Bill Babler

Fantastic report and great info. Usually my best week of the year when Roland and the boys are here. I could set and watch Roland cast all day. I have taken and watched 1000's of fly casters and the ease and beauty of Roland's fly cast are equaled by few and surpassed by none. Some days as I look up the river thru dozens of fly fisherman, I don't have to see the face, only the perfect loop, to know who is making the presentation. A true scolar of the sport and a gentleman in every way. It is my pleasure to call him a very dear friend.

Great Fish. Looks just like one that one my buddies caught this Spring. Think so Phil?

Otter

Would a sluggo or a soft plastic swim bait such as a Castic Shad then be legal? If these baits were unsented? What whould be the difference? I am really confused!!!!!

George, I was using that ole standby Babler Midge, size 14 copper tungsten head with a black body and red copper wrap. I agree with Phil in the aspect that the forage base is very limited in the Cooper Creek area, other than midges. I think this would relate in thinner trout. This is not the case. Some of those little rascals are as plump as I am. None of the fish seem to be in poor shape, condition, or health. They are just LITTLE. If you were fishing out west in the mountains and caught these fish on a 3 or 4 wt. you would be having a ball, as the little critters are full of energy and jump and covort about like a race horse. Slap them on a 9ft. 6 wt. and its a different story. Another thing that I am having a hard time understanding is lots of these fish are not recient stockers. Some are that dark purple chunky that just came off the truck, but some are as vibrently colored as any I have ever caught in the restricted area. Even some of the little guys have a fantastic pink stripe. Water was pretty cool down there yesterday, 49. We caught at least a dozen perch in the last couple of days in that area. I usually don't catch over one a year. Some of the other guides are catching quite a few bass at cooper. Lots of dingy things going on.

Boy's is a Chernoble Ant or any of the new foam or rubber or soft plastic dry's legal in the restricted area? I think not, but would like other opinions. Had a customer that fished up there last week and used a rubber dry that I had never seen, for a strike indicator, on a dropper rig, the day before he fished with me. Claimed it floated really high and it was a size 16. Looked like a small segrated ant with legs. Entirely soft rubber. Red and Black. Said he had 30 fish on it wading the clay banks area, with several nice browns. He eventually took off the scud dropper, as they hit the dry so well. I was afraid to let him use it when he was with me, but out of the restriced area we tried it and it would float any nympth I put on below it. You could really add action to the fly and never have it get wet or heavy. What a weapon. I need a ruling, but I think I already know the answer.

I simply think that the growth rate in the ponds is very uneven. I have no data to back this up. I am just using my experence as a former livestock producer, where it is impossible to have the same weight gains on a pen of hogs or cattle. Some will always be faster growers and you will have some poor preformers. Weights will fluctuate. This seems to really be a problem for the past year, since MDC said they were going to reduce stocking, but stock a smaller number of larger fish. As we all know, this has not came to frution. We have possibly had the worst stocking and the smallest fish in the history of the program. If the reason is drought, work or the hatchery or the sale of fish, it really dosen't matter. What does matter is they have lost a base of fish and have to rebuild. The schools of fish that were running the flats in the Cooper Creek area, were very uneven in size, with some in the 15 inch class, and some 4 to 5 inches. This is probably just to wide a gap to assume that the growing pond preformed poorly. Guess we'll see. What's your thoughts?

Man has the fishing picked up this week. Roger and JD Crawford down for the annual trek from Iowa were the benifactors of just one of those days on Friday. MDC must have really outdone thereselves last week, as from Fall Creek thru Monkey, there are thousands and thousands of fish. Boat traffic and fishing activity was extremely heavy yesterday, but it didn't seem to matter as the fish bit all day. Started with Pink 1/2 micro jigs and probably caught way to big a number to print. Fish went off the jig about 11 am and we switched to a size 12 red humpy with a 14 midge dropped about 3 ft. under it. They just couldn't leave the midge alone and also had several fish on the dry. The boys got tired of waving the flyrods around and the same result came on the spinning rod. Lots of nice chunky 13 to 15 inchers with many fish in the 6 to 9 inch mixed in. I measured at least 20 fish under 6 inches, and thats just not right. You could see schools of these fish in the shallows on the flats and in several schools there were big browns swimming with the small trout. Thats what I call staying with your food. I sight fished these schools all day. All sizes of trout were mixed in. Hopefully some will wonder up the creek to the restricted area and repopulate that area. Good options out of the restricted area were midges, and jigs on the flyrod. Spoons and spinners on the spincast, and I'm sure they would just love any birght color powerbait.

I'm going to try that shaky head on the bottom. You trickster. You know for a while we were putting a jig on the bottom, but they just quit eating it, so we went back to the weight. I guess anything with a hook in it will increase your chances. It's fun to think of something new and have it work. Good Job.

