Bill Babler

Beautiful day on the water with good buddy Phil Stone. We didn’t win but simply filled the boat with fish. Phil said it was the perfect guide trip, lots of bites and catches, just not the right ones. Jig, swimbait and spoon for us. Winners had 17.44 pounds and said they caught them all on a jig shallow up the Kings River. Said they tried top water and really didn’t have anything till 11 am. Derby had a 1.5 hour fog delay and that messed up the topwater to an extent, however you can throw it all day if you chose that path. Surface temps were 73 at the start and 76.5 at 4 pm. Calm blue bird and sunny. Lake was totally full of pleasure and wake boats, especially from Campbell Point to Viola on the Kings. Lots of 3’ to 4 footers rolling out there yesterday at the mouth of the Kings. They’re still out there guys on pretty weekends Great event with 55 boats so they made some money for the chamber. Steak Dinner was donated by Chris of Central Crossings Marine and Harter House. Becky and I won 2 gift certificates in the curtesy raffle drawing after dinner. She won $100.00 donated by Campbell Point Marina and I won $25.00 donated by Jug and Plug. No snide remarks on my winning ticket please. 🤪🤪🤪

Kicked my butt. I fish 6:30 till 2:30 and caught 5 total. 3 keepers. 2 keeps came flipping docks one nice jaw early on a Choppo and 2 shorts on a drop shot. Deep fish are at 30’ to 50’ and suspended will not even look at a drop shot. Run from it like a flushed covey of quail. Know of at least 2 guides that skunked with the exception of a catfish or 2 on crawlers yesterday High pressure at 30.86 clear blue and an East wind, in September/ Early October is a KILLER. Have absolutely no idea how we can catch 6 keepers during the Homer Sloan tournament this weekend. Any ideas are appreciated I’ve gone from Hero to Zero in the last 10 days Sorry for the terrible report Goid Luck

Fished from Shell knob to Big M today starting at 6:30 and fishing till 3:30 pm. Caught about 30 total fish with 3 squeaker keeps. Man it was tough. Fish ran from the drop shot like it was ugly. It was my best deal. I threw every color and size jig I had from 1 ft. To 50’ on every structure and never had a nip. Several on a small swimbait and several on a flutter spoon. Wish I knew how Quill’s buddy was hammering them on a jig. High sky and SE wind were hard on this ole boy.

Thanks for the report. Just enough to keep that smile going. Sounds like your bud had a great day.

A few things for me, trying to target bigger fish this past week is trying to stay away from the K’s. I’m really chasing LM. Caught this one on a Jewel Spin-X with a 2.8 inch Keitech trailer. Baits I’ve been using are really Shad imitating or a jig I’ve also had very good success at times with top water. Seems like a small window however. Going to hit it hard Wednesday thru Friday and see if I can find some prior to the Homer Sloan derby. I’ve got a good recipe if I can get them to bite. Good Luck

Way to get after them, that’s a nice afternoon

Really kind of strange in the white bass deal. I have not caught a single one and I am fishing Shad imitation baits. I will also say I’ve spent enough time now with the FFS that I can tell what I’m looking at as far as perch, bass, white bass, walleye and crappie. I’m seeing loads of crappie and catching them. Broke out the A-rig on Friday and simply could not keep them off it. Mike Baker videos has taught me a lot, along with actual looking at it for hours now. As far as the crappie it is without a doubt the deadliest tool out there. Not seeing any whites at all, which is surprising. If our water doesn’t raise and stays at this level or less, this is going to be one of the best Winters for deep fish we have had in years. Lots of humps and tops are going to be in that prime 50’ and under range. For now I’m done with the docks. I’ve whipped that horse to death both deep and shallow. There are loads of crappie however around docks. Not all, but enough if you have FFS to limit just about any time you go. The last week for the most part unintentionally I’ve caught a couple of dozen and they are all huge. Kept two I caught deep on a spoon and the two made 20 nice size pieces. We had them for dinner one night and fish sandwiches for lunch the next day. Have not even come close to catching a sub-legal.

