Bill Babler

Just put a postscript on the post above about how to throw the rig preventing as much heartache as possible. Still will foul, but not as much, as just flinging it. Just heard a new deal a while ago. Fish today were really on the transitions, and it was good if timber was present, Just flat the same places we throw a stickbait this time of the year. Usually best is the channel side where it moves into the bank. Big cove mouths that are in these area are also early season haunts. I will tell you now, there are big boys throwing this deal that could care-less if they lose a dozen of them plus baits a day. Most are now either making them or have sponsors that are providing them at low cost or no cost. Some folks are rigging them as weedless as possible some not, just tying on another when one gets hung up in the timber fishing these deep tree transition banks. When you see huge strings or hear how some people are doing it really does not matter to me. I know how much money I can spend and will do everything in my power to keep this a fun sport, just catching to be catching "NO Matter What the Cost." This is a fishing method that you really have to be careful with. Let your judgement and your disposable income be your guide Good Luck

Dennis, the Rig is really working well in the Shell Knob area. Have been guiding out of the Bridge Ramp, Viola and H-Hiway the past week, and we are for sure catching fish on it. Viola has stained up so I'm keeping more in the clearer water both up and down from the bridge. I have found that by using a max of 3" baits in that country, you are much better off. For sure the Storm Wildeye is heads and tails above the rest. I will almost bet you, you are setting way to far in. Bet the fish are either directly under the boat or behind you. Try the long runout at twin rivers, set you boat on the Kings River side in 100 plus feet of water and fish the tree tops that are coming up to about 30 feet. I am leting the bait sink 5 to 10 seconds. Fish the other side The Island side, putting your boat in 75 ft. of water and throw up to the roll-off. Fish that clear out to 5 city blocks from the bank, back toward the main lake. Let the bait go clear to the bottom and then follow the coutour till it breaks into the channel. This is kind of a community hole, but I have caught several fish on either side of it each time I fish it. Nothing big, but nice K's and it is a good place to get your first A-Rig Fish. Try the 3 sisters points runing up the White River on the Kings River point 22 side. Again, if you can make a throw and hit the bank you are fishing much closer that I am. I am at least for the most part 2 full throws off the bank. The only reason there is a bank around the lake is to hold in the water, on Table Rock, you need to get away from it. Hard to learn. Beck had 15 keepers on similar locations in the Kimberling City Area yesterday. Long Runout points that divide two big bodies of water. Said his best 5 were over 25 pounds. Not included in that were 3K's over 4 pounds. Post/Script When selecting and A-Rig 5 uniform arms are much better than a middle arm that is a lot longer. No more than an 1' on the middle are being longer at most. A longer middle arm if your cast is improper will catch the line. If all the arms are the same length,and the line slides down the bait on one of the outside arms it will just slide off. If the middle arm is extended or an 1" or so, it will catch it. Also you can really prevent this by thumbing your reel prior to the cast hitting the water, causing the A-Rig to turn over like a fly fishermen does on a fly cast and it will 99% of the time keep the line from tangling in the A-Rig. When using a Spinning outfit, just feather the cast at the end of its arc, or catch it. This will also bring the hooks from the back to the front of the rig and help. Never just cast it out there and let it parachute in, as it will for sure become entangled. Every bad cast or mess up costs you valuable time. by eliminating some of these and presenting better presentations, you will enhance your chances dramaticlly. When casting the rig, using a Baitcaster, Do not whip or load the rod tip when you throw it. It puts to hard of a jolt on the baits and causes the arms to compress and come together. If you will lob it or use a two handed loft cast you will keep those baits apart a much greater part of the time. Good Luck

This time of year it is very hard to tell you what will be happin in 3 weeks. Please continue to monitor the board as Lake wide fishing reports are posted on a weekly and when they are bitin good, a daily basis. In three weeks however they may just be eating the paint off that wart. Surface temps today at 47, water on the Main Lake Clear, wather in the River Arms slightly stained. current report is A-Rig, wart and Jig. Let us know the area you are staying, it is the most important you can give us. If you are just staying on fish let us know that and we will for sure try to help.

