Bill Babler

Post a half dozen pictures of your graph, for us to look at. have your bait in some, bottom in some and fish or shad in some. Let us know how you have it set for the pic's and we might have some suggestions. Maybe. Do several depths and especially where you are having problems. There are some pretty savy fishermen here, and one might spot the problem.

I do not. However you can get swimming minnows in purple and put them on the B.Spin, and I believe they would be killer. Might try it myself the minnows come in all colors and they no doubt would look great under the small colorado spinner on the bettle spin. Lilleys' carrys a huge inventory of the minnows as they are Phil's favorite crappie and white bass baits. Good Luck.

I believe those Whities have gotten a mite tough. Seems they have moved along from the flats and humps they were on just before Christmas. Spoke to several Shell Knob locals, that had just been all over them as we all had all Fall and Early Winter, but it seems they disapeared. I would look at the flats at the Mouth of the Kings River and the Flats up the White River, but most of the old boys say they are off those locations. Sorry.

Jumped the Honey Do ship again today and headed up to Baxter at 9 AM to fish the morning tide. First spot a bluffend with some ripple on it and the second toss, I apprehended a very nice 3 pound LM, on a megabass I have weighted with a concrete block. Boat was in 130ft. of water and I was throwing it up on top the bluff runout. The bait had sit for probably 45 seconds on the 3rd jerk, and the fish flat hammered it. Man I have the pattern now I thought. Note to Self. Don't think to much. 6 Bluffends later, NODA. Worked back in a big major cove pocket on a pretty steep channel bank with some chunk, and again, some nice breeze. About the 5th cast,another "thump" Very nice LM, equal to my fish fish. This is a pretty tight small spot, and about another dozen casts, and I felt the bait come thru a tree. Kind of makes you queezy with that Thirty Dollar bait. Knew the bite was a fish, but really should not have. Most folks would not have even thought about bowing up. The bite was just this; I had prussure on the bait and my line was tight to the sinking bait, that had just came thru the tree. The Cara Jerkbait rod had a very slight bow in the tip from the prussure on the bait. I was watching the line and it just went slack I'm going to tell you at the most 1 inch. I reared back, without feeling a friggin thing. MISS. I twitched it a quick two times and then a solid thump. This fish ment business and I fought her a good fight finely boating a very nice LM in the 5 Pound class. Magnificent, beautiful late Winter fish. I cannot tell you the number of times I have caught stickbait fish just like this. The first bite was not a bite but a drive by. The big fish had just made a move on the bait and disturbed it in the water, never really taking the bait but creating enought wave action to knock the slack in my line. I cannot tell you how many times a quick twin twitch has really worked for me as it did again in this situation. Of course it is always better to lucky instead of good. Surface temps at the start were 45.5 and when I quite at 3 Pm they were 46.9 in the point 9 area. Little wind and a little warming on the water and It got me several bites. I also caught 2 other very nice keeper K's at 47 ft. back in the same pocket as I was crossing to the other side. Saw them suspended over 60 and dropped the charturse 1/2 oncer to them. 5 fish were my take for the 5 and a half outing, all keepers. No K's or jaws on the stick. Spoke to Dan Langely and he said he and Bryant Ward had been catching big K's on a jerkbait in the Shell Knob area up unitl about the 10th. and then they and most of the whites in the Shell Knob area had vamanosed. He had not caught a keeper when I saw him at 2 Pm. IF Danny's not a catchin you know its tough. Be very patient with your presentation, and target locations that you would think are holding LM, as the K's are very hard to come by. If it rains and the water hits 50 degree, they will not be so hard to find, they will find us. Good Luck

Brian, I can't find what you are talking about. I cannot believe they can drop that lake 7ft. in 14 days by running two generators. However I may be totally off base.

I am still abit confused by the lowering of Beaver Lake. Are they going to move the water thru the flood gates? They are saying on the news they are planning to drop the lake by 7ft. in 14 days. It would have to come through the gates to get that kind of water movement would it not? Is the plan just to let it right thru the chain, completely thru Bull Shoals. The reason I'm asking is if the water comes off the top, it would create some kind of a fantastic 45 plus degree current on the upper white. It is most always the area of Table Rock that turns on first. With the warm water current, I think the bass and walleye would really get fired up.

