Bill Babler

Ya, Pepe, very sorry to hear about the rig. That top water is a modified Whopper Plopper, small size in I think they call it powder.

Quick report from Saturday. Morning greeted us with a howling NW wind colder than a Mother-in-laws heart. My guys were dressed for it and we set in on them immediately, with the boys bringing close to 20 to the boat before 7 AM. Surface temps at Shell Knob were ranging from 68 to 69 and cooled during the morning to 67.7 on the main lake. Big or little the WP even with a very big chop was bringing them to the boat. Jeremy tried a fin for a bit but with no love, they wanted the Plop City. When the top water deal expired I put a sticker in their hands and Jeremy a super 33 yr. old just flat hammered them. This young man is a HAND. I have fished with some of the best stick bait fishermen that have plied these clear Mountain waters and he could be in the boat with any of them and hold his own. No Problem. You can tell a jerkbaiter immediately. This is really not something you learn. Yes you can improve, but this style of fishing has multiple components and you either got it or you don't from cadence to rod position to feel and timing, he had it X10. Just smoked his pap, Larry from the back of the boat. I kept my rod on the deck, cause I believe I would have been in serious trouble also. Pleasure to watch him fish. Ended our morning by 10 pushing 40 fish to the boat, with perhaps 8 good keeps, with several really nice fish coming in late on a chigger craw and a pbj ned off one short stretch.

Great report with plenty of nice fish for us to ogle at. Thanks a bunch.

A pink Snoopy Pole has created lots of new fishermen. Or is it a Barbie? Congrats on a super day out with loved ones.

Can you post a picture of it. Sounds like the deal.

No, the water from point 9 to Long Creek is pretty much the same. Brown to red with low visibility. There are fish being caught but not nearly the numbers or the quality as other lake sections, on a consistant basis. I expect it to continue to clear, but I don't really know as I have never seen this type of water. I am not fishing clients on it. All my trips, and really most of the indenpendent guides are fishing Baxter up. Good Luck

Great thing about it is if you leave them alone for an hour or so and the wind picks up they are right back there in huge numbers. I am starting to see a few out there that have been practice caught, but the majority are fresh and ready to gobble anything that makes a sputter on the water, either below or above. Nice report Jeff. You see I didn't stick them all, but I know where they live.

Table Rock Lake Current Fishing Report 5-13-16 White River Outfitters Guide Service Surface temps have just jumped in the last 2 or 3 days and are running between 69 and 74 degree. I'm sure there is some warmer and cooler water, but this is pretty much going to cover it. Lake clarity is different by each mile you cover, but the White River although it looks somewhat green has 8 to 10 ft. of visibility. Checked it yesterday with the white spoon test. Other sections of the lake range from a tea color brown to a dark green almost red mix. Not pretty for Table Rock and really not very becoming. In sections you can see algae floating in very small particles when the sun shines on it. Without a doubt the best fishing on the lake is currently from Point 9 to Eagle Rock. For each mile you cover up the White the water gets better. Surface activity especially on cloudy still morning has lasted up to 3 hrs. From Kimberling City to Long Creek there just has been very little to zero surface fishing. I'm thinking it is because of the off color of the water as the surface temps are the same. Water is just flat dingy in that area. I have been catching a very nice mix of all of our Black Bass species. However I am mostly catching LM and Jaws. K's are still backed out a bit and when I want to target them I have to fish much deeper. I can with some luck tell my clients about 90% of the time what we are going to catch by where and how deep we are fishing. This is May 13 and we are right square in the middle of the spawn. The SM headed to the bank yesterday in huge numbers and are right in front of the bushes and under any over hanging willows. We had at least 15 keepers yesterday up to 3.5 on the jaws right on the bank. I had one girl spewing eggs in the net. " I just hated that." You catch one and it will most always have its mate running in with it. The LM are up there also. We had 2 yesterday pushing 5 pounds on the Ned, both were females and they were ready to spawn right now. Top Water is a conglomeration of everything from post to pre to catfish to walleye. Yes you read that right. In the last week, we have caught a walleye and a channel cat on a Whopper Plopper. Have also caught White bass in very good numbers as there are acres of them blowing from time to time. Again, mostly up the White River. My hands and fingers are sand blasted and have open wounds all over them, from taking off mostly SM. "They Bite." I have been using an array of baits, mostly the Keitech in 3.3 to 3.8 on either a 3/16 or a 1/4 oz. head with a 4/0 hook. Sportsmans Outfitters in Spfg sells these in big bags and I'm a very good customer. If you get wind and move the boat into the 30 ft. range you can catch some very nice K's on a jerkbait, they just hammer it. If you are using the small swimbait the bite is just a loading of the rod. Yesterday for most of us was the first day they have been on Ned in the past 2 weeks. They were on the bottom up close and they just killed him. A lot of times catching the Little Varmint on the drop. Big and I mean Big Bluegill have moved onto the points up the White River, most are in 20' to 30'. I have caught some just huge ones dropping a War Eagle spoon to them, thinking they were bass, while my clients catch top water fish. Lake for the past week has really calmed down with only a few boats out. Yesterday I think in a 6 hr. trip I saw 3 other fishermen. There was only 5 trucks at the SK ramp that were not guides all day yesterday. Get out there and pester them a little This last pic is of a 20 inch SM that weighed exactly 2.5 pounds. It was as skinny as a rail, male that was just loading the boat with White Stuff. It is very hard when the boys are chasing the girls for any formula to work when you are trying to judge weight by length.