Roland Duffeld and the Brothers were out for dinner last night and boy did we have a good visit. Fishing has been really tough for the boys in the mornings, and has picked up very nicly in the afternoons. Same report we have been getting. You need some water movement or wind to get these fish to bite. I didn't see the boys until after 9 this am, they should have been out earlier. I started at Short Creek and worked my way up to the just above Fall Creek this morning. Fish were midging everywhere and it was the best morning I have had in a while. Didn't seem to matter what we drifted on the spinning rods they liked it. Seemed to really like the orange strike indicator as it would have caught as many as the nympths if we would have had a hook in it. Finished at Cooper Creek with a ton of fish on a ginger micro. I know Lincoln and his dad were also catching fish, but for the like of me I saw very few boats,and there were lots, catching any fish. You could sight fish and just chase the midgers around and do very well. Best bug beside the micro was a size 14 black and red zebra. I have fly fisherman tomorrow and I'm going to assult them with dry's and see if they like them as well as foam strike indicators. Good to see the fish eating.

Went out for a couple of hours this afternoon. Extremely bright with a little wind. Fished out of old 86. Did no good until just about 4:30 and stopped on a flat secondary point in the back of a flat gravel cove. Boat was in 39 ft. and I was throwing a green pumpkin Jewell 1/2 oz football jig with a chomper green purple fleck twin tail trailer. Caught a pretty nice 15.5, inch smallie and on the next cast caught a 15 inch K. I think these fish were on the bottom in approx. 26ft. Just a guess, as I was long distance heaving the jig. Called it good as I didn't want to break my winning streak, and when to the barn. 2.5 hours and 2 keepers, I guess I'll take that on a whim. Nice to be able to run out for a couple of hours on a fantastic fall afternoon.

For the most part, you can run the main lake anywhere. Most navigational obstructions are bouy marked. Stay in the channel, and don't cut corners, as the lake is about 7 ft. under full resw. Get a map and use it. Give us an idea of what section of the lake you are to be staying and we'll see if we have any current info. Fishing remains pretty tough up the river arms and somewhat better on main lake long gravel rolloff sections. Long flat gravel points seem to be holding more fish than midlake humps, and everything should change with lower water temps. Some of these bass should start moving shallower. Most spotted bass are currently suspended and on the bottom in the 35 to 45 ft. range, depending on the lake section you are fishing. Immediatly release these fish as coming from that depth, you just can't fool around with them or their swim bladder will expand and they won't be able to restablish themselves. Not going into fish fizzing; Beck, told me he is catching quite a few shorts in the 45 ft. range over 70 to 100 ft. of water off the main lake flats. That tells me the suckers are in the middle of the lake. Bum deal! Shell Knob fish seem to be somewhat more hospitable. 42ft. on the bottom. Dropshot is still the key. I'm using a 3/8 oz. dropshot weight and usually a cotton candy or watermellon candy 4" dropshot worm. Don't shake it around to much as they don't want a lot of movement. Just raise and lower it to their location. Maby they'll bite.

Guys, these smallies should be starting at any moment. We are going to get some really cool nights the latter part of this week, and it should get the smallies thinking about a crawfish gumbo. Currently they are eating suspended sushi that is hovering in the 30 to 70 ft. range in the middle of the lake. They need to be up on the bank, where we can get a fair crack at em. Should not be long till that football jig gets some respect. Try a 1/2 oz in green pumpkin, over the traditional PB&J. Guided taney this am and may try and sneek out of an hour or two on the Rock this afternoon. I'm mad at them. There are some pretty nice smallies being caught suspending near the hardwoods. IT has to be cloudy and windy to get them to nip. a 1/2 oz. war eagle tandem spinner bait has worked the best for me. As soon as the sun hits the water, its over. Most of the trees are on the main lake near the river channel, and the fish are just in these locations, waiting for shad. When I'm dropshottin, if I can put it in their mouth, I will. Put the bait right on them.

Gary, I fished that section of the lake yesterday, concentrating on smallies. We had only 7 smallies and 2 KY's. Concentrate on long flat gravel points and position your boat in the 35 ft. depth range and fish toward the bank from there. Good baits are Jewell football jigs with Chomper twin tail trailers in either green pumpkin or peanut butter and jelly. Other baits such as tubes are also catching some fish, same colors apply. If its windy, concentrate on the same locations with lots of wind on them and throw a spinner bait to the bank, we caught a couple on the blade, but as soon as the sun hits the water its pretty much over. You are just to early for a real good smallmouth bite. When you tire of chasing the sm, put your boat in 36 to 42 ft and vertically fish drop shots for spotted bass and you will be more successful.

WE did catch about 30 of these fish up the James. Didn't go very far past Campers Point. or point 12. Guys, you should be able to see these fish on your graph. They are on most every point, the scerete is getting them to bite. WE usually only spend 15 minutes per location, even if they bite as after a couple of fish, they just will either leave or sit there and not bite. I am starting in 25 ft. and working my way out to about 50. Fish are on the bottom at the 25 to 31 ft. range and suspended as the water gets deeper on the same long flat gravel points. Let them go quickly, and if possible don't take them out of the water for even a photo, as their swim bladder will blow up in a heartbeat, as they are staying deep. WE had one yesterday that after 1 photo, it couldn't get back down and had to be needke deflated. Thank goodness it was ok as it was a 3.12 K that was beautiful. Good Luck. I have a morning trip on taney and then an afternoon on the rock, hope it will be as good as yesterday.

