Bill Babler

I have not gotten along very well with florocarbon on my drop shot rigs, seems to twist up very badly, even with a swivel and a swiveling weight. I use either green pline in 6 or 8lb. test. Yes a blade is a spinner bait. Wareagle makes great ones. A very good way to fish the drop shot is to just get your depth from the finder, and go from there. Fish seem to hanging in the 35 to 40 ft. range right now, so get on a flat or point in that depth, and then just keep moving out at the same depth to find suspended fish. Currently they are both suspended and on the bottom. Remember the drop shot is not a fish finding bait, it is a fish catching bait. It is not a bait to cover water with, it is a bait to catch concentrations of fish that are schooled or are located on deep structure. Thats where good electronics and the ability to read them comes in handy, to optimize the drop shot. I encourage anyone that is going to make Table rock their main squeeze to invest in superior under water fish getters. If you can't see em, your going to have a hard time sticking em. If a man needs to cut a few corners I would sacrifice alot of things to be able to afford good electronics. There is nothing anymore important on my boat. You can also mark your line in 10ft. increments with a magic marker to let you know how deep you are. Lots of guides do this for their clients.

Gosh, when I thought it was really tough, then came today. High Prussure and cold, really has these fish in a turned off mode. 7 fish on a half day trip with one squeeker Ky. in about 40 ft. suspended. T. Paige had 8 on his trip with 2 keepers, same type of junk, in the dam area. I am back on the rock out of the Knob, on fri. Will be on taney, until then. Have heard there is a 30 minute topwater bite at the knob, between 7 and 7:30 I will try and hope I can luck into a couple of the gimme fish before I have to bottom suck. If its cloudy and the wind will blow, I know I can get bit on a blade, but you must have the right condition. Flat coves with trees and lots and lots of wind and clouds. They say its going to warm back to the mid to upper 80's next week with very fair conditions. That will continue this kiss of death, we need water into the upper 60's and at best 70 degrees and the smallies will really get to munching that football jig. Until then, its one here and one there. Good luck, I'll let you know how friday turns out.

Friday afternoon starting at 3PM 6 guides with two clients per boat headed out of Indian Hills Resort in the Big Indian arm of the Rock, near Baxter. Reports are as follows: Bill Beck, fished in the wind from Baxter to about pt.16 7 bass on a dropshot in 35 to 40 ft. with 1 keeper. Very tough. Bill Babler, I stayed within eyeball shot of the resort all afternoon, I just was not going to fight that wind. 9 bass and 2 catfish in the 35 ft. range on main creek channel points with crawlers. No 15inchers. Tim Paige, 4 bass with one really nice keeper on crawlers in the same area. Pete Wenners, His guy wanted to drink Beer and boat ride around in the Indians so Pete took a tour bus. Chris Tetrick, 4 bass deep on dropshot. no keepers Buster Loving, 4 bass deep on dropshot.no keepers We fished from 3 to 7 with a total of 28 bass, only 2 over 15 and 2 flatheads. Pretty tough. Saturday Morning Start time was at 7:30 with stormy, windy conditions. Tim Paige did the right thing by working windy flat coves with a blade. Lots of fish came of either pole timber, the bank or cedars He had 15 fish with 8 keepers, Good work and a nice day for his client. Buster is very sneaky, he took off for the dam area in all the waves and wind and fished some of his guide holes in that area. 23 bass with 8 keepers on a drop shot in 35 to 40 ft. and a tube. Bill Babler, I sucked it up today, I was 30minutes late on every decision I made. Fished from Baxter to past Shell Knob, and ended up with 9 fish but 4 were solid keepers, on a football jig, dropshot, and crawlers. Thanks to SKMO, for giving me a shout and sharing a couple of his hard earned fish with me, I needed them. Bill Beck, fished his usual stuff in the Kimberling area and did about the same as I did. Just could not get it to go. 9 fish with a couple of keepers. 43ft. on the bottom. Chris Tetrick, found some deep fish at the Red Barn, and the Humps between Baxter and Campbell Pt. 10 fish with 4 solid keepers, all on a dropshot. Seemed the deep fish moved out a bit on Saturday in the 40ft, Plus range still on the bottom. SKMO reported the Shell Knob fish would come and go on the flat he was fishing. They seemed to move up, for a while and chase shad and move back into the deeper water. He had great patients and I believe he had near 20 fish when I saw him, don't know how he ended up. Great day anyhoo. Saturdays, take was 66 fish, with 26 keepers for the Williams Electric group, probably not a bad weekend over all, I just wish I had went to the cedars with the blade. And the great part, there all still swimming for them to catch again next year.

