Bill Babler

Weigh-in is in the books. From what I have just heard from a friend they are still pulling boats on Grand and people just flogged the Honey Creek area and also as F&F said the Elk. Elk is not the answer anyway as it just flat cooled to much, and is way murker than the rest of the lake outside of the River. With temps at 19 to 22 tonight, that shallow murkey Elk is gona be 37 in the morning. Way to cold. Here is how I see it after the first day and for sure I am probably way off. Ike is for sure in a power position. Maybe. I know his big fish came off docks on a jig. Most were fishing jerkbaits to staging fish, but i just got a feelin he will catch them again tomorrow. He is kind of like a Rat-Terrior. I do not believe KVD or JVD have a back up. I think they along with Cherry are going to feel some prussure tomorrow on the most heavly fished stretch of water on Grand. That being said, I think KVD will have them again, just not the other two, to the extent that did today. I think Johothon and Cherry will suffer. I do not believe they have ever fished a Classic that will have the local prussure that this lake will give them. Honey creek will just be completely hammered by Sunday. Pace had a good day, but you take away that 7Pounder and he is way back in the pack. My guess for him is 15 pounds tomorrow. Carter had a great day today. I will just bet that is his biggest bag of the derby Robinson falls into that same catagory. As far as Evers is concerned, probably the strangest guy I have ever met, and don't know how many friends he has on the Elite Series. I'm told, NONE. Sand Bagged his catch from BassTrax and really was more than a rear end about the whole thing. Don't wish anyone poorly but I think the attitude he has and the way he treats everyone is going to keep him winless. This will be probably his once in a lifetime chance so he may take advantage. Just would hate to see it. KVD on BassTrax Never a complaint and stated his limit and the fish to within 2 oz. What a class act. He for sure sets the bar high. I think that some of the guys that did not catch them today will have a big bag tomorrow on the same spost as the leaders had them today. They are going to reduce a 48 thousand acre lake to about 10 thousand acres. Not counting the locals. Huge gripe. Why in the world do you see these tag boats fishing and running the electronics. What a bunch of jerks. I don't think they allow you on the field during the world series. Watch with respect and keep the %%%%%% Rods in the box. Lets see how it unfolds on one of the best fisheries in the mid-west with outstanding coverage of this event. Good Luck

Most of KVD Classic wins have came off one location. He is not a huge mover and shaker. He can usually locate a group of staging bass and just flat work them over. If he finds them he can catch them. He fished the mouth of Honey Creek today and had lots and lots of competition, I believe Cherry is on his same water, not to mention lots of others. With the first day lead no doubt he is the odds on favorite, but I got a feeling by the end of the day tomorrow, it is going to get a little dicey. Lots and lots of people think they have the same water as he does. We will see if he can bully them off of it. He is pretty famous for that. I don't believe he can guard this water, I believe he will have to share it. With all the people out there today and as nice as it is right now, I will guarantee you that spot is just getting flogged as we speak. They will fish Honey creek till dark this evening. Then again on Saturday after he leaves, it will just get hammered by locals. I don't believe his area is holding the ammount of fish that he catches to the South in prespawn ditches and drops, adjacent to spawing coves. These fish on Grand just tend to move up as the water warms and get active. This is a different Classic pattern than he usually fishes by a country mile. For some reason I'm thinking someone that is fishing less prussured water may come from behind. I however don't believe you can be more than 6 pounds out today to have a chance. I think with the warming, there will be a 22 pound bag tomorrow. I don't think that KVD will catch it. I'm thinking he will be again at that 16 to 18 pound range, that he said he wants to be at per day.. Be interesting to see

That is what we all do. If there is 2 units running on Taney, in the area we are fishing it is no problem at all to hold the boat. The only thing that will really bother this type of presentation is a North wind. Everything else is no problem. If it gets to blowing you upstream however its not good.

Thanks and welcome. We do appreciate everyone and as I've said many times, I learn something new from everyone that gets in my boat. Works also here on the forum. Please congtinue to check out the Bull Shoals site, there has been some great stuff on the Bull Shoals site with some very insitefull people. thanks to all

Beaver to K dock. Said today was slower. Man this guy has spent hundereds of hours on Bull the last 4 months. Today he had 2 four pound walleye seven white bass and several LM, nothing huge, but still. He continues to catch them. He has really had a good Winter of guiding. Word has gotten out how well he is catching them and he has stayed really busy. We have had lots of posts of others just not finding these fish. I must reiterate, I will just guarantee you are fishing to fast. If you fish with Buster, you will see the error of your ways. He may fish a 100 yrd. stretch in 4 hours. He lets that bait set so long it starts to reproduce. I will tell you 99% of us just cannot do it. No more than at the most 10 casts per hour. That is about the best I can do and I'm fishing no quite two to one with him. He is probably a 10 minute per cast man. It is pretty much like tight-lining for catfish only with a artificial bait. Most of us just hate to do that and don't have the confidence in either our baits or our ability or the location we are fishing. He does, and has caught several hundred pounds of walleye this Winter. Really an eye opener.