Beck is going to help me tomorrow so there will be a war zone. All locals and any low flying aircraft should beware, there will be hardware in the breeze. Not really, every boat we saw besides Quill today was dragging their skag in the rocks. We had a surreal number today and I could never have landed a bait within at least 5 throws of the bank besides fishing that SM pocket. Even when they were not blowing we were fishing WAY OUT. Lots and lots of fish setting at 15' to 20 ft. off the cove mouths over 50' to 70'. These fish are staging waiting to either move in or out. It is a complete mix of pre and post spawn. Good Luck, try something New tomorrow.

Your fishing the wrong water. Move the boat out to 150' and throw top water in front of the cove mouths when they start blowing shad.

There is a pretty nice size pocket up the White that I'm catching some super brown fish out of. They have been in there for at least 3 weeks. I am setting my boat at the mouth of the pocket and rocket casting a 3.8 inch Kietech in GP, just launching it up the middle of the pocket. It never hits the bottom, and I'm guessing its 15' in the middle. Usually can catch 6 to 10 out of it and they all look like they are about to explode. Have not seen them chasing, but they were there again today. I threw way up there for my lady today and she caught 3 out of it up to 3 pounds, all the same deal, prespawn. I'm fishing a 2500 Stradic spooled with 6 pound Maxi on a 7' Falcon CS-4-17M. When you throw a 3.8 Keitech with a 1/4 oz. head you can launch it so far you can see the spool threw the line and I have these reels spooled completely full to the max. Don't know the distance, but it is truly amazing. My client today said he has never seen a cast thrown that far. As soon as I throw it I pick up all the slack to the bait and let it drop on a tight line. They seem to catch it at about a 6 to 10 count. Then, with all that line out we see how good you are at keeping them on. Its a real tester. Good Luck

Quite a day up there Jeff. Glad you did well. Would have came over, but thought you might have had a top water deal going and did not want to run thru any fish. I started out of the Knob at 6 AM on the dot and did have a good top water bite for about an hour. Kind of went dead for 30 minutes and then they blew up right in the middle of the lake. I told my clients they were White's, but got to looking and they were all LM, K's and Jaws. They stayed up in 150 ft. of water for about 30 minutes, just stayed and stayed. We caught them great on a small WP and cannot tell you how many that blew up and we missed, or they jumped it off. We had some fish jump 4 times, it was super crazy. While the clients were casting at the chasers, I was using a white war eagle jigging spoon when I could and was catching them right under the boat. Charlene caught a 4.5 pound LM and a 3.5 Jaw, right in the friggin middle of the lake. Mike had a huge LM spit the plopper right back at him. We guessed over 5 as we saw it on 3 jumps before it shook out the bait. Lots of these fish were just full of eggs, some had spawned but most were just now getting ready to get started. Surface temp at Shell Knob was 65 to 68 degree and really a very nice color with visibility to approx. 8 to 10 ft. Question. Is Viney open? The guard shack has its motor home, the park is mowed and there is a ground crew running around in golf carts. I was down there early last week, and the grass was unmowed and there was no one around. What ever the deal, the White River is fishing pretty good. We only threw top water and swam 3.2 to 3.8 inch Keitech's and really outside the 30 minutes of quiet time early never went but a few minutes without a nip.