When you see guides like Dave Welch, and Tony fishing down toward Branson, you know there is trouble in the lower restricted area. These boys, fish 200plus days each up there and very seldom come out. I asked Tony if he was lost today, and he said, he just could not get his people bit at all for the last few weeks. They both were down at Cooper and below today. Very few rainbows swimming in that lower 1mile stretch, above Fall Creek. There are some, but the suckers way out number em. Be very careful on this low water wherever you fish.

Yes, some of the big boys fished the kings in practice and most all said it was full of shad, but no bass activity. IT was not heavely fished during the tournament as they are just not biting up there. The only place worse was the Upper James and Long Creek. Good Luck For the ammount of fishing prussure these shallow water pro's placed on our rivers, they completely sucked. They should have had nice bags of Largemouth. As in the week, before the best area shallow water fisherman that fished the James, Longcreek and the Kings said it was the worst shallow bite they had ever seen on the rivers. I would not consider wasting my valuable fishing time in the river systems now, as your time on the water is just to valuable. There is fish in the main lake if you work at them, that will bite. You won't get rich, but you can catch some.

Boy's since the BASS derby, things have really tightened up. Reports from Busters guide service have been bleak at best with some fish on a tube in 30ft. on the bottom main lake. Ozark Mountain Guide Service, Brutal with a few fish on crawlers deep. White River Outfitters Guide Service, Extremely tough, with fish on the flats on a drop shot on specific guide holes, few and far between. Tablerock Guide Service Everything almost locked up. Fish appear to move away from presented baits or drop shots. Strikebass.com Fish on a white jigging spoon in 30 to 45 ft. off deep docks, long points and bluffends. Probably doing better than anyone right now but these are specific holes that Rick has found and he is very good with a spoon. Mid-Lakes Guide Service, Fish are deep and very hard to catch, Fishing specific brush in 30 to 45 ft. with jig and dropshot. The fish have not moved back into the creek arms yet, and the ones that are their are very spooky. All the deep water Branson and Kimberling guides report the fish to be extremely nervious and just about afraid of their own shadows. The next two or three weeks, until the water cools may be the hardest weeks of the year on the rock. Try and find something else to do until mid- October. A good day catch is 4 to 12 fish with maby a keeper or two. One night or one weekend of cool weather or just a moving weather pattern, won't really effect how these fish are acting. A huge rain of 3 plus inches may trigger some of the river fish to bite and color up that extremely clear river water a might. We have a huge corporate guide trip this weekend out of the Baxter area with 7 guides working the area from probably Eagle Rock to Pt. 5 So I will let you know how it goes.

Just finding these locations is only part of the battle. Fish will not always be on these lifts, and sometimes be there, but not related directly to the shallowest part of the lift. Humps are also a timing thing, you can graph fish on these locations at certain times and have them absolutely not bite. They will turn on at certain times and immediatly just quit. The Humps, at 16 are completely famious for this. Usually only a couple of feeding frenzees per day that will last maby if your lucky an hour each. Its fun to just find these locations, and they are everywhere.

Freak, those are big time guide spots. Cenetary is near pt. 9 on every map and Red Barn is Red Barn, This can be a hide and seak puzzle for you. You have a pretty good clue. Its in the area we have talked about all summer. Mike the Ike, sat on Red Barn, for 6 streight days. If he can find the hump at Red BArn, so can you. I am about out of spots and if I devulge anymore I will be hung.

