Bill Babler

Really for the most part have struggled the past few days under bright high skys and falling temps, both air and water. Today that was not the case, today was a fish day. 60 degree, warm rain and a bit of a breeze on a very cloudy overcast day in April. Those are days you can catch them and we did. Had Don and Rochelle from Buckner, Mo today and fine fishing couple with today being Rochelle's B-day and her present was a day on the Rock. She took full advantage and caught them like she owned them. Don kind of overshadowed her abit being our fish finder. If he would catch one quick on a location, we knew we would have it working. We fished Tubes, Grubs and Flukes and all caught fish, with the grub being the best deal. Most of our fish were in the 15 to 18 foot range on chunk rock gravel mix getting ready to do the deal. Numbers were large and the fish were too. Fished point 2 to point 5 and really only fished 4 or 5 locations, keeping the boat in 30 feet and catching them 1/2 way back between boat and bank. Truly one of those good days for some great KC area folks. Good Luck

Ya got a point there on the 9's 10's and now an 11 plus. On numbers of quality 3.5 to 6 pound LM I think they get us

I know a few years ago, I looked at total regata permits and checked out the number of tournaments. Table Rock just blew LOZ out of the water. I think it beat it by 200 derbys. Have not looked in a while. Just more days to fish the Rock, as we pertty much fish all Winter, and there are multiple derby's every weekend. Update it's a pain and is hard with all the back and forth, but I just looked at 2013 thru April. That is as far as you can really tell as there will be more added for the following months, so you cannot predict them. Lake of the Ozarks Fishing tournaments Table Rock Lake Fishing Tournaments 1-13 thru 4-13 1-13 thru 4-13 122 tournaments 158 tournaments I know a few years ago when I looked at this when derby fishing was at its high point, Table Rock was in the top 5 or so in the entire United States. It is for sure a tournament distination, and one of the most prussured lakes in the Mid-West. This is pretty much what I remembered on LOZ and the Rock. about 8 to 12 or so more on the Rock per month. The number of tournament boats however is huge. Again I'm thinking over 1500 more per year on the Rock and that is substantial. I see where you are coming from on just shear number of boats, LOZ has that for sure. Just not as many derby boats.

I can vouch for that statement about guides having to look some days. The last two not counting today were both challanging for me. Low numbers of fish and small keepers were my clain to fame. That Kimberling City to Baxter run that had been so good for me went North to the Winter with dropping water temps and high cloudless skys. Dam bite picked up, but hard to be everywhere at once. If I had to do it again I'd fish the dam, as I will this week, but education is a hard taskmaster. Slow, slow, slow right now with this weather. If you can move a bait without moving it that is the deal. Tomorrow again right after this weather event might be nails. Hope not, I could not stand 3 rough days.

I'm pretty much in agreement with the magizine. It is a totally different fishery however. One thing that I really like about the Rock is the varity of cover and the 3 different Black Bass Varities we offer. Yes LOZ has some K's, but they are pretty common in size and really like to hang out on the outer edges of the docks. You will on a very limited ammount catch a Jaw or two up the niangua or the gravois, but the Kentucky and SM fishery here is a fishery, just not an unusual catch. For numbers of Largemouth and also quality of LM it will beat us most all the time. I have been up there in October and early November when 100 plus fish days are the norm rather than the exception. Lots of young, but there are some brusiers also. That bass fishery is more of a traditional bass pond. Buzzbaits, Crankbaits, Jigs, and Spinnerbaits, fished hard and fast in water under 10 ft. deep. Structure fishing and dock fishing. There is also a good what they would call deep bite out to maybe 30 ft. at times on jigs shaky heads and swimbaits, with some C-Rig fish. It is a place that have you not been there and are going for the first time, you can without much help catch some bass, at any season except extreme winter when at times it freezes. Unlike here for the newby's, that can come here and earn a zero for their hard work. On Table Rock seasonal patterns are much more in effect and our bass at times much harder to catch. I think they also have larger numbers per acre than we do, but have not seen a MDC survey of LOZ. Using those factors alone, it probably gets us if you are poling the Pro's.

That is one great trip. 6 pound average is something we just don't see a whole lot of. Great info and thanks.