Beck's Rig at Harter House. Imagine that

No doubt the Doc, will catch them. It really for me has become a fish safety issue. Folks that don't fish a lot just have a very hard time keeping that little 4 inch worm on a Spit shot rig out of the throat of the fish. Don't have that problem with the little guy a shaky head or a small swimbait. All of these baits are attached directly to the touch of the fishermen and not free floating on a tag line. Some of the old timers here especially in tournaments used the Dr. with great success and a lot of the reason was they would let the fish swallow it completely down before winding them in. They would then cut the line and leave the Dr. in the gullet of the fish. Used to happen on a pretty regular basis here, but have not heard about it for some years. Hope to never hear of it again. A lot of those older guys are no longer fishing derby's and that is a good thing for the fish. Good Luck

Kind of what RPS said. Switch to 5 pound Maxi on your spinning reel. Also never under any circumstance close the bail with the reel handle. The handle is for reeling in fish, not shutting the bail, While the Ned is in flight just prior to it hitting the water simply close the bail with your hand and your line twist and loops will no longer be a question. Good Luck

Nice day buddy. Not to mention the Shell Knob Viola area will be hosting Shriners this weekend. They will cover the lake from Viola to Baxter. Huge tournament.

Thanks Dave continue the great reports. I'm heading up to lake O for 3 days before I get snowed under, to chase the crappie and hoot at the turkeys. Good Luck

Great weekend starting Friday morning on upper taney, fishing from Fall Creek to below Trout Hollow. This stretch has produced some very quality fish since December and this weekend continued that pattern. Numbers of hourly fish that the guides are used to catching are not really there, but the quality of the fish our clients are catching is way above average. Captain Rick Lisek had pointed out several different bottom contours to me he had noticed last week and suggested since the December flood that some of these new current breaks were holding some very quality fish. Trick is to get your baits into the correct location at the right time to entice these rascules. Friday morning with Jeff, we had about a dozen and a half rainbows with lots of quality fish in the 14 to 19 inch class. Not the 30 plus we usually see on our guide trips, but exceptional fish. White micro jig under a float, a Y2K bug and crawlers produced Jeff's fish. Saturday morning I had long time client Cory Baker and his daughter Cassidy. We pretty much set up shop with crawlers on the bends and seams below Fall Creek and Trout Hollow. Had an outstanding morning catching 20 plus all rainbows and most all were very colorful solid and 14 to 17 inches. This morning caught me out with a group of Texicans headed by Clint Walker. It was on from the Git-Go but spotty. We would catch 3 or 4 then go completely quite for a spell. Then it would repeat. The deal was most all these fish were just thick 14 inch fish. Very, very nice anywhere at anytime. Inflated crawlers were again the deal for us, with the off color water and wind pushing up hill, we anchored 3 boat corners and kept vigil. About mid-morning in the 9:30 time range, Clint brought up the Falcon Spinning rod to full attention. I had the Falcon Moxie spinning reel spooled with 4 pound maxi and the drift rigs were tied the same way. On the hook set the line immediately started heading down stream from our anchored position. He played the fish perfectly taking close to 10 minutes to land the 27 inch 7.8 pound brown on the light outfit. After netting the fish, I immediately put him in the oxygen bar and blew 2 streams of water on him while he relaxed in the spa. Several pictures later and a official weight at Lilley's and another picture or two and he happily swam under the dock. We were fortunate the last 3 days getting out prior to generation. Trick for me is catching fish on the flat water. When the generation starts it has been running extremely heavy with moss and silt. Fact for me is it is extremely hard to fish until the water stabilizes, sometimes taking up to two hours once generation starts for the day. Good Luck

