Bill Babler

As everyone knows this can be a really challenging time of year to catch numbers of fish. On the other hand it can be a great time to catch big fish. As the water cools and the shad schools group and move onto the channel swings and creeks LM start to migrate in the same direction. This past week I have had some slow days with lite fish numbers but I have had my largest fish of the year. Friday I only got 7 bites but put about 15 pounds best 5 in the boat. Thursday I only had 9 bites with 3 keepers but the 3 weighed 14 pounds. I also had some bigger days earlier in the week with best 5 pushing 18 pounds. If you find shad and find fish with them don’t be discouraged if they don’t bite right off the bat. Stay with them and be patient. I’ve been working a group that bite very slow, till you catch one, when that happens you will get bit really good for 15 minutes or so as it really stirs them up. Right now they’re in 1’ to 100’ depending on the bait but the deep ones currently are suspended in the 22’ to 26’ range right with the bait. If the wind is blowing bait to the bank or it’s early in the day they might be right on the bank. Early in the day I can’t get the deep suspended fish in the bait to bite, so I’m working shallow More on this later

I had a special day today, several really nice LM out of SK. Bite for me was under 25’. Lots of really quality fish in 18’ to 22’. Kind of like Pete’s report, find the bait and you will get bit. Really was the deal this morning. I saw some Monsters chasing. Water temps up this way was 82 at 0700 and at 11:30 83.7 degrees. Started the day top water off dock ends with no love. Pitched a spoon in a deep dock stall and caught a huge crappie. Did it again and again and so forth. Was after green fish and stopped at a location their just about to get on and they were there with lots of Shad balls. Kind of out looking for LM. have not fished the Homer Sloan derby since Beck passed but I entered it today. Of course what I sampled will be gone Saturday after next. Bite was totally over for me by 10. I’ll have to find another location or two. Good Luck

Dr. B. In our conversation this weekend even with 2 professionals in the room has been asked by women what it would take to get a prescription renewed. Both the Doc’s said multiple time they have had women of color tell them the only reason they won’t prescribe the pain meds is because they aren’t white. Dr. B. said as soon as you hear that, you know an butt chewing is coming from HR These guys are from Dallas. Both said they will never make it to true retirement age, before they quit. They said the threat of law Suits is their governing body as far as practical medicine is concerned. Said it’s 99% female and about the same with pain medication.

On another note, I took 2 Dr’s fishing this weekend. Both family men in their 50’s with children and grand children. In the last 5 years both had been sued multiple time for racism and sexism and had never had a single previous complaint. This was entirely over refusal to prescribe prescription medication to females. In every instance there was a nurse also in the room. Didn’t matter, HR told them if they want the drugs prescribed them.

I’m with Wrench on this one. We paid for our senior trip to Galveston with Turkey shoots, gun raffles, kissing booths and dances. Be kicked out of school on a permanent basis for any of those activities today, let alone taking a group to see how food is actually processed.

Our 2 dock group here at SK only has 9 boats in its total of 24 slips and I don’t think any of them have been off the lift all Summer. The Summer crowds have hit the road till next year around here for the most part. If the water chills down next week I think that will be almost the total end of the wakers. Dutch I totally understand your logic on non-retrieval of low cost baits. If I think there is a fish lurking in that jungle I usually will snap off a soft plastic and retie. I have never been an advocate of slight color changes. I fish color that conforms to conditions. I more acknowledge that a change of location is way more important than a slight change in natural lure color. Thousand and thousands of both guide and fishing trips have sent me in this direction. Not popular with bait manufacturers but pretty accurate. Don’t know if you all remember the old water color meters to select colors but the range was pretty easy to follow. Trout are a very good example. If your fishing in a location with trout present and you see them refusing the fly and you see a guy 200 yrds. down the river catching one every throw you assume he is using something they really want. 99 times out of 100 they are feeding there and if you moved next to him you would have the same results on the fly that is currently being turned down. I’ve had as many as 5 clients drift thru a stretch all with different flys and all be hooked up. Same thing with bass. Topwater prop baits, walking baits and wake baits, all hook up. I’ve also done as many as 4 different color drop shot worms all at the same time and the catch rate is the same on any. I can see if your fishing a small stretch of bank repeatedly or a small pond that changes where fish are seeing your presentations multiple times, it can and will make a difference. I just find it easier for me to slightly change locations instead of constantly changing bait colors. Bottom line is there are lots of ways to scale the same fish and what ever works best for you and you enjoy doing is the way to go. Love those James River post, keep up the good work guys. Good Luck.