Gona hate to see ya go home buddy. You know they have pharmacies down here. Get that gal in the UHaul pointed South. Might even find a school or two for those young-ens. Thanks for all you do for this forum. I look for your post everyday. Good Luck

Dave, I agree. I really don't think there is much rush to the water other than the chasing fish early if and that is a BIG IF you can find or manage to stumble on some. Might really take a look at that fluke bite, as it saved my bacon yesterday. On the grub, there was no hook setting, you just had to let them ride it. IF you pulled back to much, they came off, even the big ones. Good Luck

One of the other boys told me white bass and the 3 black bass species were busting shad yesterday in the dam area. Threw the absolute sink at them of topwater junk and just could not get them to take it. Threw a white RC subsurface twitching it fast and they hammered it. 10 big white bass and a bunch of the green ones. This was prior to the weather event in the afternoon. He dried up when the front hit. For Beck and I it got better. We both had our biggest fish late in the day and we caught numbers all afternoon, even after the front. Suprised me quite a bit. I thought we were done when it hit.

Well, another year of the Dental Group is in the books. Beck and I have been taking these boys for the best part of 20 yrs. now. They fish a two day derby with 2 catagories, big fish for the two days and keeper numbers for the two days. I came in first looser on both accounts for the past two days. Beck's group edged us out with the Big fish of the Derby weighing in a really nice LM that weighed 5.11 pounds. We got shadowed out with our 5.9 pounder. In the numbers group, Pete Wenners edged us out with 15 keepers, to our 11. Again we were bridesmades and not the honeymooners. We fished out of the Port of Kimberling and all fish were returned to the lake smarter, but mostly unharmed. I fished from KImberling to about point 9 mostly early on the float-n-fly along with Beck. Pete fished much the same area, but a bit deeper in the pockets than we fished. Pete had, had some schooling fish the previous day in a pocket and returned to these fish catching all of them on a fluke, chasing shad. When the float bite stopped for me we switched to a smoke grub and a Pro Blue megabass. Our big fish came on the megabass sticker. Beck swithched to the grub and a jig. His biggin came on the jig Warmest surface temp I saw today was 57 Water was not as clear, with quite a bit of green. Most of our fish along with the rest of the boys came on ledgy stuff with some timber present. Most were pre-spawners.90% of the fish we caught were a combination of LM and Smallmouth. Not very many K's at all. I think we had 48 fish in the two days and only maybe a 1/2 dozen K's. Saw Dave at Schooner Creek, and he gave me some hand poured Ned Rigs. Thanks buddy. Did not try them today but will put them to good use.

I have had it happen plenty of times while guiding, but never have I had a school or 3.5 to 5 pound fish attack me during a derby. It is just simply following him right now. He better be buying the biggest lottery ticket he can find. He said he didn't have anything going at all and was just going to flip bushes for buck bass the way he had been fishing, when the pocket went wild.

Thought that blade might be an option in Aunts, always is on murkey water. Thanks Snake.

Ah!!!!! What did I say. Not braggin or nothin, but just sayin! When you get on a roll like that, it is just unbelieveable. Has happened many times. It just set up for him, however I thought he would catchem on a sticker, Good Luck

