Bill Babler

Is the current state record still 13.14 taken from Bull shoals in 1961, or has that been updated? Not being a skeptic, but I believe I would have to have a bit more info. on a potential lake and near state record before I did hand springs. It may be possible, but I would think with the fertility problems and the other problems our bass have had to endure, that size fish would have come from anywhere other than the Rock. I am hopeful however, would give us something to crow about. Need more info or a photo.

LOWER RESTRICTED AREA ( JUST BELOW LOOKOUT TO FALL CREEK) This area of upper lake Taneycomo can be classified as a river portion of the lake. Water flow and movement or the lack there of, are always an important factor in fishing this river/lake stretch. Let’s number the entire 1 plus miles of this area, into zones. Due to the curvature of the lake in this area, we will start on the Southwest shore line directly in front of the large white house, in this location known to belong to Andy William’s. Zone 1 Andy’s house to the tennis courts, on the same southwest side. Directly in front of the William’s house a long ridge or shoal runs parallel to the shore line some 40 ft. from the bank. This reef section is very wade able during no flow and up to 2 generators. The shoal or ridge runs about 300 yards and is an area that holds fish at all times. During heavy generation, this is an inside bank with a somewhat slower milder flow that allows the fish to maintain position outside of the direct current. The ridge creates a seam that provides easy access for feeding trout to gather necessary subsistence with little movement. Along this gravel flat extending 1/2 of the width of the lake from West to East, is a feeding ground and a holding area for large numbers of rainbows. Midge’s scuds, and sow bugs are present in this area and it is easily wade able or boat fished using like patterns. On slow or zero flow small crustation patterns from size 16 to 22 work well as do emergers and midge patterns in similar sizes. Natural color selections in life like tones tend to get more attention than flashy presentations. On power generation, bright hue’s in purple, pink, peach, and larger size naturals in 10’s and 12’s will get attention. Zone 2 is that area just below the tennis courts that has a small un/named creek running in that has formed a delta that forges 2/3 of the lakes width, and encompasses and area running North and South, of about 200 yards. This area should be navigated very carefully while operating a boat during low, or minimum flow, due to this shallow rock delta, that has been formed by the creek. Similar fly patterns work very well in this location and you can also add a san juan worm, to the mix if a flow is present after a rain from the creek. This is also a good area for dry fly presentation or a tandem rig. Small stimulators, humpy’s or caddis are great dry’s and a small scud or midge can be added to complete the double fly rig. Zone 3 continues on the same side and is a gravel flat that is extremely shallow flowing thru the remaining houses on the Western shore of the lake. This area can be extremely hard to fish and probably holds the smallest density of fish in the area. Light midging does occur at times in this area but the trout seem to run small, and are extremely sensitive to movement and water disturbance. Emergers, midges and small scud presentations can take these wary fish, and you are always more apt to be successful here if there is current and wind present. Zone 4 is a large flat that has formed just below the glass front house on the West shore. This area shallow reef area extends to within 30 feet of the Eastern shore and encompasses a North South area of approximately 300 yards. This flat has excellent possibilities for wade fishing as well as boat fishing. On zero or moderate flow naturals as described above are very good as well as a multitude of dry fly presentation. On generation this flat is known to be an excellent producer or egg patterns and bright pink and chrome micro jigs. Zone 5 Starts at the Fall Creek condo’s and extends to Fall Creek on the same shoreline. The bottom structure changes here from gravel to more of a table rock or chunk rock, and the presents of timber and log jams are present . Brown and Rainbows both occupy this deeper area as this is the beginning of a channel swing bank. On water flow or generation, this area is extremely hard to fish, as the fish maintain a bottom attitude and making effective presentations to deeper fish in this location is extremely hard. Shore line structure can be fished with suspending stick baits and straight line jig presentations in sculpin in sizes of ¼ too 1/64 oz. are a good bet. On zero generation, jig and float fishing this stretch is deadly. Natural presentations using, sculpin, olive, and ginger micro jigs will account for wonderful catches. Make sure your jig is near the bottom usually about 6 ft. under the indicator thru here. Fluorocarbon leaders will increase your catch, sized properly with the jig of your choice. Zone 6 crossing the lake to the point of the narrow island starting back up the lake beginning at the base of the restricted zone and continuing to the narrows described in Zone 5. This area is a large ridge or gravel flat that breaks into a narrow channel at its extreme South end. Excellent dry fly fishing can be enjoyed the entire length of the flat. Midging is a constant in this area and on zero generation it is quite wade able. Similar patterns apply. Zone 7 Channel cut to Casket Rock. This is the main lake artery in this area with the flat from the West bank coming out to within casting distance of the East shoreline. This slot as the locals call it is a very nice holding area for both rainbow and brown trout. Large boulders are strewn along with fallen trees and log jams in this area. As this is the channel ,boat traffic is restricted to the narrow channel area proceeding up and down stream, and good Ozark curtsey should always apply when fishing this stretch. Deeper water presentation are very good here with strike indicators helping to maintain depth on your presentations. During water flow, this bluff bank with its various hidey holes are good locations , for larger fish to hide. Stick baits, large streamers, and straight line jigs will catch quality fish. Zone 8. Casket Rock to Lookout, along the East Shoreline. Locally named Casket Rock is a huge 4 sided piece of limestone measuring 4 ft. by 6 ft. by 12 feet. This area is the channel bank, constituting the deepest water thru out the entire stretch. Bottom configurations consists of a mixture of gravel, boulders, and submerged stumps and wood debris. On generation this is the probably the sections best location for attracting large brown trout. Stick baits are by far the most common baits presented here for larger fish. This deep slot is also an excellent place for dragging egg presenting on Taneycomo drift rigs. Non-generation, this shady bank stays very strong till late in the morning due to shadows. Presentations include straight line jigs, jig and float combinations, and at certain seasons the deep bank can be plied with large dry fly patterns, presented directly to the bank to entice both rainbows and browns cruising the bank looking for terrestrials. Due to private property and lack of access in this entire section, it is most frequently fished by boat. It does have excellent wade able water thru access at either Point Royal, or thru the Fall Creek complex.

