Bill Babler

Did not fish the Champion tourna. But have a few reports. Bite continues to be in the 32 to 40 depth range on either suspended fish, or bottom scratchers. Low light periods with some breeze seems to get the blacks going in the cedar tops. First day leader of the C tourna, caught them on a blade in the wind. Eventual winner caught fish on a deep hump in the dam area in that same 35ish depth range. BEst bite is by far from 10 Am till 2Pm, as the sun concentrates the fish, either suspended in the tree tops or on the deep humps, and channel swings. Drop shot worms in watermellon candy or purple/brown are working best. Cenepedes in watermellon candy, and 5/8 oz football jigs in watermellon candy with a matching trailer are doing the job, when dragging or bottom bouncing are called for. Of course, pbj is still catching fish. Clevenger Hollow to Baxter seems to be the best main lake bite. Don't know to much about the river, but B. Sullivan won the tournament fishing main lake at the dam, so that leads me to believe that the river is slow.

Guys, if you are considering new electronics, I would wait till the first of November. Rumor has it a 30% nose dive is coming on almost all the Lowrance units, in stock, as new models are coming out. I have either a 111 HD or a 38HD in my sights and the savings on either unit would be between 6 and 8 hundred bucks. Tried to buy a unit last week, and a very reputable dealer wouldn't sell it to me until then. Said to just be patient and wait.

Why take a huge appropreation like this, if it is what they say it is,and waste it? I could personally give a flying flop about every brush pile in Table Rock lake. I will never put another one in. And accually I have put very few. Most piles are put in by the night fisherman, and the tourney boys. Why is anything always better than nothing, no matter what the cost or reason?

As far as Bass Pro's pledge, I want to see CASH, I will just about guarantee you that it will not be in the form of cash but in time, labor and equipment usage. Their equilivant of a 1.5 million gift, is a boat driver, operating their tree barge for about a 20 hr. week. They have said this, and done this time, after time, after time. When are we going to wise up to the fact that this is only a PR move on their part. And I'm sure, a tax write off. If the govt. would use the entire allotment that is targeted for TR and use it for spawning habitat for crappie, that would be great. They will not. Crappie, don't make them a dime. If you are a crappie fisherman and think even 1 penny of this if for you, I have some great ocean front property in Arizona for only $100,000 an acre I would love to sell ya. For crappie spawning cover to work,they would have to have the total commitment from the Corp. to hold the water levels at high or stable levels during the spawn. Yea Right!! One MDC fisheries official said this is probably equilivant to spending $15,000 per toliet lid on the submarines. Is anything we get better than nothing? For the most part, probably not. Ask the Public Relations dept.at Bass Pro.

Big Meeting about this on Oct. 16th. Myself and a couple of the other guides have been invited, to voice our thoughts on the appropreation. Government money that has been designated for this project and this alone. Our comments at this point. BIG SHOW NO GO. WORTHLESS AND A COMPLETE WASTE OF TIME AND MONEY.!!!!! Table Rock is absolutely loaded with submerged structure. It holds fish from time to time, but most is of no use. I know guides that have sunk piles in huge numbers and for the most part 1 out of a hundred hold fish. This is not a Largemouth Lake and will never be again, no matter what they do. It is just an age thing. The bass that are in Table Rock are not ambush feeder for the most part, they are chasers and grazers and structure is secondary to shad and crayfish. We have completely taken some of our best spots out of production, by adding cover. I have a couple of spots I have treed up that used to be good, that are void of fish. Wish I would have left them alone. I know several guides and pro-fisherman, that put piles in prior to the BASS Pro Elite a couple of years ago and I can take you to at least 50 piles that are useless. Spoke to one head official with MDC fisheries and he said they would do the same good, if they just piled them on the bank out of the water. Adding structure to a lake filled with structure is somewhat of a question in my mind. Will let you know after the meeting.