Took a couple of hours yesterday morning and threw stickbaits in the dam area. Saw lots of folks deep fishing the major cuts but really wanted none of that. Tried a McStick, a Custom Rogue and a Megabass and had zero bites on any of the above. Mostly targeted bluffends. Water was extremely slick and I just could not find any breeze. Spoke to 2 other stickbait throwers yesterday and nither had any licks, all morning. Surface temps 46.6 over most of the area. Also spoke to Phil Stone on Saturday and he thought it was mighty tough with the suspending sticker. Beck caught about 14 keepers in the Dam area on Saturday and had 14.5 pounds in a derby. All on stickbaits. He was fishing it extremely slow and it was weighted to sink. Bites were pertty spongy and he was letting it sit so long it would make a normal person sick. At least 30 seconds to a minute and a half between twitches. Derby winner, caught them deep on a shot.

Just for "Kick's and Grin's, Go into that 30ft. depth range and again watch your dropshot going down. Turn the sensivity as low as you possibly can and still see the target dropping. My Lowrance LCR 37 I can still see the drop shot fine at about 40% I am running it yesterday at about 66 percent with no other boats in the area. A lot of times deep fishing we will sometimes have as many as 6 guide boats all bumping into each other and we will run our graphs at that 40 to 60 percent range and still see the fish and the baits. If you are losing or having up and down lines while fishing near your buddy, it is his unit interfering and not yours. Tell him to turn it down. If you have those units turned up to high, about 3/4 or what you think you are seeing Ain't really there. It is just improvely. That unit should show you are great pic at 70 to 75 percent. IF you notice by looking at my graph pic's on either www.whiteriveroutfitters.com or ozarkanglers, you will notice you see nothing at all on my screens but the fish and the line. There is absolutely no trash on the screen it is perfectly clear. Go back and look at the graph pic's I have posted. If you are seeing anything at all any clutter, turn the thing down. Hope this helps.

All ramps are open for use and the lake seems to be fishing pretty well lake wide early and late. Surface temps lake wide are running in the 44 to 47 degree range, except way up the river arms and in the backs of the coves which are very cool to cold with some ice. Interior and secondary creek chunk rock banks and transitions seem to be holding some very quality stickbait fish along with a pretty fair jig bite. As most times wind seems to make a huge difference. You need a little ripple on any banks you are fishing. Deep fish are being caught on the bottom in the creeks. Run the main creek channels and look for bends the channel. Fish are holding on the bottom in these locations in the 30 to 45 ft. range. Spoke to both Chris T. and Bill B. today and it has not been as good today as the last few days. Bill B. did have an 8 pound LM on a grub in 45 feet fishing the channel bends in a major creek, with lots of nice K's up to 3 pounds this last week. White 1/2 oz spoon, white 4 inch grub on a 3/8th. jig head and a drop shot with a 4 inch worm are taking the bass species. Have not heard a thing on the whites since the snow. With forcast in the mid-50's to low 60's for next week, I am just bettin it is fixin to really turn on.

We are upgrading our Theater Room here at the Lodge to full 1080P HDMI capable. "Blu Ray" The projector I have now and have been using is a NEC LT265, DLP, Mulitmedia remote control projector. It is 2500 lumins of candle power and has the capability of 720P HD up to 1080I HD. It is not only designed for movie viewing, home entertainment, but designed for powerpoint presentations, or business or group presentations. ie churchs or groups. I have the projector and a new in box bulb for sale. SES will give me $750.00 on a trade in on the new 1080P system, with the bulb. They said however I should be able to get more on the open market. Best Price I can find on the bulbs, is $329.00. If you look at it close, they are giving me about $421.00 for the projector, and of course what the new bulb in the box sells for. $421 + $329 ==$750.00 The bulb in it only has 300 hrs. on it and they last 1,600. I would consider anything over the $750.00 they are offering on the trade-in. The projector is on the market now for $1,695.00 to $1,995.00. When we purchased it in 2005, we gave 3 grand for it. They have really came down. This is a super projector that works extremely well in high light non-ideal conditions. Try and find an HD MultiMedia Projector that is capable of 1080I HD for $421.00 Give me a call if you are interested, or for more information. 417-779-1556 Thanks Bill

Donny, great to hear from you. God Bless you and your's and have a very nice Christmas season and a great marketing sports show season. You might post here and let us know the shows you plan to attend this year. I'm sure Ozarkanglers members in those cities would like to come by the booth and say a big thanks and a howdy. Sincerely BB

Surface temps on Table Rock 52.9. Don't believe you will see any shad at those temps. I thought it might drop more, but just got off the lake and it was still that warm. Might take it a while now to get any cooler with day time highs forcasted in the mid to low 50's.