I have been on Taney all week, but Bill Beck has been fishing the rock. He did pretty well winning a little derby out of Kimberling this last weekend. I believe he had 14 pounds on a jerkbait. 4 bites and caught them all. He has been fishing the White this week and is getting about 8 to 10 bites a day, putting about 2/3rds of them in the boat. Bill reports some really nice quality. Here is the kicker. He is starting at daylight or slightly before. 99% of the action is coming by 8:30 or 9 AM, so you only have a couple of hours. Best temps he found up there were 47. Like Don reported he is also seeing lots of bait and fish, they just won't bite. The bass are up pretty close as the day begins but they are pulling off the bank and suspending in or near the main channel, and just seem impossible, after the early bite. Let us know how your doing.

The wart bite, always seems to fall between the stickbait and the soft-plastic bite. If I can catch them on anything other than a wart, I'm going to do it. Just like Eric mentioned you are not in the wart mecca, however with some wind, a good wart bite can be found in the coves between your location and point 5 if a healthy wind is zipping in on them. I have caught some good SJaws there on a wart. Also try the coves around point 1, there is a possible maybe there, under the right conditions. There is a much better bite up the White River, Kings River, Long Creek and the James in wart season. Even though the White can be as clear as it is at the dam, for some reason, they will munch it a whole lot better up there. Lots of chunk rock shady banks. My problem with the wart is I would rather catch 1 fish on a stickbait than a 1/2 dozen on a wart. Throwing and winding, give me a backache. Usually if you can catch them on the wart, a jig, shaky head or splitshot rig will do the same with 1/2 the effort. Boy I'm Lazy. Good Luck

Phil is absolutely right. Long shank cricket hooks and a bunch of the crusty rascules will get you into gill filets, in a hurry. I have the best luck in July fishing the points off the islands from Long Creek to point 5. Start as shallow as 15 ft. and move out to about 30, sometime the bigger fish are a mite deeper. I use a very light line 2 to 4 pound test and a 1/8 to 1/4 oz. split about 18 inches above the cricket. Drop him to the bottom and fish vertically, letting the wind drip him on the bottom. Bob Klien is just about the best gill fisherman we have on the lake, and just loves to catch-em. 417-294-4215. Give him a call, and you won't be disapointed.

