Bill Babler

Boys, I know it's really, really hard to get through your heads that for most of the time these and I mean Table Rock lake spotted bass could care less about timber. We have addressed this before. They are not ambush feeders. They are chasers! Largemouth will relate more to the timber, pole and cedars than the spots. This dosent't mean that you can't catch them on wood, because you certanly can. It is not however were volumes of Ky's hang on a normal basis. Don, bless his heart spilled way to much guide info. on the locations of these fish. They love deep docks and they love cables around these docks. They will hang over pole timber, but I am speaking of locations where the timber is very deep and the tops of the trees just come into the,25 to 30ft. range. These places described above are gathering and resting points. Remember, they are shad chasers. Main lake flat gravel humps, river channel swings and areas where flats drop into the channel are places that hold greater numbers of fish. Long flat points always harbor several Ky's as they are great places to watch for passing schools of shad. Follow the pts. way out with your electronics and watch for fish that are not relating to the bottom, simply suspended. This weekend at Shell Knob, there was a very good jig bite early. The water up there is really stained and we were catching them pretty good on a 5/16 Jewell Spider Jig with a Chomper twin tail trailer, in PBJ. Also had a good deep bite using the football head in the same jig pattern. 25 to 35 ft. WE started with a very good topwater bite, I was fishing with my son and he always kicks my tail. He had a 5lb. black on a fin and my best was not near that. Topwater kicks in about 5am and is pretty much over at 7:30. There seems to be about an hour of transition, before the deep bite really takes off and then its good. When the sun forces these Ky's back to the bottom. If it stays a bit coudy, you can have a problem as the fish won't relate to the top or bottom. Again, hard for people to understand as they think the clouds should really help. Most times of the year they do. But not on summer patterns. They do make fishing more pleasant. There is still some water in the bushes and we pitched and bladed them to death with no results. For some reason, the locations we are fishing the fish have simply not moved into those hidy holes. Way better outside the bushes early, out to about 20ft. When the sun gets up move-em on out. Good Luck

I didn't know bluff ends were summer time structure. Most of my fish were suspended over deep water in the 37 to 46 ft. range. Everyone knows the type of structure I have been fishing, I just moved way, way out. I believe I may have mentioned that it's flat gravel. Cannot get real specific as huge numbers of fish are concentrating on these very few locations and I just will not have people come and take them, for the skillet. Whole lake portions of spotted bass will move on some of these locations after the spawn. They could stay there a day or for the entire summer. I will tell you that most of these locations are a cannon shot from the bank. On one of the locations my boat was in 120 ft. of water. Move out and look deep. I told everyone last week to get a topo and learn how to read it. It is vital for the next couple of months. Every place i caught fish was a spot I found on a topo map. You can too. I just got the depth and you have it now. Try a spot you find on the topo. Use your electronics to see if the fish are their. If you can't see your line, bait and the fish while you are fishing deep, you need to go to bass pro and gear up before your next trip. I told the clients yesterday they were going to get bit about 90 percent of the time, I saw the fish moving to bite their drop shot worm. This is nothing new, we have been doing this since the X15 paper graph. Electronics are and will be for the next 3 months your only tool to catch these deep riders. Good Luck.

I felt like I was a stumbling and a bumbling around for a couple of hrs. on the rock this morning. Last trip on Table Rock was on Thursday and man did I lose the fish. When I pulled the boat at the ramp at Mill Creek on Thursday afternoon, the water temp was 63. When I took out today at 4pm it is 80. Seventeen degrees, makes a big difference. My fish had went on a walkabout and I mean big time. All the fish that were pretty much zeroed in at that 26 foot range had skee-daddled. Deep water here we come, but not befor a good bud, gave me the sceret 411 recipe. He said go deep young man go deep. No longer were those fistey critters on the fast food french fry, the had moved to the full meal deal on the drop shot. You never have to know spots on the rock, only depth. When guides speak to each other all they want to know is how deep you are finden-em. These fish put on the aqua-lung and dropped about 20 ft. further on down. Way to deep for this time of the year, but that's what happened. Zoom finess worms in watermellon candy were the absolute best bait today and I hate to admit we had well over! I just can't go there keepers. All are still cooling their fins in deep fresh Table Rock Lake water. Big post spawn thin flanked females looking for a cooler gentler place to live with lots of bait. As a guide, you want all your clients to do well, but one of my favorite boys that I have taken for years is Charles Wiles from Cape. Great Trout fisherman and sometime bass guy. He hit the grand slam today. Charles and buddy Gary Wrigley after a so so day on trout yesterday had one of those days you just never forget. I know i never will. Here are some pic's just too many fish that all looked alike to keep the camera going. I was the blind sow that found the acorn today.