Don't really agree with anything in this post. Table Rock since the late 1990's or really since the mid 80's has not been loaded or even close to carring capasity for any of our game or pan fish varities. It does have a very accecptable population of fish and will continue to thrive on its own with very conservations minded fishermen that may I point out it does have. Forage populations are supurb in both threadfin and gizzard shad. Having fished the lake since the early 1970's and professionally fished the lake since 1990, it has had an evolution, that is not only healthy, but is in fact helped it flurish after a horriffic fish kill and the constant fluction of water levels during the spawning seasons. Call it evolution or survival of the fittest, I don't know, but most all fish on the White River Chain have addapted to other means of not only feeding but how they relate to structure. Our fish here on Table Rock have become much more migratory. They are very seasonal in their travels and feeding patterns and also very much a fish that for the most part does not even though it is available relate to much shoreline structure or shallow structure. They have very much including all three species of black bass become open water fish. From the heat of the Summer to the cold of Winter there are fish that just occupy open water and depth. Not only have they adapted to this as this is where their forage is, but they have also adapted to this as these lake sections have the least ammount of enchroachment from man. ie fishing prussure. Yes at times especially now there is and always will be a shallow bite on Table Rock. That bite is perhaps the hardest to comand on a daily basis,or the hardest to master. That is why fisherman from outside our area struggle here. Not only is the clarity of the lake a factor here, but the forage base mostly threadfin and gizzard shad do not occupy these shallow areas on a consistant basis. Crayfish also a top forage for most of our Black Bass spcies also can be found in much deeper water. Not unusual to see crayfish as deep as 40 ft. For the past several years, MDC has been and has added countless structure that has been mentoned for the most part due to the fluctuating lake levels can be found on the bank or when the water is up just impossible to fish around. If you think we don't have cover, look at the structure map. Hundreds of piles. for the most part these piles are not holding concentrations of either forage or fish. Yes they may hold some crayfish or a few perch or sunfish, but MDC when putting them in made it their soul purpose to concentrate panfish and make them easier for the general public to catch. DID NOT WORK, AND WILL NEVER WORK. The old movie saying "If you build it they will come. does not apply to Table Rock bass." With the main forage base here on the rock, of course being the shad that for the most part occupy open water, at times however they will suspend in the deeper tree tops, the adding of the structure has done little more than make the areas it was placed harder to fish rather than the intended concentration. In fact on some of these locations in the dam area, it has rendered quality smallmouth banks to non-fishable, due to the smallmouth moving, and making them impossible to fish properly You must remember here that we are dealing not so much with a largemouth bass population here but a spotted bass and a smallmouth bass fishery other than the river arms of the White River. These fish are extremely sight type of feeders. They are not ambush feeders for the most part. The spotted bass love to school and chase their prey, brush means nothing to them. They are also the big kids on the block and do not need it for shelter as so with the largemouth and the smallmouth. The smallmouth are roamers, they live everywhere and no where. They do not spend their lives living by a brush pile, the are travlers and transents. On the Whtie River, they just dearly love wide open slooping gravel flats. They love wind and they consume as much insect matter as any fish in the lake. Most of all they love mixed gravel and chunkrock that holds crayfish, and can be found in these areas. Again here a perch in a bruch pile means nothing to them. As far as fry reproduction, man made brush is not a factor here, with our constantly moving lake levels. The main criteria for good fishing on the Rock is a steady water level during the spawn. An earlier poster refered to lake fork as a case point. How wrong he was there. Lake Fork since 1989 has stocked more that 50 million florida bass fry. The sheer number of stocked fish in fork is by far greater than the entire fishery of this lake. This lake is fine the way it is. However I to would like to see a continued effort with the walleye. They are very exciting and really fit into the current structure of Table Rock in great fashion, with the way they feed on shad on the deep flats. Lets just leave good enough alone.

I'm pretty sure my temps are correct, and we fished Cape Fair till 4 PM yesterday and the upper James to mid-james. Really not a ton of fish for us with about 20 mostly short LM Bucks 2 quality keeps in a Jaw and a LM. 58 degree at the Ramp at 7 AM and when we quit at 4 we had hit 60. I know this is the right temps. Caught fish on Baby Brushogs, and jerkbaits.

Does anyone know if Jason Christie is fishing? He just won at Beaver, don't know if it was on an A-Rig, but there is still a stickbait bite going and he will be all over that deal if he is indeed fishing. He seems to be on a real roll. There will be some site fishing this year, and there will be boys running to color. CPA locals did not do well on their derby this weekend and it took under 30 for a two day deal, so this could be a little tougher than expected. I believe the bed fish will be there and these pro's are great at that, so we will see.

Please all, go to Pete Wenners Table Rock Lake video fishing report for April 11th. It is a piece on not only the fluke but the grub. We are doing the same thing, Pete is fishing a little shallower than I am, but it is so close it is unreal. He is also keeping his boat in the 25 to 30 range, I'm a bit deeper, but we are both fishing the same patterns on the same stuff to the same fish. Only in different areas of the lake. He and I have never discussed this. It is very well done and gets you exactly where I have been trying to lead. 99% of us are fishing the fluke on spinning. With the sampo style swivel, you should take out the twist. Other things to do is never under any circumstance when fishing a spinning reel, close the reel with the reel handle. Always, always close the bale with your hand.You will virtually take all the twists out of your line with that one manuver. Good Luck

Yes they will in this clear water. But remember this, I am not fishing fish that are relating to the bottom. I am fishing staging fish in the pole timber and off the bluffends in front of spawning pockets. Not only are there fish suspended in the trees, but they are suspended on the long points. As I have stated these fish can be anywhere in the water column, not relating to the bottom in any fashion. I'm rigging my fluke weedless with a swivel up the line to prevent twists. 8 pound maxi on the main line and 12 pound invesx on the leader. Pretty much the same diameter in the line and the carbon not only helps to sink the bait it also help with abrasion and strength, yet it is pretty much invis. to the fishes. Just my thoughts, and it really works. On another note some of the guides are beginning to see some beds with fish on them. Most report they are seeing them much deeper than usual. 10 to 15 feet. Good Luck