Fishing in the restricted area is just about as good as it can get. Yes the water is high and flowing but the trout are on a scud feed that is blowing the doors off. Big bugs in 10's and 12's. Every fish you catch, is coughing them up in marble size gobs. Scuds from grey to olive to ginger and some that are a translucent/purple. Tried to fish lower today, clear to Branson, as I had some guys that are fishing the trout tournament tomorrow and they wanted to try and catch a big fish out of the slot. A 15 to 20 mph North wind shot that idea in a big hurry. Nothing for us out of the restricted area. They are going to have to settle for a bunch of 12 inchers and maby grab a 20 to weigh-in. Had three rainbows day before yesterday that might have made it, but didn't measure them. Last two days, no big ones, but lots of nice fish, up to 17 inches. I have fished a lot of cold days, but never have I been colder than I was today. The wind was just a monster.

The last two days we have had generatons rates simply blowing it out.. Made a pass on the dam today and saw no waders fishing the outlets and I have never seen that. Drift fishing is very good, if you are in a boat. Don't really know why they are running the water at these levels, as TR is only at 917, they are dumping it as if it is at 920. Big egg pattersn and big scuds are the bomb. I am drifting size 12 eggs and size 10 and 12 scuds in grey and doing very well in the restricted area. I am running tandems with an egg and a scud at about 10inches below the egg and we are catching about 60 fish in a 8 hr. trip. Lots of 16 and 17 inch fish. Only 1 Brown the last two days. Out of the R. area, Made 1 drift from Fall Creek to Lilleys' and had 14 on crawlers. Fish are biting regurardless of flow, come on down.

I probably have the largest selection of custom painted rogues on the lake. Buster and Tim Sainato, had all their's stolen about 4 years ago, and so I kind of have the mother stock. I have 46 of Busters baits and about 50 of Tim Hughes baits, plus all kinds of the newer, other hard plastic sticks. I have 3 holographic baits that are from Tim Hughes that are unbelieveable. They are out of production, as he can't get the clear plastic to make them anymore. They are priceless to me. I still prefer Buster's, most of the other bait makers just paint them, Buster re-bills them, re-eye's them, re-weights them and then paints them. About 4 hrs. work per bait. At charging just 5 bucks an hour, for his time. he has between 25 and 30 bucks in a bait, so they are quite pricy. He dosen't sell them anymore, and only did to certain people. Glad I was one of them.

Most people that fish the grub up and down, are doing this to either shad balls or suspended fish. It will also catch fish on the bottom and is a slower presentation than even a spoon. Just lower your grub with either a 1/4 or 3/8 oz head to the bait or fish, watching it fall on your locator. Fish it in almost a still or slighty shaky presentation near the fish. The bite is a tap or the rod tip just starts to bend. Don't lower the rod and snap set, just life the rod and start reeling. I can usually see the fish eat the bait, so I know, and am ready. This is another one of those presentation where good sonar, is a must. The other presentation I was speaking of is deep swimming a grub on channel swings. I have had the boat in as much as 150 ft. of water for this presentation. Look at lake maps, and where the channel comes tightest to the bank, for 100 yrds. either side of this area, and thru the channel swing area, cast your grub parrell to the bank, and let it fall, Slowly swimming it back to the boat, and then reeling it almost streight up when it gets to the boat. Most of these locations are timbered, with pole timber and you will loose grubs. Sonny Chapin of Chomper Lures has won a fortune on the rock doing this. I believe he pioneered the technique. As fish start to rise in the water column they move to these locations where the channel swings to the bank and suspend trying to get some warmpth and then migrate from there to pre-spawn and feeding location. Its a good place to start looking early in the year. This is hard fishing and nothing but days on the water make this work, You really have to hunt for these locations and then not get discourgaged with little success. When you find them it is fantastic, almost like crappie fishing, one after the other. good luck

Current water temp at the mouth of the Kings is 41. Went across the bridge on 86 about a mile from Hickory Hollow Resort one day last week, and the River was frozen, above the 86 bridge. It's not now, since the rain, but I bet its plenty cool.

