Bill Babler

John, thanks for the input, and it very much goes back to my fish give-a-way post. This fishery really has never been designed as a feed your family type of fishery. I do know however that folks enjoy a trout dinner. I am one of them. The truth be told however, each person needs to catch the fish they wish to consume and not catch fish for others to consume. I'm not saying this as something permanent but with all this river section has had to put up with starting last March, I believe it needs some help. This has been an on-going problem the entire season, it really did not just start the past few weeks. Fishermen and Guides alike have had to work very hard for fish most of the year, due to just extremely poor water conditions. Really just a temporary revaluation of the current situation to bring the lake into a better balance is what would be nice. Nothing goes without change. We have had the current regulations I believe since the early 90's. That is close to 25 yrs. That is a very long time. With the continued increase in usage and the unstable quality of the water, it might be time for MDC to amend some of their policies and limits, either on a temporary basis or if need be on a permanent basis. There is another possibility and we won't like it but it is instituted throughout the country and that is a total catch and keep fishery. Yes you can keep your 4 or really increase it to 5 but as soon as the 5th. fish hits the boat your done. No throwing fish back, you catch it you keep it when you have a limit your done. This would save the lives of thousands of trout that are being deep hooked and released after fishermen have their limits and continue to fish. We could go to a total artificial fishery or move the line down to Branson where the trout stamp is not needed below the 65 bridge. This would challenge the upper end resorts, but would make an astounding improvement to the fishery. Really best yet, just implement regulations like the western states and Alaska in regards to limits as the fishery allows. Good Luck

Very well said Ham. I would really also like to see a special order placed here just like we have in Alaska. MDC knows what the harvest is and what the stocking rate is per any given month of the year. I would like to see a harvest rate or a special order of 2 fish per day per licenses put into effect immediately. I'm going to say that fully 50% of the people that I guide on Taneycomo that want to keep fish, never eat those fish. Most give them away as gifts. "We don't eat them, but He or She or Mom and Dad or someone down the bock likes fish. I want to give them some." Let's rethink this for a time. A special order just like we have for Kings in Alaska, in which you also need a stamp, can limit the harvest yet still let anyone that wishes have a wonderful trout dinner if he or she pleases. 2 trout is more than plenty per person for a fantastic dinner. I encourage anyone that reads this to keep that in mind and in fact put it into play. I will encourage my clients that want to keep fish to harvest only a couple as that is more than enough to enjoy your dinner and to help this wonderful fishery when it needs it the most.

