Bill Babler

Din-Din Morris

Quick follow up to Phil's report as this is the 23rd. Had not been on the Lake in about a week, but it was remarkable how it has cleared. I landed on the perfect day today as it was cloudy this morning and that for sure helped. Took Perry and Austin long time clients out of Lilleys and we had a fantastic day, all on the Power Worm. Took us under an hour to put a limit of 13 to 14 inch fish in the boat and caught many, many more on the flat really unoccupied water as there was just about no boat traffic early. What a change and relief from Table Rock that is now known as the Racetrack at Shell Knob. Fish bit in the Short creek Area till the sun hit the water and today that was around 9AM, so we had it made starting at 6. Had the worm down about 8' and the bites were not subtle they pretty much smoked it. When it died it died and this was when the sun hit the water. Made a move for the last hour to the deep water below the docks at Cooper and extended my tippet to 12' and we continued to get bit on the PW. Not as good, but still action. With the sun out early in the morning were going to start at 5 so hopefully we will get the same results.

Couple of things here. If your DSing a level wind Bo has a great methods. Most of us however DS a spinning reel. On marking the line, can work but the first couple of times you catch in the trees. “and you will.” Your marks are impossibly out of line. At times for clients I will do only one mark at the correct depth and I determine it by dropping it and watching it till I see I’m in the correct location. Then Mark Good Luck without subsurface lookie-loos

I’m going to say today with the jig was a disaster for both Ed and myself. They had it completely swallowed before either of us could feel a bite. They were not catching it but just slurping it and not moving with it in the least. When you went to move it your line was slack. I started almost fishing it like a Hard Head just to keep contact. To keep them from eating it to their Tum-tum

Lot slower for me at first also. We started with a big swim bait and a Lake Fork 6” flutter sooon. Had 3 or 4 on each spot but it was slim. Went across from you on that gravel and caught 6 on a jig and then went over to your Pt and caught 6 more All short on a Shad shape worm Went below the bridge st SK and caught a dozen on gravel again on a jig. No size. Water 3 to 5 degree cooler today. Beautiful day with the breeze

I pretty much watch my line, bait and weight go down on the Lowrance, to the fish I am looking at before dropping. You really need good electronics to fish deep trees. You can get away with bottom fishing at depth on gravel without underwater eyes, but you need to see what your doing when you put trees and suspended fish into the equation. First off you need to be able to tell if there are fish where your fishing. Bobby had a great post the other day from the dam area saying how may places he looked before he saw them and could drop. On deep suspended fish if you can't see them, they are not there. On gravel or on the bottom even with Chirp a lot of times if they are tucked down tight they are really hard to see but you can drop without worrying about losing your rig and having to retie constantly. Trees love to gobble a drop shot. A really good way to measure line is usually after placing your DS in the water is to open your bail and do 2 quick rod lifts pointing your tip to 12 o'clock With a 6'6" or 7' rod, that will be 20' to 25' of depth. There are thousands of trees and hundreds of bluff ends on the Rock. I will tell you, they don't all hold fish, not by a long shot. You could literally fish a hundred locations without a bite. Good electronics prevent this type of time wasting. You can also catch them on a certain end or out of a certain set of trees and they may never be there again. They are transient. That is why Elite Anglers will tell you Table Rock is a Nightmare to try and pattern of a derby. Here today. Gone Tomorrow. Most times they either suspend over or between the trees regardless of bottom depth, and at times they will be in the limbs. This is not as often, they are usually sitting on top, it really does not matter the depth, if they are going to eat they will start rising to the drop shot as soon as it starts sinking. They may be 35' deep but you can see them start shooting up It can and does very often work the other way. You can drop it and as soon as it starts down they will flee into the middle of the tree and that is that. They will run from it. Jigs up, deals over, time to move on. The last couple of days we had some suspended at 25' to 35' and some also shooting off the bottom at 60' so they are pretty much all over the water column when you find them. We were also watching them as we released them and most of the time they would swim right to the bottom in anywhere from 45' to 70' after being released. They very, very seldom go back into the school or go into the tree, they head for the bottom. There are still shallow fish but not as many. 22' to 26' range seems really popular weather it be suspended or on the bottom. If your going to fish the Rock or any of the White River Impoundments where fish use depth for cover and climate control and try and be consistent you need to have someway to peek at them. Good Luck

Love it. Can I rent him for the rest of the week?

We are very fortunate here to have both Gizzard and Threadfin shad. All our bass species will ingest both. And, to answer your question, yes I have seen a lot of consumption of the Gizzards.

May I add a HUGE second to that post. I'm going off the grid here, but Bo brings up a very important point. Us old and I'm saying anyone over 50 fools had better file a flight plan and pretty much stick to it as far as our loved ones are concerned. Good Luck.

Beautiful Spotted Bass Bob, thanks for the Dam area report.