Great thought on the Shot. I don't even have the fixin's in my boat right now. Just goes to show, you have to try different things. I have not seen any concentrations of fish in that depth range. Most of my fish are singles and moving up and down. Drop shot in February, you might have created something as big as the Bass Chime. Good Luck

Nice Table Rock LM on A-Rig, using 4.5 inch Bait Transition Banks are Holding Moving LM If you want to catchem right now, early is better than late. First light these days is commin at 6:45 AM and you should be where you want to start to flingin by then. Bite seems to get really tough at 11 AM or so. Table Rock Lake Level at 915.1 and surface temps vary depending on time of day and locations, generally running from 45 to 47 degree. Surface water is stained from recent rains, but visability in main lake locations in the 8 to 12 ft. range. Kings River is much less. Fish are really starting to transition, moving up in the water column. I can see this by the number of K's we are starting to catch on the A-Rig. Up until this week, it had mostly been LM and some Slobber/Knocker Jaws. Most of these are 4.5 inch baits Earlier this year we were using some Bigger Baits on the Rigs, up to 8". I have downsized considerably as of yesterday as the 3 inch baits are hooking up far better than even the 4.5 inch baits. Lots of short strikes yesterday reported by both Buster and Myself. I believe these are K's. Switched to a 3 inch bait from a 4.5 and the hookups increased dramaticlly. Larger 5 to 6 inch Swimbaits 3 inch Swimbaits are producing better hookups Smaller baits with both curly tail and boot tail will work for sure. Fish seem to be on the transition banks where one form or rock moves to another in a big hurry. Channel banks and large deep coves seem to be the best bet. For the last week I have really been able to see these fish. Don't need bait present and I'll get to that in a minute. Just idle into the locations and look for suspended fish or fish moving in the water column. Yesterday we brought 12 keepers to the boat, with only 2 being LM. All the rest and all the shorts but one were K's. All the K's were just full of crayfish. That is the reason you don't have to see the shad. The K's in the White River are are really working Craws. Nice K on the Rig With the clarity of the water and the way the fish have been going this Winter, I was suprised to see most of the K's were vivid bright green. They are up. Not the dull grey or white of deep caught spoon fish. These guys are chasing craws. The LM that came on the floater, was up as my guest saw a boil on the surface and flung the floater to it, catching the minature LM. Fish we caught yesterday were on an A-Rig,Jig and 1 on a Floater (Small LM To Windy). Would have thrown a wart, but was on an instructional trip and my guest was interested in a couple of other methods. I caught the jig fish, just trying to stay out of his way on the Floater and the Bass Chime.

Started today at 12:30 PM with Greg, out of Lilleys' High Blue with a cloud not present in the sky and zero drift from Andy's to Fall Creek. Did not seem to matter as close to 60 rainbows and 4 browns came to the net on each puff of wind. Nothing to write home about mind you, but just a fun day of fishing. TJ micros were the ticket 6' under the carrot float. Bite was super lite. Blue Dun Micro was the ticket with Ginger being a close second. Sometime the take was no more than a lick, but if the carrot shook, you had best lift the rod. Nothing over 16" but for sure a super day. Gave midges of several sizes and colors a try, but when they are eating the micro like that, I have a hard time putting it down. Next 10 days suspose to be in or close to the 50's so you cannot ask for a better time with very few fishermen and lots of fish. Good Luck

Since we are so much all about the A-Rig thought I would give you some heads up. I have 2 reels for sale on Buy Sell Trade. If your interested please take a look see. If you have a favorite "Big Game" reel, let us know what you have. Be very interesting to see what kind of a winder everyone is using for this MESS.