With MDC placing large numbers of fish in the lower end of the lake up thru Money Island there is a propensity now to just go out and catch and catch. We had that yesterday. It did not take me very long to adjust my fishing methods. With the uncertainty of how many fish we are going to see stocked in 2016 it is a very good time now to start practicing the best fish care methods. I will outline several here and I hope this helps. We all want to catch fish. For cripes sakes that's one of the main reasons we are here. But, how many we catch and how many we cause to die are in direct relationship. Hope this helps. Yesterday on my guide trip it took me exactly 1 pass of about 3 city blocks to see I had to change methods really quickly. We were on a catch and release trip and could have had a 4 man limit in about 45 minutes. We were using 1 gulp egg on a drift rig and the fish were just inhaling it. We immediately switched to an Egg Pattern Fly and they bit just as well, but don't swallow the presentation. We have all sizes of fish in the river and the extremely small fish will get that gulp egg past the point of no return about 90% of the time. 1st. if you are fishing gulp or powerbait, and wish to return a fish to the water, if it is hooked beyond the lip, either in the gill, gut or back roof of the mouth, cut your hook off and let it remain with the fish. As long as this fish does not bleed a huge amount, it will most likely survive. If you try and remove the hook by any method it will die. 2nd. If you are catch and release, please try artificial in the non-restricted zone as these fish are in abundance and will take it. Jigs, Egg pattern flies, scud patterns, micro-jigs and trout magnets are all working extremely well. When releasing fish, please do not use a towel or cloth of any kind to handle the fish. Simply wet your hand letting the fish dangle from the line and grasp it firmly with the wet hand to unhook it or grab the hook shank while the fish is in the water with forcepts and retract the hook. If possible use a 1/2 inch gap rubber net. This net is by far gentler on the fish and does not remove the scales and body slime as a rope or nylon net does. 3rd, If you are keeping fish for consumption, you are allowed 4 in possession per day, 8 after the second day. That does not mean you can keep 3 one day and 5 the next. It is 4 PER-DAY-PERIOD. If you catch a fish that has swallowed the bait and is bleeding profusely, keep that fish. if it is hooked deep, and not bleeding cut the line, do not try and remove the hook. Once you catch your limit on bait, PLEASE switch to artificial. 4. Taneycomo has a no Cull law, and a no Party Fishing law. What is this? No cull. Once you put a fish in your livewell, basket or stringer, it is your fish. You are not allowed to remove that fish and replace it with a bigger fish. You must include it in your daily limit. NO Party fishing. All fish must be kept in a separate compartment or the fish must be able to be identified by the fishermen that catches the fish. Your limit is your limit. It is not one that you caught for another person in your party or one that another person in your party caught for you. If you only have 1 compartment you can combine the fish by several different methods. Best way is to just snip the tail or fin with your knife, to identify it as belonging to you and giving it a tattoo or brand, showing it to be owned by a person in the party. Again, if its in your livewell it cannot be culled. With our current water event and really not knowing the future, lets all practice very green management of our fishery. We can have just as much fun caring for the fish and handling them in the safest way possible. Good Luck

Yes this is really interesting. If you will look it seems like a joint pursuit. We just had one of the very top folks from Bass Pro's accounting department staying here at the Lodge. Her and her husband have stayed with us twice and I deer hunt near his lease in Northern Missouri. She has been with them since the Brown Derby days and came to work for Johnny from the start. Bout ready to retire. She as you can imagine is very Pro-Bass Pro Shop. She did say that currently they have extended themselves quite a bit with the purchase of the new boat companies the purchase of Buffalo Ridge and the rebuilding of not only Top of the Rock and creating new golf courses but also the Pyramid and Big Cedar. Buffalo Ridge is currently undergoing an 8 figure expansion above the initial cost of the complex. They also have Infinity Hills and the new Shoot Academy under construction. Lots more millions of dollars, in just these two ventures. There has been quite a bit of shaking up going on at Big Cedar to make it self sustaining. It is not to that point. With the additional monies they have spent there the last 5 years including the convention center and the total rebuild of Top of the Rock campus, it has to be supported by Bass Pro Shop. She did not give me a number, but said the day to day resort operations at that point exceed the revenue from its lodging credits. This encompasses Top of the Rock. but does not include Wilderness Club which is the Time Share property and is not fully owned by BP but a joint venture with another individual. They are also expanding services at Dogwood Canyon and for the first time ever, had to slow down construction on that project to move construction help to other more needy projects. Most often they would just hire additional crews, but currently that is not available under some financial constraints. She went on to say at this point she thought that if the buy out of Cabelas took place BP would not be a majority owner but a partner to a lesser degree. She says she has been wrong many times however in predicting Johnny's mind. She said you don't get where he is without taking financial risks. She did point out that they have all not worked out, but no body bats 100% This conversation was just a living room chat and really she said nothing that we don't already know, but it was very nice visiting with her.

Ran home from the deer woods for one day last week and we had a spoon bite that was close to 20 pounds. Heard reports yesterday of a really nice spoon bite, most all LM. We had a 5 and two 4 pound LM in our batch with a really nice bunch of those 18 inch grey ole big K's. This weather is going to put them where we usually catch them after Thanksgiving. I'm Giddy.

Guess I should have gotten out of the deer woods sooner. Good Job Buddy. I'm home now and ready to start after them.

