Bill Babler

BP has tried to screw Shimano on this program for years, with "Bait and Switch" I think they finely just got tired of all the hassel. Look how much the rebait prices have changed over the years. I could at one time trade in a Stadic, and get a Sustain, for about a $100.00 bucks. Not now, you have to buy a 500 dollar reel. I know BP pulled some crap on this program one time and Shimano told them if they didn't get their stuff in order they would remove their reels from the Store. Tim Sainato and I were in on it. Shimano, is powerful enough to do it. Shimano is a world wide company with gross sales higher than BP. And Bill P. you are right. The only time the reels come on sale is when a new model line comes out. They just don't have to discount the reels. I am very fortunate to be able to get some discounts on equipment, but on the Shimano stuff it is a Mear Pittance, and only sometime. They pretty much know you are going to buy it anyway. It is the best Mousetrap. You can still get good discounts on Daiwa's excellent reels however. I might try and grab a half dozen or so.

Phil tells me his guests are still doing well below Bee Creek, and it may just have been a bad few days for us down there. Just cause we didn't catch them the last few days, does not mean there is still not fish holding in the area, we just could not figure them out. It is very tough for me right now, and I am scratching. This is weather and water related. Just no pattern, due to the cold and the sparatic generation. Very confusing. Good Luck

Made 5 passes on the dam today during huge generation and high water and North Wind. Jigs, Egg flys, sanjuan worms, scuds and small stickbaits were thrown by two guide boats early from 8 AM till about 11 AM. No fish were caught. Water temps at the cable were 38 degrees, and whitecaps were coming up the lake. Tony Wedele, ended up catching 6 from Andy's to Fall Creek. I went down and met Vince Elfrink and he had only a total of 8 all morning fishing Lilleys' thru Branson. Finely caught 8 downtown Branson I stayed out for 6 hrs. on a 4 hr. guide trip to catch 8 fish. I think the morning bite may be tough. Water was up on the sidewalk at Cooper Creek Launch, so it is deep, cold and fast in the mornings. Water temps down lake are in the high 30's. No fish what so ever in Roark Creek or Bee Creek or Turkey Creek. Backs of creeks and shorline are frozen in the morning. When we quite at 1 Pm water was still freezing in our rod guides. Good Luck, I'm going to need it tomorrow.

17 degrees at the start this morning with a hurricane wind out of the North, blowing straight up Taneycomo with 4 heavy generators coming down. Just about an impossible condition, for our fishery. Have fished the Gold Mine area for the last week, and it has just about dried up. Last week it was great, but huge prussure coming from both down lake and up concentrating on the stretch has pretty much mined it dry. Last week, catching 30 to 50 fish in 4 hrs. down there mostly on jigs. Yesterday with a combination of bait and jigs 4 fish, all throw backs. Tried again today, just cause I couldn't catch them anywhere else and skunked, down there. Ended up with 8 keepers thru the landing. Caught a total of 8 fish in 6hrs. today. I have two trips tomorrow, so I will need my thinking cap on. It is going to be freezing at 13 degrees to start the morning, and again, heavy generation, and a North wind.

You know the old saying of March comes in like a Lion and goes out like a lamb. In East Texas, March comes in like a Friggin MONSTER, and stays that way. I have fished Fork, many times, and I would be in absolutely no hurry to tackle it with a 14ft. flat bottom. Scarry!! We all fish around the dam area, and the face of the dam is fantastic thru early March as a staging ground for big ole biggins. Sometimes we are fishing in 3 footers however. I am sure there are lots of back bays you can get into, with lots of creek channels and weeds to rip a trap thru, and flip a jig. Just for gosh sakes be careful, that pond can really be dangerious. You can also completely waste your time and money down there, as Florida Strain Bass don't take well to cold water and weather fronts. They will just flat not bite. Warm cloudy stabe conditions, can get you the bite of a lifetime. Good luck this year on that kind of weather. On a side note, if you are a crappie guy, Fork is off the charts good. Just ask around when your down there. They really like the bridge piling.