Cpt.DJ You simply cannot see the underwater humps on a map as well as you can physiallly being on the water. There are at least 10 seperate lifts that are not unrelated to any point in that 16 area. There are many more in the cemetary, Point 9 Joe Bald, Red Barn and Campbell Point. area. You simply have to get out and map these with your electronics. Some are no bigger than your living room and some are the 100yrd. thru. From Mill Creek at Kimberling to Joe Bald, there are at least 20 unrelated humps, from mid-lake to the shore on the Joe Bald Side. From Kimberling City thru Cow Creek, and pt.5 there are litterly hundreds of spots like this. Most will come within 40ft. of the surface. Seems the bass guys were keying on long points and midlake underwater ridges, these ridges were usually along the old white river channel, which now may be in the middle of the lake to either bank, The maps will show you the ridges.

Appreciate the back-up SK. The Concert was fantastic. Will Try and get out on the Green River this week. Good info. I was in Faircloths' corner all week, seems like a very classy guy. Too bad about Shaw, it is unbelieveable how careful these guys have to be in public. 6 limits on Sunday, and I believe most all these guys could have caught a limit if they thought it would have done them anygood. The top six with limits, did what they had to do. How good is that? This derby, defined what a good 5 fish limit, of spots should weigh, at this time of year, and it is about 12.5 lbs. 2and a half pounders. Hope you all enjoyed the coverage, as much as we did bringing it to ya. As Ish Monroe said, he caught a 4lb. smallmouth, a 4lb. largemouth and a 3lb. Kentucky, this week, and there just ain't very many places in the dadgum world you can do that. We all should be very proud of the fantastic fishery we have in one of the most beautiful lakes in the world, Tablerock.

Faircloth, Faircloth, Faircloth, Man this guy is tough on the spotted bass. He is wearing the flats out in the Baxter area fishing those long gravel points and rolloffs. 39lbs. This Texan is turning green into Gold. Edwin Evers, Double E is whacking our spotted bass like he owns them in the 35 ft. range in the same area. 35lbs. Kevin Short, Man can this Pink Peepers of Arkansas Orgin catch these deep water fish. Same Area. 32lbs. John Bondy, You would think a Canada Guy would do well here catching our green Walleye. How much difference is a spotted bass from a walleye. I submit, on Tablerock, that are one and the same, If you can catch walleye, you can catch spots. He is fishing the same water 30lbs. William Smith, He is putting a few smalljaws and a largemouth or two in the polk, but everyone says, he is in sight of the other top 5 30lbs. All of these guys, are not fishing trees, or suspended fish, they are either dropshotting, rigging, jigging or spooning the bottom. The Kimberling City to Baxter Run, started last Winter on the stickbait and then moved into the splitshot time and then in to the dropshot. I have written article after article on this area and most of you have tried it with limited success, some better than others. I have told you streight up, this area of flat gravel is absolutely loaded with fish. It has been the fish factory of the rock this year, and continues to be. From Kimberling City to Shell Knob, there are literally hundreds of off shore structures and long underwater points of flat gravel that hold fish 24-7. Most are a solid rifle shot from the bank, you just have to look for them. Probably won't be a debate on if the river or the deepwater guys rule the rock this week. When your trying to put 20 keepers together in 4 days, which is a monster effort, you have to fish deep. I probably would have tried the Big Mouth Bite, but like Bill Beck last week, you need to take your wippin and get on with the lickin and move deep. Have fun chasing the boys tomorrow. 50 lbs. projected winner. I still believe Shaw will catch them again but who knows. KVD blew up today and that really suprises me. He said it wasn't today but both days before he had a chance for a bigger bag and just lost fish. Today, he didn't get bite. All the guides struggled today and very few even caught a keeper on their guide trips. Man these guys are good to come in with the bags they came in with today. Big shoutout to Shannon McClenend, Mikes little bro. 3 limits of three out of the back of the boat. Come on!!!! You got to be kidding. Great Fishing, Shannon. See ya at the weigh-in.