Guys and Gals, I have two new in box Shimano curado 300E series baitcasting reels for sale. Got a little carried away when buying them and might have purchased a couple to many. Almost every publication states this is by far the best reel for the A-Rig, with line capasity, drag system and a 6.2-1 gear ratio. These reels feature the power grip handles, and if you have not used them you will be impressed. They are price everywhere at $249.99. I would like $220.00 each or both for $400.00 You will not find unused new reels like this for less. 417-332-7016

T. Rang. That is by far the best answer I have seen. Good thinkin.

Lets see how these turn out. The Mess as Buster calls it. Was not what he thought it was. He got it way down. That's a Biggin. Jaw's like it. Yesterday two of the nice 4 plus pounders we caught

I don't know that one guy can put 20 plus pounds per day together for 3 days. For sure there will be lots of 20 pound bags, just maybe not the same person everyday. I do believe it will take over between 50-60 to win it. I might be very low, but this is Table Rock.

Neither Buster or I had had the opportunity to throw the rig much in the dam area, so we let fly yesterday morning. Started at 8:30 and fished till about Noon. Surface temp in the dam area at 47.6 with water being very clear. Visibility in the 12 to 15 ft. range. We were both throwing the MESS as Buster calls it. "The A-Rig." As reported in the past, we are probably throwing it a bit deeper than most of you and that may be why our fish are not running quite as big. Very seldom had the boat under 40 ft. and we were at least 2 throws off the bank. Fishing for the most part deep structure and transition and Wintering Stuff. 10 Keepers in the 3.5 hr. trip with a Brownie at just under 5 being our big fish and at least 6 other LM at 4 Plus. One K was for sure pushing that 4 pound figure and that is a big K. That K was just huge. I believe we only had two shorts to go with the 10 keeps. Best 5 at 22 pounds. Buster had 8 of the keeps, but I had the big Brownie and another toad. I guess our best 6 however would have cleared 26 pounds. Just silly. And really we didn't have a Big Kicker Fish. A boat full of 4 pounders is pretty unreal however. Baits do seem to matter on the A-Rig. I started out one way and Buster another. He had me down 6-0 when I switched and got it started. Kind of like James and Donna the other day of the River, with 21 pounds on 5. Our 22 seems to be a slow day """""NOT"""" Who would have believe this kind of fishing Feb. 7th. on anything other than a suspending sticker. Good Luck

Great post on the making of the A-Rig. First off on the truck keys, the Key for the 2011 Avalanche has a chip and cannot be made at the hardware store. The Key is $80.00. My subscription to OnStar ran out after 6 months, They had previously been good for a year. I was told by the OnStar person that as soon as the Subscription runs out, they send a signal to the vehicle and burn out the receiver so you have to have it replaced at the GM dealer for a new subscription. Reguardless, they would not open the SUV. Ford has a key pad on the outside of the vehicle so you can always get in it. Fished today up the White River and had Zero on the A-Rig and 11 with 4 keeps on a Megabass. Fished the stickbait first on each location, then came back with the A-Rig. Just expermenting.

That is a lot of questions. A-Rig 3/8th. oz. Most jig heads at 1/8th. or 3/16th. Some guys are clipping off the hook to keep it legal. 5 baits seem to get more strikes than 3 but 3 will most shurly work. There are lots of companies marketing the 3 hook rigs. Using a few Storm baits, the hook is really just to good and when you hand that heavy hook "You Will loose the entire Rig." A little softer hook will sometimes bend out. Buster Loving uses nothing but 4" Swimming minnows in Peral and catches as many as anyone. They are dirt cheap. I belive Denny is just using grubs and doing well on them. Guys, this deal can get pricy. It is really still now very wide open and in a trial and error phase. Just have to fish it to see what you like best as the fish catchers.