Not at all. Especially up the river like that. You can throw it with a 1/4 oz head on 8 # flora. The Baby Brush hog works great up the James that time of the year, and really looks good on that 1/4 oz. spot remover head. Green pumpkin, and if the water is a bit cloudy, dip its tail in chartruse. Put the boat in about 25 ft. of water, throw the rig up in the 4 or 5 ft area and shake and drag it back till its trailing the boat. You should be able to establish depth like that and then you got it. Arron Martins fish a shaky head on a baitcaster the entire classic.

Check out my article Spring Smallmouth Primer on this thread. Look at the colors of the Jigs, Split-shot rigs, Hula grubs, and Shaky Heads. In May at Cape Fear, all you need is the jig, shaky head, and splitshot rig. Top Water Clear or pearl/green back spook--Smoky Joe Redfin. Thats it period>>>> Don't confuse yourself with a bunch of other junk. Maybe a spinnerbug or two, if its windy, but thats IT.. The more tackle you throw in the boat the more reason you will try and fish it. Don't do this. These baits will catch anything that swims that time of the year in Table Rock. Location is everything. The baits I mentioned are their food.

If your staying at HH, way up the river, clear water won't be the problem. That's about as far away from the main lake as you can get on Table Rock. Traditional shallow water or stained water presentations work well in the Kings. Depending on the time of year you are up there. Crankin-Spinner-Bugs-Texas Worm-Jig and Craw and Traditional Carolina rigs all work well. White bass, walleye and crappie do, and are a very good target up the Kings, if your a mind. For the Bass, you are, eliminating the two largest sub-species by staying that far up the river, unless you fish toward the main lake. Upper Kings, is mainly Largemouth. Main lake is K's and smallmouth in combination with the LM. Give us a time frame for you visit and maybe we can get you on something, as long as it isn't the next day or two.

Killing bass around here is about the same crime as eating your first born. Nither MDC or AFG, believes in stocking bass. Bass have a hard go and have to make it on their own. With the flucuations of the White River, we only get a good spawn about every third year on the bass. They do however stock from 250,000 to 500,000 walleye annually. Don't eat alot of them, cause I ain't smart enough to catch-em, but, I do like to eat a few bucks early in the year if I get lucky.

Yesterday high sunny skys seemed to really put a damper on the fish. I believe they were there, but just would not bite. Didn't really do much until late afternoon. Phil's walleye was early and then as the water warmed up, we got on the right spot. Talked to Buster last night and he said, lets go today, its going to be overcast and I believe they will bite better. Only fished about 3 hours, but caught 7 bass with 5 total keepers, 3 really nice. Also had 2 walleye with 1 18.5 incher, that I had for lunch when we got home. Slow moving or stationery baits worked the best.

Looks like you had a great week of fishing Fisherdan. Thanks for the photo's. Hope their all still alive and swimming, where you found them, getting ready to spawn this Spring. Great fish.

Couple of years ago, one of my best buddies and I were fishing the Blue, out of Krimling Colorado, we had walked about 4 miles in and were just getting going. My friend a good fisherman, but only fly fishes 4 or 5 times a year, had a new Orvis 4wt. that his wife had bought him for Christmas. It was a mid-flex, and he was having a fairly hard time getting the distance he wanted with the size 8 wooly bugger, so I said," let me have that thing, the Pro, will show you how to get that streamer down that seam." About the third false cast, I was really working the line out, and trying to show-off some. I had that rod loaded to the max, and was throwing a loop so tight it would have made any honeymooner proud. The tungsten headed wooly came back and hit the rod, about 10 inches down from the tip. You know the rest of the story. Four miles to the truck and we had only brought in 2 rods. I fished his rod the rest of the day and got him a new one after the trip. It didn't throw real well anyway. Glad I was on the Orvis Pro-Staff.

Congrats on the "Guppy" Freaky. God Bless you three. You know you can give me a call anytime. Rumor has it they may be starting to munch on the stick up there a mite. Dennis, looking forward to reading your reports in the RAT. If I can do anything to help, or you need anything off the forum, don't hesitate to ask or use it. Not speaking for Don, but I'm sure he would be a good source for that area, and also SKMO. Good Luck Thanks Boys. By the way, did anyone get in surface temps?