23 sounds pretty good to me. Question, how in the world did you go through that many colors of shaky heads? I don’t think I have that many colors and were you just grabbing or intentionally changing colors? As Bill Beck would say, if they’re that onery I’ll just go play golf.

Ditto

Bobby, it was an older unit. I also borrowed it one time to look at fish under our dock. I’ve told this story before. There were 2 big walleye and a bunch of spots. We would drop live crawlers and they would just swim away from them. I think we dropped an entire 24 box and the crawlers were squirming around in the bottom and not a single fish touched them. We also dropped several crayfish but they would swim out of view so I don’t know if they were eaten or not.

Had a client drop a Falcon spinning rod with a Shimano Stella overboard off point 1. I immediately hit my gps and marked the location. With the help of a good friend and a free diver we found it within an hour using the Aqua Vu camera. It was hung in a tree 27 feet deep over about 40’. We could see it on the tree with the camera clear as a bell, but it took the diver quite a few tries to locate it. Water was super clear. That camera saved the client a cool grand as the diver would not have found it hung in that tree.

Guys, be really careful when messing with lines that aren’t yours. Lots on them are submerged and out of site, but really there are very few here. As you probably know, they can be marked with a conservative number you could write on a postage stamp. No longer is it required for you to put name and address, just that small number. I had a guy picking up my swim noodle float lines and watched him put them in his bass boat for 20 minutes. I was within site of the lines as they were not anchored. The trotlines can be left unattended. I approached him and he said he was cleaning the lake. Totally in the back of Mill Creek. Didn’t have a confrontation but I took his boat number and told him if he ever touched them or I any others again he was in serious trouble. Man, this water is big enough to share. If I get a hook in a trot line I simply get it out. It is against the law for me to run it or look for a conservation number. If it’s mossy and green you can call the agent, but it’s not my place to destroy something that cost that amount of money theses days and on top of that it’s against the law for me to mess with it. 20 years ago i May have thought different but now days I seem to look at things from others point of view. Good Luck out there.

Great report. Bass are really starting to shallow up the White from what I’m hearing. That oh so often magic 22’ to 26’ number that comes into play as the water hits the 70’s. Walleye bite has really slowed however as I think they start to also move this time of year Durn things start thinking about spawning when it’s still Winter and move up the creek and river arms really early If anyone is still on them let us know. Good Luck

Forrest was a bad guy. He got lots of play. If you don’t like Elvis music, don’t go. If you do you will like it. Both my wife and I really enjoyed it. There was a section in the middle when it was all about Forrest Gump that slowed it down but it was a 7,5 out of ten. Nice way to spend the afternoon with my wife. Date nite, lunch and a movie. Goes a long way guys.

Extremely well put RPS. Most of this fish are near impossible to see.

Ya, revisited my spelling and it is the a very similar definition of genre. Category of artistic composition, occupation, heritage of family roots or similar groups within a category, Jaunarajs. I like genre better, lot less work😜

Wife and I went to see Elvis during the rain yesterday. Movie is 2:39 hours long so potty before you go in. We had old dudes going to the privy multiple times around us. What a firecracker life that man led. Everyone took what they wanted from him and really he had ZERO financial sense. If any of you saw his live show, please chime in. It was said to be a life experience. After the movie I did some research on line, watching reviews of his voice by vocal professionals and coaches. He left them almost speechless and the women reviewer’s breathless. Read and watched one set of reviewer’s and their comments were “ perfect pitch, perfect note, perfect tone, perfect timing.”Voice was more than generational, one of the top two or three voices in history in any jaunarajs. “Hope I spelled that right.” In his early years he was described as Beautiful with a magnetism that melted women by the millions regardless of age to their knees. Even as late as 1977 in almost a constant drug stupor his voice was unwavering. His gospel renditions were extremely emotional, especially How Great Tho Are. He was described by women that watched him preform as a Stage Climber, meaning they would climb the stage just to touch him, married or not. 16 to 60, made no difference. Some of his reviews I watched yesterday were by young men and women of this our current time period and even these young 20 something women 45 years after his death melted listening and watching him on video. It’s funny, I was on the age of his latter time period and we considered him a bit to tame for our taste. We were 70’s Hard Rock kids. He set the stage for the music we enjoyed. I encourage everyone to watch the movie. Really a huge part of our American History.