Simply, Fantastic

C5, Shell Knob is marketed as the quiet side of the lake Maybe 15 years ago. Since the invention of the jet ski and the 36 ft. Cobalt times have changed. Skinnest water on the lake and lots of good timers. Boating activity on Saturday was tremendious. I can see how you had a hard time. It was just tough to stand while fishing the main lake from the Knob to the C-point. Yes in cap's I am a jig dragger and bouncer and shaker. Have not tried the braid, I just flat hate that stuff. Nothing but problems for me as it is impossible to tie, cut or work with. One thing that seems to help is an extreme high speed reel when fishing a jig. Most people don't see this as the bait is a slow mover. Reason, on the strike the line pick-up is better and allows you to take slack out fast before the set. Best reason is you can keep up with the fish no matter how many crazy dido's he tries to preform. When that fish comes out of the water, I am completely tight on him and reeling and pulling like a man possessed. The high speed reel allows me to really keep up with him. The 7 ft. plus rods pick up slack and also work better than the heaver shorter rods for the same reason fly fisherman use 9 and 10 ft. rods, to set the hook and keep the slack under control. I don't fish the jig rod in a high position. I usually fish it no higher than a 45 at the most. I don't pull the jig and then reel out the slack. I keep the slack out at all times. When I feel the tug or the tip gets heavy I don't drop the rod wind in the excess slack and hammer the fish, I set from the position the rod is in. The hook set is more of a lift as I want the rod to load rather than snap back and then spring forward. On the lift I am reeling as fast as I can to keep the rod loaded and the tip bent with all the prussure that I can. Not an expert, but it seems to be working. Buster is an expert and I have fished hours with him and the FB. His set is almost rig like as a lift or drag, rather than a jerk. Don't know how old you are, but I was taught to cross his eyes. With the equipment we have today, the eye cross just does not work as well as the lift and reel. Guess an old dog can learn a new trick or two. Good Luck

LB, Dutch pretty much said it all. Guide rigs start with spooled 8 lb. Maxi in green to the swivel and then usually 5 ft. of Segar 6 lb. floracarbon. Slap a wide gap 1 or 1/0 facing up and a 3/8th. drop shot weight on and you have it. I have also tried the built in swivel bakudan and don't believe it will hurt a thing. I like em. One of the main reason for the twists is not only the rotation of the worm, but when you catch a fish and set the hook your drag will slip. It should anyway. It the fish fights well and it pulls line against the drag this will also create a twist, especially if you are reeling against the drag. This is going to happen no matter what you do. The reason we are all only using the 5 to 6 ft. of the pricy floro. and are not spooling with it, is after we catch several fish we just cut off a dozen feet of the cheaper Maxi that the reel has twisted and dispose of it. This creates a new line platform of untwisted and unused line. It will really help. All my drop shot rigs, are just that and used for no other application. With the Stradic spooled with 8lb. and not completely filled even with all the fishing that I do, and cutting off 12 to 15 ft. chunks, they will still last me for many trips. This is an extremely inexpensive way to deal with the problem and is fast as lighting. You also have fresh line that has not worn on the side of the boat, trees, or been overly stretched, so we very seldom break one off. May not be the right way, but almost all the guides are fishing the dropper like this. Another point that a couple of the guys are doing is twin dropshot worms. They are using a longer piece of florocorbon up the 8 ft. and placing two worms on the line. 1 about a ft. above the weight and the other about a ft. under the swivel. Buster claims it really helps and I have tried it and agree. It also presents the worms in two somewhat different locations of the water column. Draw back is loosing two sets of equipment if you hang, as it will most always break above the top hook and the second is you are limited where you can use this. Only open fishing. Get it around a tree, and it will grab and hang on. Hope this helps