Great report TKT, looks like you all had yourself's a whale of a night Three guide boats went out of anunts creek today with Bill Beck leading the charge, with Buster and I in tow. Fantastic day on the rock with tons of keepers and lots and lots of quality fish, coming from water in the 26 to 35 ft. range, with 31 being the best bet. The afternoon bite was way better for me than the morning, with just enough wind and clouds to make it great. We had 28 fish with 9 keepers up to about 3 3/4lbs. with all the keepers coming after noon. Bill and Buster did about the exact same numbers with several fish near the 4 lb. mark. About 30 keepers for the three guide boats. Most of the fish came on dropshot with a few on crawlers. I switched my folks afternoon to the dropshot cause I ran out of crawlers, and we did far better on the plastic as far as size and numbers. Wish I had, had them on it all day. Still can't catch very many on one spot, I have to keep moving. The first 15 minutes on a new spot is best. Found the long points to be better than the midlake stuff today.

Sorry, Norman took them on a disposable and headed East with-em. Do have a pic of a very nice smalljaw and if I can get Becky to post it, It will be on the TAblerock site.

Fished yesterday with Norman Russell from New Jersy, a really fine chap and very good fisherman, if I could have found him some to catch. Started out on some extremely slick flat water in the lower restricted area, with a few fish midging around us, but in retrospect, I believe they were just slurping casings, as the top of the water is just full of the clear off white skeletons. Midges were buzzing in our ears and it seems if you would make a complete perfect presentation using a dry as an indicator at your maximum casting distance with a size 18 zebra, on 7X you could get a few takers. Extremely hard to hook, and we were missing about 75%. No takers on the drys. This lasted maby an hour and then total nothingness. I went from 14's to 22's with no more takes even using 8X. Drifted 3 different scud patterns and caught a sucker on each of the colors, but no trout. Norman being a fly fisherman said he had fished on the Rock, for bass the previous day, using spinning gear for a full day with one of the local guides and had not boated a fish, asked if there was anyway he could catch 1 White River Brown, and I with much reluctance suggested we go by Lilley' and grab a box of crawlers and sit for a couple of hours. You must do what you must do. We sat up on the flat below Cooper, and the first fish with the inflated crawler was a really nice 16 inch brown. Mind you it was not fast for the remainder of the morning with lots of boat traffic, but we finished up with 18 fish on the crawlers with 4 being spectacular colored up browns. Lots of nice photos and off they went to where ever these fish go. There is no way Norman would have caught 18 fish that included the 4 nice browns in the lower restricted area in that 2 hour period. I was just not capable of finding them for him. I should be able to have my clients be able to continue with the flyrod, but for now, I just can't get it to produce. I will say that of the 8 fish we caught early on the midge, 6 had hook holes in their mouths and had been caught before. Two of these had bait hooks and line hanging out of their mouths. That means lots of the same fish are being caught and seeing lots of prussure. With this week, calling for extreme heat, maby some generation, will pull some fish into the restricted area as I and several other of the boat guides are having a very rough go of it. A couple of the locals, that fish the boat section of the restricted area were also up there and we spoke abit. They were not doing well either and both said they are maby going to just give it a rest for a month or two. Both of these guys, are retired and know how to catch fish. They both fish 365 and it is pretty sad when they are going to look for something else to do. Maby these are changing times, but I have fished this pond since 1976 on an almost full time basis, and have never had to work this hard to catch a fish to turn loose.

Fished Friday out of Shell Knob, going up the white toward Eagle Rock. Started early, and really didn't see any topwater fish until later in the morning. Lots and Lots of suspended fish in the 26 to 35 ft. depth range over out to 50ft. with some on the bottom in the 30 ft. range. First 3 drops of the day we had keepers on a a small purple dropshot worm. Thought it was going to be awsome. That was the only fish we could catch on that spot, as it was holding plenty of fish and they would literally charge the dropshot, and then stop and just melt away from it. Kept moving and moving and on each location, I could see plenty of fish but could catch only 1 or 2. About 11 am fish started to surface off a long flat point in the Big M area and we were able to catch 3 solid keepers throwing a jigging spoon as far as we could to these chasers. Lots of shad in the cove mouth with fish holding in and below them and they bit the dropshot pretty well. 22 total on the 1/2 day trip with 6 good keepers, including a really nice 4Plus lb. Smalljaw. SKMO pretty much fished the same water on Saturday and had a very similar result with 19 fish and several really nice keepers. Sunday, was a complete change, with everyone including Beck suffering abit. SKMO said he could see em stacked up in the 30 plus ft. range, but they just would not bite. I melted the paint and plowed furrows all over the knob, with the football jig and only got a short. SK reported they had a couple of very quality fish but not many bites on the jig, either. This hot weather is just not going to help in the least, and will probably put the bite off for another couple of weeks at least. Shucks! I have 9 guide trips on the rock in 7 days starting on Wed. will try and let you know how bad I'm doing and what I am stinking it up on.

It's just hard right now. Sounds like your on the right track. Fish have been very spooky. I will target 1 or a group, it dosen't matter Keep after it and you will getem.

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.