As everyone knows this can be a really challenging time of year to catch numbers of fish. On the other hand it can be a great time to catch big fish. As the water cools and the shad schools group and move onto the channel swings and creeks LM start to migrate in the same direction. This past week I have had some slow days with lite fish numbers but I have had my largest fish of the year. Friday I only got 7 bites but put about 15 pounds best 5 in the boat. Thursday I only had 9 bites with 3 keepers but the 3 weighed 14 pounds. I also had some bigger days earlier in the week with best 5 pushing 18 pounds. If you find shad and find fish with them don’t be discouraged if they don’t bite right off the bat. Stay with them and be patient. I’ve been working a group that bite very slow, till you catch one, when that happens you will get bit really good for 15 minutes or so as it really stirs them up. Right now they’re in 1’ to 100’ depending on the bait but the deep ones currently are suspended in the 22’ to 26’ range right with the bait. If the wind is blowing bait to the bank or it’s early in the day they might be right on the bank. Early in the day I can’t get the deep suspended fish in the bait to bite, so I’m working shallow More on this later

I had a special day today, several really nice LM out of SK. Bite for me was under 25’. Lots of really quality fish in 18’ to 22’. Kind of like Pete’s report, find the bait and you will get bit. Really was the deal this morning. I saw some Monsters chasing. Water temps up this way was 82 at 0700 and at 11:30 83.7 degrees. Started the day top water off dock ends with no love. Pitched a spoon in a deep dock stall and caught a huge crappie. Did it again and again and so forth. Was after green fish and stopped at a location their just about to get on and they were there with lots of Shad balls. Kind of out looking for LM. have not fished the Homer Sloan derby since Beck passed but I entered it today. Of course what I sampled will be gone Saturday after next. Bite was totally over for me by 10. I’ll have to find another location or two. Good Luck

Dr. B. In our conversation this weekend even with 2 professionals in the room has been asked by women what it would take to get a prescription renewed. Both the Doc’s said multiple time they have had women of color tell them the only reason they won’t prescribe the pain meds is because they aren’t white. Dr. B. said as soon as you hear that, you know an butt chewing is coming from HR These guys are from Dallas. Both said they will never make it to true retirement age, before they quit. They said the threat of law Suits is their governing body as far as practical medicine is concerned. Said it’s 99% female and about the same with pain medication.

On another note, I took 2 Dr’s fishing this weekend. Both family men in their 50’s with children and grand children. In the last 5 years both had been sued multiple time for racism and sexism and had never had a single previous complaint. This was entirely over refusal to prescribe prescription medication to females. In every instance there was a nurse also in the room. Didn’t matter, HR told them if they want the drugs prescribed them.

I’m with Wrench on this one. We paid for our senior trip to Galveston with Turkey shoots, gun raffles, kissing booths and dances. Be kicked out of school on a permanent basis for any of those activities today, let alone taking a group to see how food is actually processed.

Our 2 dock group here at SK only has 9 boats in its total of 24 slips and I don’t think any of them have been off the lift all Summer. The Summer crowds have hit the road till next year around here for the most part. If the water chills down next week I think that will be almost the total end of the wakers. Dutch I totally understand your logic on non-retrieval of low cost baits. If I think there is a fish lurking in that jungle I usually will snap off a soft plastic and retie. I have never been an advocate of slight color changes. I fish color that conforms to conditions. I more acknowledge that a change of location is way more important than a slight change in natural lure color. Thousand and thousands of both guide and fishing trips have sent me in this direction. Not popular with bait manufacturers but pretty accurate. Don’t know if you all remember the old water color meters to select colors but the range was pretty easy to follow. Trout are a very good example. If your fishing in a location with trout present and you see them refusing the fly and you see a guy 200 yrds. down the river catching one every throw you assume he is using something they really want. 99 times out of 100 they are feeding there and if you moved next to him you would have the same results on the fly that is currently being turned down. I’ve had as many as 5 clients drift thru a stretch all with different flys and all be hooked up. Same thing with bass. Topwater prop baits, walking baits and wake baits, all hook up. I’ve also done as many as 4 different color drop shot worms all at the same time and the catch rate is the same on any. I can see if your fishing a small stretch of bank repeatedly or a small pond that changes where fish are seeing your presentations multiple times, it can and will make a difference. I just find it easier for me to slightly change locations instead of constantly changing bait colors. Bottom line is there are lots of ways to scale the same fish and what ever works best for you and you enjoy doing is the way to go. Love those James River post, keep up the good work guys. Good Luck.

23 sounds pretty good to me. Question, how in the world did you go through that many colors of shaky heads? I don’t think I have that many colors and were you just grabbing or intentionally changing colors? As Bill Beck would say, if they’re that onery I’ll just go play golf.

