Bill Babler

Pete mentioned last week in his report the 6th. Sense Wake Shad. Theses have been out a while and discussed here. I just want to reiterate how well they work. That along with a 90 to 105 series Berkeley Chopo are really fool proof topwater fish catchers. We all have folks coming down that don’t fish much this time of year and those baits a really fool proof. Throw it out reel it in and don’t jerk and you have it. I have these set up on Medheavy 7’2” spinning rods with a good 2500/3000 series reel with 30/40/50 braid and your guests have a really easy way to catch them. Also doing fantastic on a 3/8th. Underspin up the James on the not as clear water. Clear water forget the spinner and just use a small swimbait really slow thru the bait or on the bottom. With this last rise we have caught some out of the bushes. Don’t go down a bank trying it. Points, secondary points and steep cuts. Your just wasting your time fishing down a bank. Water temps from 64 to 68 but rising. Shad and carp on the bank. Also got a report from a friend and his wife they are hammering the kitty’s on jig lines using perch. Channels and f. Heads. Good Luck.

Great report and nice fish. Thanks much.

I’m trying to🤗 I still have a few trips in the books and some obligations to previous sponsors. I also have some guys here on the forum I’ve been putting off that I need to get out there, that I just love fishing with. It’s pretty tough right now with the gas. Just pull the boat to the ramp, fish and put it up and you have spent over $100.00. Last week I did have a couple of days of the best topwater I’ve had in years. Stayed up for over 3 hours 2 days in a row.

Launched off H Hwy this morning at 4:38. I was 3 rd. Only about 15 rigs when I got back to the ramp. Guided the lower James today 21 fish 6 keeps nothing big. All on a Ftball jig

Great day. I fished the swim beach a couple days ago along with the flats between there and Baxter. Caught them like crazy on the 2.8” Keitech with boat in 30’. Also caught quite a few Gog’s on a split shot. Spoke to a guy flipping bushes and he had zero catches. I sat out 100 yrds. Behind him and caught 4 keepers between his boat and mine. He saw me catching and came out. He was throwing a white chatter bait in the bushes and a jig. Had caught almost nothing for the last 3 days. Check out Pete’s report and he tells you EXACTLY what’s going on. I mean EXACTLY…. Good Luck

Spent the nite in Joplin Rained all day yesterday and came home just now thru Aurora. Came down 39 and passed over Flat Creek. It looked like the Missouri River, running at lest 7’ to 10’ high.

Devan. CC is not a good place for Gog’s. I’m going to say old 86 C. Ground to point 9 on the White River. I will tell you it has NOT been a good year for Goggle Eye and this has been discussed here on the forum at great length. On a brighter note I did get all over them a couple of days ago on the flat across from Big Creek, which is notably up stream from where I mentioned as a cut off. I think I had 9 and was not targeting them in the least. I was fishing a split-shot rig with a 4 inch Yamamoto slim senko for bass. They were huge and I tossed them all back. Full of eggs and I believe they were spawning on that flat. Perhaps the Gog’s are just running late as the water is still mid 60’s. They were in the 12’ to 18’ depth range mixed in with the spotted bass. On another note, yesterday we caught spotted bass that were spawning up the Janes 8’ to 15’. Full of eggs with red tails and extended business. We were on a flat that was just covered with them, so they are still actively at work. And if you can go anywhere THIS year and catch them you are the man, as THIS year they have been EXTREMELY scarce. Good Luck.

Picked up my truck Thursday at Lebanon and drove to SPFG in a pouring rain. There are some pot holes in 44 you could lose a simi in. That Hwy. is a total disaster. It,s grooved also, and I’m guessing from Joplin to St. Louis needs a billion dollars plus to repair. Im staying off it from now on.

7:45am. Coming down so hard here at SK I can’t see the front of my deck. Wind and some pea size hail too i guess it’s monsoon season

I’m at Lake O. And like Wrench said we could see it lightning and hear it clear up here 150 mikes away. Unreal. Becky is at Shell Knob and said she has never seen rain like that for that long. 2 and a half hours of waves of rain. Glad we got to watch it from up here.

I have a clarification on the crappie harvest. 99% of keeper crappie are kept. Not 99% caught. I thought that sounded strange the way I wrote it. Back to grammar school🤪🤪 On another front Shane and his team are in the middle of a 2 year flathead study, with the results being very good. Totally under utilization of this hard fighting delicious fish. He told me divers are finding them in 75% of the structure they planted several years ago. I think we all pretty much suspected that. He also pointed out that yes they are stocking walleye in the James River if they have a surplus. I believe he mentioned 90,000.