Buster had 15 walleye- 12 white bass 2 crappie and a dozen LM up to 7 pounds Saturday. Sunday he had a dozen bass and 4 keeper walleye up to 8 pounds Yesterday he had 2 walleye and a dozen bass with another 8 pound walleye and another 7 pound bass. All on a megabass 110 + 1 custon paint and a custom made and rebilled and weighed rogue. It had slowed down for him but as the water has started to clear, he is back on them with a vengence.

Just about as Cold as I have ever been on the water yesterday. Started from Lilleys' at 8 AM with Trever for some spin action below Fall Creek. One generator running with the lake at 703. Started out at Short Creek using jig and float with a ginger 1/2 micro jig and it was really good for about 2 passes. That is when the wind started to howl up the river right out of the North. Boat would not drift and just stall and want to spin in the current and North wind. Switched to a jig head with a piece of gulp PB and continued to catch some, not great, but we did catch one very nice extremely fat 18 inch brown trout, on the gulp. Unusual for me. Finished the day with crawler rigs and continued to get a bite here and there. Probably about 30 fish on the morning on the conbination of baits. On another note, there is a log right in front of the condo's just above Short Creek. Have not noticed it before. It is about 1/3 of the way across the lake right in front of the dock. It is just maybe a foot under the water at 703 and it is a big solid piece of wood. Just barley missed it with the trolling motor this morning and could not believe it but a guy came by and slammed it. Lower unit shot out of the water, so this puppy is solid. Watch out for it. Good Luck

That time of the year, you really cannot beat Stillwaters. Very nice place on TR. Not a huge fan during the Summer when SDC is in full swing and the 76 strip is full of traffic, but this time of year, thru May it is more than Excellent

Said they didn't know either way, but you are probably right. Hate to see it though. Loved to go up there when it was open. Also heard from a very informmed person that Johnny has spent more money on Top of the Rock than on the entire Big Cedar complex. This is not including Wilderness Club, as it is a joint venture with another person, nor Dogwood Canyon. He now has had Top of the Rock closed 8 years on this construction project. Literally Hundreds of Millions spent on Top of the Rock.

In the past few days we have been hearing that the "New" Top of the Rock facility that Big Cedar owns is in the near future only going to be available to those folks either staying at Big Cedar or Buying a Timeshard at Wilderness Club. Heard this first by a waiter at Devils Pool saying the restaurants up at Top of the Rock when they get open are only going to be for Resort Guests and not the General Public. Today on my guide trip my client is staying at Wilderness Club and they are trying to sell him a timeshare. He said one of the big sales pitches is that the entire Top of the Rock faculity "Everything including golf, shopping, dining and the museum are only going to be available to Resort guests. Does anyone know if this is fact or fiction? We sure are hoping it is open to the public, but it is not looking good as far as what we are hearing. All the folks says it does not affect the Woorman House or Devils Pool. I called Big Cedar and they have no comment either way, and don't know where the Timeshare sales people are getting their info, or where the wait staff is finding these things out. Let us know what you know on the subject.

TW is always great. If your order is big enough, ask for a discount and they will usually give it to you. Also they always list a quanity for each item. If you want more just call them and they most often have it. I also have had them call me and say are you sure you wanted that number of items, it sounds like a lot. Most often I'll say ya, I need that many. Orvis is another good one. I have received calls from the President of the company as well as letters thanking me for my purchases. Always makes you feel good when one of the big boys seems to care about an order and really appreciate it.

You are absolutely right. I just weighed mine on my powder scale and it weighs 1172.5 grains That is 2.66 oz. My 10 ft. 7 wt orvis helios is suspose to weigh 1.8 oz. It weighed a shade over 2 oz. also. Thanks for the correction.

bfishn Thank you so much, that was just tremendious information. We all really appreciate it. Please continue to contribute Good Luck