Vacation, Get off this fishing site. You are trying to sell Ice to Eskimos and we neither need it or want it. IF the jobs you are touting are only paying 8 dollars per hr. We don't need them or want them either. As far as being a community activest or quoting biblical scriptures no one is impressed. Words are cheap! We are all sure that you are a true philanthropist, and are securing the future of the area for no gain. If that is the case goody for you. The Landing will help and support the Landing, period. One of the chief officers for the Landing is my neighbor, if you were really what you say you are, you would know what they expect the long range outcome to be. There is only one, and everyone with one shread of intelligence knows what that is. They built on a river for a reason, and it was voted down in Rockaway two years ago.

Had a really fun loving group from VSSI Inc. at Lilleys' the last couple of days. Saturday night saw a huge trout fry with tator's, corn on the cob and lots of really fine fixin's. Report from Friday evenng was Bob Klien, took hold of the show with Tony Wiedele. Both guides clients caught trout like they knew what they were doing. In completely different ways. Tony like most of the rest of us is an upper lake rat and he worked the streight line sculpin jig and when the water started to flow, went with the suspending stick and really caught the Brown's. Great job. Bob on the other hand took the ladie's and really put the hurtin on the fish in the bait area. I mean he had an excellent set of trout for the Saturday fish fry. Bob seems always to have a handle on the bait fishing,and he really proved it on Friday. Super job. Both guide boats reported catching about 40 fish per boat in the last 3 hrs of the day. Not bad The other 3 of us hung in there and we pretty much covered the fry so Saturday was mostly catch and release. Tim Paige had a really good day on Saturday with lots of quality rainbows on crawlers in the bait area, and my boat got them going in the restricted area on midges drifted in the shade along the bluff bank. I had a couple of very good fisherman and it allowed me to toss a dry fly a mite. Just flat super on the dry. Big, Big colored up bows along the bank. A size 8 red stimulator was the key for me and the midges were a size 16 in the blood midge pattern that I tie. About 1pm when the heat hit it was over for all. No wind and no breeze with quite a little bit of boat traffic took care of the rest of the day. It was nap time anyway after 2 days of fishing and we had to be refreshed for the picnic. Phil and his staff were great and the pavillion is one of the nicest places you can ever have a gathering. Great breeze and the lake to look at while you cook and eat. Many thanks to Curtis, Lisa, Phil and Jerry, for logistics. Tim Paige, and Becky Babler for the cooking and Melody Paige and Me for standing around and looking good. Her anyway. What a place for a great time.

How many Maggie Moo's do we need? How many Bass Pro Shops are enough? Do we need more time shares and condo's? How much can this resource handle and still be the quality fishery that it is today? Don't agree on the fishing. Wait until Bass Pro sends 50 rentals into the restricted area. I know I won't be a happy camper. I know that you don't think this is going to happen, but I was told that 40 percent of their landing rentals are going to be jet drives. I wonder why? According to those who may or may not know, the stocking pattern on taney will have to change or the limit lowered. We are already at near maximum carrying capasity for harvest. Say on the average we just put 50 additional people per day on the lake with a harvest of 2 trout per person, thats 36,500 additional fish harvested per year. I think that will hurt the fishery. If additional stocking is put in place to help with the demand, you know the fish will be of smaller size and it will also put a strain on our bug population. with more fish needed to meet demand. We went thru this in the 70's Rumor has it that the Bass Pro landing shop is really going to push the wade fishing aspect on the upper lake. I know that area needs another 10,000 waders per year. Spoke to our old biologist today and he thinks it will be a nightmare that is just not going to end. The supply will just not be able to meet the demand.