Guys, got in early from Taney and am going to the weigh-in. There are several of the guides that don't have trips for tomorrow, that are running a special of $125.00 per man to follow your choice of the top 10 pro's for the day. This is on a two man minimum. If you don't have another guy, you will be paired with another guy that wants to watch the same pro as you if possible. This is about as fantastic as offer as you can get to learn some fantastic info. on the rock. With full day guide trips at $350.00 plus this is as reasonable as it gets. We know where most of these guys will be going, but you are not guarenteed to get the exact pro you want unless you have two men. There is also a slight possibility that they could lose the guide, as they are all running 250's and most of the guides that want to do this are using 225's. You will have 95% shot of the pro of your choice however. You cannot or will not be able to get this kind of insite on the rock anywhere else. Skeet Reese burned $135.00 in gas yesterday, so if you are following you know what it takes to follow these pro's. You will also get the play by play and the reasons of the where,what,when and How. These pro's are doing what their doing. If you are interested give me a call at the Lodge at 1-800-544-0257 and I will hook you up. Don't know when you will ever get another shot like this. The sooner you call the better shot you have. Offer closes at 9pm and we only have a limited number of guides, so if you want to go call now.

Guys, 100 percent of the stuff, I am getting is not coming off the Stage. It is fishermans talk to each other and at get togethers after the day. Just a little inside stuff that probably isn't being put on the main BASS thread. I am also not giving away any of the real sweet stuff these guys are talking about or the exact locations, as that just would not be fair. Lots of stuff on the BASS site is just plain talk and nothing more. I hope I can get over to Kimberling today to keep the news coming, but the lodge is booked full and I have guide trips on Taney. Todd Faircloth Bright REd Skeeter TX 1663 AB Shaw Grigsby Blue /Silver Citgo FL 7034 MZ Kevin Short Pink and Pink Peepers Baits KVD Black/Red butt Tracker Boats Big KVD on the side. You can see all the boats on wwwbasmaster.com Hottest Rigs Another couple of guys to really watch, aare Ish. Monroe, he had a great bag yesterday, and Iam sure if they don't completely vanish, he will do it again. And the Peepers Pink boat of Kevin Short. Only had 4 yesterday, but he knows how to deep fish. 15 lbs. will be a monster day. If someone has that in the top 20 they could lead this thing. I believe Ish and Kevin are in the White River flats group, but dont' know for sure. I know Ike is and he has been at Red Barn and is going BAck. This is really fun.

From what I can make of things most of the group fished all the flats and rolloff from Kimberling City to Big Creek, that I have been telling you guys about all year. There were at least 40 tournament boats between Pt. 5 and Campbell Pt. on the flats where they dump into the channel and all the humps in that main lake area. Wonder Why? We might have discussed that on this thread in 2006, You think? Bill Lowen, fished the James today as rumor has it, he is in a very tenious 1st. Todd Faircloth, I am told was in the White River flats group, and said he caught over 15 keepers and tons of shorts. If you are wanting to learn Tablerock and don't follow this guy, you have a head problem. less than a lb. out of the lead. He has caught 40 keepers in two days. WOW. Bill Smith is in third, and I frankly can't believe he is still in there although he said he was here multiple times this summer. He has been really consistant, and if he catches 10 lbs. tomorrow, I may be a beliver. First day leader Skeet Reese is in 4th, and believes he is dead in the water, as he has flat caught all his keepers, he said he is going back to the same spot, so we'll see. KVD is fishing the dam and had 7 bites today. A local guide followed him and said he never left the Indian Creek area all day. 8th is Shaw Grigsby with a great limit of fish and he says he will do it again, that they are there. Weather calls for hot,hot and windy tomorrow. As soon as there are clouds, like on Sunday, KVD might explode on the smallies but for now, look for either Faircloth or Grigsby to maby be 1,2 tomorrow, with KVD right in there as he is going to catch a limit in a bath tub if he needs too. If Smith is still in the top 5 or 6 come sunday, he might be a factor. A couple of guys reported catching topwater fish all day in numbers that were unbelieveable maby 50 fish on top each. Chasers in the cove mouths. Most suspended in 100 plus feet of water. Man does that throw these guys for a loop! Fishing was a bit better today and 9lbs. made the cut. That is 4.5 per day guys, not much. Come to the weigh-in and see have 50 of the best fishermen in the world do on your home lake tomorrow. 48lbs. is the projected winner of the 4 day even after today. If it gets nasty on Sunday, someone will have a 20 lb. bag, and it may be KVD.