Anyone that says they are catching huge numbers of fish now, might be embelishing their totals a bit. There are some very nice stringers coming to the scales in the tourmaments, but if you talk to most of these guys they have not had 10 or 12 keepers, they have had usually 6 or 8. Maybe had the chance to cull a fish or two. As you stated you are catching some nice size but no numbers. That for the most part is how its been. I will tell you the bite is a two phase deal. Right at daylight there has been a pretty good wart bite on the flatter stuff with some chunk mixed in. This goes away really quickly, uisually no later than about 8 AM on a bright day and 9 AM on a cloudy day. Same is true for the early A-Rig on the bluffends over the tree tops. Then there has been a very bad lull. Usually till about Noon. Then there has been a really good either jerkbait or A-Rig bite till the temps start to cool again. The Noon bite has been on secondaries with timber and a channel swing up against them. The bite I have had, if that channel is not on the side of the structure you are fishing, you are wasting your time. As far as the deep bite, for me this bite had dispersed. I'm seeing lots of shad on the flats and in the wind blown pockets and not so many in the deep cuts where the majority of the deep fish hang. Got a feeling the deep fish for the most part are gone. Did hear of one of the local guides finding a big school of K's in 35 ft. off a long runnout. I'm just not catching many K's, the majority of fish for me have been very quality LM with a Jaw here and there. I think a lot of guys are just beating themselves up right now when the fish are not biting and then as the bite turns on, they are so either tired or discusted they don't fish well. Either get on the water at 6:30 and fish till 8:30 or better yet, get on around 11:30 and fish till 5. Right now, 8:30 to 11:30 has been a major waste of time. It is only getting folks frustrated . Good Luck

That sounds great. For sure something to think about on a big rod like that is the weight of the reel. You put a big-butt tank reel on that and the weight of the entire outfit goes thru the roof. You have defeated what you set out to do with the great new flippin stick. I also want a 7.1 reel on my flipper as "Man you have to pick up that slack as fast as possible." Cannot tell you the ammount of times flippin a jig that the fish has completely ran me into terrible trouble on slack and loose line by running straight at me. I know a couple of years ago Tackle warehouse had a 20% off of everything day and that was a day to save money. Might want to grab that stuff at 20 %off. Don't know about this year, but Bass Pro's discounts and trade-in trade up is really edging toward only their gear. Have not seen the flyer this year however and they may have all the name brands on it. Even so a 20% off may be more than the trade up deal especially on a reel, under $300.00. I did not know they had a rod trade-in deal going, guess I missed that. Good Luck

Phil, this is for sure a sticky whicket. They will of course drive to the weigh-in sight with the fish in their aireated livewells. The water will be cool, but those fish will be sloshed and sloshed around. When they are weighed they go into a medicated and again oxygen filled tank that is constructed for the purpose of substaining and invigerating the fish. Usually that tank is mounted on a pontoon boat and at the conclusion of the weigh-in they are driven back out onto the lake and deposited over a couple of mile area. Here the pontoon will have to be driven back to grand and the fish released. Got to believe this will be by then after dark and can see this as a nightmare. That is if they are taking them back to Grand. That seems to be what the folks at Grove are concerned with, the possibility of them not bringing them back. Again, here with only 53 boats and a 5 fish limit, even if everyone has a limit and I don't look for that to happen, does rarely, even in the Classic I believe there will be some mortality, but it should be under 10%. In two days of total group fishing that would be I'm guessing about 180 to 200 fish per day being weighed in at the topend. Or about 400 fish max. Say 10% die, that would be 40 fish. Probably not a disaster and we all know Grand has had a couple of those, but it continues to be the Best by far Largemouth Bass fishery bar none in the Mid-West.

I would just about bet you that the locaion was put out to bids. BASS does not fool around when it comes to money for sponsorships. You can bet the Chevy pickup and the BassCat that Hard Rock and Tulsa Convention and Visitors Bureau paid out the nose for it. Hard Rock especially. Don't believe its a million, but I think its 6 figures. Seems like a few years ago either Branson or Kimberling City was offered to make a bid on the Classic, and it was at that time in the hundreds of thousands.

You are right, it is very hard, not knowing how much money can be spent. That is why I really like the combo that I suggested as it is multifunctional and can be used for lots of different applications, other than just as a flipper. With the telescoping length, this rod drops to about 6'6" and the split-grip allows most of us two handed casters to sling an A-Rig compeletely out of sight. I love this rod for fishing big swimbaits in the 6" range and up. Saw a guy in a derby on Bull Shoals last year fishing this rod using an A-Rig with 5-10" baits on it. The baits weighed more than the Rod and Reel combo. The BooCoo is a completely different modular structured rod than the Cara, LowRider or the Origional. Not nearly the blank, but it is not suspose to be. Lots more difference than just the handle. I think the Amastead is 7'3" instead of 7'6" and the it does not telescope. Could be wrong as I did not look it up. I know it is a super jig rod.

