Bill Babler

Hope you educated a few.

Here is the deal, I think everywhere is fishing fantastic right now. My clients that caught the walleye yesterday fished Sunday and Monday on Truman. Limited on Sunday on crappie with spider rigs and then caught blue cats Monday till they got sick of it. Trolling and drifting shad and perch heads on bottom bouncers. Limited on crappie in under 2 hrs. and said they had 30-40 blue cat up to 28 pounds with lots of them in the slot. Good Buddy on Lake O said its on fire on a big red worm. Had 3 over 7 last night and several 4 pounders to go with them. Said day time dock fishing away from the traffic is also really good. Spooks on the dock ends and jigs and big worms around in the shade. Good time to be on a vacation in Missouri

This thread will soon require Hip Boots to read

White River Outfitters Guide Service Table Rock Lake Fishing Report 7-11-18 White River Arm Getting so you have to kick them out of the way to get a bass bite. Crank baits, jigs drop shot, spoons both flutter and jigging. Flats, docks deep trees, the rascals are just about everywhere this year. We had 1/2 a dozen this morning on the above baits in the above locations. Really great to see them doing well. We broke off another 2 or 3 fish on the lite line and I'm guessing they were also Eye's as there was no reason for the line to break, it was cut. Fished Campbell Pt. today and the bite is still simply unreal as just about any location that has 28' of water on it will be holding fish. Not seeing any type of top water, but the fish are just simply ganged at the thermocline, witch is still at the 28' mark or there about. Fish are both suspended and on the bottom. There is a very good roll off between Baxter and CP that the locals call Eagles Roost. It is a gentle gravel run that has an abrupt very fast dump into the channel One of those deals that 200 yds. off the bank you are in 30' on the front of your boat and the back of the boat is in 70' Fish were stacked on the bottom at the 30' mark and then another 100 ft. out in the 100 plus foot water they were setting out there suspended at the same 30' Unlike a lot of you I have not had to have bait in the area, they are just setting on these steep channel roll offs. From one location to the other it is always different what they are spitting. Lots of crawfish and in some spots lots of shad. My guy today had been catching them on a shad shape worm. One of the fish he caught spit up a pretty fresh shad so we hooked it on. He caught 9 fish in 9 drops on the shad before it was completely used up. Best deal of the day is and this is going to be hard to believe but we only saw 2 other boats out fishing today. It's hot, but so is the fishing. Get out early, hydrate and catch them while it lasts, cause this deal just cannot go on forever.

Nice. Anyone getting a top water bite till 9 AM is my hero.

No, this thread is not a problem for either tournament fishermen or non- tournament guys or gals. It is just good solid information. The HP tip was a good one but a lot of the post has been discussed here previously. Seeing the big fish from the tournament yesterday probably made us all think of fish care in the extreme heat of the summer. I for one appreciated the post. Good Luck

Surface temps 84 to 88 degree lake wide with clarity from 10 to 16 feet depending on location and light penetration. Really this report is very similar to last weeks marathon post so I'm not going there again for a while. They are biting. Most fish are in the 22' to 45' range on the bottom, on structure or just over depth. Again, have not seen this continued bite for quite some time. Thermocline is staying at the 26 to 28 ft. range and they are liking it down there when the sun gets on the water. Bite is by far best early and for me not much topwater and would really rather have the sun on the water early as it positions the fish faster. On cloudy days it takes them a while to group and suspend in the strike zone and its just easier if I'm fishing to a wad of them. Walleye bite has gotten better week by week, and they are durn near the point where a guy can say he or she is going to catch a couple everyday if you try and target them. Swimbait bite has cooled somewhat but the drop shot bite is maybe better as they are tighter to depth and tighter together. When they were spread out at depth and distance apart the grub or swimbait bite was ideal as it covered larger portions of the water column and also larger surface areas of water. Buster Loving was fishing Shell Knob yesterday and related to me a story about catching and not catching. Of course his clients were just hammering them, fishing up and down with a Chomper's worm. There were some guys in a power pole boat watching and they kept switching and switching trying to figure out how to catch them. Here is the deal, they had their poles down and were fishing a hump with the top of the hump visible. Buster was setting in 70ft. to 90ft. over nothing but deep clear water. Buster's clients were laughing and hooping and hollering so much these guys finely left. Couple of things here, guide boats are easy to determine, look at where they are fishing and what they are doing if you come across one. Go try a similar place. These fish are on lots of similar places right now, and most of them are over 10' deep. On any of the White River lakes, if you think you need the bottom or structure to catch bass, I have failed miserably in my 20 yrs. here telling you, you don't Good Luck View full article