Boys and Girls, the bite right now is most diffently in the mornings. About High Noon seems to be the shutoff, reguardless of using conventional baits or the Stupid Rig. Just hard to get bit on these Azure skies mid-day. Fished a derby on Bull yesterday. Had 17 pounds in the boat by 9:30 and that was it. Only had 3 more fish the rest of the day no matter what we tried. After talking at the weighin with most of the other fishermen, the same was true with them. Bite early down there is on the A-Rig or the wart. It is all over by noon, but you can really catch a good bag early. I believe 4 bags over 20. My 17 was the first place out of the money. Had a 6.67 as our big fish and the big fish was 7.14. 12 bass over 6 pounds I believe were weighed in. 20.67 won the derby with sevral others low 20's. We lost 6 A-Rigs yesterday most with 5 baits as we fished in Ark. Be very careful about rod placement on your boat deck, taking notice not to have a bunch laying on the deck behind you or sticking up. That chandelier of a fishing mess can easily hang or grab them on your back cast. Also when throwing this do not overload the rod, or you will snap off the tip or break the rod high in the tip section. Don't care if you are using a tree branch for a fishing stick, with all the force this puts on the rod to fling it you better be careful. Boys that were up there pretty high in the derby, were flinging 5 of the big 5-1/2 in storm wildeye blue shad swimbaits. I was trying to calculate the weight of that bait and I believe it was an oz. or two over a POUND. You throw that all day and you will be as tired as if you stayed up and ironed all night. For you Chevy Owners. Buster accidently locked my keys in the Avalanche at Buck Creek. Call my OnStar and they said my subscription expired, Dec. 12th. Said when it expires you have to go to the dealer cause they send a signal to burn out the receiving module. They could not unlock it. Had to go from Blue Eye to Buck Creek 2 times. Could be a deal breaker for me on the Chevy's I started out yesterday at 3:30 AM and got home and the boat put up at 8PM.

Guys, "Lets say this about that." A-Rig, "Simply a better mouse trap." "Right now." I will tell you however the fish are biting. A-Rig-Stickbait-Gurb-Jig-Spoon, you can get bit. It would not bother me if they banned it or kept it, either way it is fishing. I do think the person that developed it and marketed it should have made a disclaimer about the cost of loosing a couple of these beauties a day. Very pricy. Just the same as loosing two megabass stickers. I have been working on making it fishable for people that can only use spincast. This is a challange as the heavy braid and the weight of the A-Rig can be a very dangerious health problem for your index finger tryng to throw it on the spinning rod. Just tears your finger up. If you just use the tip its ok, but if you get that line in your first joint, you are going to bleed, Big Time. On the spinner I am using the 7' Falcon either the origional or the lowrider in the lizzard dragger. Works as well as it can. McClullands 7'6" Flippin Stick on the bait caster with 65 pound braid is the deal. Absolutely no need for more rod. Fished today up the James with clients and also ran inot Champ 188 and Denjac. Between both boats probably 40 fish with 3/4 keeps up to 7 pounds. Their best 5 at 17 our best at 19 due to the big gal. James did have a pig at over 5 to get that nice 5 fish bag. Not a huge fan of the Rig, just a fan of fishing and new gear. As long as it works and is legal I'll play with anything. My fish are deeper than most on the Rig as I am usually putting the boat in 30 to 40 and fishing suspended fish on bluffends and cove mouths. Most of our fish today came at 20 over 40. Remember this about the A-Rig. Everything that is on that bait resembles a shad, and the fewer you have on there without a hook im them is a positive. If the head of your bait looks like a shad and you have additional blades on there, it will increase your misses. With 3 out of 5 I have a 60% chance the fish will hit a hook. Say you are using a 5 place rig with an additional blade and a shad painted head you are placing 5 potential targets without hooks into the presentation. You now have a roughly 45 out of 100 of hooking up. Plus you will have some that just miss the hook. I am either using 3 hooked baits and two size 4 willows or 5 baits with the hook cut off of two. Head is a plain head. Using 5 hooks on Bull Shoals in Arkansas I'm hooking a much better percentage. My hookups are very good. No pattern on the catches in the hook rotation. However I am keeping track of the back longer or stinger hook and it is catching no more than any of the other hooked baits. I have both side imaging and down imaging on my current boat. Will never purchase it again. Simply of no use to me. I am not willing to put in the time to make these fuctions worth the price of the product. It takes hours on the lake away from fishing time to be profecient with this type of tech. 90% of people just will not put in the time. I'm one of them. As far as the floater, pretty much a No-Go. Last January we had Zero days at 50 or above and this year we have so far had 15 days between 50 and 60 degree. NO threadfin dying. Not a must for the floater but pretty close. Also the threadfin are growing faster in the warmer water and are bigger and more mobil thus hitting bigger moving baits. Floater is way to slow for what is going on now. Last year at this time the threadfin shad were the size of a dime or nickle. Today fish were coughing up threadfin 3 to 5 inches. "Huge difference." Bass are still jumping when hooked and are very salty, and full of power. Not so much last year. January stickbait bite was really off last year, and they are eating it to their A$$ this year. Don't know about the the floater, for 2012. That is whats great about this deal. Always learning and adapting. Good Luck

