Bill Babler

Neighbor and I got out yesterday afternoon at SK. second creek we went in Eric Olliverson had a 3 party trip. I yelled over at him and he waves me in saying there is a school of big LM in a dock size area his clients are fishing. Friggin does not hesitate to invite us in. Best fish this one a shade under 5 lbs. Fat as a pig. I asked about 5 other locations and he said he had been in all 5 today. Guy is just a total HAMMER. We ended up with about 20 in 3 different locations. They were deep for us 60 plus feet. Surface temp at SK 54/55 degree, late in the day. Caught everything on an Armor Shad 1/2 oz. Tungsten ball head.

Unfortunately, side scan and LiveScope opened this up. Used to see it on 2D but mostly just thought they were Gizzard Shad. LiveScope you can tell exactly what you’re looking at and follow them. Really hard for schools of fish to hide. Whole new world. Kind of like shooting docks totally changed everything. Watch some of Mike Baker’s videos trolling open water on both Lake O. and Truman. You can also watch his videos of Scoping open water this time of year. I know he shot one fishing Proctor Creek on Lake of the Ozarks that is full of information. He didn’t say the creek, but up the river and I knew the location immediately. He just whaled the tar out of huge Winter crappie that were just suspended over nothing. Baker’s crappie videos are the absolute best. He is also a catfish rod and reel hammer.

SlabSeeker, I heard Mike Baker say he thought only 10% of crappie on a body of water related to structure. I’m not that proficient on specks to know, but this time of year on the Rock they seem to roam in large schools in open water. Up the James in the Peach Orchard area clear to the Flat creek bridge there are and will be in the next couple of months school after school in open water. Up the White in the creeks they are also roaming. I know Mike catches them in open water on Lake O. And Truman. I have also seen them on Stockton, or below any of our dams.

Since we now live at Shell Knob I do fish from Baxter up the river to Arkansas more. Living at the dam for 20 years and guiding down there kept me on the lower end of the lake. I started my guide business out of SK many moons ago so there has always be a place in my heart for the upper end. I have always however fished the Eagle Rock area in Winter and early Spring. Very seldom do you catch a fish with a hook hole in his mouth above Roaring River. Out of Baxter I’ve had days that 90% of the fish I’ve caught had previously been caught and released. I really like the solitude up there. There was just Tom and I at the ramp at Eagle Rock and one small aluminum boat. On a completely BRIGHT NOTE, I found a roll off I had never fished covered with another stump row with some nice LM on it. Not huge yesterday but nice fun 16” to 18” fish. From Owl Creek up past Beaver Town and that’s a lot of water, there are stump and fence rows right along the channel in lots of locations and regardless of time of year they always hold fish. At times not friendly fish but other times hungry fish. I have put way to many hours on my motors over the years looking for and at these areas, with 2D and side scan. I know I don’t have as many as Randy, but I’ve got 10/15 plus solid offshore stump rows and then added a dandy yesterday. Here is the kicker, I found it at 50 mph on the Garmin 2D. The Garmin with the GT8 records bottom in amazing clarity at high speed. I’ve been over that spot 100’s of times but for some reason it just popped up as I was blasting along. I hit a waypoint, slammed on the brakes and went back. Probably a 50 yard stretch, 22’ that plunged into 50’ covered with stumps all in a row They bit decent there, had 4 keepers but there were several dozen fish on the location. In the famous words of Arnold S. “I’ll be back”.

Great day👏👏👏

Mid December White River fishing report Had just a super morning out of Eagle Rock. Fished up to the Arkansas line and then back down stream to the mouth of Rock Creek. 27 bass, all LM and almost all on A-rig. They are not that deep up there, most all are under 23’. They are on the roll offs right where the flats dump into the channel. If there is structure that’s a positive. At times you will be in the middle of the lake, but only in 15’ to 25’ of water. Surface temp 48/49 degrees and just flat out very, very few shad. Fished a spot I really like in a creek, and caught 5 nice crappie in about 30 minutes. There were schools of them suspended in 12’ to 15’ of water. Could have caught a limit but I don’t freeze fish. 5 for Becky and I are really to many as she has a one skillet rule. Beautiful 65 degree December day with no wind.

Looks like you had em worming big time. Congrats.