Started at 6 the last couple of mornings out of Lilley's to a lite fog and a lot of fish. Methods have pretty much been the same with the jig and float technique only using the power worm. Orange and Pink seem to be the best colors and really I can't tell the difference. One thing you can tell the difference on however is leader length. I'm using 9' and it is a game changer over 5' to 7' when there is any sun on the water. Fished on either an 8' spinning rod or a fly rod it fishes that length with no problem. On a shorter rod it would be a challenge. No heaver than 6X on the leader. Did not take pic's but MDC put some huge stockers in the pond. If Phil were home I would be getting some raised eyebrows from the size of fish we are cleaning. Lots of these true purple just stocked fish are running from 15" to 17". Don't know the rest of the story, but these are fresh fish and they are super nice. After years of looking at them, its easy to tell the fresh stockers, they are almost purple in hue and look almost exactly alike regardless of length. Fish seem to be thick from Lilley's thru the 65 bridge, but it is an early bite, even with the extended leader. When the boats get running and the sun hits by 9 AM you are about to reach your end time until evening. Remember depth and shade are your summertime friends. Don't have a handle on wade fishing the upper end or any restricted zone fishing so perhaps Duane and Jester will let us know the total rest of the story. Good Luck

Nice report thanks.

I told my guys for tomorrow trip was 5:30 till 8:30 take it or leave it. Don't matter to me. Heat and wake boat schedule

Don't drink the water

Great info that will work on location nite or day

What he said.

I think your ok. We went to Flat Creek last Saturday for Prime Rib and there were rigs there. I however did not look at trailer size so they might have been small but there were several rigs parked by the ramp. You would be 500 times better off launching at the Marina if you only have a TM. Lots more fish down there. Please correct me If I'm wrong.

When you get that figured out as you have, you know that you have arrived. Congrats and continued good success

Marsha said you sent me a package. Thanks a bunch I will pick it up as soon as I can. I'm on the Rock for the next 10 days or so. Much appreciated.

Walleye have really been biting up the White this year, were catching several a day on swimbaits and also missing some. Kind of like Rangerman said a lot of these are suspended in that 22 to 30 ft. thermocline area. Great report, you should also be catching some suspended bass with those toothy critters.

Wade fishing in the dam area and boat fishing in the Lower Restricted zone has still been very good early really just fantastic. Anything from the mega-worm, or size 14-16 scud or zebra midges are getting bit early and often. Lower restricted zone olive 1/2 micro's are going to get you bit and some of the guys are catching them really well on either pink 1/2 micros or pink midges in size 14. Short Creek Ramp to Cooper has been outstanding early 5:15 AM till about 8 AM on either the pink or orange Berkley Power worm. fishing it right on the bottom water is super clear. The stretch above the ramp from Cooper to Fall Creek is extremely shallow and the least bit of light that hits and that bite is pretty much over, you have to fish depth and shade right now with the lake clarity. Bait fishing is not as good as you would assume. For some reason power bait ie Gulp in orange and white is really out preforming crawlers. I'm guessing minnows would do well but have not heard of anyone trying them. I've been launching at the Cooper Creek Ramp every morning between 5 and 5:30 and there are usually a handful of guys fishing the dock. Most have limits and most of the fish are coming on PB as I said above. When I return to the dock at 10 AM that group of fishermen and it is usually a dozen or more that slept in, are catching absolutely nothing on anything they are trying. Point here is be in the early group as the bite now is pretty much done by 8-9 AM. Down Lake thru the Landing has been extremely hit and miss. I believe there are some schools of fish traveling but not just fish everywhere. A good searching tool has been a spoon, and when you find them you can sit on them and catch a few more. Most of these fish are extremely spooky and you have to continually be on the move. Its easy to tell as each time you move you catch a couple. I'm not talking about big moves maybe only 100 yrds or so, but keep moving for the best success. Surface temps have been running in the middle to high 40's early. Some days the generation is on by 10AM and other days its later. Duane may have a supplemental.

Man, I think that's pretty durn decent with 5 keeps and a couple over 3 lbs. Remember what I said in my post about Big Boy fishing, it is not the same in any way shape or form as guide fishing, swimming small swim baits and drop shot, not even in the same world. Ricky and I are fishing just about the same, and in the last two weeks our guide boats have caught and released over 1000 bass. In that period we have maybe had 1/2 a dozen combined, 3 lb or better fish, with nothing over 4 lbs. Not even with Ed and Al very seasoned anglers we only had maybe again 1/2 dozen at close to 3 lbs. That's on a jig, a big swim bait and a Lake Fork flutter spoon. Nope bassman, I think ya did good.

Durn Bo, that thing looks more than Deadly. Glad you got on I just knew there was something after dark going on down there. In the day the place is just a Horrible Zoo.