Without a doubt www.indianhillstablerocklake.com Indian Hills Resort One of the nicest resort docks on the entire lake, boat ramp next to the dock. Cabins or condo units, at the mouth of Big Indian Creek, just across and around the bend from Baxter Boat dock. Access off H hwy. and Hwy 39 out of Shell Knob. Extremely Private and geared to the Fisherman. Cabins and condos, in the Big Cedar Style and every bit as nice. 15 minutes into Shell Knob with resturants, shopping and excellent grocery store. Usually the lowest price fuel in the Table Rock Lake area. 25 minutes to Kimberling City. 40 minutes to Branson. 30 minutes to Harrison Ark. 40 minutes to Eureka Springs. 55 minutes to Springfield. Mid lake fishing, within 10 minutes of the James River and 20 minutes to the Kings and Mid-White River. Good Luck

Just fantastic imput by all commenting on the Channels. Don't know if you all had the opportunity to watch the Classic yesterday or this weekend, but the terms, Channel, Channel Swings, Transition and Structure, were not only mentioned but shown thru 3D time after time. Just an excellent reprensentation, of what we are talking about here. KVD mentioned time after time he was catching his fish from a major channel swing in the back of Beeswax Creek. The 3D photography, showed the place time after time. The channel only 6 ft. deep running under the bridge took a severe turn to the right and right at the swing or bend a 200 yrd. coontail moss bed covered the entire area, on both sides of the channel. The channel directly to the main lake, as he stated allowed the area to replenish everyday. The deep bend was a natural staging location, and the Coontail moss bed attracted bait. A natural location, that he had found in 2007. He said if the derby had been two weeks earlier in 07, he would have won that also, due to the number of fish that moved along the Beeswax Creek channel to their spawning locations. That derby the fish had already moved up and were not staging in the channel as they were this year. There were not huge concentrations of fish in one location as they were this year. If you look at where Jeff Kriet was catching his and also Faircloth, they were also fishing the Coontail moss beds, but they did not have as good of a pinchdown or a staging location, ie channel swing, as KVD had. I believe their locations, and I'm not saying they were not super locations, but they as KVD said were not replenished as well as his location. Main fact were the other moss locations in the creek, were feeding locations, but as KVD said they were not staging locations.

Don't mean to hog in on your thread, but I am really liking that FLIT jerkbait. Just have used it one time over on Upper Bull last week for two hours, and caught 1 keeper Eye, and 2 very nice LM on the bait. Mine is custom painted in Norman Flake and the bait really looks good in the water. Really like the depth the bait achieves. I am however putting two suspend dots on mine. 1 under the bill of the bait and 1 on the tail. Good Luck, Maybe one of you lucky boys will catch a big Striper on it. I would sure like to do that.

Thanks for the reports guys. It is very good fishing over there. If we can get any kind of a break in the weather, and get just a speck of a warm up, I believe the Shoals will really go for us. Table Rock is laging at least a week or two behind Bull right now.

Conman, Bill P. Has gotten the best price I have seen. Mine have been running $40.00 per hundred, so his work paid off in finding them for $30.00. Great Job Bill I looked really hard in November and the Forty bucks was the best I could find. Nice to have lots of eyes.

I really agree with Wayne on the cold issues. You know however, I have had several years ago a problem with air in a SeaStar hydrolic pump on my Evinrude, the boat before the Stratos. It was really hard to steer and would break loose. I believe the cold had a lot to do with this problem, but I was going to have it looked at, because it did have some bumps in it. Beck says this is from Air in the Line. Phil Stone had one go out year before last and Beck had one go out last year, so it is not a bullet proof piece of equipment, reguardless what boat or motor it is on. Don't know what maintenance you can preform on it to prevent the seals from going out. Maybe Fishenwrench has an idea.

On the treble hook front, Unlike some of the other suggestion, you are recieving, I tend to stay away from the Cutting Point hooks, such as the VMC Barbarian The premiss of the hook is not only puncture but cut its entry into the fish. The wide sholder on the hook, the manufactor says allows the hook to rotate away from the slice it cuts when entering the mouth of the fish. I have found the Owner and the VMC both cutting point hooks to be a little to heavy on tissue damage to suit me. I also believe the more surface area the hook destroys on entry makes it easier for the hook to exit the wound when fighting the fish. I much prefer needle point chemically sharpened fine wire hooks, such as the Diiachi "Death Trap" These hooks are dangeriously sharp. You will start to bleed just looking at the package. Probably would go with the Gami's next. Like Nitroman, sometimes I use a size 4 on the back and a size 6 on the front hook, but most often I use size 6 on both or all three of my stickbait hooks. Used to use the Mustad triple grip, but the hooks wire is extremely soft and bends way to easy. You almost destroy them or the fish will really mess them up just fighting the bait, or removing it from the fish. These needle sharp hooks usually have the fish caught with all three sets of hooks, and entering with such a small hole, rather than a cut, allows the barb to hold much better. As far as what some of the Pro's are using, it is pretty hard to go by that. All these hooks are fantastic, and what ever company is willing to pay the most for the exposure is what hook or bait they are going to use. The Pro's are very much unlike us in the fact, if they have problems with products, they can simply open a new package. Once we buy it, we own it. It is a completely different senireo. Good Luck