If any of you guys want to learn how to fish Tablerock in Sept. Follow some the guys catching them deep. This is so important it isn't even funny. 3 of 4 of these top western fisherman caught 12 to 15 keepers yesterday and 20 to 40 short fish. I will tell you now that is just plain killer. KVD has only been catching about 4 or a limit aday and that is fine if they are the right kind, but if you follow him you won't learn as much as some dude, catching 50 fish aday. It would be very easy to pick up locations and techniques. I think they may catch them today, it is just abit different out there this morning, and I believe they may have gotten off on time. Could be another 15lb. bag, but I think one of the deep boys will have it. Also heard even starting late that there was a pretty fair LM topwater bite after they got out of the soup. Some guys feel if they had started on time the LM would have hit on top pretty good, we will see today, as you can bet some will be working the top.

From the looks and all the long faces at the weighin today, it was plain to see that Tablerock was kicking some major BASS butt. Skeet Reese a SoCal product was the top chucker today with 15.10 out of Long Creek, all LM. Kevin Shore with 14.01 worth of Ky's was second and number 10 was KVD with 11.04 Believe it or not even Byron Velvick caught some fish and is in 11th. with 10lbs. of KY's. He should be with about 6 guide trips under his belt. He will have to win just to pay the guide fee's. Only 12 limits were weighed in out of a possible 102 and 21 of the pro's skunked. 50th. place is the cut for Saturday and today 50th.place was 3.13 Expected cut is 6.25 lbs. So you that have struggled on the rock don't feel bad. To make the cut in a major tournament after two days, you only need 2 keepers. Ike, had only 3, but he thinks he's on them for the morrow. If you haven't been to a BASS event, all I can say is go. It is a spectecule you won't forget. Lots and Lots of info, these guys don't mind telling you the truth and what they are doing. I am not expecting Reese to hang in there tomorrow as I just don't believe that bite will hold but we'll see. Kind of a dark horse is Shaw Grisgby with 9lbs. I spoke to his amature today and he thinks Shaw may be loaded for the weekend. Both he and his amature had fantastic smalljaws. The bite was very slow, and most of the pro's think they may have fished to fast. They think 3 or 4 spots should be fished and fished well in a 8 hour period and thats it. Lets see how it plays out tomorrow. Projected 4 day total for the winner may be under 40lbs. If it's nasty on the weekend, this will go up and I mean way up. Without a doubt, this is the hardest pond these boys fish all year and they kind of think that Tablerock in September seperates the men from the boy's. They have to have a cloudy windy weatherey day instead of bluebird and flat, as it was today. There is just flat, no reaction bite.

Boy's I guided today for Lilleys' on Tablerock out of State Park. I really go my come-uppance. It probably was one of the slowest days I have ever had on the rock. Bright and completely flat extremely clear water, it was brutal. Tournament boys were fogged in so didn't see them start to run until after 8am. Snowden pulled in on me, with-in 30 yrds. and started to drop shot, I could have told him not to waste his time as we were really sucking it up. My toatl for the 4 hr. trip was 5 bass and several gills. 3 of the bass were the right kind, and anyone would have loved them. 2 out of deep trees and 1 in 41 ft. off pt. 5. I cannot tell you the respect I will have for anyone with a limit of fish, as it is perhaps the toughest body of water in the mid-west as we speak, expecially under this type of condition.