TABLE ROCK SMALLMOUTH BASS SPRING PRIMER Mean-A-Muss, Pull-A-Muss, Break-A-Muss Rod-A-Muss. Locally know as the Bronze Back, Brownie, Smally, Small Jaw, or most commonly know as the Smallmouth bass, is getting ready to start on its Spring chomping binge. Time for sushi , crayfish gumbo, and shad alamode. This feeding frenzy results in missed work, broken lines, lost fishing fodder, and a whole bunch of fun, fun, fun. Table Rock Lake witnesses this madness, like no other body of water in the mid-west. Starting when water temps nudge into the mid-to-upper 40's and generally lasting till late June, the Rock is truely a trophy smallmouth destination. You would be hard pressed from Michigan South, to find a better hidey-hole for trophy caliber small jaws. During this peak period smallmouth in the 3lb to 5lb range, are the norm rather than the exception. I take very few guide trips in which we don't catch one of these bronze beauties. Targeting smallmouth during late March, April, May and early June can and is done on a daily basis by experienced local anglers and guides alike. A few years ago when someone called and asked to go small mouth fishing the answer was usually, yes we will catch some if the conditions are right, but lets target Kentucky's or Black's and let the chips fall where they will. Not now, not during the peak period, we can and do catch-em everyday. When I was going to the School of the Ozarks in the mid-70's, we rarely caught them even in the dam area. Yes we caught a few, but nothing like today. The lakes major range on the jaws runs from Long Creek to Big M. My best, a 6 pound monster came right across the lake from Big M boat dock on the White River Arm. Campbell Point, to the 86 bridge on the Long Creek arm is the Mecca, and that is a huge main lake area. Smallmouth love main lake flat gravel. April 10th. -- May 10th. Is absolutely prime time. Here are a few tips to help you catch that trophy Jaw. Let's take a victory tour, starting in March and skipping our way thru June in pursuit of these wonderful fighting fish. Mid-March brings on longer daylight hours and water temps on the upward swing, not huge rises, mind you but increases of a degree or two during the day and somewhat stable during the night time hours. Smallmouth move from there suspended states and deep water haunts and start to cruise windy sun-splashed banks. Banks with wood or pole timber seem to warm at a faster rate and the wood is an attractant to early season smallmouth. Like most bass, Smallmouth usually prefer to feed during low light times of the day, early, and late. Not so much at this time of year. Most bass love the warmth of mid-day and it is not uncommon to do quite well on Jaws, during warming high light periods, in March and April. There always seems to be some small mouth shallow on the lower lake under docks and on gravel, but March is when they start to get frisky, and there country cousins from the deep start to arrive in numbers. This is without a doubt one of my favorite times to catch these feisty fighters. It's stick bait time. X Raps, Rogue's, Pointers and Thundersticks, twitched, jerked hopped and sat motionless, will get their attention toot-sweet if presented where there lurking. Flamboyant colors in pink, chartreuse, purple, red, yellow and green, will catch the eye of smallmouth on the prowl. Short rods 5 ½ ft, to 6 ft, with sensitive tips soft mid-sections and firm butts are the ticket here. Most stick baits are fished on 8 to 12 lb. mono. If I want my bait to fall slightly, I will at times fish fluorocarbon of the same test, but most often just the mono and weight the bait with suspend dots for an even float, slight sink, or slight rise. The preference is in the preferred way each person likes to fish the bait. I prefer a neutral to a slight sink. Start the season on transition banks and channel swings. Most all lake maps will help you pinpoint these locations. Good transitions are bluff to chunk rock to gravel. Three different zones in a 100 to 200 yard stretch. Look for a ripple or wind on this type of a location, and pole timber is nothing but a plus. Position the boat on the outside of the timber and cast to the bank working the bait from the bank thru the transition zone to the offshore wooden structure. Be sure to pause as close to any structure as possible, let the bait sit and just twitch the head back and forth, keeping the bait as close to the tree as possible. Do not be afraid to have your boat in extreme deep water this time of year. I have had the boat in as much as 70 ft. twitching the bait thru the upper column in 50 ft. and have caught huge smallies. Very seldom will the bite come while the bait is moving. The bite will happen as the bait