Got an email from Champ 188 that he and Donna are going to Oklahoma for Donna's 1 yr. check-up. Please keep her in your prayers and thoughts. I believe they also intend to do a little lip jerkin while they are in Oklahoma. Good luck on that also. Sincerely Bill Babler

Guys sometimes getting repairs on older equipment can be a problem, reguardless of what the product is. I believe there is a moritorium that parts have to be manufactured for a 5 yr. period after the discontinuation of a product model number. Lowrance is no different that most other companies, they want to sell you a new one. I have had a very hard time here at the lodge, getting replacement parts for any of our internal plumbing and electronics as the 5 yrs. have passed, on certain items we purchased and we just have to buy new. I know all the reel companies discontinue parts for out of model reels after 5 yrs. You can sometime find aftermarket or some places that still have inventory. I sold two X15's this Summer just cause a buddy had his go out and could not get parts. He loved the B&W unit, and bought both of the ones I had, when I purchased the 37C. He paid me more money than I paid for the units new at BP. Mike Webb had gotten us a deal when those units went out of production, new in boxes. As the technology changes and improves, the older stuff just gets thrown away in this society. I guess I am getting close to throwaway.

I think we had maybe 18 to 20 whites and about half dozen small K's in 2.5 hrs. on the water. Coy got us started. These fish have very much pulled off the flat tops and have made it much harder to find and catch. They are still there in some locations, but have gotten very finiky, I believe due to the extreme cold. Your lines are visible sometime up and down, sometime not at all and sometime sideways, due to the position of the boat. It is almost impossible on windy days to keep them up and down. That is why if you only have 1 transducer, a lot of old timers put in on the stern We'll get them going again.

26 degree, when Doug and I hit the pond this morning at 9:45. Have to tell you it was a very tough day of us, with the high blue and the extreme cold. Doug is fishing a derby on Sunday, so when we did catch a fish, we would move, but still it was slow. I believe we had 18 fish with 4 keepers, and lost a couple that might have measured. Creeks were 53 degree, and main lake in the Baxter to Kimberling area at 56. When we put the boat on the trailer at 4:50 PM, Ice was freezing on the motor and the stern of the boat. As Doug called it kind of a Junk Day as we would catch one here and one there, and one on this bait and one on that. Really only one small pattern and we will keep that to ourselves until after the derby on Sunday. Deep fish I had been graphing were not to be found as they had moved off the flat tops. I suspect suspended due to the extreme high prussure, blue sky and extreme cold. If anyone caught them today good for you. We froze our tails of and worked as hard as possible. Just wonder would it would have taken in a derby today. We might have had 10 pounds, and we earned everyone of them. Good Luck

Hey Denny, you know where I live, get your you know what down here and we'll go. I am just getting ready to head out this Morning. Waiting for it to get to at least 25 degrees. Looking for Green fish today starting at 10 AM will post some picks if we catch any. Should be ok if it is not to windy. Boy that is a switch. When you are dangling a spoon at 50 plus feet, let me tell you wind is not your friend.

Sam, when I bought mine, that unit was over a grand, installed at Marine Repair Center. About $850.00 for the unit and tranducer, $200.00 for the Ram and GPS mount, and then another $100.00 plus for the new map. Plus professional instal, and I believe it came to close to $1,200.00. I can se a BB drop with it and it is very compact. If you are getting a new or preowned unit, now is the time. Lowrance has gone to mostly HD and the old numbered units like I have are a lot less money. It would still pay to have some one set it up perfect. I know where there is a 37C like my main bow unit in the pic's if you are interested. Probably get you into that unit at about the same price. It is very large however and takes a Ocean Size Ram to support it. It is a new unit that was just purchased, by a Dr. just before the HD10 came out. He had to have one of course, and that makes the 37 available. I thought about buying it for a spare, but that is a lot of money to have sitting on the shelf. You want your best unit on the bow. Use your console unit to find your locations, then tune in with the bow. PM me if your interested,

Donna, by the Beckster, I ment Bill. I have not only asked Becky but have also asked that stick in the mud Phil Lilley about a 1/2 dozen times to go, but can't seem to get those two on the pond. Phil emailed that he has a touch of the flu, so maybe if it warms up some next week and he is over his sniffels we can shoot some video. I know James wants to fish the Kings, this weekend. Have a good trip, I'm sure you will do great.

Put in at Baxter at Noon and I will tell you, with a 15 to 20 mile an hour breeze and 36 degree it was for sure cool enough. Fish bit a little for me today, when I wasn't shaking to hard to fish. Keep hearing of a wart bite, and dedicated 1 hr. to it on windy chunky and gravel banks, not a sniff. I cranked it slow I paused it I did everything I could to convince them it was a daddy. No one was fooled. Threw the jig shallow some and had two nice keeps on that in the under 10 ft. range on the same kind of places I fished the wart. Surface temps at 54.3 from Kimberling to Baxter. Deep fish are there in the 50 ft range, but it was just to hard to hold the boat in the wind. Did catch 4 K's all keeps, and 1 white bass. Best 5 at maybe 12 pounds. I really toughed it out today, and tomorrow, is going to be colder, starting I am seeing looking at the blue eye weather at 14 degree.

