Bill Babler

Well, I have pretty much seen everything now. When we pulled the boat today in the back of Fisher Creek at 5 PM, surface temp was 60.2 degree. Pete Wenners said he fished most of the day in 58 degree water. We fished from Kimberling City to Shell Knob and it averaged about 57 on the flat water and 55 in the breeze and there was very little of that. Air temps when we pulled the boat was 79 degree and they are saying up to 80 Plus in Blue Eye for tomorrow. This is the 22nd. of February, In my 40 plus years here I have never seen such a thing and neither has any of the locals as far as surface temps. We had 10 keepers and 8 shorts today and all I can tell you is we caught them from 5' to 66' on the bottom. Now that is a pattern that you can bank on. In other words I don't have a clue. Good Luck

Good Luck with the back surgery, and get back to us really soon. Wrench that Red eye is just a flatout super bait on Lake O at times looks like that baby has been around the block a time or two. Keep the Hound dog handy, you don't want to lose a fish catcher like that.

Thanks for the report. I'm fishing the same area and not catching any K's at all, or for that matter short fish. I had 9 keeps yesterday and 3 shorts. All Brown. Have been catching some Blackie's but not yesterday. I know what you mean rough. My tin can trout boat did not like it a bit out there yesterday.

Wow George, all I can say is Wow. That is truly why we love this forum. Fantastic information from one of our members. Again. You just have my blood pumping, that would be a fantastic road trip for just about anyone except those with extreme bassidis. Thanks much and Great Luck fishing here at home.

Couple of questions if you all don't mind. Where do you stay when your down there? Do you fish 1 day or 2, I would think with that drive you would fish at least a couple of days? Do you haul your boat or do you use a guide service, and if so who? Do you think that tightline spider rigging would work on any of our Missouri or Arkansas lakes near by? It seems very interesting. I have seen two different thoughts on the rigging, one said to move at 1.5 to 2. mph and I read another article that said the traditional speed is .3 to .6 What are your thoughts on that? Another question, did you use live bait or jigs and what was the length of your rod and the depth that you fished? This is a very interesting topic and really not what we do here at all, so any information you all can provide is super interesting weather we ever do it or not. Congrats on a wonderful trip and beautiful fish.

There an Investment.

I would without a doubt add Norman Flake to the sunshine days, it is my go to. Sore Thumbs hit the nail right on the head with Elergy bone... that blessed thing is fantastic till the sun hits the water and from then on out it needs to be hidden deep in the confines of the tackle box. I have really never seen a bait that is that productive in the early morning just go as dead as it will when it brighten up.

Oh, the pain, How True, How True. I remember in the day, if it were not a clown or had some purple in it, we did not throw it. Now of days, I have those retired and tucked in a safe place in my memory and on the old timey lure racks.

Here is why those California Spotted Bass get so big. They have a very high protein diet.

I don't have a single one of those tied on for my trip tomorrow. Just shows how diverse this lake can be. Good Luck and have a great time out there.

Thanks Cheese, great stuff. My neighbor Wilma who is now deceased and her family homesteaded here in the late 1800. Her son now possesses some of the most fantastic photo's of the area that I have ever seen. it goes clear back to logging of the short leaf pine that dominated the area and floating the logs down to Branson and Forsyth, to be loaded on trains. Simply amazing stuff.

Anything look familiar? Of course we all know there are no fish in that cove.