Ditto

Bobby, it was an older unit. I also borrowed it one time to look at fish under our dock. I’ve told this story before. There were 2 big walleye and a bunch of spots. We would drop live crawlers and they would just swim away from them. I think we dropped an entire 24 box and the crawlers were squirming around in the bottom and not a single fish touched them. We also dropped several crayfish but they would swim out of view so I don’t know if they were eaten or not.

Had a client drop a Falcon spinning rod with a Shimano Stella overboard off point 1. I immediately hit my gps and marked the location. With the help of a good friend and a free diver we found it within an hour using the Aqua Vu camera. It was hung in a tree 27 feet deep over about 40’. We could see it on the tree with the camera clear as a bell, but it took the diver quite a few tries to locate it. Water was super clear. That camera saved the client a cool grand as the diver would not have found it hung in that tree.

Guys, be really careful when messing with lines that aren’t yours. Lots on them are submerged and out of site, but really there are very few here. As you probably know, they can be marked with a conservative number you could write on a postage stamp. No longer is it required for you to put name and address, just that small number. I had a guy picking up my swim noodle float lines and watched him put them in his bass boat for 20 minutes. I was within site of the lines as they were not anchored. The trotlines can be left unattended. I approached him and he said he was cleaning the lake. Totally in the back of Mill Creek. Didn’t have a confrontation but I took his boat number and told him if he ever touched them or I any others again he was in serious trouble. Man, this water is big enough to share. If I get a hook in a trot line I simply get it out. It is against the law for me to run it or look for a conservation number. If it’s mossy and green you can call the agent, but it’s not my place to destroy something that cost that amount of money theses days and on top of that it’s against the law for me to mess with it. 20 years ago i May have thought different but now days I seem to look at things from others point of view. Good Luck out there.

Great report. Bass are really starting to shallow up the White from what I’m hearing. That oh so often magic 22’ to 26’ number that comes into play as the water hits the 70’s. Walleye bite has really slowed however as I think they start to also move this time of year Durn things start thinking about spawning when it’s still Winter and move up the creek and river arms really early If anyone is still on them let us know. Good Luck

Forrest was a bad guy. He got lots of play. If you don’t like Elvis music, don’t go. If you do you will like it. Both my wife and I really enjoyed it. There was a section in the middle when it was all about Forrest Gump that slowed it down but it was a 7,5 out of ten. Nice way to spend the afternoon with my wife. Date nite, lunch and a movie. Goes a long way guys.

Extremely well put RPS. Most of this fish are near impossible to see.

Ya, revisited my spelling and it is the a very similar definition of genre. Category of artistic composition, occupation, heritage of family roots or similar groups within a category, Jaunarajs. I like genre better, lot less work😜

Wife and I went to see Elvis during the rain yesterday. Movie is 2:39 hours long so potty before you go in. We had old dudes going to the privy multiple times around us. What a firecracker life that man led. Everyone took what they wanted from him and really he had ZERO financial sense. If any of you saw his live show, please chime in. It was said to be a life experience. After the movie I did some research on line, watching reviews of his voice by vocal professionals and coaches. He left them almost speechless and the women reviewer’s breathless. Read and watched one set of reviewer’s and their comments were “ perfect pitch, perfect note, perfect tone, perfect timing.”Voice was more than generational, one of the top two or three voices in history in any jaunarajs. “Hope I spelled that right.” In his early years he was described as Beautiful with a magnetism that melted women by the millions regardless of age to their knees. Even as late as 1977 in almost a constant drug stupor his voice was unwavering. His gospel renditions were extremely emotional, especially How Great Tho Are. He was described by women that watched him preform as a Stage Climber, meaning they would climb the stage just to touch him, married or not. 16 to 60, made no difference. Some of his reviews I watched yesterday were by young men and women of this our current time period and even these young 20 something women 45 years after his death melted listening and watching him on video. It’s funny, I was on the age of his latter time period and we considered him a bit to tame for our taste. We were 70’s Hard Rock kids. He set the stage for the music we enjoyed. I encourage everyone to watch the movie. Really a huge part of our American History.

I think you nailed it. At times I’m guilty. Never in a derby however, only fun fishing where all is fair in love and Bass.

Be careful of buying line in bulk or large quantities. It for sure has a shelf life. When I was guiding I’d buy 1000 yard spools and even then I could tell when I neared the end of a spool it was time to toss it. If you do buy a bulk spool or two, keep it in the house out of the sun in a climate controlled environment Good Luck