as far as winning by just watching Steve catch fish. We stayed on our first location for 2.5 hours as I netted 24 fish for Steven and not a single keeper. The channel Swings up the Kings River are simply loaded with fish and I’ve been catching some nice 15” to 17” on them but yesterday they just would not hit the mark on the board. No dad is leaving a location when their kid is catching fish like that no matter what the size. He was having a BLAST. Surface temp when we started was 79 and at 4 when we weighed in it was 83. That’s warm water and there were boats everywhere. The wake boats ran us off the deep bite as we were taking waves over the side, glad it did as we didn’t have a fish in the livewell. At 9:45 Steve put the 3.9 in the boat on a Texas rig worm out of a brush pike and we did that the rest of the day to catch our 5. We each lost 2 keepers so we easily could have had our 6. Steve had a really nice LM jump twice and go back down in a pile and we lost it. Probably just about like his 3.9 and I did not fish clean at all. I back lashed 2 reels spooning deep fish and accidentally hit the release button TWICE. If you say you haven’t done that I don’t believe you. But twice in one day SHEEEE! I also had 2 solid keeps jump off so totally my fault. We caught in excess of 50 fish yesterday and if it had been Father’s Day I could not have had a better present. Homer Sloan Bass Buddy Tournament is always the first Saturday in October. It is FUN. If there is anyway you can come next year with a family member or a good buddy, you will make memories. Please join us for this wonderful Table Rock, Shell Knob event. Good Luck.

DADAKOTA. I’ve only used mine on clear water but there are videos out there of guys using it on water you could walk on and the pictures are as good as mine. There is a guide in Kansas doing Garmin videos of crappie showing how to adjust LiveScope and the water if you can call it that is Red Mud Look at some of the Mike Baker videos on Truman when the lake is mud wall to wall and his pic’s are amazing. You can see a 1/16 th.. oz. Crappie jig drop right thru the tree limbs to suspended crappie in the branches. Water has maybe 6” to a ft. of visibility. You can see the tails of the crappie going back and forth. I’m very fortunate I’ve had some pro’s help set me up and with what I’ve garnered online and now looking at it for 3 years, I’m pretty dialed in. If the fish are moving at all I can see their tails swimming. Good luck and keep tinkering with it.

You could take all I know about fishing Table Rock, put it in a 1 gallon milk jug and still have room for the gallon of milk. Yesterday was a good example. I’m looking for a few bigger fish than I’m currently catching on channel swings, so I started checking deep trees, docks and conservation piles The fish were set up so differently than I had ever seen. Piles, multiple limbed cedars held crappie and gills. The gills were in the piles or inside the limbs of the cedars and the crappie were sitting directly on top, or on the up stream top sides of the cover. If crappie or gills were present there were no bass You saw my pictures of the gills Becky caught a couple of weeks ago, these were just as big as those. Caught 4 on an A-rig Caught 6 crappie, they were just giants also on an A-rig. Most all at 15’ to 22’ suspended over depth. Bass were on either pole timber or sparsely limbed big trees, locked right on the limbs or trunks at that same 15’ to 22’ range over depth. You could count everyone of them on LiveScope and if there were multiple fish they would bite. If they were singles nada. I had never seen this type of separation between the species before or how different they were relating to structure. As far as the docks, there were smaller gills stacked under the docks I checked. Not many crappie and very few bass. The bass mostly were suspended on the dock anchor cables and again if there were just one or two they had no appetite. If there were several I could trick one or two. They were not schooled on the cable they were stair stepped along it No biggins but I learn something new every time I turn on the LiveScope.

Couldn’t keep them off an A-rig yesterday around Shell Knob. First day I’ve thrown it much. Caught several GIANTS. I was using a 2.8” Keitech on the rig fishing conservation piles and cedars. They usually don’t like that size bait so if you would use minnows or small jigs you could catch some. They were suspended at exactly 15’ over the tops of the cedars or the deeper piles. Without saying FFS is the key. Good Luck.

Fishing on the upper White has been excellent this year. Top water has been good to great and there is always a jig bite and a swimbait bite. Sorry however on the Small Jaws, seems to me Rock Creek is the cut-off. Yes there are some everywhere but less and less above Campbell Point. Did catch my biggest ever right across from Big M 6.1 pounds. That was 20 years ago. Unlike Crazy4 fishin, there was a crowd at Shell Knob. All the ramps including Viola were full to over capacity. Unlike past years however no one seemed to cut people off. Most all the tournament guys were fishing dirt. Over and over. Neighbor had 40 fish Sunday with one over 4 pounds and he said 15 solid keeps Where we are fishing you would have to have a deer rifle to hit the bank. They have been on these channel swings for months, along with millions and millions of shad. Although it’s off the bank we’re still fishing 15’ to 22’. Going to fish the Homer Sloan charity event Saturday with my son. Of course they will just vanish on Saturday but he right back there on Sunday. Durn Wacky fish.