sits motionless, falls or rises. It is not uncommon, early in the season, to let the bait sit for up to 20 seconds. A jerk, jerk, jerk, pause method is a very good method to work the bait. Jerk, jerk, twitch, twitch, pause, twitch, pause, twitch, BANG. As the water starts to edge into the 50's smallmouth get a real hanker-en for crayfish and the huge amounts of calories these yummy cru stations provide for procreation. Wiggle Warts, tubes, jigs, hula-grubs, shaky-heads, and split shot rigs will get you nipped most often. The stick bait is still in vogue. Again wind is important if you can find it. Fish will begin to shallow up and fishing from bank depth to 30 ft. will keep you on target. Smallmouth during this period will start to migrate toward transitioning chunk rock and flat gravel. Cove mouths and the first 100 yards or so of big spawning pockets will hold lots of fish. Main lake flats adjacent to spawning coves are magnets, for staging feeding fish. Grub swimming, stick baits, and split shot rigs work wonders, as the fish occupy all levels of the water column and all depths in this range. Warts and Jigs are most generally fished with 10 to 12 pound fluorocarbon on bait casters, and the soft plastics on a spinning rod, with 6 to 8 pound flora. As water temps again nudge upward, into the upper 50's to 60, smallmouth will be at an absolute feeding Mecca. On Table Rock this means on the bank to 16 ft. depth range and migrating and moving the bank in large numbers. Shaky head , split shot rig, jigs , hula grubs and tubes are at there best. Great color combo's included are green pumpkin, watermelon candy, watermelon red, and peanut butter and jelly. Late April and early May are here at last and the water temps are 60 to 65. Smallmouth are bedding in 3 to 16 ft. of water and again one of my favorite times is here. Top water like the Zara Spook, Red fin, Yellow Magic and a multitude of others presented parrell to the bank will get vicious strikes. This is also the time when floating worms seem to work there magic and are as fun as the top water stuff. Not only do you feel the strikes, but you see the attack. Bubble gum, mercurochrome, chartreuse, yellow and white are my favorite soft floating baits. The fish are available main lake wide at this time and finding them is just a matter of exploring large pockets of mixed chunk and gravel. As the post spawn starts in May, thru early June, the fish are again on the move and extremely hungry, no naps or smokes after the spawn, its time to eat again. At this time really nice catches can and do occur mostly top water and swimming a grub. Top water again is without a doubt just a flat favorite. Deep Cove mouths, Bluff ends , channel breaks and over deep humps are great places to see and start chasing action for huge smallmouth . Grub swimming is probably the easiest way to entice a bite or two. I usually position my boat in the 30 ft. range on flat as a mat gravel and toss ¼ oz jig heads with 4 inch C-tail grubs, in copper, salt and pepper, grey pepper green pumpkin, on 6 lb. maxi.. A good 7 ft. rod is a must here, I prefer a very fast tip with a willow soft mid-section and firm butt. Allow the grub to sink to the bottom and follow the bottom contour back to the boat. You should at the end of the cast be almost reeling your bait straight up from the bottom, under the boat. The bite is not a true smallmouth attack and is a bit deceiving, as most often the fish will just ride the bait. The locals and Pro's let the fish mouth the grub and just keep reeling. As the rod tip begins to bow, and the mid-section of the rod, starts to bend, now is the time to lay the wood, or better yet just lift on the fish. Raw windy, rainy , overcast days are what you want at this time of the year. The worse it is the better the experts like it. All thru this period is a great time to fish the Rock, as you know for sure the Kaintucks, are just flat not going to let those smallmouth get all the goodies. Table Rocks top baits for trophy small mouth start with the family of suspending stick baits, and go to hard plastics like the Storm Wiggle Wart, Jigs made by Jewell Bait Co. with the Spider Jig being a small mouth getter. Soft plastics without a doubt are the king. Zoom, Fish Dr. and Centipede, Chomper soft plastics, hula-grub, Chomper tubes, Spot Remover stand up shaky head jig, and a variety of C-tail grubs. Hope to see you all on the lake this year. Take advantage of one of the best sport fish this country has to offer, and one of its best fisheries. Going after, Table Rock's pot of Bronze at the end of the Rainbow. William Babler White River Outfitters-Guide Service White River Lodge Lilleys' Landing Resort and Marina OAF Table Rock Moderator