Crappie5, Thanks for the kudo's. Wish you would have came over and said howdy. In all rights, you should have won the durn thing, as you all had more bites than the entire bunch of us. We only had a dozen bites and Buster only had about 20 bites. We wore the paint off the FB and could't get bit. Had a couple of bites on a rig, but most all our fish were suspended. Don't know how you lost your fish, but if they were jumping you off on the FB, that is quite undertandable. They will do that alot. One great tip is to put up prussure on the fish, instead of lowering your rod to keep him from jumping. When you lower your rod tip into the water in creates horizonal prussure on the fish and I believe it makes him come up. By putting up prussure in forces him to pull away and lets your rod keep even prussure on the fish. IF he does jump, continue to put huge prussure on him. I will sometimes pull him 10ft. thru the air and hop him right into the net. If fishing a dropshot and the fish skyrockets keep winding and catchen up with him and when he comes out pull him right into the boat. I do this everyday. We vary seldom loose fish unless we are careless. As Buster said," When you stick one on a FB, wind as fast as you can until he is in the net". "Play him, if you want to lose him". We are all using 10 to 15 lb. Floro, and for the most part, these 3 to 5 pounders, just can't break that no matter what they do. Maybe a big smallie with a quick last minute dive at the boat, but a largemouth or a K is pretty much helpless against that line, if you are using a 7 ft. rod and your drag is set properly. Catching and holding fish is not 1 big thing, but a multitude of small minor tweaks that are very simple if you do em all. A short heavy rod is just a clear bad plan. It has fair hook setting ability, but it cannot keep the constant, EVEN PRUSSURE that the 7 to 7.6 ft. rods, will do for you in almost every situation. I also remember, it was not to many years ago that we took a pipe wrench and cranked our drags down to beyond tight, so they would not slip on the hook-set. Not necessary today. My drag, will slip a tad on every set, but the hook, is so sharp right out of the plastic wrap, it dosen't matter. I can remember when we used to hone all our hooks. Now if you put a hone on these chemmically sharpend hooked you will do more damage than good. Unless you have bent the point, or damaged it. Most times now you just throw it away and tie on a new jig. Sorry you dropped those, it can really be frustrating. You however, had a much better day of fishing than either BB and I or Buster and Bob had. It's great fun to have that many bites on the rock. Good fishing in the future and next time come and say Hey

Man after the 8 and 1/2 hour marathon tournament on Saturday, I just was not looking forward to a full day bass trip on Sunday. Guess I should thank the Good Lord for the work, and I have, just a bit tired. Departed Kimberling Inn at 6:45 and headed to the White. First stop on Buster's tourmament winning spot. Caught a real nice smallie, about 2 1/2 and my client broke one off after a short battle. He wanted to fish his stuff, and his jig rod only had last years 8 lb. line. He was done with it and went with my sticks the rest of the day. Fished the area till about 9 AM, and the two were all we had. I'm not as patient as Buster, and was not about to spend the entire trip on one spot, it was getting real hot and very slick. Motored up the White to a long gravel point that we had been catching just one fish from per stop and again at 32 ft. on a drop shot, my client caught a nice keeper K. Fished there another 45 minutes and that was it. Went up the Kings River abit to a spot that I had been catching them on from time to time and we both had a jig fish and I saw some nice fish breaking further than a normal cast. Dragged out a swim bait and heaved it across 100 yards of channel and caught a very nice 3 pound K chasing on top. Motored further up the White to a spot I have been fishing for 20 years and it paid off. Would have liked to have gone here for the tournament, but too many spots and too little time. 5 keepers on the jig in the 26 ft. range with Ed catching 4 of them. I don't believe these fish have been bothered in a month. Makes a difference if they are not fished everyday. It was time to turn around now and we headed back to Buster's spot to finish out the day. Seems to be a better bite there in the afternoon. Got on his honey hole at about 1:30, quarter to two, and fished for 40 minutes in the flat cloudless heat, with no bites. Was just getting ready to call it a day, when we saw a cloud coming and it started to blow a little and rain slightly. Next 45 minutes 10 fish with 8 keepers on the drop shot and a split-shot rig. As soon as the clouds hit they came off the bottom and started worming and running everywhere. Gosh I'm glad we were there at the right time. What a great day to follow up the tournament, and also what great luck to be on the right spot at the right time.

The Homer Sloan Tourny out of Shell Knob had 58 boats and I will tell you, I don't think it could have been any harder. Like SK had said the other day the bite around the Knob is pretty tough. Top 3 Places were Buster Loving and Bob Tindle 16 pounds Fann Brothers 15pounds Babler and Beck 13 pounds Buster and Bob caught and released 3 limits of keepers, from a spot about as big as your living room, and fished that hole the entire day. The fish would just turn on and off, come and go. Fann's, just good fisherman saw them on some bluffs and then deep flats Beck and I caught our fish one at a time from 6 different trees. We only had 6 keepers and 9 fish the entire day. Our fish were 32 over 70. Buster caught his on a jig 35 ft on the bottom. We started on the FB and just wore it out with nothing. Great time at Shell Knob.