Slothman started a very interesting topic on CHIRP and I'm going to carry it on a little here, and I want to preface this by saying Table Rock Lake as it is what I know the best but am still learning on every trip to the lake. With the various types of underwater eyes we now have as far as some of the best freshwater electronics that have ever been invented by a multitude of companies how are they helping us. From scan to sonar just what are they doing for us? Table Rock and the White River Chain of lakes are for the most part ruled more by seasonal patterns, water depth and movement than they are by structure. How many of us thru either side scan or just our sonar mark places that look good, but don't have fish on them. I will bet everyone reading this piece. I have over 1,500 gps marks on my card with the majority of them not being structure, but there are plenty that are. Do they hold fish? Sometimes but most often not. Structure on Table Rock is like a Hotel or a Bed and Breakfast. The fish may visit, but they don't live there. They may stay a while and new guests from time to time check in, but most including the largemouth are on extended travel holiday. Most should own a 5th. wheel, cause they are on the road 90% of the time. Why? I will tell you at times I know and at times I don't know. Here is the place that Bo could jump in and help as he is one of our posters that is perhaps more in tune with seasonal patterns and the movement of fish than the majority of us. What is puzzling is most of the time the fish are moving just to be moving. There is adequate forage all over the lake and for sure enough forage to sustain them where they are, but they pack there sunscreen and head off to another location on the pond. That's why when folks ask, I say they live in the water, not by this or that structure. Table Rock fish are perfectly happy to suspend at depth and not relate to any structure whatsoever. Does water temperature influence migration? Yes and no. there are fish everywhere in the lake and I have had a many of trip that looking for warmer water in the early season is the wrong thing to do. Sometimes 45 degree water has more bites than 53 degree water. Warmer water at times make fish rise in the water column, or become more active. It puts some gas in the tank and make them move. Is this good? Sometimes. at other times it turns concentrations of fish into single targets of harder to hit moving fish. The only pattern that really holds on the Rock is a deep Winter and a Deep Summer pattern. Winter fish love 50' and they love it in deep vertical cuts or channel swings. Summer fish love the thermocline. Best depth for the last 30 yrs. has been 26' What does this have to do with structure. Just about nothing. Most of these fish hold on zero structure. At times they will relate to deep trees but most often they will not be so much in the tree as above it or just within 30 or 40 feet of it. Really, most often they will relate to runoffs and sharp drops or they will relate and suspend near changes in the bottom or transitions. A good example is I took a BFL angler out last year for a day prior to his tournament. We found a huge concentrations of K's on the bottom on a channel swing inside flat. I mean a huge concentration. We could have jerked them on a spoon or a drop shot and still been jerking. It was post spawn and every fish in the area was congregated and getting to know each other. He went back the next day and the flat was empty. Said it looked like a pool table top. After he left I took my client out there and found them in 2 minutes. They had moved from 22' on the bottom out to 22' suspended over 90' in the middle of the channel. No structure, just setting out there enjoying their day. That's Table Rock. Another point of Table Rock is fish love flat pea size gravel, with absolutely no structure or cover. It looks like the Serengeti down there but there are hunters that roam it, almost every month of the year. Mostly SM. When either the Conservation Department or fishermen add structure the fish leave. It is far from, "If you build it they will come." Don't work that way on Table Rock. Some of my best locations for both SM and K's have been totally ruined by adding structure. The bass just leave and don't come back. There is already plenty of structure in Table Rock that the bass very seldom if ever relate to, adding more is really not the answer, and adding it to locations that have none and trying to attract bass most usually has the opposite effect. As I said there is a bait or food form most everywhere and there is bait around existing structure and there bass are not there, either. I guess this is a long winded version of saying buy and learn to use your electronics as you see best, but just because you have 1,500 way points does not mean you know where the fish are or when they will be there. Good Luck

I understand. Go out today and take a few mental pictures and you won't need any electronics. Loved the one of Flat Creek that was posted.

Dutch it is always great when you get these wacky machines to work for you. Continue to do what your doing. Like the old saying if it Ain't broke don't fix it.

There are only 2 species that will ever be stocked in Table Rock at this point. Paddle Fish and Walleye. The walleye are in conjunction with Arkansas and they carry the heavy load. Even with abundant bait that would more than handle additional fish, this is what we are going to get. We are affected here by the spawn and the Corps of Engineers. High water is not really the answer, stability is and we very seldom see that. We have even been told that it would be easy to overharvest the bass if our conservations efforts of catch and release would someway change and bass fishermen would start killing fish. It would influence the ecosystem. MDC knows that 90 plus percent of bass fisherman are catch and release and for those that do keep fish, which is pretty few the lake is able to handle that. I believe with the way this season is starting we are going to see fishing pressure here that we have not even dreamed of. The forcast for the next 14 days is way above average and we will see lots of folks out and about shedding their Winter Blues. With gas prices expected to be very low again this Summer I'm sure Branson will experience another record. It has set records the past two years for tourism and this could be the biggest by far. Good Luck

Ham, you have such marvelous success fishing that jig. Could you possibly write a short piece on how you fish it in both moving and still water. It would help the majority of us immensely. thanks BB

Both phone and internet is burning up at my house right now on Rods. I don't have any pre-owned rods except for 1 more Super Duty and 2 more Med-Heavy Spinning Rods. Everything else is new. I cannot sell the new rods for the price of pre-owned, I just cannot do it. What I can do is have great prices on new picked up here at the lodge and even better prices on multiple rods in the same order, especially if any shipping is involved. I have good quantities of Micro Crankers, Squirrel tails, dropshot rods and MMC Signature rods. Before you price my rods, go to tacklewarehouse and check out their prices. let me know the best price you have found. I should be at least in most cases 10% under. That is a stretch as they beat me with quantity discounts from Falcon and their shipping is 1/3 of what I have to pay as they are a huge shipper. I'll do the best that I can, but Falcon is kind of like Phoenix Boats right now. They are selling all they can make. Thanks BB

I know what you mean Champ. I just reported this week over the phone, that's the only way they want to take it. If they get the lake level, surface temp and a line or two, I'm thinking that's about it. Some of our KC guys will have to let us know. I know Vernon keep tabs on it, so guys please let us know what they are saying, up there in the Polar North. Good Luck

I understand Dutch. Here is the deal, Structure Scan is a finding tool and Chirp is a fishing tool. I have fished the Rock so much, that I very rarely turn on SS. I have it coming again in a super package of electronics on my new PHX, But I fish with sonar, as do most of the older fools guiding and fishing down here. That for sure does not make it right or do I encourage anyone else to follow my lead, but that's the way I do it. I don't think Beck even got SS on his new electronic package. When I sold my last boat it was still in the box.