Wow, haven’t seen that but I don’t do Facebook. I will say there are guide business cards all over the place that I have no idea who they are. Good thing I retired to make room for them. 🤪🤪🤪

Just simply a great post. Thank you. personally I was totally shocked to hear that 99% of keeper crappie were harvested each year in Table Rock Makes you wonder if any type of a flub up In nature with only a 1% cushion is mighty close. Of course that’s keeper, not total population. I think Shane told me they are keeper size in 2 years and have a life span of 7-8 years. I will say again the brush and shoreline is brimming full of bass fry.

That’s a pretty tough one. I think most folks are just pulling up on the ramps and letting their bow protectors rest on it. Word of caution remember all the riprap work the corps did around the ramps. You can really make a bruise on that stuff Good luck.

Thru current sampling both MDC and ANR I believe have thought the natural recruitment was enough to keep the fishery vibrant. These guys got it going so I’m not going to dispute their scientific findings quite yet as the numbers seem very strong for keeper, short and trophy walleye and I’m calling trophy 6 lbs. and up. Last year bass fishing my clients caught more short walleye than I’ve ever seen, and very few of that number were caught on live bait.

Becky and I have been hiking and walking a lot since January. I’ve gone from 205 to 176 pounds. Also been on a very low carb diet and limiting sweets. BP has gone from 140 over 90 to 122 over 76 so exercise and diet really help. Since we moved to Shell Knob we have been walking the old park at Big Bay. About a 1.5 Mile asphalt road thru the old camp ground. Point being several trails empty into the lake and I’m seeing just thousands of bass fry at any location that the trail hits the water. Looks like a monster hatch. We have also been hiking at Pilots Knob this is a 2.5 mile moderate hike with 3 pretty steep climbs. Trail is located on 39 Hwy. N. of Carr Lane about 2 miles on your East. Very expansive with fantastic rock formations and lots of nature. No water to cross. We saw 11 box turtles day before yesterday. We have also seen pig tracks, and black fur we believe to be bear. Not sure but have no other idea what it might be. Have only seen 3 sets of other hikers so it is a great hike for those interested We are going to explore some hikes in the Mark Twain National Forest but most you have to either cross or wade water Becky doesn’t like to get her tootsie wet If anyone would like to hike Pilot Knob with us give me a call we would love to have you We have been going early and I get to go first and get all the spider webs in my face🤪 Good Luck

MONEY!!!! Millions and millions of dollars.

Might have had another durn good recruitment year with the Kings and James being very hard to fish due to the high muddy water. I think they like lots of water going over their redds and it kept anglers from catching many females. Goes back to what Anderson, said keep 1, keep 2, eat them fresh, but don’t try and fill a freezer. The procession limit is really outdated and antiquated. Procession and daily should be the same according to Bill.

Just got some more info from Shane and I was correct on the Shad in the tail race. No temperature spikes that would have killed them with their location in the water column. No one is stocking walleye currently but there has been great natural recruitment in the Kings, White and James River these past few years. Shane said Bill Anderson is responsible for the James. Really good work by both states. On the crappie front there was not so much an overall population decrease but keeper size crappie are being harvested pretty much as soon as they are keepers. Lots of pressure According to current information at a rate of 99% of 10” crappie and above. Shane said they grow extremely quickly to the keeper plateau, but that sounds like folks are working on them to me. On the Goggle Eye front he said, very similar to Smallmouth, in the fact that they are very hard to sample and not enough data to really say anything about populations. See, I did remember. Hope this clears a little murky water.

I really should have asked a bit more about the walleye, but I think on the Rock Arkansas is responsible for that aspect of the improvement. I also should have asked about goggle eye as it has been mentioned that they are just flat not showing up to speak of where in past years you could be extremely successful using a Ned, small tube or small swim bait. Really scarce this year. As far as the Shad most guides reported seeing massive schools this Winter at times covering acres in the backs of the major creeks. I don’t know how much Shane would know about that forage base with their shallow fish sampling. I’m very interested in his upcoming age study. I think that perhaps in the future it could alter some length restrictions. It will also provide information on the forage base in letting the scientists know if the fish are receiving adequate amounts of forage for age growth. I asked Shane about the Shad last year also when we were having a kill and he responded that extreme rises in surface temp will also quickly kill the Shad as it did last year. This year we were cool for the most part and really as the Shad moved into the upper water column had no really significant temp falls or raises. I’m just spitballing on that, but from what he said last year I’m going with it.