Here we go again. Some folks have reniged on their purchase and I have sold and found a few other rods that have had some experience at catching Table Rock Bass, so here goes again. CASTING RODS. 1 YR. OF SERVICE 2 CARA REACTION SWIM JIG $125.00@ 2 CARA HEAD TURNER $120.00@ 1 CARA FINESS JIG $120.00 2 ORIGIONAL F24-166-M $50.00@ SPINNING RODS 2 CARA NESTOR FALLS SPIN This is the same rod that is now the Squirrel tail I use it exclusively for Ned rigging. $125.00@ 5 CARA CS-5-166-MH 6'6" SPIN $100.00@ I have sold 26 of the original 38 rods I had in stock, and then added 2 Original Casting rods. I have sold quite a few new rods also. If you need multiple rods from either the new or pre-owned stock I can make a little better deal, depending on how many you want. Thanks Bill Don't hesitate to give me a call, text or email. Also I am pretty sure that Phil is going to stock some very nice Lite and Ultra Lite trout rods and also some of the small Falcon 1000 series finesse reels. Reviews on the Moxie and the Volt are very good. One is an 8 bearing reel and the other is a 11 bearing reel. These are very affordable and will match up with the Falcon Lite action Trout rods. I'll let you know when you can look for them and pricing in the Tackle shop at Lilleys' Makes a very good Christmas gift for you or your trout fishing clan.

This circumstance has been building since Spring. It is not however the responsibility of MDC this falls on the COE and legislation to regulate water flow from Table Rock thru the White River system. Safeguards have been put in place to protect valuable farm land in the lower Mississippi delta to prevent flooding that occurred in 08 and 2011. The folks at MDC have been delt this hand and are doing the best with it they can. We have had sediment in the water on the Rock all year and it just recently has started to clear somewhat, but you can continue to see floating particles throughout the water column. Lets all hope for a speedy recovery and not push the blame card to heavy on our MDC hatchery. Got a feeling there has been many a sleepless night going on up there, trying to fix someone else mess.

I'm going to go here with possibly the best Spook fisherman in history. Charley Campbell. If he has to tie to the eye, he uses a loop knot. He prefers a split ring. It will make the spook skate and he says that is the key. I never under any circumstances tie direct to the eye. I've also caught a couple on it. Good Luck

Had a chance to get out a bit yesterday. I came home early from bow hunting as it is flat out just to hot in Northern Missouri. Hoping it will get cooler by start of next week. Went out of Shell Knob and had just a terrific bite from 7:30 to Noon. Mostly on a spook. Tried a Sammy, and a yellow magic and they would slap at them but just would not hook up. Put on a spook Jr. with a clacker and they flat nailed it. If they missed it they would come back and eat it. Work that spook slow, and stop and start it a lot. If I worked it steady, no good. If I would stop it and let it set, and just turn its head, they would nail it. Back of pockets with shad. I would check the backs for activity before I would fish them. If you don't see shad flicking in the shallow water, move along. Long flat cove pockets, deeper stuff was not as good. If there was a little pole timber in them, there seemed to be a fish on almost every pole. Did not get a single bite out of a cedar. Caught some nice fish also up in the morning on docks, but it was hit and miss. 20 docks to 1 fish and sometimes they were dinks. Flat pocket bite was the best by far. Clear in the backs in very shallow water. I was not alone as it seemed that folks have it figured out. Seen lots of guys doing the same thing. Surface temps at 66.5 to 69 depending on the pocket. Visibility to 4 ft. Wind did not seem to matter, caught as many on flat as with a chop. Tried the Whop/Poop but did not have a nibble on it. Champ described it as throwing a baked potato. I thought that was about as close a call as there is. Also had several nice fish on a Jet around some of the docks and the pole timber, I just have to throw that thing. Good Luck

Now I'm going to have to start caring a spare tongue pin. Figures.

