Bill Babler

He will not be sorry in the least. Got to know about the ear. Sounds like a Buster deal where you might have gotten -issed.

I think you may have heard wrong. I just check with one of my biologist friends and they have never shocked a fish over 8 pounds in his knowledge. I have never heard of a 12 pounder on Table Rock. It is very hard to substantiate as most weights are unofficial as most often the fish must die. I will tell you that the biggest fish are always electro fished up the James River with Bear's Den 9 out of 10 times having the biggest fish of the year.

Dance kind of gave up on the dance, and sold his self out. I don't think I would put him in there. Roland Martin I believe won a derby at 55 yrs. old and that says a ton. Hank Parker and Jimmy Houston were both good, but would not adapt, they are power fisherman. I will tell you there are multi species fishermen out there that are without a doubt better all arounders than some of the derby winners. Guys that can throw a fly 150 ft. with 6X. Read a locater and catch fish on a baitcaster fish the salt and pretty much do it all. We will not hear of those guys.

Forget the www. my email is whiteriverbb@msn.com

I had 9 bites today and had 4 keepers. I caught every bite I had and that is really difficult. People that do not have the fantastic opportunity that I am so fortunate to have would not have been able to make the adjustments that I did today nor catch all those bites. Most days I will miss some. I got fortunate today and caught them. It was kind of a one man type of day. If I had been on a guide trip, it would have been way different. I sniped those fish on a grub. I saw others but the speed in which they appeared and disappeared was very fast and I just could not have gotten a client on them. I would have sucked big time today. The fish I caught today were fish that most often will not usually be caught. Very hard to explain. There are fish out there to be caught, but I would hate to be a amateur fishing out of the back of Mike Webb's or Bill Beck's boat in a derby right now. There are fish they can catch and fish the rest of us only hope to catch. Most often cause they just nabbed them. Folks If you want to reach me and I apologize I just got back from vacation. Went to Santa Fe. and Taos New Mexico. email me at www.whiteriverbb@msn.com Sometimes its hard for me going thru ozarksanglers. Good Luck

No dead shad. Did not see any gulls today but did see 2 eagles. Not disappointed as far as what I was able to catch, but they were not the guide fish I was looking for. Just no numbers and really scattered. Be pretty hard to guide on them. The deep ones I caught were singles and would have been impossible if I were not setting there with my nose on the graph, and was ready to pounce on them. Might be able to catch some A-Rig fish, but everyone of those came off a short bank that if just perfect and I don't know another spot like it. Had the same guy out last year I'm taking later in the week the same time of the year and we stuck them pretty good on the. Rig, so maybe he will be up for that deal again.

Just sloshed her in off the duck pond and I will tell you after being off a few days, it was very tough for me out there. Got several trips coming up and wanted to hit my deep fish and see if they remembered me. How quickly they have forgotten, as them and their buffet were gone. Did not see a single deep set of shad in the Shell Knob area that I have been fishing. Got on the water at 7:30 to a bit of a tea color water and a surface temp of 42.4. Air temp at 35 degree. Went immediately looking for the deep bite and could just see a fish here and there and no bait. Caught 3 on a grub vertical and 1 on a spoon on 3 different locations.l I picked up a stickbait about the time the wind stated and just did not have confidence in it and went to an A-Rig. Caught 5 pretty good fish on it with 4 very solid keeps, with two of those being Jaw's. While I was winding the Rig, I saw a nice fish under the boat at about 30'. As soon as I got the rig in close, I kind of let it flutter down to the fish and immediately saw him start to rise out of my cone. He slammed the Rig that was down about 20' and probably about 10 ft. off the side of the boat. A very nice SM. Most of the fish I saw and caught all day were suspended at 30' over whatever. To make the A-Rig work, I had the boat in about 50 ft. and tried to bring the rig back in that 20 to 30 ft. depth range. Worked a little. I just felt with what I was seeing they were to deep for the sticker. Fished till 11 and by then the waves were white capping hard and were splashing spray and that was about enough for me. Surface temp had dropped to 42 even money and air temps were at 41 degree. Good Luck

I've seen his boat and the above is not a type-0. Tell ya the truth, he is a pretty handy guy to have around. Kind of miss him when his recess duty is over for the year.

Anytime regardless of the month, you come out and catch 10 solid keepers on Table Rock and you have had yourself a very good day. Tks for the report

Your not foolin me you stuburn old coot. No matter what you hear you are just like me. Your going to catch them the way you want or your. not going to catch them. Really does not matter to you. They had better like that jig or tube or they ain't eatin today. Just like most fishermen, that get to fish when they want. This is not good advice for folks that cannot go to the lake everyday. Most good fly fisherman I know after they get them biting something, take that off and put another fly on. They know they can catch them now they want to bend them and see how far they can push the envelope. Quill somedays they don't bend some days they do. We are the very fortunate who for us it really does not matter either way. Good Luck

Not a single boat in the Clevenger to Long Creek Bridge area, including Big Cedar Hollow. Lots of steam coming off the water. What was that I said about not getting much colder. I might have missed that deal.