Check out that old Dark K that Char is holding in the bottom picture. It was close to 19 inches and had a tremendous girth. It spit up a small gizzard shad bigger than a threadfin, 2 small crayfish and a purple worm when she brought it up. I could also see the tail of another gizzard shad sticking out of its throat and its belly had at least another crayfish in it. Well over 3 lbs. and I'm guessing at least 10 yrs. old. Just a beautiful fish that is still spawning more K's for us to keep catching. Every fish we caught yesterday out of those deep trees was clean and had not been hooked this year. They were as bright and pretty as a new nickel. Lots of the fish we had been catching on the gravel had seen sunlight before being returned to the brine. That's a good thing. CPR BABY

Don't think I figured it out. I think I lucked it out. I can go right back to those trees and they will all be gone. I do however know where there are more trees😜

Some days its not easy and you have to put on your thinking cap and today was one of those days. It would have been pretty easy to say there are to many people on my locations and they are just not biting, but I bowed my neck and then got lucky. Hit the water with Charolette and Mike this morning at 5:30 and had to wait at the launch for 20 minutes at Baxter. Lots of fishermen does not even cover what was out there today, not even close. From Baxter to Shell Knob there was a boat setting on every gravel runnout and then some fishing up close. Surface temps at the start were 87 and when we finished at 11:30 they were up to 88.8 on the Lowrance. Started slow for us with a bit of a top water deal, but most were small whites and we gave up on them after catching several. Looked like young males and the mess they were trying to make verified it. I'm going to tell you all, I could not get on anything I had been fishing. Not a single location that I had fished in the last two weeks. It was all covered up. I'm going to say between Baxter and Play Port there were easy 50 bass boats and aluminum fishing boats out this morning. Some of this stuff I have been on is hard to find, not just your regular point runnouts but some ridges and humps. All covered. I don't know everything and lots of people can read electronics and today for sure proved both deals. At about 7:30 I decided my blood pressure was high enough and went to the deep trees. Just took a breath and told the clients "Were not catching them anyway, lets go look in some knarley places and see what we will see." First set of deep lumber solved our problem. As soon as I pulled in I could see them setting just above the trees at 35' suspended. trees were in 70' to 90' way, way out off the bluffs, almost to the middle of the coves but on the edge of the White River channel. First drop the clients got a double on the Purple Yamamoto cut tail and it was on like Donkey Kong. Drop shot, jigging spoon or deep swimming a 3.3" Keitech in Rainbow Shad on a 1/4 oz head it did not matter, they simply snarffed it. When you caught one a dozen would chase it to the top. Had one fish spit up a big shad, 2 small crayfish and a purple Yamamoto worm we had lost a few minutes previous. It was like a frenzy, as some traveling up with him gulped his stomach contents as fast as he spit them out, including the purple worm again. The swimbait will catch these fish, but you are risking it and the high dollar tungsten head in these trees, and its not worth it when they are on that spoon and drop shot, so I put it up and we just up and downed them. Fished till 10 on that one set of trees and I believe at least a dozen doubles, really to much to count. I told them lets look on another deep set of trees headed in and "Boom, There it is." Again this set of trees in the same depth off a similar end was loaded. They are easy to see and I should have taken a screen shot and didn't. I will on Wednesday if I remember. Kind of learned a lesson this morning, as I was becoming frustrated big time with the fishing traffic and pressure. I don't own the lake and it is Summer play time, but work time for me and work time is thinking time. I know they smelled my brain bubbling trying to figure it out. I got really lucky and did. This post has been promoted to an article

That's pretty much like chocolate syrup on top the ice cream Fish, great report

Just for kicks I tried the 5lb lift test with Maxi 4 lb. Ultragreen and it lifted it no problem. It’s .007. I’ve been ok with the Excel but 6lb won’t lift a 5 lb weight and 4lb Maxi will? Your rod and reel here plays at least an 80% part in not just fighting a fish and cast distance but does that mean I’m better off fishing the 4lb Maxi over the 6lb Excel? My test was I tied a jug with 5lbs of water in it to exactly 5’ of line wrapped around my MLF scale and tried to very slowly lift it with zero jerk. All the line is the same age and cared for properly i can throw any of the 3 a mile and it really probably comes down to cost. I’m a constant respooler and the Maxi is 3 times the cost of the Excel Oh My

Thanks The difference in price is unreal. I really like the 5# maxi and it is .008 but very hard to find in ultragreen and about $95 for a bulk spool. The 6 lb. Excel is $26 for 3,300 yrds. However if I put a 5 lb. weight on the 6lb. test Excel and try and lift it the line will break. The 5 lb. Maxi lifts it right up. Both will spool wonderfully with no twist or memory so there you have it. Why with very similar diameter is 5lb. maxi stronger than 6lb. Excel. Head scratcher.

I messed that up but still cannot figure it out. Maxima .009 diameter in inches and the BP line is .23 mm which is bigger

I’m still not getting it. Maxima website .009mm. 6lb. BP website .23 For Excel 6lb. which is a larger diameter. BP does not give the millimeters, it just lists .23 as a diameter, nothing else

I been using a little BP Excel mono on my trout stuff lately and I'm super confused about line size. I have to say I'm a total idiot here but could someone please explain to me the difference in say Maxima that is .008mm in size and when you try to find about any size of Excel it is a totally different number as far as line wt class. For instance Maxima for 6 lb. is .009mm Excel for 6 lb. is said to be .23 diameter. I don't understand the conversion.

To all you wonderful dad's out there that make this one the most informative fishing sites in all of the country. We appreciate everyone of you and your contributions are invaluable. God Bless you all and happy Dad's day

Congrats, that is a very nice run.

Nice and I think it is somewhat early for the traditional BG spawn. There was a thread a couple of weeks back with folks saying they saw them nesting, but I think its usually closer to the last of June before they really start the boy/girl thing. As long as I remember Beck, he guided a guy that came every year the last week of June and they just slayed them. Billy guided him in the Wolf Pen area on the deeper timbered points and I can remember a lot of days they had a basket full of the really big ones. Bill thought they were spawning around the deep trees or were just post spawn fatting up. He never cleaned them but he would do his best to show you where they lived and if you wanted to keep them you had better have your own knife sharp. I'm going to try some of those deep timbered points up the White after seeing this to see where they are. As always up there 18 to 25 ft. seem to be a magic number for the biggins.

Sweet.

Durn those reflexes.