Thanks alot Don, Some of the boys including SKMO were up there a couple of days ago and just couldn't get them to go shallow. I'm sure as it clears out amite that the bite should be in the bushes unless the water starts to drop. Appreciate the info.

Vacation, You have got to be kidding. Just what we need in this area on an already completely taxed resource is more people using it. When this project started it was said that the construction would consist of lots of local labor and that the business people opening the stores would be locals using locals for help. From what I can determine over 90% of the construction is being done by contractors out of the area. Most of the stores and their owners are not from here and almost all are bringing in employee's. The fishing dock the park and the small mom and pop resorts have been replaced by more concrete and mortor, just what this water shed needs, more concrete and less trees. I would guess that you to are not from the area, or that you are involved in realestate. This is a fishing fourm and our members are concerned about the water shed and fisheries management. Not how much money can be made by tearing down long standing business and replacing them with out of place condo's, shops, and malls. Just a thought.

Talked to some folks, that were in the know, after this weeks meeting at Big Cedar. This IS NOT A FISH STOCKING PROGRAM AND WILL NOT OR EVER WILL BE ON TABLEROCK LAKE! This is a program for structure inhancement. This will mean absolutely nothing to this fishery. The only contributing factor to a better bass fishery is recruitment of spawn. The structure will mean nothing. It may concentrate fish in some locations, but no gaurantee of that either. Lake levels maintained during and after the spawn, and as many females spawning as we can get is what will help this fishery. Forage and cover are not the problem. What this boils down to is lots of pub.

Lots of guide trips this week on the rock, some very successful and some not so much. With the big lake rise, it had kind of put me in a quandry until today. Don't know if it was just dumb luck or what, but 37 bass with 12 keeper size on my thursday morning 4 hr. swaray. Previous 6 days I had only been able to come up with 110 fish. With under 25 keeper size fish. Would like to tell you guys how and where, but it was just so spread out that I don't have a clue of a pattern, except they bit everything we threw except topwater. Fished from Kimberling to almost Shell Knob and about every bank we stopped on, something came off. Smallies were in the under 15 ft. range and Ky's the same to 30 ft. on the drop shot. Fish were really spread out and could only catch 1 to 3 per spot, so as you can guess, thats lots of spots in 4 hrs. I started at Ahoy's and fished clear to Hobb's Hollow at the Knob. We are covering lots of ground. 90% of the fish were on the cenipede. Here is what some of the lakes top pay for play guys are doing. They are averaging about 18 to 24 fish per 4hr. trip. Most are fishing two clients. About 35% of their fish are at or above 15 inches. Tim Paige, Buster Loving and Tim Sainato. Point 5 to Cricket Creek Marina. Paige, is sticking with a split-shot rig cenipede in watermellon candy. Bass are coming from mid-lake humps, channel swings, and long gravel points. Depth range right now is extremely hard to pinpoint. Tim said the smallies are coming under 14ft. and the spots in the 24 to 26 ft. range. Sainato, Same area fishing long gravel points and alot of community guide banks in the 18 to 26 depth range catching nice spots on shakey head worms and big tube baits in green pumpkin. Buster is being Buster. He could catch a keeper in a bathtub in Alaska. Buster is still swimming the grub abit, as he is still catching some really nice gogs on the grub and also a green pumpkin cenipede. Said he is putting the boat in about 26 ft. and fishing really slow. Smallies are abit shallower than the spots with the spots coming in that same 24 plus foot range. He is catching his fish on secret locations numbered 1 thru 7, I know alot of them but would not be caught dead fishing his spots. If word got out that it was even mentioned, I would have to move to Arizona. Kimberling Area to Shell Knob, Bill Beck, Bill is one of the really good guys on the rock, if he can help you he will. And most of the time he has a tip or two for his bud's. Most of his topwater bite, which was really good, has dried up a mite and he is fishing the same cenipede on long slopeing gravel points and mid-lake humps. His fish are Ky's and are coming in the 24 to 26ft. range and most of the smallies are coming in the 10 to 16 ft. range. Most everything that Bill has been on is still that flat gravel, next to deep water or channel swings. Bill also reports that the football jig is starting to catch some of these deeper fish. Bill Babler, I'm not in the catigory of these guys but here is where I am stumbling on a few of those green slimmer's. Dam to Kimberling. Flat gravel ajacent to any major main lake of channel swing. Ky's are coming in the 24 ft. range and smallies a little less. Secondary points in major spawning coves. Follow the long secondary points out to the 30ft. depth range looking close at your elecronics for shad or suspending post-spawn fish. If they are on the bottom you can split shot the cenipede. If they are up a ways, try a drop shot with a plum chomper dropshot worm. Worked really good on Sat. Kimberling to Shell Knob, I am catching some post spawn fish in the back of pockets of flat gravel in the middle of the pockets in the 26 ft. range. If there are shad present and the wind in blowing into these large main lake pockets, look out. Also in the same type locations as my buds. Check out the flats at Joe Bald, lots of nice fish, coming off these flats. Shell Knob to Eagle Rock, Fish seem to be on a little chunker stuff up there. About the same depth but I like a little chunk in the gravel. There is alot more chasing and schooling action in this area. From what I understand there has been a good bite in the Kings early in the mornings on the 5/16 Black and Blue Jewel Jig. Up in the Royal Point and Deer Bluff areas of the Kings. I don't know how many of you guys ever look at a topo map, but if you haven't, now is the time. Look for those main lake humps on hard turns in the main channel. You can fish either the inside turn or the outside turn on the flat gravel, where it dumps into the channel and there will be fish there. Most of the Ky's are deeper than the smallies. Smallies, are still coming for me in these areas in under 15ft. I have not tried the bushes yet, but would love a report on anyone who has. They should be there, but it looked to me that the lake dropped a couple of inches. If it continues to drop, they will not stay there at all. That gal in the pic's could really fish. Again look at my locations in the photo's how flat is that gravel?