From looking at Lowrance Gen 2 for years and now the Gen 3 with Chirp what you can tell more than anything is the composition of what you are seeing, and here we are talking about sonar and not structure scan. If the fish are up off the bottom or away from structure, I don't think you can tell much difference than looking at your Gen 2 or any of the upper end sonar units as far as identifying targets If the fish are tight to the bottom or to structure you can determine the difference between fish and the bottom or structure thru the color palate much better as hard targets and soft are interpreted to a much higher degree with Chirp. Also on the Gen 2 and other units there is a bit of a dead space, between the bottom and perhaps several inches of water. The units will read the hardness of the bottoms and give you a slight knowledge of something there, but not really. Chirp can see that space and define a soft target. Here we all call it worming, we most often see it with Kentucky bass or White bass. At times with the older units and I published this several years ago, the White bass laying on the bottom looked like a continuing red line. When you drop the spoon into the line the fish would raise and separate in the water column. We call this worming, as they would follow the caught fish sometimes to the surface and then return to the bottom, most often streaking and looking like worming or snake lines on your screen. With the Chirp units depending on your color palate, that red line would look like individual targets with separation, even with them lying pretty tight to the bottom and in a very close school. You can see they are fish instead of just long object lying on the bottom. Most of us that stare at the units for hours knew what the line was, but the Chirp defines it way better. It also will define soft targets inside of structure. Say you are looking straight down into the top of a tree. Through most of the upperend units you can see some separation between the tree and fish that are suspended near or above the tree, but they will look like just parts of the tree or suspended pieces. Again we can identify by hours of screen time what is going on. The Chirp will define it further as soft targets even inside the limbs of the tree to help you determine that there may be some goodies down there that are not part of the tree. It is pretty cool and if you are at a show have the Lowrance rep show you the difference. it is like anything it is more money and more detail, if you need it or really use it. If your a bank fisherman and don't really use your sonar to its highest possibilities might not be your deal. IT works here on this deep pond. That's pretty much all I know at this point.

Appreciate it Thumbs.

Does not go out under my name or byline. It does say provided by White River Lodge, but I'm not mentioned by either my name or White River Outfitters Guide Service. That is not why I do it. Folks should be able to come here and have an idea how to catch fish. If they want a guide I appreciate that and am in business for it, but they have to find me the old fashion way, the internet.

Vernon and Steve, you are exactly right. The report is not an email report, it is a phone report. Brent retired and Mike Blair did also. Neither one of them wanted to but was told they had to. You all might not know this but Mike did the weekly fishing reports under Brent's byline. Brent did the feature stuff on Thursday and Sunday in greater depth, always with lots of local flavor. I considered not doing it anymore when Brent and Mike were canned but to promote the area and try and give folks as someone said a good, educated starting point I'm still at it. They pretty much pick and choose what I give them over the phone for print. It is a very limited space. I should have current weekly knowledge from now forward and will try and keep it coming with complete accuracy to the best of my knowledge from either myself or from dedicated guides and fishermen in the area, with lots of our best coming from this very forum. I like immediate patterns and what is happening, not yearly predictions or what should be going on, I will tell only what IS going on as it happens. Honesty and accuracy is really everything. Thank you all for your input and its my pleasure to continue to provide any current fishing information that I can put together. Good Luck

Happy Valentines Day All. Here is a sample of what I have been doing with the KC Star for the past 10 yrs. I try to share current weekly information that is as accurate as possible but use as much responsibility and respect to all the wonderful posters and guides here and not put people on their locations. Current Fishing Report for 2-12-2017 Surface temp lake wide are ranging from 47 to 53 degree with as usual some of the river arms a bit warmer than main lake. Visibility is normal with much of Table Rock in the 10' to 15' visibility range, with a lake level of 906.5 Dam area has been the slowest bite on the lake but there are some smallmouth being taken on suspending jerkbaits and Spro Rock Crawlers, on gravel and windy chunk rock banks. Long Creek area is fishing fair to good for crappie with most being caught on silver and black swimming minnows off the flat mud banks, in 8 to 15 feet of water. Kimberling City to Cape Fair to Shell Knob has perhaps been as good as any lake section with most fish coming on suspended stickbaits on wind blow banks. Upper River sections in the James and Kings are also producing at a fair rate with crayfish color crankbaits in 5 to 15 feet of water. Upper White River is seeing the bass taking tubes, small jigs and ned rigs in 12 to 25 feet off the runnouts and long points. White Bass are also beginning to show up in the river systems with the majority still holding in the deeper channel bends and off the mud flats. Use sonar and jigging spoons to find and catch the early whites. If this is to much info for you all please let me know. I am just trying to establish a good starting point for our visitors without giving away the farm. We of course love everyone that spends time and money to come here to enjoy themselves. Good Luck