First I’d like to thank both Shane Bush and Bill Anderson for spending some time with me. Shane spent about an hour today. ie our current biologist and our retired one. Cannot begin to tell you how good these two and their teams have been. In visiting with Shane about sampling it’s kind of eerie how close their sampling is to the day to day activity we see while guiding. Shane said their sampling shows black bass at an all time high number. It also shows the fish are under tremendous fishing pressure. As with the guide fish. About 4-5 out of ten we catch have been caught and released. He said their sampling is showing the same thing. Both he and Bill agreed that if keeper size bass were kept with the frequency of white bass or crappie, the fishery could not tolerate it. This is simply due to the amount of fishing pressure on the bass population. 98% of all fishing on TR is for bass. Take Lake O or Truman for example and both are about 50% panfish and 50% bass. Both Truman and Lake O. have it up on us because both have larger densities of crappie and both have a kicker with blue catfish Knowing that bass are seldom consumed is part of their lake plan as far as creel limits on and of our larger lakes and especially on TR simply due to the volume of fishermen targeting them. With Shane right now more of a concern with the bass seems to be a lack the last several years of larger bass seen during their sampling. As I mentioned numbers are strong but size is a problem. Even with the majority of bass being released and high forage densities in the lake the bass are just not as big as what he feels they should be. He also said he is getting ready to do a very intensive age study so hang on for that information. In visiting he is also more and I won’t say concerned, but interested in crappie densities and also white bass densities. They seem to both be edging downward. Of course since the pandemic both have been under way more pressure. The lack of numbers of white bass seemed to be the most interesting to him, on both BS and TR. Crappie fishermen keep legal size crappie, With very few restrictions on white bass most that are caught are kept. Modification may be necessary in creel limits for both crappie and white bass Both Bill and Shane spoke of the pressure on the resource and Bill mentioned that consumption is a big part of conservation, but filling the freezer with white bass and crappie is pretty much a thing of the past if you want to continue with a healthy ecosystem. Saving more than your position limit of crappie or white bass after multiple daily fishing trips for that yearly fish fry is not only not legal, it really puts a bind on the fishery. It was mentioned that the daily limit should be and may be in the future your position limit. The amount and the number of big bluegill was also mentioned in both BS and TR. I forgot to ask about the goggle eye. I mentioned the walleye and how well that fishery has become but did not get any response. Probably get a lot better answer from the Arkansas guys that are doing that work. All for now, Good Luck

Here is basically the deal. Steve is a great poster and everyone here knows he at times consumes some bass. His legal right by far. The question here is for the most part why post pictures or tell about it here on a board that is 99.9% catch and release. This has absolutely nothing to do with tournament fishing, nothing. This lake however is pummeled by not only tournament fishermen but day to day pressure, with 99% of it directed to black bass. Most importantly let me reiterate here for those that don't know or for those that have forgotten. Table Rock lake is NOT STOCKED nor has been with black bass (One of Bo's greatest annoyances.) Here is another point, you have a group of mature friends that appear to be able to afford a ham hock for their beans, why come to the lake and kill pre and spawning bass? Makes zero sense. I just don't understand it. For cripes sakes if you just have to kill something put out a couple of trotlines and harvest some catfish. Completely underutilized resource. We love our posters here, but keep in mind you are on a board that practices catch and release on black bass. Volumes of information is provided here, for like in kind. If your observing the game laws it is your prerogative to do as you wish. Please don't post it here. There is no need to create controversy. Thanks everyone and have a great season.

Great day Dave. Your having another great vacation. Quick report from Phil Stone on today. He was having a really good day in the dam area with a single client this morning. Long runnouts using a 2.8 Keitech and catching good jaws in 15' Out of the corner of his eye he saw a huge boil in the middle if the lake. Told his client to sit down and headed that way. Of course the one acre feeding frenzy was over when he got there, but he followed that school of shad, black bass and white bass for over 1.5 hours and they never resurfaced again the entire time. They could not get away from his Lowrance Active Target. Said he has no idea how many he and his client caught but could have never achieved that type of success without his FFS. Said in all his years he has never been able to follow fast moving fish like that, usually a couple and done, never an hour and a half and a 1/2 mile circle. He said the FFS turned a nice day into a lifetime memory for his client, as well as himself, a seasoned guide. My son and I had a very similar day last year on fast moving suspended fish that only came up once. Carry On.

Fantastic update right from the fishes mouth. Thanks Dave.

Just a quick hearsay report from a couple of guys that fished today. Ie, guide buddies. Both reported multiple fish per location, with all of course on the little swimbait. Long gravel run outs at the mouths of spawning coves. All 3 black bass species and 50/50 mix of pre and post spawn. Some topwater early on lucky locations, mostly cove mouths suspended fish. Said they had their boats in 30 plus and the fish on the bottom and suspended in the 12’ to 20’ range. Said they could see them on FFS Also got a report of Shad in the back of some pockets with chasers, but not real reliable on this report. These guys are pulling in on points, turning on the FFS and looking. If they don’t see them they don’t fish. One guy mentioned his trip didn’t fish for over an hour till he found them just riding and looking. He said if you look you will find groups. His best spot they caught 17, mostly keeps. Just reports from friends, as I’m off the water with the truck in the shop Good Luck