Nice suggestions, one and all. BUT. If I were going to put this together, which I have. I need a duel purpose outfit that fishes big, fast and light. Fishing is my life and cutting edge is always on my mind. Right now the best tecnology for the money and for sure one of the finest multi-purpose big outfits on the market is available. This outfit not only is ergonomic and can be fished all day at under 8 ozs. but has the versitility that I need. Weather you are flippin, fishing an A-Rig, or fishing multiple straight line or single Swimbaits, up to just about any fresh water size this will handle it. It would also be and is being used for Musky and Pike in the Northland. Start off with Falcon's Mike McCellends Signature Flippin Stick this is a Cara T7 Signature MMC-7-176T 7'6" teloscopic-Split Grip 13 guides. Weight under 2 oz. Price $299.99 Pair this with a Team Lew's Pro Reel at 5.9 oz. 11 bearing titanium body 7.1 gear ratio. $299.99. There is only one way to make this better. Only One. But you must have the bank account to do it, and most don't You can substitute to Lew's for a Diawa Steez, but you just added another $400.00 to the price and only came down in weight .2 oz. I have 4 of these and have two with the Lew's and two with the Steez. 99.9 percent of the fishing population, will not be able to tell the difference and it is very slight. Not enough for most to justify the more expensive Steez. Either one of those outfits weigh under a double 1/4 pounder with cheese, and you can fish them all day. I have found Bass Pro is not always the best place to put top quality fishing gear like this together. You might check around for pricing. They are really good however if anything ever does go wrong. They for the most part don't seem to care and just replace it. Most others go thru the factory, but BP has always replaced everything that I have ever had a problem with. I don't however buy much from them. Good Luck

Fished Grand today and did poorly. We were after Whites and Hybreds however. Had one 4 pounder on a jerkbait. Fished the Elk. The bite is on the dam end however, but we were after meat. Folks in Grove are not really happy about the hauling off of the fish. That is a monster ride for them. I believe and correct me if I'm wrong but I think that may be the longest haul in any tournament history. Have heard talk today that the qualifiers were pretty pissed off about fishing all day and then driving an hour and a half for the weigh in. Rush Hour traffic also. Then, same distance back and then getting fuel, tieing baits, finding food and getting ready for the next day. This is a real stretch. Lots of these guys are staying in Tulsa and then making the early morning drive, just so they are not so pushed in the evening. I believe Grove would have done a great job with all this, but money talks, reguardless. Also you have to remember that lots of these Sow's are full of eggs and you just wonder what this is going to do with their ability to spawn or even perhaps just sluff or obsorb their eggs. Of course with only 50 boats that is but a drop in the bucket for Grand and its fantastic bass population.

Josh, you would think by then there should be some going in LongCreek and up the Kings also. Lets hope. Smokey, Indian point is a good ways from the crappie and whites, unless it is just a fantastic year. Some years the backs of the little and big Indian will fill with Whites. In that case, you are in luck. Most often, not so much there.

Again more of the crazyness. Tfsh, the only place that I can catch them the last few days has been on pole timber. Had 8 solid keepers and 1 short yesterday after a slow start. Surface temps at Baxter when I started was 43.9. I fished long enough to see it get to close to 47, and that is when I started getting bit on the pole timber. Very nice bite with a solid bag. Not monsters, but quality 3 pound LM. Just goes to show, they are always biting somewhere. The 3 locations I caught those fish on, I had fished them earlier in the morning with no bites. Was really going to the house and saw a very nice ripple going thru the tops of the timber and said "What the Heck, I'll stop for just a minute." First cast bang! Hour and a half later I had that nice bag. Good Luck

We are going to see about the Whites. The water level was perfect for deep fishing white bass this year and me and all of my deep fishing buddies, caugtht a big ZERO. I have never in the last 30 yrs. on Table Rock had a worse deep fishing winter for white bass. They just should have been all over that deep stuff with the K's and the millions of shad. I'm really puzzled by this. It will be interesting how the run is this year, with them completely vanishing off the map for the Winter. They are usually just stacked in the Big Indian at Baxter, at the flats at Campbell Pt. at the mouth of the White River and on the multiple flats and channel swings up the James. Nada.

Biggest stocking came from Wisconson in the 1950's. Both Bull Shoals and Table Rock lake were both stocked from there. I believe 1955 was the first stocking in Bull Shoals.

Thanks for sharing that Bry. Kind of reminds me of the same deal going on with the Striper caught last Spring on Bull that the state of Arkansas has been such a complete disaster on. At least when you caught yours, there wasn't a million dollars on the line, for some state agency to screw up for ya. Good Luck