Nolan, when I talking about the deep trees, the tops are coming up to that 15 to 20 ft. mark, you cannot see the tress normally. You can right now as the water is super clear. Try dragging a weedless fluke out where you were and just flat hang on, cause they are going to munch it. If it is breezy, throw a stickbait around those deep ones and work it by and near the tops. Great way to catch a true monster. Thanks for the post and good luck

Did not intend to be cross or mean spirited yesterday, but it was one of those days. Johnboy had it right for Table Rock. Most important point of his post, reguardless of the baits he was using, his boat was sitting in the correct ammount of water. He was fishing a divirse depth by casting into I'm guessing 10 to 12 ft. and then bringing that bait thru the entire water range to plus 30 ft. That is a very correct pattern to locate and catch fish in the Sprng on the Rock He was dragging but the grub, stickbait or fluke will preform that same fuction in the same way, They are a bit more versitile if you are a caster. The Spil-shot is way better if you have a youngster you are casting for and handing the rod. He or she just has to hold it. Really no hook set most of the time necessary, just put prussure on the bait. With the other 3 baits I mentioned they are attracting fish anywhere in that water column, from the bottom to the surface with the water clarity we have right now. I am fishing a bit deeper really doing the same thing that Johnboy is. The complete key is the boat. The boat catches the fish the fishermen do not. If your boat is out of position, you will struggle. If you maintain the correct attitude of the boat and it is positioned correctly your chances increase about 99%. Eric Olliverson one of our lake guides here is having a fantastic Spring fishing the grub. Talked to him several times yesterday. They had an 8.8 swimming the grub on the same types of locations I'm catching them on the floater or the sticker. He reported multiple keepers. He had his boat in 35 to 50 most of the afternoon. He is making long cast and letting the grub sink and then slowly winding it back so when it reaches the boat, you are reeling it almost straight up. We have went over this time after tme. Most if not all of the big females are not on the bank, they are suspended away from the bank in association with deep water in or near the spawning pockets. There is plenty of things for them to eat out there cause most of these locations are also full of shad. It is also but a tail wag to the bottom for some yummy crayfish cocktails. Move those boats out and share the fish we are catching, we invite you aboard. Good Luck

Glad to see that drag bite starting. Has pretty much just been staging stuff. It was still for us today, with mostly sows out in the deep trees. Most reports from the in close stuff are Bucks, up on the prowl. Thanks for the great report and info. Good Luck

Paddle is suggested equipment. You have to have it to pass an inspection, but you will not be fined without one. Should have had one. I have had a New Minn cota on this boat and a new Motor Guide. The one I was using today was on loan while they fixed my motor guide under warranty. This is 2012 and 2013 new equipment that is breaking without ever touching anything. Don't know how I can pin that on myself for not having the best equipment. Both the Minn Cota and the Motor Guide were the top of the line. Both just burned out. That is why they have a warranty. In the end it is my fault. My junk broke. If you knew me, money is NEVER the issue. If I get a flat I trade in the truck. I ordered a new 2014 rig last week, but the troller still may go out. If it does its my fault. Good Luck

First off, you don't need the floater, a stickbait or a fluke will do just as good. Why people think you have to be in contact with the bottom at all times just really confuses me. As has been stated the only reason there is a bank around the lake is to hold the water in. Table Rock Fish for the most part could give as flyin crap about the bank. Especially with 20 to 30 ft. of visibility. Table Rock fish are on the bottom probably about 1% of the time. The rest of the time they are suspended, schooling in the trees or chasing. They only need the bottom to spawn and catch a crawdaddy on occusion. They can catch that daddy on the bottom in 40 ft. it they want, they don't have to do it in a foot. They can spawn in 20 ft. they don't have to do that in a foot either. Real simple to catch a fish on a stickbait, fluke grub or an A-Rig deep, throw it off the bluffends let it sink to the count of 10 to 20 and start winding it back real slow. Or on the sticker, jerk it back and let it set. Had 20 fish with 7 quality keepers today doing just that in the midst of massive trolling motor problems again. I was paddling my client around with my net. Had some super fish, and you know, we never got within a rifle shot of the bank. This is the White River, it is not Lake O or Truman. our fish for the most part live in the lake, not on the shore. Good Luck

Those are most diffently not spawned out. Looks like males. Great trip and thanks for the pic.

You by far have the warmest water on the lake. At 6 PM at Kimberling City it was 53.4 it will get better