Guys, check out Buy, Sell and Trade. I have recently renewed my Pro-Staff deal with Falcon and the lodge has also became a dealer. I am constantly flooded with questions about my inventory of experienced rods. They are for sale now on buy sell trade. Please check it out. Thanks Bill

Guys I have just worked out a deal with Falcon and am not only going to continue on the Pro-Staff, but become a limited dealer here at the lodge. This has been in the works for about 2 yrs. I have had ups and downs just trying to continue on the Pro-Staff simply because they don't need much of one anymore as they petty much sell them as fast as they build them. I'm going to mainly handle the upper end rods, mostly signature McCelland, Cara Reaction, Cara T7 and Cara ST. I can get other, but what I'm going to have is what I and a lot of the professional fishermen in this area use on a daily basis. I have my entire Pro-Staff rod inventory from 2013 thru now on sale. I will handle any new Falcon rods on strictly an unpublished private treaty basis. All factory warranties apply as we will be a dealer, here at White River Lodge. Do not hesitate to email me and ask questions about the rods and pricing on new Falcon Rods. Current Inventory and pricing; Experienced Table Rock lake Rods. Cara T7 Med. Cranker Full 10" handle quantity 2 price $110,00 each Usage; RK Crawler-Sq. Bill- lipless Crank- Wiggle Wart Cara T7 Finesse Jig- Head Turner and Amistad quantity 8 price $120.00 each 3/8th to 1 oz baits of all kinds Amistad is great for A-Rig or Wopper P Car T7 Reaction Swim Jig quantity 2 price $125.00 each Fantastic football jig rod and med swimbait Cara T7 Jerkbait Special quantity 5 price $110.00 each spook and any type of topwater from popper to jerkbait, jigging spoon. Cara T7-ST Mansfield Cast quantity 5 price $110.00 micro guide each Excellent Red Fin, RK Crawler, Flutter Spoon Wobble Head, My most used. Cara T7 Jeff Kriet ST quantity 6 price $125.00 each Excellent Ned Rig small tube, shaky head or drop shot Cara T7 Med Hvy Spin 6'6" quantity 8 price $100.00 each Carolina spit shot rig small jig and top water. Excellent rod instead of a casting rod. No phone calls please, Handle any of your rod need thru email. whiteriverbb@msn.com You will be very pleasantly surprised at the new rod pricing.

Great stuff thanks. Wheeler mentioned that he caught his fish on a topwater prop bait, a topwater walking bait and a flutter spoon off dock corners.

One of those Co-Anglers did have some input as he stated he fished his best set of docks for 2 days. Said he had also caught them on the same docks during the CPA, so if you got fish, they will listen. Believe he said 28 keeper bites off that row of docks.

Clunn and his Am were throwing the Whopper Popper. I think Watson threw it a little, but threw the toad the most. Wheeler said he had it figured out after the second day and could have continued catching 14 to 18 pounds a day. He caught them on a toad and a flutter spoon. I missed the winning weight by 1 pound and 8 oz. That was a pretty good guess for a 3 day Fall derby. I gave a range up to 48 pounds and lots of you thought I was crazy. My middle was 44-46 so it was a fair educated guess. Wrong bait however. I thought it would be on a big jig. The crankbait bite was just getting hammered everywhere and unless you had some unused water that deal was drying fast. There were also lots of fish caught on a buzz bait. We got to visiting among the guides and those folks coming in saying they were catching 30 shorts a day did not have a snowball chance in a hot tube of making it. I believe the guy that won on the co-side just drug a jig the entire 3 days. That is what I would have done from the back of the boat.

Was there a comment that said he was burning a frog? What does that even mean? I have no idea how to fish one, but I have never seen a frog swimming as fast as a buzzbait, but I guess that's the deal. Limits were bigger today, and got a feeling anyone can win this tomorrow. Several of these guys said they should have had over 20 pounds and blew it, so we will see. Also is there a payout list where you can go and see the payouts for each place?

Guess I was totally wrong about Watson. He was practicing a bit different than the way he is catching them by all reports. And who says a frog won't work on the Rock. Live and learn.

