Bill Babler

Launched the same location at 0500 and I was the 7th. rig in the lot. You can get about 20 in that lot and tomorrow you had better get there before 0400 if you want a place to park. From what I'm hearing there are 3 small derby's tomorrow and that will pretty much take care of Cow and Mill Creek. Do'n't think they will be at H. but none the less I'm trouting tomorrow and back to H on Sunday. Bite with totally stupid this morning from Baxter toward Point 9 with fish in front of the bushes willing to catch the Keitech on the fall. I'm guessing well over 30 keepers but nothing over 2.75 pounds. About 50/50 jaws and K's. I never saw a fish chase this morning but once you hooked one a boat load would follow it in. The hooked fish would spit shad and craws along side the boat and his buddies would swallow them as soon as they came out of his mouth. Kind or grose but pretty neat. Only caught 2 on topwater, and it was hard to throw where I was fishing due to small debris on the water in chopped up grass and leafs. Wake bait was out of the question and a spook and yellow magic would still get crud on the rear hook after a few head turns. The Keitech in 2.8 and 3.3 if fished correctly along with the ned has revolutionized the way we bass fish on the Rock for the past at least 7 yrs. That small swim bait is a total monster right now and you can simply catch all you want to catch on it. I'm lighting it right in front of the bushes 7 to 10 ft. right now and quickly picking up my slack to let it fall on a tight line. I'm fishing a 1/4 oz. head and letting it drop to the bottom and then slow winding it back to the boat and that today was in 20' to 35' depending on the lake location. When I am ready for another cast the bait is usually coming straight up so, I mean reel and pull it slow. I'm fishing it on 5 lb. Maxi and 6 lb. Excel with about the same result. The Maxi cast further and the longer the cast the more time the bait can spend in the strike zone so that is important. I'm not going to say if your can't get bit on a swim bait right now you should take up golf, but it is pretty durn close and has been for 2 months. I did try and power fish a bit with a buzz bait and a blade but, no luck and I was getting a little twitchy being that close to the bank so I retreated. Good Luck

I'm not for sure he is brimming with disposable income at the moment.

When I was in college there was a boat dealer right on the strip in Branson where the 1st. walmart used to be. They had Stinger Packages lined up in every color with 70 hp Evinrudes that were paint matched to the boat. They had orange and black ones that looked so friggin mean. Would have sold the 1st. born back then to have had one.

Hate to see it. Another iconic name in the fishing industry going by the wayside. For the first 30 years of my life Johnson/Evinrude was pretty much all we had, including my stint on the MSWP and all our rental boats at the folks marina.

Was not referring to you Dutch. I was also referring to the question. Sorry for the confusion.

From my point of view its better to keep your mouth shut than say bad things about folks. Except "Bass Pro" and I have mellowed on them to a point.😃 John is good people, tells you what it cost up front and that is what it is.

Just checked the H hwy. launch off 39 hwy toward Shell Knob. Dock in place and launching off the parking lot. Lower road is OK. Max slots is 16 truck trailer rigs It is pretty tight at that launch faculty and really possible to get a ding on either the truck or trailer. Launch and leave your rig at your own risk. After seeing whats coming I'm sure it will go over the road. It was only several inches from the bottom of the road at 930.3 At 931 it would be unusable. Shell Knob got an inch this afternoon and it looks like Bull Shoals is just getting pummeled. Looking out the front of the Lodge facing East I can see South to North and East. It is solid Black/Purple in the area of Lead Hill, Diamond City, it just looks horrible.

Bobby that is the H hwy ramp off 39 S. of Shell Knob. Trouble is the road going into the ramp gets flooded. I'm going over right now to check it and Cow Creek. Might launch at one or the other in the morning and don't want to take the boat and have to back the trailer a 1/2 mile if its closed.

Baxter ramp is currently blocked. To tell you the truth, your going to have a tough time getting in the pond right now in that area. Kimberling City is probably going to be your closest ramp. There are a few fish getting out and I mean a few starting to think about a drop shot with live bait but I would not want to count on it. Really not the time due to water conditions to have a boat full of young ones. If it were me I wold do a couple of things. I would try and catch some gills and I would try and set some either limb lines or trotlines or play with some jug lines. Depending on your lodging if its on the lake once you get your boat in you might be able to keep it at their dock if they have one. Otherwise it will be long drives and lots of in and out. Fishing has been really good early and I mean early 5 to about 8 on top water. After that we have been swimming a small swimbait in the locations they were rising chasing shad. There are other bites also but not for children.and these are target fishing bites in the flooded bushes, yards and shoreline timber. Look for chasing fish early and try and stay with them as long s possible. You can also at times in the right location find some on a ned in front of the bushes on the gravel flats, these are mostly smallmouth and again you need to be a bit of a fisherman, this is really hard for kids as it is not a bite a minute, it is just a few bites. Hope they will start getting out on the flooded points in a few days in and staying schooled. You can start the search in 15' and move out to 20' plus on a drop shot or just have the kids hang a drop shot over the side as you fish for top water schooling fish if you can find them. Good Luck

They are saying right now at 5:30 this morning that TR lake level is 930.10 and Taney is 707 with one unit and no release rate. I really don't know how much you can count of the data in this type of situation. They are also saying that Beaver and Bull Shoals are within inches of flood pool and Table Rock is about a foot below. We will see, I'm headed for Taney in an hour.