White River Outfitters Guide Service 6-27-18 That's a pretty big chunk of water I just bit off, and I'm even going to sweeten the deal going up the James to point 12. The are biting and I mean they are biting like I have not seen in the past 10-15 yrs. Sometimes not as fast but 6 out of 7 days if you want to, you can catch fish. I'm saying if you " WILL" fish like the fish want it and fish where the fish are, its easy to catch them. I don't do it everyday, some days and with some people mostly seasoned fishermen we make it hard on ourselves. If I have novice fishermen they catch them easy. If you want to drop shot any soft plastic or swim a Keitech fish are available. If you want to power fish yes, you can be successful, but sometimes you have to work a bit more at it. Surface temps have dropped to 83 degree but they will pop back up this week. We have a complete solid thermocline at 26' lake wide. There are fish off the flats, fish off the bluffends and fish suspended and on just about every major channel swing either just off suspended or on the bottom at the 30' mark. Only part of the lake would be called Super Hard from Long Creek to Point 5 Probably decent at night, but from what the Big Cedar guides are saying its miserable. Of course all they are doing is live bait fishing at depth on the same locations. Over and over and over and over. From Point 1 to Point 5 the whites have been blowing in the flat cove mouths most mornings. Its over by 6:15 at the latest so you need to get out there. Buster Loving has cleaned a zillion whites the past 3 weeks in that area. After the whites go down he is headed to deep trees and catching LM, and K's' suspended out of the tops at the thermocline and off some of the gravel in that same 26' to 35' range the same as Bobby is. By the way big shout out to Bobby for keeping us very well informed on the dam area. Lets take a big stroll here and go from Point 5 to point 12 on the James and that's a lot of Aqua, but still the same bite, if you want it. As usual this time of the year lake sections of fish group or school after the spawn and try to regain some flesh back after all the debauchery. You can hit 5 runnouts and nothing and then the 6th. will be completely covered. Be careful with the CPR as I said these are lake sections of fish. One day they will be on one spot and the next day there gone to another or just out loafing over depth. Early this week Rick Lisek had a 3 person trip and used a Chompers WMC drop shot worm up the James and they had 93 bass in a 4 hr. trip. He said at least 20 keepers maybe more as they didn't measure. All at the above mentioned depth, caught on the bottom mostly on gravel long points and runs in that 30' depth, or up suspended off the bottom. Had one of my good friend and client Ed Shawbaker out this last week and had easy 40 on a jig on gravel 26' right on the money. We were not throwing at the bank we sat in 26' and turned the boat bow toward the bank and fished a full drag in that depth and doubled on several as I spoke of earlier they were hard to detect, but were eating like pigs. Next day we threw the flutter spoon with James Atwood. threw the big Lake Fork and the Dixie, and they just waxed either. James got sick about 1/2 way thru the morning but I'm guessing we had 25 at least all on the spoons prior to " The Big time Potty Break." Most all were LM and most all were keeps. Day before yesterday we fished from KC to just above Baxter and it was the same deal only I picked up a tip from Quill instead of drop shot we swam the Keitech thru the suspended fish, again at that same 26' mark and caught fish after fish, it was completely silly. Yesterday I fished from Viola to Big M and again swam the Keitech. I believe the guys said we had 80 total it was stupid. Most of the time swimming the Keitech boat is in 60' to 70' to target these fish holding in the 30' range, usually about 1/2 way back. I will tell you I could have sat on them with the drop shot, but this is way, way more fun, and the bite on a single location will last much longer when you pull them from the school and drop them away from the school instead of just pulling them straight up and then dropping them straight back to rat you out to their buddies. Trick is you have to go slow and fish it thru the correct depth. If your not getting bit, your reeling it to fast. Back to my Ole Buddy Bill Beck here " Are you fishing it, or are you throwing it out and reeling it in?" As usual I should have listened to Champ much more closely as he put me on a fantastic head for this. I'm using the 3/8th. Wareagle with a 3.3 inch Keitech. The shad are exactly this size. If I try and use a 1/4 most of my clients do not have the patients to let it get down. The 3/8 gets there quicker and maintains the depth at a more even level. Depth is the key on these suspended fish. Easy for the DS but hard throwing and casting. I'm also swimming it on a heaver rod with 8lb. Maxi as I need the backbone to get them stuck 6'9" Cara T7 spinning rod with a Shimano Stradic. Sweet combo for this application with the big jig head and the heaver line. Just a bit much for the Squirrel tail It really likes the 1/8 to 1/4 up to 5/16. Even a better rig for this is the Cara T7 Cranker spooled with 10 lb. InvizX but not a ton of my folks can throw a B. Caster. Here is the deal on that Wareagle, it has double bait holder/ keepers I still put a spot of glue on it and clip off that nasty light wire weed guard. We used 7 total swimbaits to catch that 80 fish. TOTAL. That in the day of the jelly for bellie Keitech is more than great, its fantastic. Here is another priceless tip. You have to net the fish you catch with the swimbait. If you try and swing them they will shake their heads so violently that they tear the swimbait to pieces so just net them and save yourself a buck a fish. Get out there and look around, you just never know what you'll find in the briny deep. Good Luck This post has been promoted to an article

You just don't post something like that. Out of shear respect for your brother OAF members that is hurt full. Enjoy I guess but think of us with every bite.