Those draggers and droppers are not getting 12 pounds. They are getting 9 and 10 pounds. Post above has lots of truth in it

One of our local guides here caught them pretty good on his trip yesterday with a spinnerbait out of cedars. Said he thought he and his single client had 17 or 18 pounds. Said they had a solid 5 and another over 4 pounds. He is very accurate with his weights, so I will say it is 99% so. Said they only had 6 total fish but all were the right kind. This is very contrary to what those going over the scales are saying, commenting they have caught lots and lots of short fish. These guys are all over the flat gravel and the roll-offs. either dragging finesse baits or drop shotting. Usually not the receipt for biggins. The pattern that I have been using is as I have said, not going to catch you a bunch of shorts or guide fish, but solid keepers. Only a couple of bites for the boat an hour, but really nice fish. It is almost impossible to fish this pattern in a derby. Your brain just will not let you slow down to that speed, you feel there are fish elsewhere that you can catch and catch faster. You can, but not what we have been catching fishing slow right now, and after these cooler temps, it might even be more of a pattern. I think Watson is fishing a very similar pattern. I know Mike has been covering a lot of water and really Power Fishing. With these cooler temps a guy might need to put that crank bait up and concentrate on the cedars or the transition banks a bit deeper. I'm still thinking it is going to take 25 plus to make the top 12 and to win you are going to have to be in the 40's. If you didn't have 12 pounds yesterday it is going to be a very tough hill to climb, just because of the shear number of guys you have to jump over. Good Luck out there.

Lot tougher than I thought it would be so far, but 17 pounds leading and Biffle with close to 15. Might be a bigger bag tomorrow weighed in. Mike M. weighed in 10.9 said it was his toughest day he has had up here.

I might be really Big Eyeing it, especially with the brutal conditions out there today. Not only clear cooler and high pressure but a horrible East Wind. I'm still thinking someone will have a big bag everyday, as usual no matter what the condition. One big Hog Mama out of a cedar tree off a bluffend or off a dock and then two decent fish and two swimmers add up to 15 pounds. 5 Good SM and they are biting adds up to 15 pounds. All this is just speculation, but most are guessing to make the final 12 your going to have to have 25 That's 12.5 per day. Then then one of those days you are going to need a 16 or a 17. That's a 40 pound plus derby. Hope I'm not way off and these guys show is a biggin or two.

Don't know what's going to happen today, and I'm not fishing, but I have been fishing the Indian Point area to Shell Knob just about everyday the last two weeks, and I am getting bit big time. More of a Spring type pattern going on right now. I'm catching about the biggest bags I have had all year, and so is Beck. We are not catching 30 fish a day, but we are catching quality fish, at about 2 bites an hour. There will be limits of LM weighed in today and really nice limits of Jaws. I'm betting. Next week, I'll let you know what we have been doing and I as said a few days ago, I will post some of the baits. Good Luck

Just watching from the house here and what I hear and see going on, is lots of these guys are strickly fishing drop shot for K's, or dragging a split shot. I don't think this will do ya any good this year. Most of these K limits are going to be between 9 and 12 pounds, and there are way better fish out there to be caught right now. These guys are spending hours on the flats with these Kentucky bass when your time could be much better spent. Don't know how he is going to do this week, but both Bill and I fished with Mike last week before it was no contact rule. He has been up here for over 2 weeks. I don't think Mike will be using a drop shot. Both days with Mike we had quality keeper fish in the 15 plus pound range, so I hope they bite for him this week. We have been thinking 42 to 48 pounds for the 3 day derby. Be interesting to see how close we are to that. 36 pounds of Kentucky's probably won't get it. Big Moon, High pressure and clear and blue cloudless sky can make for a real tough giddy up though. There are Big Jaws biting along now with some very nice LM. If you have to even weigh in one K, unless he is a 3 pounder it may be telling. Be interesting to see what's up on the weigh-in. Go MM.

On another note, I have never seen the paddle fish jumping like they are now. I have almost hit at least 2 or 3 everytime out. They are jumping lake wide in droves. Looks like Grand lake up here.