I think you nailed it. At times I’m guilty. Never in a derby however, only fun fishing where all is fair in love and Bass.

Be careful of buying line in bulk or large quantities. It for sure has a shelf life. When I was guiding I’d buy 1000 yard spools and even then I could tell when I neared the end of a spool it was time to toss it. If you do buy a bulk spool or two, keep it in the house out of the sun in a climate controlled environment Good Luck

Bobby, for me this technique started way before FFS. The last few years it’s not been as good, but yes, you for sure could do it that way. At times however theses fish are stuck so hard to the bottom they are impossible to see with any type of underwater peepers. Dblades. I think I speak for most everyone on here. Bo is missed, that’s for sure.

On those Tennessee River impoundments the big deal the last few years has been long line cranking. Read an article of a local there letting out as much as 300 ft. Of line to crank/ pull the river ledges I’m thinking that’s about as close to trolling as it gets. Someone might know how to find the MLF rules on moving the bait. Either with the reel handle or a twitch of the rod. Jerk bait fishing is durn near strolling if the water is cold. The way I do the deep jig is with the boat in the 20/30/40’ range is to cast the 3/4 or 1 oz. jig as absolutely far as I can. As it’s sinking I usually open the spool and let additional line out. I’m constantly trying to put some additional movement on the jig by twitching or hopping it, but I do use the trolling motor to keep moving and I’m not reeling in line. Most often I’m letting out additional line. You need a heavy 7’2” or longer rod for this and at least 15 pound test line to get a good hook set. With a hooked fish out this far, take your time, you don’t want it to jump or it will sling out that heavy FB jig no matter how well you set the hook. This method is a great way to locate and catch fish from now to December. Some years way better than others. You can cover a lot of water and a lot of different depths. A 3/8 to 1/2 ounce Underspin will also work but most times not nearly as well as the jig. Also use as big a craw as you can find on the jig or even a baby brush hog. Those big Jaws want a big bait in the Fall. Lots of nice K’s and LM can be out there roaming with them too. Good Luck.

Don’t know about the upper james, but was thru Cape Fair 3 times yesterday and water was nice. Shell Knob and the White to Eagle Rock is clear. Bobby we we’re running around a lot and it seemed the rain was heaviest in Branson West, Reeds Springs area. Seemed really localized.

James, I thought the same thing. (Scary). The biggest Jaw ever for me was caught just across from Big M Marina over 20 years ago so that 6 plus pound fish kind of blew his theory. Didn’t weigh the fish pictured, but he was a whisker either side of 4 pounds. It’s getting pretty close to deep jig strolling time around KC for those big brown fish. Again Bo comes to mind, as he hated strolling. Personally I love it. Do miss him, he was our Table Rock Fishinwrench

Early the White is loaded above the Kings River bank to bank with Gizzard Shad on the surface.

Steven and I hit it for 3 hours this morning. Before he headed back to KC. Only 3 boats at the ramp when we launched and the same at 9 when we pulled out. Water is really clearing at Shell Knob with probably 7 to 10 ft. Of visibility. Surface temps this morning at 82 degree. Fished from SK to Carter Creek and we had 4 on a jig, one on a flutter spoon that was chasing and 2 on a drop shot. Only 2 keepers, one on the jig and the other on the flutter spoon. The flutter spoon fish was a dandy 18” K no picture, but I did catch this total toad of a Small Jaw on a jig. He was by far my biggest smallmouth of the year. Picture doesn’t do him justice he was black/brown with deep green stripes. Simply beautiful fish. Becky had French Toast and Sausage ready by 9:20 so it was a great morning on the water with the boy. Still way to hard and if he had not been here I would have left the boat in the storage unit. Back up North to place the towers we put together last week Good Luck.

Started at 6:30 out of the SK bridge. Surface temps at 80 even money. We saw a few chasing but not enough to throw at. Steven caught the only top water fish of the day on a Surge Shad, nice keeper K. I never had a sniff on a variety of top deals. Threw that jig today and I never had a look, but Steven caught 3 on it. Boat in 35 was best. Started to see suspended fish and me and the livescope came alive. I ended up catching 6 all small keepers and Steven caught another 3. Total was 13 fish done by 10:30. Nothing picture worthy. Surface still 80 degree when we came in. The deep DS fish were 30’ to 36 ft over 40’ to 45’ suspended.