This was late December or January? If your speaking of any other time frame, What ever your guide did would not be near the same under these winter conditions when the fish are lethargic and only in about 10% of the locations they are thru the rest of the season. In the Winter season walleye seem to feed way less do to the temp and their metabolism. They will however when they start activate several strikes in a very quick time frame. There is a particular channel swing on mid-bull that we will set at for hours throwing to time after time. I have fished it for as much as 3 hrs. without a strike and then caught a limit in 4 cast. This is a very strange fishery in the Winter months and be very frustrating or you can go down and catch the fish of a lifetime the first time you ever fish the bull. Good Luck out there.

Wow! quite a conumdrum here. Phil's reply was more than good. There is a completely different set of rules that go with fishing different locations throughout this country and for that matter for each species you are anticipating catching. Guides that are guiding in Alaska or fishing for Rainbow or Brown trout fly or spincast have a very different rule set than other species. Pretty much we don't fish, or we may at times try a presentation or a pattern to enhance the opportunity of our guests to either catch a fish or perhaps catch a bigger fish or catch a fish in a different s way. Trout fishing guides are not the norm, they are the exception. That is the way it is. I have taken guide trips as a client on loads of occasions and if I'm fishing either salt, brackish, lakes or rivers, I have never been on a trip that the guide did not fish in some manner. I have as a client had them compete against me and want to catch more than I did. I have had them catch limits to give me and I have had them show me the proper technique and then watch as I practiced it. Depending on location and species all were acceptable. I'm never very hot on Lake Fork, as that is an area just about every guide will front end you and will work about as hard as he can to put every fish in the boat. I have never figured that out. That is a different breed on Lake Fork. Now all that being said, in 24 yrs now I have had only one skunk, with clients, Knock on wood. I did take out this Winter one of my favorite Clients deep fishing. He and his son fish with me at least 3 or 4 times per year. We were deep fishing and I was trying to determine if a spoon or a grub were best. I caught 5 bass vertical, the son caught 1 and a perch. It was freezing cold we called it early and I did not charge him. No problem for me as we will fish next year. They did miss several, but it was not what I wanted. Jerry thru a fit about wanting to pay me and he will get even with me next year. I'm sure, so no worries on my part. I will tell you for 2013, a guide trip cost me $112.00 for each trip. So weather we catch them or not as hard as I may work and as hard as I may try. Regardless it cost me money, successful or not. This is a very good time to catch and learn to catch Winter Walleye. IT is not even though it is a great time a guarantee when fishing Bull Shoals. This is a very, very difficult and precision type of fishing where success and failure can be almost one and the same. As far as Bass, during this period, if you are not catching at least some bass on upper Bull while you are fishing for walleye you are probably not going to catch walleye. Success can be judged in technique, presentation equipment, and the locations you fished during your tour. A very good day for me currently on Bull and I can fish the upper end in the Winter as good or better than 90% of the folks is a couple of walleye and a handful of bass per day. If I catch twice that I'm not surprised and if I don't catch any I'm not surprised. Very tough fishery to take clients on. Reason being when the fishing get tough you have to get tougher. It is always tough there, and for the most part very hard for clients to have in their mind what it takes to be successful, and in reality you are fishing for bites not fish. On these type of winter trips do you have the patients and the ability to fish each presentation to its complete fullest? To feel ever turn of the head of your bait. To keep your line tight and to concentrate on a tick so small that it feels like a fly lite on the rod tip. That is your first bite after 2 hrs. of fishing. This is not like trout where all the guide has to do is net a fish, retie a fly and say. HE's On IT. Oh no my friend, not on Bull in the Winter. As far as changing lures, a guide wants you to have the very best bait. One that he believes is to be the most successful and one the one he has the most confidence in. He may be changing his bait and his presentation, but it is usually to find a better bait or presentation for you to use. He has got that bait on your rig for a reason. Most fishermen try to over think things. When I fish certain locations, I will always try and explain to the client why I'm there and why I'm doing what I'm doing. Some guides just flat do not know why. The reason they are fishing a locations, is because they have caught fish at that location for years. They are just fishing from experience and success. In this day and age we think there is a reason for everything. Sometimes not. It just usually works. When I fish with a guide I fish to find out the local flavor and to learn a location or a technique. Being successful to me is just being able to get out and learn something new. Gosh, why would I get mad about anything that no one but the good Lord has control over. I have never yet figured out how to make a fish bite that didn't want to or to make each client catch the same number of fish on a trip. I think Phil said it the best.