Could have gotten out of that a lot easier, and as someone pointed out, why not just cut the line that the fish was jerking on. In the heat of battle I did not even consider that. I was just thinking about the noose tightening on his neck. We lost the fish anyway, so I could have just bitten the maxi. Really funny that MWM pointed out that I did not give him a jerkbait. I have been here so long that you all are reading my mind. In that stretch when they were just hammering it, I asked him if he had ever fished a suspending jerkbait. He said not but would like to learn as it was really working. About that time he caught another one on the Keitech and I said to myself. No, I don't think I should probably go there. It was never mentioned again. Thank Goodness. On another note, I also put down the jerker, after just about losing the rod on two different bites. Not during my string of catching the 7 keeps, but on two jaws that were both about 14 inches. Both hit it so hard I nearly lost my grip. I think they hit it at full speed, as the bite was not heavy, but just a very fast jerk, like they were trying to jerk something out of your hand. Durn near did it to me on two different occasions. I was pretty busy as it was netting Joe's fish and when I put up the jerker I thought out of sight out of mind. Good Luck

All my days run together this time of the year.

Well, it got to be plumb silly yesterday afternoon. Had a double trip, with a morning trip on Taney and then met my client and I'm going to keep all names quiet for reasons you will soon read at Moonshine for an afternoon of basin. Surface temp at the ramp at the dam was 56.2 when I launched at 1 PM and really when I unlaunched it had only risen to a shade under 58. To protect the innocent I'm going to call my client Joe. He had fished bass some, but not a bunch but could use a spinning reel, so we were set as that was going to be the deal from the start. Had two deals set up for him, one with a Ned and with a 1/8 head and the other with a 3.2 Rainbow Shad Keitech. fat. Right off the bat Joe seemed to be wanting to hold his spinning reel upside down with about two fingers on the but when he casted. Got this straightened out and gave a demo on how easy it is to load the rod and cast two handed and let the Falcon Cara do all the work. He got on to it pretty quick. Did not matter so much because as soon as the PBJ Ned would hit the bottom you were cranking in a fish. On our first stop, we had 17 Jaws with 5 keeps, all on the Varmint. Ledge with some gravel. keeping the boat in 25 ft. and catching most of the fish 1/2 way back in that 12 to 18 ft. range. Just dragging and hopping a little. I started to notice a problem however. When Joe would feel a fish he would rare back and swing the rod like he was trying to completely tear the lips off the fish. I could not break him of this. I tried and tried, I showed him how I could catch them without even setting the hook. On at least a dozen fish I said Joe, "watch this. Do you see the fish biting my line? I said watch me catch it. I would lean back and just start winding and the little varmint would be stuck in the upper lip. I told him that is all you need to do." He said his father 30 yrs. ago told him he must cross their eyes and that's how he was going to do it. Said dude you don't have to do that anymore, but you just catch them and have a blast anyway you want to. Next location was a staging location. As I was easing up in about 40' my graph looked like a shotgun had shot the screen. Cut the engine and told him this is the mouth of a spawning cove. The fish will congregate at these location this time of the year and will suspend and stage waiting to move in an spawn. I told him they will also feed here. We were at least 6 casts off the bank. Here I said we are going to throw this swimbait and as soon as you throw it pick up all your slack and let it fall on a tight line. This way you can feel the fish. If you feel the tick of the bite point your rod right at it and lean back and just wind the reel handle. There was quite a bit of wind on this point and it blew a huge belly in the line so you had to pick up fast on the cast. On Joe's first cast he had a banana loop in his line. Fish bit it and the line just jumped. I said you got him dude. He immediately jerked that Cara harder than I have ever seen a rod jerked. When he did the line came back around his head and went around his neck. He jerked again and another loop went right around his throat just below his chin. About this time a very nice 2.5 pound brown bass came to the surface pulling away and he was still pulling the other way and a slip knot with two wraps around his throat tightened completely below the skin. He was chocking and the fish was pulling like crazy the other way. I could not get my finger under the line in his throat as it was so tight. I finely got my pinky under it and sliced the 5# test maxi. Good, Gosh, I thought I had seen everything in 25 years in the guide business. He had two whelps on his throat that are going to be there for a long time. Got it all straight and we went to fishing. Had 38 fish off this point with 15 keepers, all brown. We had nothing over 2.5 but as the afternoon continued it got to be a carnival on either the swim bait or a jerkbait. At one point during the afternoon, I had 7 keepers in 7 cast with the Tim Hughes Custom painted megabass 110 plus 1. They also liked the Spro in Blue Bandit. I lost count, but I believe we had about 25 keepers and right at 70 fish in 4 hrs. That is off of 3 locations. One was the ledge, and the other two were staging locations. Just silly, nothing at all big but the most SM I have ever caught in one day. Did not catch a single K or LM, every fish we caught except for 5 Goggs was brown. Just another day on the Rock.