Am I mistaken, or don't they all expire on Feb. 28 or 29 of the next year after purchase? I don't know if they are end of the month after 1 year reguardless of month purchased. Kind of a somewhat funny situation yesterday. Was fishing the deep slot above fall creek, and there was a fisherman pulled into shore walking the bank fishing with hip boots and a fly rod in the deep slot. He was doing very well, and I was telling my clients to watch the way this guy was letting his fly drift, as he was doing wonderful. Tried to keep my distance as we watched as he kept sending glares my way and I knew he was a bit on the cranky side. Long story-short, he was fighting what looked like a pretty good fish, and it came off. All his line and fly, of course jumped back over his head and tangled in a tree behind him. I guess thru frustration, of loosing the fish, he tried a very hard forward cast, with the line caught in the tree, when his rod came down full force, against the taught line, his flyrod snapped in about 3 pieces. He was really mad now, and pulled all the pieces, still with the line running thru the guides and snapped they all over his knee, like Bo Jackson used to to to ball bats, and threw the whole shootin-match toward his beached boat. We didn't wait around to laugh or say sorry, we just got out of his sight. I thought fishing was suspose to be for relaxation.

I don't think the salt would hurt, as most of the syrups you put in your live well like RejuveX are mainly salt. Try a slip float with live bait at the deepest part of the pond, Fish it right off the bottom, where the fish have been wintering. Most cold water northern fish don't like to chase the artificial stuff and want a slow or non-moving meal. good luck

Will all you guys that are talking about it, just go do it. I put in my time last weekend and got a whippin. It's time for some of you all Arm-Chair-Fisherman to put on the Carhartts and get out there and find me some fish. Be glad when Don gets his boat show time put in and gets on the pond. SKMO, has been working hard this Winter and has gone only a couple of times with about the same results as I had. Thought this weather was going to break, but it acts like we have another week of it, then Katy Bar the door. Good luck out there boy's and let us know the results, good or bad.

We only ran sets 4 times and I believe we have about a 1/2 dozen Coons and 4 Reds. I believe we only had 10 sets out, just playing. Lots of Reds, I see them almost every guide trip. Most are where you can't get at them up in the Restricted area in someone's front yard. Be interesting to know who slung the steel this year, on lower taney. There bank sets for coon were right on, good spacing and double sets to catch two a once. Look like they covered the area really nice. I bet they just blew in and blew out around the 1st. of Dec. Probably were not there over 3 to 5 nights, and creamed off the gravy, and kept moving. Have not seen as many otter this year, but before the landing came in, they were just thick in the trout docks down there. A lot of them met mr.22 as they were tearing the seats out of the rental boats. They are really honery.

Don't know about the water or drownding sets, what I saw was dry land stuff, where they wired to tree roots for coon and mink. Would be interesting to know if they caught Otter. Saw quite a bit of Beaver sign all along the lake. Friend of mine Terry Parsons, out of Lampe, said he did catch a few Otter on taney that had been getting into boats. I believe he said he caught 4. Don't know what part of the lake. His cos, is Gene Parsons that runs the Fall Creek Trout Dock, so it may have been on the upper lake. Couple of years ago on a guide trip, on the flats just below Cooper Creek I saw two litters with about a dozen total. Phil and I trapped a little and caught coon and fox, but no Otter. Nither one of us had time to go this year, and I really missed it.

Tight, do you or Trav, know who trapped the lower end this year? From the looks of things, they made pertty good catches. I bet I saw where at least a dozen sets had taken coon. I was only down there for a couple of hours and only fished two locations, but someone harvested quite a bit of fur from the spots I fished. Fur was up quite abit this year. It's always good to see someone out there slinging steel. Wish I would have been with them, I bet they had a great time reguardless of price.