Capt. D. Thanks abunch. Caught one really nice brownie on him and then he got his foot stuck. Try as I might I couldn't get him to turn loose and lost him. Will be checkin back to see if you have some more of his family. Good luck in the tourny tomorrow, all you Shell Knobbians, It's always fun.

Thanks Don You know how I feel day after a good bite. I have a full TR day tomorrow, and I'm sure I will struggle. You know the guides are almost all a mirror image in technique of each other, and when one of us goes good, most of the time we all go good. Wish I had been with you today. Timing and location seem to be key factors. These K's just move all the time. You can look at a tree top one day and its full and then for a week its empty. Go back the next week, and its full again. Its nice when they bite, glad you had a good day.

Rolan Duffield arrives on the morrow, and I think he may have picked the perfect time for one of his visits. Rolan and brothers Ed and Gary, could possibly be in the two hundred fish per day mode the next week. From Fall Creek to Andy's I just haven't seen that many packs of fish for quite a while. Sunday my client had 61 in the four hr. trip and today I believe we had just about the same number in that ammount of time. I fished a size 10 stimulator with a four foot dropper to a size 14 ginger scud and it was a blast. About 20% on the dry. My client fished a 1/2 ginger micro on the 7 ft. spinning rod, and we just had a ball. Bill Beck said his full day trip, with two clients netted over 100 fish on the sculpin 1/2 micro on the flat water and the Full Pink micro on generation, then changing to a beaded egg pattern. Again and I don't know why we are having trouble with the drift boat guides. Bill said he was yelled at time after time by a drift boat guide anchored in mid channel just below Andy's house this afternoon. He said the guide kept yelling at him that no one can catch that many fish, unless they are using bait. To stop using powerbait or he would call the Game Warden. Bill replyed " This client has on a pink micro-jig, and this clinet has on a peach egg beaded egg fly, what do you want me to do, quit fising"? We are making long, long drag free drifts and covering 100's of feet of water, on each perfect drift. In an anchored boat you are drifting maby if your lucky 5 to 10 feet of good drag free drift. I would say even less than that of perfect drift. Also some of these guys might try something other than a thread or zebra midge. Great patterns, but not always what the fish are looking for. We tried these drift boats years ago, and during generation, just could not make them work. You drift the same fish, if there are any there time after time, from an anchored position, instead of floating and presenting to new fish constantly. They just work poorly during power generation. Bill said he had not seen this particular guide before, but his poor clients sitting the the 86 degree sunshine looked like they were just about to burn to a crisp. There is plenty of room for everyone and I will guarantee the boat guides from Lilleys' are not fishing bait in the restricted area and are doing it right. Sorry if were catching too many fish.

Beck and I hit it really hard for about 8 hours up the White yesterday and sadly it was about as nasty as SK, said it was. About fifteen fish for the day with 8 Keepers. Did have one over 6 pounds and had a couple of others that big in sight, but would not be tricked. Talking between ourselves, we thought clients might have caught half of those, so that would have put a full day guide trip in to the 7 fish with 4 keepers type of day. REALLY REALLY SLOW. Not that were better, than anyone, but we fish everyday, and are just for the most part a little more in tune. Most of our folks only fish a couple of times a year. Most of these nasty critters pulled up and some went deep. Most suspended still around that 32 ft. level, but not near the bottom. Heard rumors that the spinner bite was on big time up the James and flat creek in the muddy water. One of the guides reported a regular client, that was fishing on his own, had a 20 pound bag on a blade, throwing it all day. One of those he said she said type deals however so I don't know for sure. Mid-Lake from Baxter to Cow Pretty sorry early from the guys that I talked to. I know Capt. Don had two trips yesterday, and he might have gotten them to bite better, haven't gotten to speak with him yet today. Afternoon the bite seemed to be on the long gravel points on the FB in that 35 ft. type depth range. Spoke to one of the locals that fished the same point three times yesterday. No early bite, no midday bite and then he caught 6 keepers on the FB in the same depth range at 3 PM. Grand slam, with a nice black, 4 smallies and a thumper K. Timing is not just important, it may be everything this time of the year. Point 5 to Longcreek. Buster reported a pretty good early bite on the C-rig, then the fish pulled up and he did good on a drop shot. SAme depth everywhere. I think he had about 20 fish with half keeps on his morning adventure. One day I'm a hero, and the next a zero. That's TR for you