You’re right there. Long flat points back toward point 9. Look for surfacing activity. Fish have been under 25’ all year. Have not been up the river in a while but last time up there we caught them decent 15’ on the points on a 1/2 oz. Jig. Don’t know if the 5 plus inches of rain muddied up the river or not. Will be cleared out if it did by next weekend. You should have a good trip. Be careful up there if you throw a glide bait, the James River gar absolutely love them.

IMG_0782.mov Still really moving and Red Clay Mud. I was doing pretty well up there but this is going to put the brakes on that. I’ll see how bad it is Monday after the silliness this weekend is over.

Jeff a buddy and I have came down a couple of times for that and never really hit it big. A friend of his is a BL guide of many years and has taken us persona non grata. Always tells us we should have been there yesterday. He said 60-65 degree water is the key. If you get on it let me know if you would. Seems to me, it’s usually almost November before it really explodes, so to speak😁

Don’t know what this will do. Man the SK area has been fishing well for September. Was kind of hoping this pattern would continue for the Annual Homer Sloan charity tournament on October 4 but I’ve got a feeling it’s gong to mud me up. Not to mention all the pressure from the YBB bash. We had exactly 5” here at Hobbs Hollow with a little more to the South so I’m thinking from 916 it will at least go to 918 plus.

They’re already here. Both SK and Viola ramps were toast yesterday. Kind of funny. These guys out flipping every down log trying to sore mouth any fish they can find. You flip shallow cover now and go back and try to catch those same fish, your looking for fools gold.

Little more research last nite. A Tennessee studies show that if oxygen levels are sufficient it’s not uncommon for crayfish to be as deep as 30’. Cover is also important so I’m guessing I shouldn’t be surprised we are catching deep fish that are foraging in crayfish. I think it’s kind of like a bobcat, he would jump over 2 rabbits to eat one quail. I’d run around a chicken breast for a ribeye. Even with a million shad a bass is swimming in, if he can get lobster he is going to do it.

Just spoke to Phil Stone and he said there are massive schools of shad in the dam LongCreek area also. All sizes He said he has also found some really good September fishing with schools of bass following the shad schools in that dam area. Pretty similar to what we’re finding up here. Even with all those shad, the last few days the bass are simply full of small crayfish. Our forage base here with all the gills, shad of every size imaginable and fish that are bulging with bellies full of crawdads makes for lots of good times. I simply don’t know the feeding patterns, but we’re catching suspended fish at depth of 30’ to no bottom and yet they are spitting and pooping crawfish. I’ve had my dive buddies tell me they have seen crayfish all over the deep trees. I can’t believe these schools of deep fish are running to the bank to catch them. Be a good question for the Biologist. I’m guessing however they may not know.

Well, it should be tough on the Rock in September, always has been. Not so much this year. Surface temp at 6:30 at Shell Knob 82 degrees. Water clarity maybe 3’. Neighbor and I boated close to 70 this morning with a 1/2oz. Dixie Jet jigging spoon being the main culprit. 16 pounds best 5. We would still be catching but it just flat got to hot to be out there with no breeze. Lots of chasing but they didn’t want topwater or a swimbait. I used a white spoon and he used chrome. No difference. We casted it, fluttered it, jerked it and reeled it fast. Depending on where they were in the water column. Every presentation worked. We only fished 3 locations in 5 hours. In all my years I’ve never seen the amount of shad we were around today. Millions of them from dime size to 6” gizzards and every size threadfin in between. This has been by far the best September fishing I’ve ever had on the Rock.

Becky thought she had a bass when she caught it. Durn thing pulled drag. It was really thick, as big or bigger than 90% of the goggle eye I get lucky to catch. Getting ready to meet the neighbor for another morning of bass chasing. Hope they still like us.

Randy I did, but really didn’t need to. She also caught several really nice K’s and I caught a beautiful 22” walleye. It was his lucky day as we were just after the gills and I won’t freeze fish. Next man up can catch him. Or, maybe her. No LiveScope required. Table Rock Bass Report 9-17-25 Surface temp 80 degree 3’ visibility in the Shell Knob area On another note while we were on the gills, good buddy was just hammering the bass. He had over 60 with 20 keeps. No monsters best 5 14 pounds I went and checked out his spot this morning and he was not blowing smoke, it was a total slugfest. Hooked one on top and it spit a shad forward. Fish came off and grabbed the shad on the way back down. I’ve never had that happen. I’ve had others grab it but never the one I had hooked. I about fell out of the boat laughing. That fish was HUNGRY. Caught this short walleye on a spoon but another crazy deal. There were fish chasing on top in 50’. I saw a bust and heaved the Dixie Jet jigging spoon at the circle. It didn’t drop a foot and a fish hammered it. You guessed it, it was this 16” walleye. I’m pretty sure it was lost or just trying to get a tan. They’re biting guys.

No, thought about it but it was so durn hot with zero breeze my fair haired wife just wanted to get her gill fillets and get out of that heat. As you can see from the fillets they were just Monsters. I had 4 fillets and she only had 3 for supper, along with homemade 3 cheese broccoli casserole with bacon topping and cornbread.