Off F Hwy. Cross over Bull Creek, and then pull into Bull Creek Village. Drive back to the City Hall ie a double wide trailer house located by the park of picnic tables and a BB court. Put on the waders hop into the creek and walk about a mile down till you see trout. Some may be midging some just in the deep holes. They been there since I was a kid. Caught them pretty good there this Winter on an egg fly. Bet they would bite a dry or a tandem. Trout, usually stay up there till it get warm, easy wading water, kind of a nobrainer. Best to go when the water is at normal levels, do not go after rain as it really clouds the water. Duckydoty's advice was Premo!!

www.bubbajackstackle.com I don't believe you can find them for less anywhere. Good Luck

Snaken, I believe it was just a tough old day yesterday on the Rock, if you were fishing a stickbait. Jig Bite seemed to be better. Talked to both Phil Stone and Tim Paige, both fishing the stick, and I believe they were working hard with not a ton of results. They are for sure eating it on Bull Shoals however. As Phil Stone told me those fish just seem to bite better in that cold water. Does not seem to matter on the lake section. Just some huge bags coming in down there on water temps in the 38 to 43 degree range. Also heard of several 8 plus pounders coming in. Also heard of a very nice Wart bite on Bull Shoals, in the seconday pockets. Those fish are just beautiful fat football LM. I was telling Phil and Bill yesterday, we used to call those old Green Back Yellow Belly River Fish Line Sides, cause they are just so colored up with all those pretty markings. Not a hook hole in them anywhere. I believe a guy just needs to get down there in the next week or two. It won't take us long up here to catch up once we get started.

Wayne, I am a Falcon man. I have loved these rods for years. Here is the Skinny, you get what you pay for. Falcon is really trying hard with the BC to reach a price market. The Rod at the simenar was a $99.00 Rod. It would not be as good as either the Origional or not even near the Lowrider. It and the Cara are worlds apart. The rod has a decent tip, but for me it is just a little to spongy in the mid-section. Probably a very good crankbait rod. Probably one of the best Stickbait rods I have used is a Lowrider, floating worm special, it is a med 6footer that is very lively on the tip and being a medium action, handles fish without putting huge prussure on the treble hooks. The Cara Stickbait special at 6'6" is the best however. For stickbaits, I would for sure if I could, fish the Cara. The BC by the way is a bit of a thicker heaver rod. Not a ton mind you, but for sure heaver and not as sensitive, as the Cara, or the Lowrider. As far as the curado D100, love the size and weight. It is not a Chronarch MG50 or Core MG50 or Steeze 100, but it cost way less. I have a dozen and have never had a problem with any of them Shock32 the Diiachi Death Trap in 6 is my favorite and the one lots of us are using. These hooks are very lite, and extremely thin. You can bend them, but I have never seen anything this sharp in my life. They are completly "Dangerious". Once a fish gets a face full, they are caught. The only problem with them is getting the fish loose without getting caught yourself. Phil noted I should have had them covered as I passed them around the other night, and he was right. They are not cheap, but they are chemically sharpened to a razor needle point. I have never seen a hook that you have to be this aware of when you are messing with it. They are just like a small hypodermic needle, and will stick you in a flat out second. Good Luck

Check out the Branson Chamber website for addresses, and the price range you are looking for. You can also see if you are bring a boat and they have parking faculities and electric hookups. There are also some very nice little Ma and Pa resorts over there off 165 hwy to check out. It is hard for recommendations, without knowing your needs. My wife does not consider anything under $200 a night to be high priced, so its all in your prespective. There are several little motel resorts just across the hwy from the State Park entrance, that I am sure to be in the under $100.00 range per night, that I bet would work.