Ya, that last week of April was a bugger. But. Those big Jaws like it rough. Meaner the day the better the Jaw bite is on the Rock. The grub bite is usually so good that time of the year it renders all other baits just durn near useless. It does a multitude of things. It is a bait that covers water in a very big hurry and not only that it can cover the entire water column from top to anydepth. It finds fish and allows you to concentrate on them. A very good compliment for the grub here is it reduces the size of the lake. Cannot beat that pond fishing for size and numbers. My Inlaws have 4 big ponds on their farm in Northern Missouri. YOu can catch big fish on a buzz bait or a frog up there from April thru October. They are HUNGRY and no one bothers them. Great Fishing

We probably won't get as excotic on our guide trip. Got a feeling we will be swimming some 4" something on a 1/4 oz head to staging SM Jaws. and catching more than all the lure guesses combined. When fishing the KC area in late April and May ya got to remember putting anything on the bottom in under 17' of water can and usually does have issues. Also it takes to long to take them off a triple hooked bait when its easy on a single hook. Not to mention you will catch more. I'm from the old school, I'm gona keep it simple cause I'm stupid. Thanks for the help guys. Bet we got it figgered out. Last week April windy rainy day. 1st. week May

It's On. Probably going to hammer them next week here. Good Luck boys.

It is just going to be brutal out here, if you can possibly think of any other time you may be way better off. Burrr!!! Just Sayin.

Very nice. Quality fish.

I would say a big 10-4 on the thread-fin deal

Git, I think it says 9:44 AM

Just about as good a post as I have ever read on this forum. Thanks for the info. this is very educational stuff.

Exactly right. If you remember in the Winter series stuff they were weighing in huge bags on an A-Rig all Winter. This is much more normal and is playing out like most of us deep guys like to see it. Don't worry, they will be on that Sticker pretty quick.

That is just a super day. I have not came close to that this Winter. I can grit and put together 13.5 to 15 if I'm lucky. I know bo has hit some LM and upped that but up the White River that is a true Monster bag. For 15 pounds, they pretty much have to be all LM. Of course you can slide a nice Jaw in but if a K or two is in that limit, you are very hard pressed to get to 17#, unless you have a 6 pounder or up as a Kicker. Great day with a spoon, that is just fantastic. Thanks for the report Good Luck

I really don't know how much cooler we are going to get. If you look at the projected 30 day forecast it looks very similar to what we have been having, with no extended cold weather. Tomorrow they are calling for mid 50's and that again with some breeze will put 3 or 4 degrees on the surface temps. January here can be quite warm, I remember a few years ago, I guided on Martin Luther King weekend in short pants. We usually see a few cold days in Feb, but not many. These deep fish can move at anytime. I usually figure on them from Thanksgiving to maybe if I'm luck Valentines Day. Lots of the Locals deep fishermen out of Shell Knob used to tell me on the first warm rain in late January or February they are gone, regardless of the time of the month. Most of the locations of these deep fish are really susceptible to either warm or cold rains and influxes of water from runoff. It really changes their patterns.

Water turnover and stratification is a really hard and strange thing to figure on these deep mountain lakes. Just to the volume of water and the depth Table Rock and Beaver neither usually have a top to bottom turnover. It is more of a layered movement and it is pretty easy to see on taney as it will be off color and really dirty brown looking. It has been super clear so far this year. I have friends that love to dive this time of the year and they have been out just right before Christmas. Mostly diving the Kimberling City, Cow Creek area.. They report at least 3 different temperatures of water with varied degrees of visibility and lots of different aquatic life in each temperate zone. The week before Christmas they were reporting surface temps in the 47 degree range. A slight thermocline or temperature break was again at to 30 to 40 ft. level, which was in the low 50's range. The next break was in the 60 ft. range with water back to the 47 degree level and slightly less. This is what I'm seeing on Taneycomo. They have been running 2 to 4 units this last week and the intake tubes are at 160' water at that range has been 46 to 48. With water warming and cooling it has kept that middle depth stratified at perhaps 5 to 7 degrees warmer than the surface or the bottom. This middle layer is the most dingy of the water with the most plankton and algae. The surface is pretty clear, and from what the divers are saying below the 50' depth range the water is completely gin clear with 100 plus feet of visibility. Perhaps this is why these bass have remained hovering all season in the bottom of the upper range as it is a bit warmer. The bait however has been completely thru the water column. As I already said, the 50' range and under has been according to them alive with crayfish.