Just have time for a very quick reply, and Won't be back on the forum for a couple of days. Thursday and Friday were very good on rigs and jigs in the 30 to 35 ft. range. Completely different days on Sat. and Sunday. Fish completely pulled up off the bottom and suspended at the same depth, only over deeper water. Jig and rig, were really just flat useless this weekend. Most all fish were on a dropshot, swimming a grub and spoon. Don if he had trips, was probably really on them as he is great with the spoon. Beck and I caught fish 32 ft. over 70 in the cove mouths, and frankly if it had not been for him on a couple of spots, I would not have done as well as I did. Saturday the two guide boats had about 45 fish, with 3/4 being keepers and about a third being quality blacks. All these fish were suspended, under moving shad schools. Or in the tree tops. To much wind on Sunday for the tournament boys, and no river largemouth bite. Good smallie bite, swimming the grub on Sunday in the wind. Saturday, you had to be able to read the sonar and fish deep. These Heartland boys for the most part are shallow water Ozark, Truman, Grand fisherman, and couldn't do that. Look who won and placed high, our locals. Everyone come and fish the Homer Sloan out of Shell Knob this weekend. Beck and I are going to try our luck. Look forward to seeing a bunch of you there, its for a great cause.

Just got a email from James Johnson NN River Camp. Last year when Phil and I were at the camp the river was running pretty high, and rising every day. This year in front of Jim's camp the water being down, he reports the wade fishing to be just about unbelieveable. Kind of an area mont'age report. Jim say's clients are catching quality silvers and lots of rainbows in front of the camp. Bows are coming on mouse patterns stripped and jerked near rocks and craigs. These bows are coming from the Naknek right in front of the camp, up to 30 inches. Silvers are just entering the river, with thousands being seen in the mouth of King Salmon Creek. In front of Lake Camp, people are catching silvers on weighted sinking lines stripping gaudy streamers. One client had eight just after dinner Saturday night. Close to 100 pounds of silver salmon just around the farm. Good Golly!!! Jim is taking a group on a fly out on Thursday to the Eggagik River for polly wog silvers. Success is reported to be 100 percent on the drys. Thousands of fresh silvers headed up the river. Good Golly !!! A couple of days ago Jim's clients were fishing the rapids and a client named larry caught a rainbow on an articulating leach that weighted just under 15 lbs. Good Golly!!!! Jim simply said Brooks River is on FIRE. Huge Rainbows taking drys all day. One client reportly caught 60 dry fly fish in about a 6 hr. span. Fish ranged to 26 inches. Good Golly!!!! With the low water and the nice weather the fishing is great, with the silvers ahead of last year, and in much greater numbers. There are some great nearby flyouts for the silvers also. Can't wait to get there. BB

Moose, Phil and I have both looked at your place and it looks fabulas. We might try and get the girls away for a couple of days in late fall or early winter to come down and see ya. Buster usually takes Dusty and Sherri. Dusty and I do go out and fling a few however. They are not only clients, but really good friends and we love to see them. Can't wait for your post from the River in Alaska Sincerely BB

Web, I took some white ones and colored them up to look like the bows, and no results. I think a better option would be a rainbow colored soft plastic swim bait. There has got to be a way. I would give-em a try and see.