Just a little bit on the crazy side out there. Both Beck and I fished the White river arm today and between us I believe we boated close to 30 keeps and about 50 total fish. Most of our fish were main lake transitions where gravel went to steeper chunk rock with some breeze. Lake levels at 914.7 water temps at 47 and even with the rain it was clear. Majority of our fish were either on the A-Rig or a sticker. Stickbait with the cloud cover was simply stupid. If you catch a fish on an A-Rig, before you leave that location throw the sticker. Worked everytime for me doubling and tripling on lots of locations. They hit the jerkbait so hard I all most lost a rod. It slipped out of my hand and hit the deck. Grabbed the sucker before it hit the drink, but scared the bejezzers out of me. Nice 2 pound K. Not a single K on a Rig, Just on the Jerker. A-Rig was catchin them just as good, but kind of get tired of windin it. My best was 3.6 but Beck said he had a 5.8 to the boat on the Rig. Get out there

Well it looks like the new year is off to a fish catching start. Just a quicky on what seems to be taking place on this beautiful Monday Morning Air Temp 62 degree Lake wide surface temps vary from a high 0f 51 to a low of 44 Water Clarity is good to extremely clear depending on lake area you are fishing. River arms on Winter color and very good aqual marine. Main lake Shell Knob to Long Creek is Clear. Crappie seem to have slowed down a mite and moved deeper. Where 2 weeks ago they were under 10', it seem lake wide they have dropped to 10 to 20 ft. River arms being the best with the dock bite having slowed down considerably. Dam area all three species of Black Bass would be considered fair on either a dock bite on a spoon or a jig bite. There is also a spoon bite in the deep cove mouths and guts. 1/2 oz jigging spoon in either chrome, chartruse or white seem to be getting very good attention. From Point 9 up the bite is fair in the James and White Rivers on either a stickbait or a A-Rig off the bluffend points and on the channel swings and secondary points Both the James and Kings Rivers and any of the major creeks up the White River are fishing very well on an A-Rig, Stickbait or a Wart. Some of the major creeks up the white are excellent on the wart. Color is of your choice. Fished the KIngs last week to the tune of 20 keeps and 35 fish using the above mentioned fodder. Trip was from 7 AM till about 1 PM, but not a bite after 11 AM. Caught all my fish off 5 spots, and blanked on at least a dozen other locations. Seem to have to have lots of bait present. Water temps at the mouth of the Kings and up the White is in the 48-51 range and if you can get a bit of wind, slow rolling a wihte spinnerbait is also very very good. Fish seem to be very active and last week I saw several shad being pushed to the surface. Bass are still jumping when hooked so the water temps are keeping them feeding alot and very active. Good Luck

Fantastic derby, with great results. Helps give all of us a clue where the big-ens might be. Know where I'm fishing next week, and what I'm doing.