Maby they could take their Branson Landing project and sink it in Table Rock. That would be some great fishing structure and it would also be a gift to the entire community.

If that happens it would be beyond belief. MDC does not believe in bass stoking programs. They said after the fish kills that they just don't work and that any fish stocked would not survive the various bugs that our bass have gotten an immunity too. However you know the old saying money talks and bulls and cows walk, or something like that. I have been part of this lake program for as long as I can rember, and I have never heard of Bass Pro, spending 1 cent without a motive. We will see.

Roy, you may be onto something. After it rains and clouds things up, Longcreek can really turn on. Last year it was unbelieveable. Maby again for the next few days while the water is muddy. Thanks.

1 for the most part the guides are finding smallmouth on gravel and also chasing abit off the pts. early. 2Smoke pepper or smoke red fleck along with green pumpkin are working as well as anything on either a 1/4 or 1/16 oz head. 3For the next few days it's going to be a guess. With the water really on the rise we may see the fish move up to the bushes, if it gets that high. Smallies as of today were in 12 to 20 ft. and ky's 20 to 26 right on the bottom. Either drag that grub or swim it very close to the bottom. 4 With the rising water and the transition period of pre-spawn-and post spawn you just have to keep looking its not easy by any means all of a sudden. For the couple of weeks prior to all the rain it was almost easy. Now its gotten back to hide and seek 5They will if they are chasing shad. If you don't see chasers, swim the bottom conture. Position the boat in the mid to late 20's and adjust your retrieve to follow the bottom to the boat. 6 Try all the flats from Campbell Pt. to Baxter on either side of the lake. Keep your top water handy for blowups. Seems they are on a split shot about as well as the grub. Keep the boat in about 30 for the ky's and about 20 for the smallies. green pumpkin or watermellon candy works best on the frys. Let us know how you do. They are going to be everywhere and nowhere for the next week till things settle down abit. Good luck

Here is a pic of Phil's nice smallie. Couldn't get the whites to go but they are ready to start a bustin.