BrowningFisherman, you are right on the symetre but with a couple of other differences. The Stradic has a much larger polished master gear for a much smoother action. It also incorportates a heaver bail,and bail spring than the symetre, that is placed tighter to the spool with less tolorance than the symetre, and much less wobble on retrieve. Quick story, I have had the line not get in the bail cradle on several different times and set the hook on drop shot bass and bent the bail. Once it is bent, it is a real problem, and just about cannot be fixed to work correctly again. It's like breaking the tip of your favorite rod, you can have it fixed or fix it yourself, but it is never the same. I have had the same thing happen tons of times with the stradic and the sustain, and never bent a bail. The weight of the 25OO stradic mg is a full two onces less than that of the symetre. Also the body size of the stradic is fractionally smaller, on the same number class reel. I have 22 symetre's and wish I would have gone on an purchased the stradic's. The staying power of the stradic is much longer and I only have to ship them in about once every 24 months, where the symetre needs to go to the Dr. at least once a year. This may sound like lots of cleaning and repair time for high priced reels, but you must remember that my reels are not only fishing here everyday, but some go to Alaska and are used there on a daily basis. Drop shotting and rigging are extremely hard on any reel and the massive ammounts of jerking at the bails, rollers and internal parts is extremely hard on equipment. Every guide I know that uses the symetre amd the stradic, prefers the stradic. I know what your talking about with the money part. The stradic,is the better reel however, dollar for dollar. I also have 11 sustains, and I believe the stradic MG to be as good if not better. If you figure price, they do grade out better than the sustain, Most of my sustains are in the 4000 number up bracket. Have not gotten the guts to buy a stela yet, but maybe I will someday. Good Stuff

Lots of browns under the resort docks. I also, a couple of weeks ago had clients catch and release 3 over 20 inches on the bluff bank below fall creek dock, same day. Just before Phil got back from Alaska one day while cleaning rainbows, I saw at least 3 over 10 pounds under the cleaning station. Talked to a guy at trout hollow today and he said they are just swarming behind hollow's dock, but would not bite. I'm Glad!!!! The guides that are fishing below Cooper Creek, are seeing some huge browns chasing fresh stocked rainbows, but are having a very hard time catching them. Mostly thru the docks just below the ramp. Reports of fish in the 15 to 20 pound range are coming in about everyday. Mostly as the stocking boat goes by, they go into a frenzy chasing the stockers. Lots of fish in the river down there.

T. I know exactly what you mean. People in the fall and winter are usually those of us that have fished the area for years, and are there soley for that purpose and time slot. Our other guests on the lake are usually vacationers just wanting to get on the water, different breed. You are absolutely right about the highline flat above the ramp surrounding the island. Very few fish. The spot you are speaking of is usually a midge fishermans dream, with midging activity every day 365. I have seen very little activity in this area since the draw down. Phil and I have caught 100's if not 1000's on that little flat roll-off, in the past. There gone. There seem to be fish on the fall creek side directly across from the flat, but as you say, nothing to speak of on the flat. That entire side also has a rich history of being a quality brown trout spot. I have caught some of my best browns on that little flat swing. Have not caught 1 there since the draw down, and have fishing it dozens of times.

I have noticed only 1 area that has been affected, but it is a major fishing location. The flat above the Fall Creek Ramp on the same side was totally exposed. When drift fishing during generation, for 20 years this has been a location that held quality fish in numbers. This I am presuming due to the gravel holding scuds, midges, and sowbugs. I have drifted the flat many, many times since the drawdown, and have not caught a fish in that location. On the channel side that provided deep water during the draw down, I can catch fish, but not on the flat. I guess I should take a walk out there and see if I can kick up any bugs. I am thinking the reason the fish are no longer in this location, is due to lack of natural food. All of the other boat guides have made the same comment, How come we don't catch any on the flat anymore? My guess, no bugs.

Fshnbuddy2, we really appreciate the post, but before we drag clients anywhere, that are paying $375.00 per day, we got'sss too have way more information than that. A friend of my buddie's, neighbor, caught 3, 7 pounders 2, 4 pounders and tons of shorts up the White last week 88 ft. deep on crank baits. All you guides out there should get up there and treat your clients to a day like that. PS it was mid-day to 3 in the afternoon. See what I mean. Check out the fishing reports made by Capt. Don House and you will see what it takes too put everyone on the right track. Thanks for the post. Again,

Oh my Gosh!!!! I don't think that I will be able to sleep for the next 2 weeks. I'm in tears and Ah!! Gosh, I love Alaska. God bless the Johnson's, I'm Commin to Join ya.