Agreed. 👍 if I swam the spoon or the Keitech thru the shad or let it drop thru they were not interested. If I threw past the shad and brought it through the suspended K’s they went nuts over it. You would have perhaps thought that dropping it through the shad like an injured shad would have triggered them. Nope.

Don’t know how it is anymore, but networking between guides represented a huge part of their success. Loving, Tim Paige, Beck, Chris Tetrick, Pete were all ready to share back in the day. James mentioned Tim Sainato, not so much there. Timmy played it pretty close to the vest. Always happy with any info. You could give him however😂😂😂 I got so lucky yesterday and stumbled into a total load of just those big ole grey /green K’s. Just because people can’t catch them doesn’t mean there is a lake wide shortage of 15+ inch spotted bass. Ran into a gentleman at the ramp when I was pulling out. His boat setup made my electronics gear look like an old bird flasher. It was getting dark and said he had been out since daylight and caught only 4 fish all day. Said he just bought a house here but the fishing was so poor he was considering selling it. Didn’t show him my thumb. 70% of the fish weighed in at Table R. Tournaments are legal 15” plus spotted bass. They are truly a resource that few lakes have and should be cherished. Those big old fat 16/18” K’s provided this old man with an afternoon I’ll not soon forget Had one run me under the boat from right to left, jump twice on the back side of the boat then wrap around the trolling motor and break off. I got the giggles at my clown show and gave her a big salute. We have just had an August thru November fishery that this lake has not seen in 30 plus years. Even in the 90’s we didn’t catch September fish like this year. Don’t touch this pond. It ain’t broke. Sorry to ramble on your thread Dock.

Neighbor and I launched at Viola at 0700 to surface temps of 61 degrees. Found but a smattering of shad and less than a smattering of fish. We basically couldn’t catch a cold in an Elementary School. Fished the Kings till 11 am and ended with less than a dozen with one solid keep. All out of piles. Where in the Beggebers 10 million shad went I have no idea. He had to go in and I was not about taking defeat lightly so I relaunched at H. Took about an hour but I lucked into the mama load of pig K’s. Just wolf pack after wolf pack. Top of the water column right under shad schools. Yep I found the buffet and it was open. Don’t know that I had over 1/2 dozen shorts and to many keeps to count without a clicker. 1/2 oz. Dixie Jet and 2.8” Keitech did the deed. Biggest at a modest 2.29 but action was Smokin Hot. Thumb took a real beating. Surface temps at Baxter to Campbell Pt. 63.5.

First, I have not been out. Going tomorrow but from what I’m hearing from folks that are out everyday there are several good ways to capture them. Most reports on surface temps in the mid to upper White River are running from lows of 63 to highs of 67 degrees. The lake is so full of forage ie shad its incredible. Flutter spoon, jigging spoon, 2.8” Keitech and of course the dreaded jighead minnow for the deep fish. Dock totally nailed it in his report. There is bait in the main lake and also at the mouth of the major creeks. The shad have not moved into the backs of the creek guts yet. Dock nailed it with his pre and post spawn locations along with the channels. Crappie fishing seems to be very good around docks and over the tops of piles. Eric Olliverson is pounding them along with bass. That dude has been on them all year. Lots of happy clients. Neighbor is just hammering the bass up the King’s near the surface early and then 30’ on the big run outs. His best bait by far has been a spin bait early or the white 1/2 oz. Dixie Jet jigging spoon later or just to throw at chasers. Last year the guides at the dam were using a Berkley Finisher. It was the first strong year here for that bait. From what I’m hearing they are on it again. I’ll try it tomorrow if I get out. I just totally hammered them at Eagle Rock last Winter on this bait. It’s bad the bone. My neighbor is extremely conservative on his fish counts and he is catching 50 plus a morning from 7 till noon. Mostly K’s. There is however a jig bite shallow if you want to go that route. On the jig he has been catching LM not big but solid 2 plus pounders. He is like me and prefers looking at them so he is staying out off the bank with the deep junk. Hope to have a first hand report soon.

I’m going to go clear back to the 90’s when there was timber in the Kings. I had been fishing King’s River Beach area which is the long stretch prior to the Blue Hole. It was a topwater paradise with 3 to 6 lb. LM chasing shad in the channel and through the trees. Spoon , spook and fin This was happening during the Champion derby. Can’t even begin to tell you how many guys ran through those monster bass chasing on the surface to get to somewhere. I’m home out of the deer woods.

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.