Capt Joe, Thanks for the info. Mine came from the Oklahoma dept of consevation. They felt as Sam mentioned that the Florida bass became extremely lathargic in temps under 60 degrees. Also their studies showed that the stocked fish had extreme high densities in shallow water. With the lack of forage as the water cooled and the response of the bass to the cooler temps, they assummed this contributed to their demise. I also spoke to some of my cohorts about Castaic. Though many had caught Florida bass suspended over the depths you mentioned, none had caught any of these fish at the 80ft. depth mark. Most had caught these fish at the thermocline from 26 to 32ft. suspended over greater depths. I have no doubt that if you said you have caught them at 80ft. that you have. Thanks for the SoCal info. Sam, I agree with your local tournament startemnts. The weeknight tournaments out of Shell Knob are a Blood Bath. Usually really nice Blacks floating all over the ramp. Manley in the summer. It's a cryin shame. If they kill them they better cookem. I have delibertly not lanched at the ramps following the tournaments to avoid clients seeing dead fish on the water. It's not right.

Look at how flat the banks are on the pic's I posted above. Are you fishing this type of flat gravel? Fish are on it all over the lake. If this is not where you are spending the majority of your time, thanks, I need to catch more, and they don't seem very disturbed. Swim that 3 to 5 inch Ctail grub in grey pepper, watermellon, white, or green punkpin and drag the dr. in green punpkin or the cenipide in wattermellon candy, green punkpin, or watermellon seed. Put the boat in about 20 to 25 feet. Go get em!!! or I will.

Fished a big corporate trip on Sat. out of the Kimberling area. 5 of the areas top guides and all had it pretty slow on the start at around 7am. Mostly I believe because of lots of heavy tournament traffic. Almost all guide boat were throwing the fin or sammy to begin and then most switched to a split in late morning. The samllies were the fish to catch even on the fin. Bill Beck kept on it most of the day and had some fantastic fish. Timbered bluff ends and big open cove mouths. I was visiting with Bill at one point and his clients were throwing topwater in about 75 ft. This is after all table rock and those staging and post spawn ky's will hang in the cove mouths suspended, waiting for tender shad morsels to venture by. The stray smallie or largemouth will also hang in these areas to give them some company. You never know. Tim Paige was on the fin for a while but switched to a dr. on the split and came up with some really nice smallies in 16 to 25 ft. of water on the spawning banks. REMEMBER, the water has risen about 11 ft. the fish that were in 4 to 12ft., where does that put them? They did not move with the water, they stayed on their beds and in their staging locations. I saw tons of guys fishing the bank on Sat, I mean throwing in 6 inches to 5 ft. of water. Maby it worked for you, who knows. I started really slow on the fin and just had to believe with the conditions that they should bite the rascal. Saw some chasers and flipped a sammey to them and handed the client the rod. It went slack and the bass had walked off with my sammy. Figured he would jump and try and toss it but no such luck. Poor knot, need a better guide. Clients started to catch a few on top but it just didn't ring my bell so I went to a watermellon candy zoom cenipede and started to catch smallies in the same range as Tim. 8 solid keepers by noon and by then we were so wet the boys said enough, we got the pic's to prove it, one said and we were off to the house. I can't stress enough, the smallies are on FLAT GRAVEL, largemouth and ky's are where you find them this time of the year. Be patient, you are not going to catch 50 smallies a day. How about 6 to 10 really nice fish. How many of you are staying with the gravel and dragging the split or swimming the grub for 4 to 6 hrs. Thats what it takes. We are not catching tons more fish than you, we are just confident in what we are doing and where they live. After 20 minutes most people want to change baits or locations. Go ahead and do that, you have tried it before. How did it work for ya? The guides are fishing top in the morning and fishing drag baits and swimming grubs the rest of the day. We are catching fish, you should be also. Keep a lookout for the chasing whites if you are a mind too. Had a great day on Sunday with these post spawn chaseres. Spoke to Tim Paige a minute ago and the bite this morning was pretty slow but his afternoon as well as Buster's were very good with 20 plus fish apiece dragging a dr. in that same 16 to 25 ft. range on chunk and flat,flat gravel. Here are a couple of rainy day photo's from Sat.