Sam, yesterday must have been the BUGGA-BO day. Nother buddy had problems getting on the water also. For us, it was just to cold. That equipment really does not work well in the mid-teens. For that matter, nither do we. I did catch a nice walleye and two very nice bass on our short stint, all were released and it is always such a gas to fish with Beck and Phil. That part on the video when Beck said when the fish Bit, it kind of scared him, was really funny. Not to mention my rod sliding off the frozen front deck into the drink. I had a hold on the line however, or we would still be there dragging for it. After it went in, it threw way better. The surface temp was 43 and the air temp 15. The fish felt warm when you would take them out of the water. I believe it was tough anyway yesterday. Spoke to a couple of the guides from the dam area of the Rock, and they were struggling big time. As far as the boats, really no compairison, the Stratos was hands down better. Of course you must remember that boat cost about $15,000.00 more new than the Champ I am running. My champ is a 19 footer. That Stratos, is close to 21 ft. with all the bells and whistles. The Stratos would compair more favorable with Becks 21 foot Champ, than to my 19 footer. They are both, very nice fishing boats. The SeaStar Hydro Steering Pump when out yesterday, and I don't guess you can blame that on either the boat or the motor. Problem is the repair pump, comes from Florida, and that takes time.

Just fished the main channel, I didn't get up into the creek. Phil fished the area last even, thought he might post a short report. I fished main lake transition banks. Most of the time my boat was in the 20 to 30 ft. range and would fish the bluffends till the water started to flattten out.

Had that Stratos "Knock on Wood" for 3 yrs. and nothing ever broke. Had this one for 6 months, with a full week of guide business booked starting tomorrow, and it breaks down with the only part to fix it coming out of Florida. Thats life. The front of the boat deck, was solid Ice. I still have a frozen forehead. That was as cold as I have ever fished. Some good advice would be do not fish if it is below 20 degrees.

Hit a couple of transition banks in the Bull Creek area today, having heard of some very nice trout being caught down there. Did not disapoint. In about an hour and a half, after my morning guide trip on the upper end, I had about 15 very nice trout, up to 2 pounds with no dinks, whatsoever. 6 nice largemouth bass were also caught and realeased. Did keep 4 very nice 16 inch bows for a feed this evening, Yum fresh trout. These fish look like lake trout, very silver on the sides and a very dark green back with lots of spots on the back. They hit the stickbait and the 1/16 oz sculpin jig extremely hard. Also caught them on a jig and float, just seeing if I could. Lots of times a 1/2 dozen would follow the one I had hooked to the boat. 3 guys were trolling down that way today, and it looked like all were having a very good time. I saw everyone catching fish.

Denny had it right, its called a hounddog. I like the lure retrievers with a small bit of a chain on them, it really seems to grab those hooks. What do you all think? I always put the line on a reel, if you don't, you can just about bet you will get a knot in it, when you need it most. Jess, It is called a Flit. I am going to throw the paint off of it tomorrow. I got them at Tackle Warehouse. I believe they are 17 bucks and then I put a 12 dollar Norman Flake paint job on it, so you can do the math. I hope it works. Phil, Bill Beck and I are going after Walleye on Upper Bull Shoals tomorrow, but we will throw the sticks in some bassie places. Thanks all for the very nice comments, that is a hard subject. If you "Stick" with it, you will catch your biggest fish ever on Table Rock Lake.

Guys and Gals, hope to see you all at the Nature Center this evening at 7Pm. Bring a business card or two to throw in the pot and we will draw for some fun giveaways. Also don't forget if you want to either bring in your favorite bait or your favorite stickbait rig, for show and tell. Man it is going to be hard to get all this in, in only 2 hrs. Can't wait for the meet and greet. See ya this evening. bb

Go to my post Jerkbaiting with Bill, and click on the pic directly under the photo of the Small Jaw. You get any of those jerkbaits and you have no problem. Might also click on the pic of the Jaw, and see what is hangin from his head. Good Luck

James, can you just imagiane if Tim were on the Water Patrol. He would have Barbwire strung across the Lake from Point 9 to Point 11 and Purple paint on every tree in the area. It would be considered a research center with absolutely no fishing.Boat usage would be confined to either light raft or canoe. Of course there would be one Skeeter allowed to keep a close check and watch on the Jig eating Bass population.