Thanks for the interest guys. I know a couple of the guides that don't have trips on Fri. are going to follow KVD just for the fun of it. Heard on Mon. and Tue. that he struggled and didn't have a keeper either day, but it dosen't matter, because today, cash is on the line and I'm sure he will be able to capture some. Martins is a great pick, but don't count out Stacy to be in there at the finish. Seems he always has a huge day here, I think he will be going for a big smallie bite if the conditions are right. He just needs to put 4 days together. Seems he always has a very rough day also. It will be very hard to be consistant for 4 days.

I know Brent Chapman took a guide trip on Bull Shoals with Buster on Friday. He wanted him to show him how to use some new electronics. He may not do as well as if the shallow bite was on. Snowden, usually dosen't do well here, it will depend if he can catch them off a community hole he likes between Kimberling and the dam. You can check out the BASSMASTERS site and see what these guys think. Check out what Denny Braur has to say, he is pretty down to earth and very realistic. So is Stacy. Stacy King thinks that 30 lbs. will put you in the top 12 after 3 days and that a total skunkola is not a possibility for the two days leading up to Sat. Checked with all the guides, and they were out today and everyone thought it was just plain terrible. Most all were using live bait and just could not get the fish to bite. Buster said he saw plenty but it was just terrible. That usually means that tommorrow will be strong. Keep your thoughts comming.

Guys, just wanted to let you know that alot of these guys fishing BASS have taken multiple guide trips on the rock in the last couple of years. I know before cutoff and off limits there were a bunch of trips that Bill Beck, Buster and Tim Sainato took. Along with a full set of trips last week on Bull Shoals, because that is as close as they could get to TR. When the weights and limits came up in the Heartland Elite, the BASS guys in attendance and they were there in huge numbers, stood and appluaded, they know how rough our home lake is. It is never, never easy on Table Rock. Most of the guide trips, were on how to use electronics for deep fishing. You would be suprised how many of these guys are recieving huge sponsorships from the electronic companies, and just flat don't know how to use them. For the most part, they just don't need to know. When you are fishing under 10ft. of water, it is just a temperature gage, gps, and bottom saver. Most all these guys know to a T were largemouth bass live. Most all however have trouble on deep clear water lakes. That is just not how they fish. For the most part these pro's depend on a reaction strike rather than fish that are just eating and being selective. They want to cream the most aggressive fish off, which are usually the bigger fish or the dominate critter on the block. When they have to sit down and make them bite, they just don't like it at all. As Tim Sainato said during his interview on stage, during the elite. "You prety much had to drop in in their mouth when they yawned!" Best predictions for tomorrow is maby 17lbs. to lead. Buster said if it takes over that you are a superhero. Closer guess maby 14.5 to 15. You guys, post your guesses with who you think will be there and how much, and let's see what happens. My best and only 5 today, weighted 8.75 with the 3lb. smallie.

Freak, most of the guides, including myself are using 8lb. Pline. Moss Green. I have just gotten tierd of messing with the twists that result by using the floracarbon. Got off to a bang today with my first cast on a bluffend catching a whale of a smallie on a sammey. Continued out the point and as it dropped into 90ft. of water, I saw two fish suspended at about 30ft. Dropped down and caught a keeper Ky and then redropped and caught his twin. That was it for the next 4 hours. I could see plenty of fish but for the life of me just could not get them to hit. Tried numerious deep trees, and nothing but hang-ups. Ended up just past Shell Knob, and did manage to catch 4 fish off what the guides call the Babler Bank as it is one of my good ole spots. On the way back to Kimberling I stopped at another of the old milk run spots that I had fished on the way to the knob. Caught two squeeker keepers immediatly and that was all she wrote. Spoke to a bunch of the BASS guys at the ramp, and they were totally disgusted. 4 had not caught a fish, let alone a keeper and a couple of the other guys were saying they were just going to put it on the tralier and go take a nap. They wondered how such a beautiful lake and such a fantastic day, could be so terrible. But one of them did comment ya that's Table Rock. Spent a shade over 7 hrs. on the water and had 9 total fish with the 1 good smallie and 4 squeeker Kantuck's There were boats on almost all of the deep humps and I mean lots of them, 12 boats on the hump at 16, 6 on cemetary and looked like at least 5 on pt.9. The Joe Bald flats along with the flats at Shell Knob and Baxter, were simply covered with boats as well as all the humps between the Kimberling City Bridge and Mill Creek Ramp. It's going to be interesting.