Sam, I've got some of the best venison summer sausage you have ever layed a lip on. We'll have to get together over a horn of it and you can tell me about those wonderful times. I can't tell you the envy I have for you and those past days. I wish it was as peachy now. I can be if we take care of it. No one is going to miss a few of those Ky fillets. Enjoy and God Bless You.

Just to add a final touch and we'll close the topic. As far as the comsumption of bass this was never the issue. The point was guides killing spawning and short fish. Most of us could care less how many bass Sam eats. I have never met Sam, but he falls into a demographic of the 50 and up bunch. I would bet my seat on the lifeboat that he is over 50 and has served for us in the military. In the last 15 years I have taken people that have came up rough and believe anything they catch is due them. It probably is. If your a fisherman and like to eat bass, by gosh do it. My folks never met a fish they wouldn't eat. Their theory was its due them. I have cleaned trout, crappie and white bass for clients that just had to have them and about 90% never eat the fish. There is always an excuse, they went bad or my wife won't let me fry fish in the kitchen and we threw them away. Only about 10% of the clients returning want to keep the fish the next year, they only want the fun of catching them. A few years ago up at the knob, I saw a guy trolling a flat and catch a huge brown fish. I motored up to him to see what it was, thinking it was a fantastic walleye. I weighed the fish on my scales, it was a 6lb 10 oz. smallie. He hadn't put it on a stringer yet and I offered him a small legal walleye and 10 really nice whites, if he would throw it back. He said if it was the last fish swimming in the lake it was his to eat and told me where to get off. He told Bryant Ward the same thing a few days later when he was arrested for keeping short bass. If you believe for 1 second that the bass limits on table rock lake are set for population maintaince and control, I have a wonderful piece of lake front property in Arizona you can have cheap. After the fish kills in 99 and 2000, I asked the lake Bioligost why we just didn't lower the limit or close the season. He said if it was up to him steps would be taken, but the economic damage that would be done would be in the 100's of millions of dollars. Everything in this area is geared to table rock bass. From manufactoring to sales, fuel, lodging and national exposure. To say that the lake had a bass shortage and adversley effect any of the above would be catostropic to the region. The bass is the king, if we would have had a similar situation with the crappie, the crappie limit would have dropped dramatically, as there is very little economic prussure on the fish, and a reduced harvest would have been used for population increasement. They view the crappie as a consumption fish and the bass as a sport fish. He said the powers that be, would not have it. Any change in the limits or status of bass would not be heard. MDC's number 1 management tool for table rock bass is that over 90% of the bass fisherman practice catch and release, this is the tool that the MDC uses to justify the creel limits. they realize that we are just not going to kill them. As far as removing 100's lbs. of ky's bass to lower the competition for forage on table rock, nothing could be further from the truth. You take out 100 lbs, and it is gone forever. The caring capasity of predators in the rock is far below the forage base. As far as the ky's dieing before they reach the legal length limit, Sam is right. Acually the majority of all three species die well before 12 inches as they are at that time on the lower end of the food chain. MDC did a 5 year study on ky's and found that the majority of the ky's that reached the 12 inch mark, did make it to 15 inches. They also found that removing the fish between 12 and 15 inches took a valuable predator that consumed threadfin shad from the already narrow predator base, that is why they refused to lower the limit size to 12 inches, table rock needed the fish. It was also found that while slow growing, the life span of the ky's was extremely long. Females were able to spawn into their teens, and add new recruitment to a lake that had suffered two major fish kills. Although there is some overlap in territories, the 3 black bass species operate with totally different intentions. All, at times can be caught in the same areas, on the same baits, but you can also catch and fish for each of the subspecies using particular lures in home ranges of the species that really segrate the three. Ky's prefer to occupy deep offshore structure and love to suspend in cove mouths over deep water, and they love company. They are threadfin eaters. It is not uncommon to catch them schooling and chasing shad in 150 to 200 ft. of water, on the top. Not really the prefered location for largemouth of smallies. Ky's for the most part are not ambush feeders, they are chasers. They can live everywhere and nowhere, they are nomads, the only home they have is in the water, unlike a largemouth that lives in a particular cove or area the majority of the time, and a smallie that lives on state park beach, These guys like to travel. A few years ago, I caught the same fish 3 times, I knew her from a complete cut off top fin, and a huge slash on her tail. I caught her the first time off wolfpen on a fin. A couple of weeks later, I caught her on a split shot at Campbell Pt. and later in the year I caught her on a hump up the white. There was no mistaken identity possible, she was clearly marked. Three different clients had a wonderful time catching her and as far as I know she is still swimming. Their actions at times resemble a walleye. Channel swings, mid-lake and deep humps hold these excellent fighting fish. They also love to push the threadfin to the top over these humps, where they can seperate the schools for forage. Again, where there is one, he usually has a friend or two. The largemouth bass is the ultimate ambush feeder. Large portions of its day to day diet, come from blue gill, crappie, sunfish, frogs, other bass, small turtles and crawfish. He is the top predator in his hiddy hole and while it is not uncommon to have several largemouth in the same area, it is not for the most part the rule, he can be a loner. They prefer cover and water depths not nearly as extreme as the ky's, however they will adapt as temps fall in the winter and move away from the bank. That is why the river stretches of the lake hold the majority of these fish. To even remotely think that removing portions of any of the bass species will enhance or add to the range of the others is just not how these fish operate. It will not happen. Oklahoma Fish and Game a few years ago did an experment introducing Florida Strain largemouth to Grand Lake. It was a total falure in the aspect, that even though introduced as fry, and larger fish, they had no capasity to move off shore to deeper water in the winter. The Florida strain is an extreme shallow water predator and simpley could not or would not adapt to deep water. As the forage base moved to deeper water or thermocline and bass would not follow, and when the summer base forage was depleted in late fall the bass died off to a large extent. Smallie's on the rock, love flat gravel and all the goodies that are found their. They not only will nibble any shad that comes by, but love the crawdaddys that live in these areas. They are also huge consumers of insects and small invertibrates, along with shore minnows and any unlucky tadpole or critter that falls from above. They are now and have been for years found over the entire lake system, mostly in seperate areas from the other two species. They love flat gravel, with no structure on it. Just wide open shallow flats. Not enough cover for the hiddy hole largemouth and not enough water over their heads for the ky's. If we as catch and release fisherman give these wonderful fish a chance to procreate and do our best to let them spawn, Sam should have plenty of fillets to keep him happy. He is in the minority rather than the majority, and that is what MDC is counting on.