Heard about the first jig bite yesterday. Several big bags came in on the jig. Also some huge bags on a spoon. Most of the jig bite reported was on a dock bite early. Most everything right now is either on a vertical grub, Ice Minnow, spoon. Most fish are suspended or coming off the bottom in 55 to 70 ft. Got a report yesterday of several great catches at these depths over most of the lake. Big Creek, Dam area, and Kimberling City. However a jig is never really in bad taste. 5/16 3/8 and 1/2 ozer. flipped in dock stalls Natural colors. Eakins and Pig Sticker is what I heard. Natural Craw trailers with pinchers. Surface temps are in the 47 to 52 degree range lake wide and seem be the same at depth. Spooning or catching fish as they rise in the water column on sunny days on a sticker is usually the deal right now, and that is also working.. Good Luck

Low 50's. That is a very good report. Fish have not been biting that good. Great for you. It is taking flat nothing in the winter derbys.

Crappie dock bite for me has been fantastic. Wife said I was not to bring home any more Crappie Period. Unlike Fish from a week or so ago, with him swimming his jig in pole timber, I am not swimming mine. I am fishing verticle in the docks and not deep. Usually about a rod and a half, about 10 to 12 feet at the most. I'm using a 1/16th. oz. chrome dome and white jig, and holding it very still. I have seen many crappie take the jig. The crappie may only be in one small location on any dock you fish. I have not found crappie in multiple locations on the same dock. Usually a spot about as big as a barrel, and that is it. I fished 10 docks last weekend and found crappie on 7 of them. Most all are big multiple slip docks in deep water. Minium at the front is about 50 ft. for me. Most of the crappie are at the extreme back of the wells. Have not caught any on the ends or middle. Got to get clear to the backs of the open slips, and be still. Mark at Table Rock Tackle and Marine is saying the Kimberling area is on fire. He is selling crappie minnows like mad and has several clients giving him filets. Had a guy tell him last week, it was just silly. All dock fish. Might also try Bull Shoales, as I have been down a couple of days last week, and limited both trips. Just fishing the banks in the Forysth area. Deep side channel banks.. Take lots of jigs. Buster Loving is guiding for crappie and catching limits most days. He would be a great one for Bull Shoals. When the Walleye and Whites start I guide down there some. Really fun to catch a mixed bag and Bull is very good for that. Walleye, Whites and Crappie. Now thats a fun day. Good Luck

Bottom coutour it the same it is just about 4 inches deeper than it has been. Not a lot, but enough, to float over it with the troller down and not be banging it on the bottom.

First things First. A huge thanks to Phil for cutting that "Big Tree" out of the boating lane. One unit this morning and I will tell you this. The lake level is different deeper than it was before the referbishing of the Power Site Dam. It is without a doubt deeper. Not as deep as before the March floods, but as deep as it has been since. I can drift the Fall Creek Flat now on 1 generator. Could not even come close a month ago, or two or 3 generators.. Very cool start this morning, with temps at 22 degrees. Had a couple of great guys from Joplin. Excellent fly fishermen. We drifted from the tennis courts to Fall Creek at least 15 drifts. Caught an average of 6 a drift, with lots of males in the 14 to 17 inch range. Most of the smaller trout we caught seemed to be a bit thin, but all the trout were extremely active, most jumping at least once, with some out of the water several times. Water is still somewhat off color, and a size either 10 or 12 ginger scud was the best food. We were running a tandem rig with a full pink micro as the top fly and it caught quite a few, not like the scud, but several. Had at least 3 doubles on the tandems, but didn't get any of them to the boat. Leader size now is not an issue and if you feel comfortable on moving water, I believe you can get away with 6 pound test flurocarbon. I went from 2 to 4 no problem. If you are a bit ham handed and we did break the 4 a couple of times on the sets, don't be afraid to go to 6 pound, if the water is moving. Looks like a somwhat nice week, and I bet these fish will go everyday. Good Luck

Dutch, did you all see a lot of dead whites floating up there? As for forage, Table Rock is simply full of Threadfin Shad right now. Have never seen so many orf so many birds working them. Going to Grand and the Red River for the Beaver Striper guides is a different deal, they are after Gizzard Shad not Threadfin. The whites on Table Rock are huge consumer's of crawdads, at certain times. Catching them around the new spillway the past few years has proven that, Most of those whites were packed full of small crayfish. Mostly however they are Treadfin eaters. Just wish we knew.