Great questions. Drop shotting can sometimes be like kissing your sister, not alot of reward for the effort and not very pleasant while your doing it. It does have one resounding reward however, you can catch a 3lb. Ky for your effort. When locating these mid-lake structures or just fishing long flat gravel points where they drop into the channel, I always use a marker to post my starting location. Even as well as I know the lake, the marker is an unbelieveable help in letting me know my exact boat position on the location. I usually start on the top with the marker and work my way around the sides, and then out. Most times the fish will not be on the top of the hump or the points, but just off the sides where they break into deep water, or even suspended near the hump and relatiing to the top as far as depth, but not physically on the hump, but within a 100 yrds. or so at the same depth as the hump top or right now at about 26 to 35ft. "I need an editor" Fish thru the summer pattern, will most likely suspend near the locations, and just not be on the bottom, but up a bit. That's where the good old dropshot comes in handy. Won't go into the rig as we have done that 100 times. I drop and redrop alot. as the boat moves my bait out of my field of vision thru the locator, I will move. I don't need to see my bait at all times, but I don't like to drag it or let it get too far behind either. Good way to hang up. When you get on these location, drop a marker and then, don't fish but move around till you see the fish and then drop on the fish. Fish the area that may be as small as your boat and then continue to move about the location. I treat humps and flat points, as I would a farm pond. You could probably fish the entire location from one spot, but if you move around it you can be more through. The Humps and long points have fish holding structure on them as well as shore with depressions, trees and large rocks or man made structure. Check these spots out very slowly. You cannot always just pull up on these spots and expect fish to bite. I have hit as many as 10 spots on a guide trip, before I have gotten a bite. I have also pulled right up and started catching em. You never know. The Guides call it a milk run. Lots of stops and you are hoping for a little action on each stop, we are not filling our boats. The fish most of the time are not just suspending but moving around these locations, or always on the move. Don't get locked in to one spot. I'll be out there today and let you know what I come up with. Good luck, and don't ever again relate fishing to shopping it is not appropreate under any circumstance.

Great Point. Bill Dance, strictly fishes florida strip pits, and he is nothing more than a sales person for the bait of the day. He is catching fish and showing you how to work the bait so you will buy the bait, nothing more. Sure dosen't mean you can fish where you are. Jimmy Houston is a great guy, I know him and have spoken to him many times. He fishes where he can catch fish on the bait he loves the best, a spinner bait. He once told me a carolina rig and a drop shot makes hero's out of zero's and if the current bass and flw guys had to fish with what they had for baits in the old days they would just not be able to make it. Thats why Jimmy dosen't fish tournaments anymore. I don't agree with him. Due to electronics, knowledge and tremendious fishing prussure the fish have had to either adapt of die, and for the most part they have adapted nicely. There are also fish being found today that the good ole boys never knew were there, or frankly didn't care if they were. As for the tournaments, I don't believe they will make a hoot, as most of these suspended fish will be on the move as soon as things cool off a mite. I am looking for a great fall on the rock. Get over to the weigh-ins at Kimberling City this weekend and the knowledge you will pick-up on Table rock will help you to know end. But remember 95 percent of the boys love to fish shallow, and this is a huge adaptation on the White River for them. Who knows the shallow bite may pick up, but with the weather forcast for heat to increase as the week goes on, I would guess it will be more to the same. There may be a bluff end or deep cedar bite on the way on a blade, and that shoud be taken into consideration early in the mornings.