I can't write anymore, I have to vacume and clean a couple of tolits. You may be righht!

I won't even go there. Come over and help serve breakfast on Sat and Sun while I'm working. I know it will cut in on your beauty sleep, but it will do you good getting up before noon. Oh! I forgot, you have to get up by 9 on Sunday to make Church. Don't worry, you can still make your afternoon nap.

SD, I agree. The biologist say that bed fishing dosen't hurt the population, because only a small percentage of bass bed are where they can been seen. I still think it really hurts for the reasons you mentioned to drag these fish 50 miles to another location during the spawn. On the Rock, the smallies and the KY's sometimes will bed clear to 20 ft. and this is just not visible to the site fisherman. They are however easy prey to the drag fisherman. They are easy when they are chasing shad in the cove mouths getting ready to make their spawning runs. I have no problem with a fisherman keeping a fish to eat, I do have problems with guides killing these fish for sale. It is not that they are doing something special, we all know where the fish are. Most of us just choise not to kill them. They are easy and I will tell you there is not an unlimited supply. You know this if you have been here a while. I reminds me of someone coming to your home and seeing a deer grazing in your back yard and paying you $100.00 to shoot it out the back door. If a guide feels he has to do that to make clients happy and the only way they will be happy is by eating fish full of spawn, that is where I see the problem. I won't comment on it any further, everyone on this fourm knows how I feel on the subject of killing these wonderful creatures. It sickens me. It is fantastic though to catch and release them and they are really available for that right as we speak. Get out and enjoy the great fishing.