No problem with anyone disputing the weight. My digital scales blew chunks and I just have not purchased a new one, as I have not fished derbies in the last year. We just thought you all would like to see her. No one was bragging about it we were just enjoying a wonderful day that the creator gave us, 3 friends having a great time. If you remember a few years ago, Myself and my clients had 3 all over 9 pounds on the float-n-fly. This of course was on a digital scales, but again may not have been accurate. Biggest was just under 10 pounds and was 24 3/4 inches. The other 2 were both 24 inches. This fish was between 22 and 23 inches. She was way heaver thru the back and completely full of roe. As I stated I have never caught or seen a thicker thru the back fish in 40 yrs. on the rock, including those 3 mentioned. It really does not matter, she wasn't my biggest or a derby winner, she was just a wonderful present for all of us to enjoy. Good Luck

Great report. It is just a matter of days if we can have some warm night before this really gets silly. Usually always there will be somewhat of a lag, when the boys really start chasing the girls, but we are fixin to Get Bit.

That one could have eaten a 5 pounder. And all the pictures were taken in the middle of the lake about 5 miles from where she gobbled the Custom painted Tim Hughes Megabass 110 Plus 1. She was 8 pretty easy and probably closer to 9. Really had a pretty nice afternoon with Buddy Phil and a good friend of his Greg, visiting from Denver. Hopefully not a Broncos fan, did not ask. Pretty much a main lake bite for us, with the boat setting in 15 to 20. Had a few swimming a Chompers 4" Ctail in Smoke Pepper, but the majority of our fish were on the Varmint. PBJ was the color on one of Dave's 1/8 oz. heads. Just so as to keep the clicker straight, I believe Phil caught 10, Greg caught 12 and I came in with a solid 5. One of them of course was worth the wait. Most all our fish outside of the Big Gal, probably one of the thickest bass I have ever seen come out of the Rock were runnout fish. We for the most part were fishing the long points at least 2 to 3 casts off the bank, riding the edge in deep water and tossing up on top and hopping or dragging the little guy. We had 3 other keeps to go with the biggin, and I believe Phil caught all three of those. Always have fun fishing with Phil and we for sure had several belly laughs making fun of ourselves today. Just a beautiful afternoon. This water in the dam area is so many different colors and temperatures it is simply crazy. It runs from pea green, to brown to a terrible red. Surface temps were 54 to 60. Most all our fish came out of 56 degree water. I did see quite a few beds in that 54 degree water with some fish on them. They are not locked on and any movement or casting near the bed and the bucks that are on them are out of there. The big fish came on a transition right at the end where a very nice ledge rock broke off to flat gravel. It is a place I fish every time I'm in the area and most often catch the fish on the ledge. Today she was right exactly on the break. I was telling the boys, we used to camp on the very location back in 1974 when I was at the School of Oz. Had some great memories from those days and today was another highlight for the books made it even more special, fishing with friends. Good Luck

Thanks for the wonderful report. Sounds like you all had a great time. Kind of funny with the bedding fish, it really has not started lake wide. There are some isolated pockets of beds but you can go into 20 coves before you find them. Also there is a big swing in water temps right now ranging from as low as 54 to as high as 63. Really does not seem to matter as there are beds in the cold water and nothing in the warmer water. More depends on lake section.