Went back and tried to count the lines, and I believe at least 40 blew up in the one cone and really could not tell the number in the other. There is also still the blanket on the bottom of fish, that didn't fire up. Conservitive guess is probably 100 plus fish inside that cone at the 50 ft. depth mark. My guess, probably twice that.

Foz, you bet I have. I have one on the Stratos and one of the colsole of the Champ. They are just as good a unit as the 37C. How to set it up is very easy, run your chart speed and ping speed full, your grayline at 70% or so, water clarity a clear, sensitivity depends on your tranducer, I have a hot shot and am still sit on 60%. You can go up as high as you need. Surface is at 10' bottom at 80' and you can use the split screen and scrool up or down on your picture. I will usually zoom in 1 time. If you can't get it, I would be more that happy to sit it for you if you bring it by. The 520 LCG is fantastic. There is no reason to spend more money, it is the bomb.

There is most generally some fish around or just under the bait, but for the most part we have not been fishing bait pods. Bait is never far, but not necessarly directly over the fish. Most often, all we are seeing is maybe one stick his head up as in one of the graph pic's or better yet that heavy blanket of fish lying directly on the bottom. There has not been any Whites on the locations we fished this summer up the River Doug. There is however a very nice drag bite on those locations for K's. 3/8th oz. jig or better yet a rig with a watermellon candy cenipede. They are on the humps flats and in the ditches, mostly main lake from Kimberling City to Big M that are really holding fish. There are fishermen on these locations, but you just have to butt right in and help them. The fish will bite like mad and then just vanish. If you can see them you most often can get them to bite. If you see guys fishing main lake flats vertically, you are more than welcome to fish. Usually 100 yrds. is a good rule of thumb, but the guide boats or buddies will get right together. Be sure to turn down your electronics so as not to interfear with other fishermen. I had been fishing a small hump up the Kings, and I pulled onto it on Tuesday. There was a guy on the adjacent flat probably 200 yrds. off and when I flipped down the trolling motor he threw his hands into the air jerked up his motor and blew off. He should have been there Saturday. There were 11 boats setting in a 100 yrd. circle on the same location, jerking one White after the other. There are lots of these places, but the best ones have people fishing them. There are for sure enough whites to go around, so don't get freaked out if more than one fisherman is fishing a flat or hump. Mid day has been as good as any. just cruise slowly around these flats looking for the ditches and humps and for the blanket on the bottom. If you are lucky, you will see a fish of two stick up his head off the bottom. All the fish we are catching are on the bottom they are not suspended. I could sit here and give 2 dozen direct locations, but I'm just not going to do that. Finding them is just about as much fun as catching them. On any Saturday you can run from Campbell Point to Viola or Viola to Eagle Rock and you should just be able to see from the congregations of boats where they are. Good Luck.

If you all are not finding these fish, take a deep breath, put your rods in the rod box and concentrate on your electronics. Follow these main lake flats out from the bank till they plumit into the river channel. Most offten the fish are just about to the break before they fall into the channel. I will tell you there are fish in the Kings, James, Long Creek, and the main lake on these spots. That 50 ft. range there about is really strong. The fish look like a blanket or a dark red or black line lying right on the bottom. You have to drop into them and fire them up. Go over the entire flat and just put a gps mark on each spot you find in a 200 yrd. area, and then return and fish each of the marks. There are plenty of guys finding these fish. Steve and I this weekend saw groups of between 3 and 20 boats fishing locations that held bait and loads of fish. If you are having problems, get out on Saturdays, and just look for the concentrations of boats. As you learn where they are fishing and the type of bottom rolloffs they are on you can find others, as these fish are just solid from Kimberling City to Big M. Not to mention the rivers. I keep reading about guys graphing lots of fish and bait but not getting them to bite. Not true. If you find them they will bite. You need to do a little more work on how to read your graph correctly. Everything you see is not a fish. For Cripes Sakes, go out with one of the local guides and learn how to read that graph. Not only will you have a blast, you will learn how to interpet the marks on your machines. House, Beck, Loving, Paige, Prey, Sainato, Webb, Tetrick, Wenners, Oliverson, LaPoint, or the dudes that I have not mentioned that fish deep can get you going. These machines are really remarkable if you know how to read them. I don't believe these fish will quit, there are just to many of them. Get out and save the shad population from this explosion of White Bass,