Guys, thanks for the kudos. All of these spots are spots myself and other guides fish when we are in those perticular sections of the lake. They are excellent spots. Some seasonal some not so much. They just hold fish. Tom, as far as living in the Long Creek region, over Indian Pt., it is all determined by your budget. Indian pt. will for the most part be in the higher rent district. You will also have to deal with crowds, whereas in Long Creek or the Blue Eye area, you have a clear run to either Branson, Shell Knob , or Harrison. We live down Happy Hollow Road directly across from Big Cedar and it is a fantastic neighborhood. It is but a short romp either way to hit LC or IP. For current fishing conditions in the IP area, check out my ramblings of the last couple of weeks, as I have just not had time to post on a regular basis, with the spring fling going on. Lots of fish on the bite.

Just got a moment to catch-up abit for the last couple of weeks. Most of the guides, myself included have been working the Rock extremely hard as this is the time you have the best chance's to capture some of these great fish on camera. The clients range from young to feeling young and most have had great fishing not because of what I have done, but because it's just that time of year. It's easy to be a guide when the fish are biting like they have been for the last month. It is the time however that we must be a careful with these magnificent critters as we can, because lake populations live and die with each years spawn. It saddens me to hear rumors of a guide fishing the Shell Knob area and filleting spawning fish. I know it's true as a strange guide boat in the area has been reported and voices even overheard, as they throw these wonderful bass in the livewell to be butchered. We have no place for guides killing bass during the spawn. If you have to do this to be a guide, you had better look elsewhere for work as you just don't have to do it. It simple means your not good enough, or you just don't care. Probably both. If you do it at Shell Knob, they know who you are and the word gets out. It is a small town and they really care about the fish. On a brighter note. Fishing from the Long Creek area of the lake to Eagle rock is pretty much the same. Siwm a C-Tail grub on flat gravel, in the color of your choice, it really dosen't matter, they will hit a rock if you throw it. I am using 6 lb. line and swimming the grub on a 3/16 oz. head, putting my boat in 15 to 20 feet of water. Smallies are eating it up. They are still really clean and full of eggs, so BE CAREFUL WITH THEM. Spotted bass seem to be in the pockets or on abit steeper stuff. They are also off the main lake pts. and seem to be schooling some times, if you can catch it right. Sammy's, spook's or a fin will catch the schooler's. It don't matter, just heave it in front of the chasers and you will get bit. The Shell Knob area has had lots of spotted bass working the main lake points. No one is a hero for discovering these secret spots, as they are not a secret. Any dummy that has fished the lake for a year of two knows the spots. Don't kill the schooling fish, some have spawned some haven't, its hard to tell by looking at them. Lots of spots are being caught on a frech fry and again it really dosen't matter which one you use right now as they will bite most anything that is drug thru a bed or thru a staging point. Boat in about the same depth of water, as you did with the grub swimmers. I am also having nice success on a floating worm. Bass Pro's chartruse floater is catching really nice largemouth in the wooded coves and in the back of the spawning coves. Alot of these fish look to have spawned but some haven't. I have caught spawning spots clear into June. so it is not over. When you don't see the schooler's and just want to catch some topwater fish, try the bluff ends and also the wooded pole timber on the inside of the points going back into these spawning coves. Nice way to catch a good black. Try the flat gravel early with the fin or sammy, fishing it right on the bank and down the banks in under 8 ft. of water for great topwater action for the smallies. Come to the Rock right now, and if you have any kind of boat there is absolutely no need to hire a guide. You won't need one if you can hit the water with the majority of your casts. Enjoy, because July and the jet skiers are a commin. Good Luck