SD. Don't know if you were reading my posts on the Elite that went on this weekend, but there is enough information in the report, that you should be on fish. If you are messing around docks where the front or lake side stalls arn't in at least 50 to 100 plus feet of water,and on points in the depth you were describing that is the reason your not catching fish. Don't get me wrong, there are a few bank runners out there, but for the most part these fish are suspended over deep trees or on channel swings or humps. The Largemouth and Smallies are out there too. There are a few smallmouth extremely shallow at around 20ft. but fishing shallow this weekend netted a big zero to the shallow guys. And by shallow I mean fishng the bottom in under 25 ft, along the shoreline. or around boat docks. The Davis boys fished shallow all weekend along with Kelly Powers and Bobby Sullivan, and these boys are the best on the rock at shallow fishing. If you would have put all their fish together, they would not have won the tournament. Bill Beck, started out shallow, but quickly adjusted, and cashed a third place check with deep fish. This is a great time to experiment. Get a good map and look for deep trees. You want to find trees that are in the 50 to 150 ft. range and the tops are in the 25 to 35 ft. range. Drop your drop shot worm or a spoon into or just above the trees and see how you do. Rig your drop shot worm on a wide gap no.1 texas style or weedless and just let the drop shot lead click on the branches. Bites or soft, or the rig just stops falling. Slowly raise the rod tip as it bends and you can feel the prussure of the fish and lift. Do not snap or give a quick set,or you will miss fish and be hung up in the trees all day. Take plenty of rigs as it is not unrealistic to be hung up at least 20 times a day, even if you are doing everything right. A spark plug with a swivel on it is a great knocker if you want to try and save your rigs. Fish are also on the humps or channel swings, AWAY FROM THE BANK, and you can use a football jig or drop shot these fish in the same 30ft. depth range. Another pattern, is just trolling the flats with your trolling motor and looking for suspended fish or balls of shad, and immediatly dropping a spoon into and below the balls when you see them on your electronics. Try new things on the rock when you fish and don't go near the bank. This time of year, for the most part, fish don't live there. Where I and most of the guides have been fishing, along with the guys doing well in the tournament last weekend, you couldn't have hit the bank with a deer rifle. Sill yet, I see guys going down the bank plugging the shorline and setting on the points within casting distance of the bank. I'm just about to the point of giving up. Even in the Spring, a good shallow bite is usually about 15ft. Hope this helps.

It's over and the BASS guys that are fishing this week, were all at the weigh-in. Everyone wanted to see what and how to catch these tricky TR lake bass. First place went to Wes Endicott with a total of 29.99 lbs. Wes Stated at the weigh-in he was fishing deep trees and would pull over cedars that the tops were in the 30ft. depth range and drop his drop shot worm into the tree tops. Caught the winning 5 lb. fish on a spoon, after he had broken off his drop shot on another fish in the same tree, with under 30 minutes to fish. $39,000 Jeff Farley, kind of a dark horse, but also a good deep fisherman. 26lbs. Deep trees on the same pattern as Wes $28,500 Bill Beck Drop shot in 30 ft. of water. Bill only had 5 keepers today, but had a huge smalljaw jump off at the boat that would have helped him in the tournament. 25.99lbs. $8,600 Danny White 25lbs. Deep Trees 5th. Tim Sainato 24.56 Drop Shot. flats and rock and brush piles he had made. Everyone reported you just couldn't put a smallmouth in the boat as they would jump off. Dave Barker reported he had over 30 fish between 14 and 15 inches and anytime he hooked a smalljaw, reguardless of size, he could not put it in the boat. Great way to start September on the rock, Let's see how the big boys fair this weekend.