It was tough yesterday one of the guides that was out, called and told me it was his worst day ever on Taney. Phil and I were out a couple of hours and only caught a few.

Great points. Between that and the increase in the numbers of docks and the locations of the commercial docks at the marina faculties, Winter draw down is now pretty much a thing of the past. Lots of money and politics involved.

Fished with Phil for about an hour this morning. His thoughts were that not enough rain fell in the basin to put TR dam into a open gate situation. He thinks TR will have to hit 931 prior to opening any gates. If the increase is as gradual as it is they can probably handle it with the turbines. That is just an educated guess however and at this point TR is not rising fast and it has a foot and a half to go to 931. 4 units are running at 5 PM and no gates. Since 3 pm Beaver has risen about a 1/4 of an inch and Table Rock about 3/4 of an inch so the rise has slowed down. Lets just hope we don't get any down pours the next few days, and we will be OK.

Was just getting ready to head to Taney to see what was going on about 7:30 and the sky just opened up. Looked at radar and there was a small green blurb over us that was no bigger than a speck. it just came down like water out of a bucket for at least 20 to 30 minutes. Suns out now. It seemed to rain here last night from 11 pm till about 2 then stopped and then this small cloud burst. I think small short rains are happening a lot of places and it is just more filling the cereal bowl. Still headed to Taney maybe later this morning.

Maybe I need to rephrase that.

Thanks Quill. The only ramp we have available now is Cow as old 86 park is closed. Cow is about 15 minutes. On another note, we are a adult faculty and don't for the most part allow Children. Most folks that are staying with us are vacationing from their children and the other guests that are here don't want to hear someone else kids. We have tons of amenities but they are geared to adults. Thanks

Parking lot at Eagle Rock would work. Housman is just to far up for most, and that Holiday Island is a bugger to get down to unless your a resident Thanks, good thoughts

At 929 or there about's at sunup, whats the options? Cow Creek for sure Mill Creek H. hwy. maybe as the lower road going into the ramp floods over. State Park Moonshine Beach Back Ramp at Aunts Point 18 up the White and Kings Rivers may not have any, unless I'm forgetting something up there. Campbell Point off the parking lot may be good. I usually fish that parking lot in high water, but I'm guessing it will work.

Table Rock has come up about 4" since 9:30 this morning. That's about 1/2 inch an hour. We have had 3 total cloud burst here today, not raining long, but just pouring and it looks as if it has been that way over the entire basin with more coming. Long range weather radar map is green, orange and red.

This morning at 9;30 Bull Shoals is 1.04 below flood pool, Table Rock is 2.64 and Beaver is at 3.25 feet. That's getting really close with all the rain that is projected for this week. Even if we miss most of it we are still going to get wet.

Sounds like a Great trip to me. I'm sure that there was not as much pressure for sure. Nice report, thanks.

There was a Biomass at the Cooper Creek Launch Ramp this morning that was amazing. I've probably never seen that many of just masses hanging all over the area, just 10's of thousands. There were at least a 1/2 dozen pods that were 4' by 6' Just incredible.

There are several thoughts on catching chasing or busting fish. There are locations on the Rock that year after year hold them. There are also locations that you see them once and then never again. And, even some of the old standby's don't produce. Best if your just fishing an area and see them blow and hop right over there. Some of the guides, myself included will start at day break and just run until we find them. I'm sure I'm running past locations that they will break sometime during the morning, but I'm also looking for fish that are active and currently feeding. Example the other day I launched at Mill Creek, at Kinberling City and found them breaking off the swim beach at Campbell point. Phil Stone launched and caught them breaking off a flat past the Baxter area after launching at Mill Creek, also KC. Another day I found them just going nuts off the runnout at Point 16 after launching at Cow Creek, so at times we play for pay guys are keeping the hammer down till we see them. I'm pretty confident now till mid-June i can find them most any morning surfacing if I will just put in the time looking. That might mean running 25 miles in a single direction. That's 30 minutes of no catching, but once you find them chasing this time of the year you can have 2 hours of solid action both on top and then on a swim bait or a bottom bait. Oh, you can also pull a No Seeum and think OOP's I goofed. Naw that never happens. "RIGHT" Good Luck

Phil Stone said he counted between 60 and 70 boats right at the Fall Creek Line this morning. Robbie Dotson said there was someone on everything good and a ton of people on stuff that was bad. Said TR was pretty much unfishable by 0800. It is a holiday weekend

I really have the same view as Champ, you can have everyone of them in the lake as far as I'm concerned. Most often they were put in locations that held fish too begin with and then made that location totally unfishable and for the most part the divers will tell you any that remain are total nest of huge flatheads and they see very, very few bass around them and of course they were also meant for crappie and of course they are totally non-existent on any of them. Far as I'm concerned waste of water space. on the White River.