Bill Babler

I had all the intentions of going fishing this morning, but 12 degree at 0600 talked me out of it. Maybe in the morning, as it might get over 50 tomorrow

Might check with Chompers

Count both the wife and I in on that one. Thanks, great pictures.

You just knocked out Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner all over the world. Tell your wife not to use bacon, mushroom soup or onions in any of those dishes and she will probably tell you to go fishing.

I've really never had bacon with the duck so I don't know. True dry or wet aged beef and I"m not talking 2 or 3 weeks, I'm talking 45 days minium has a bit or an aroma or a mold smell to it. A few years ago one of our good friends took both Phil and I out to Surf and Sirloin in St. Louis. if I remember I think they dry age 60 to 90 days and I don't think Phil thought it was the best he ever had. I simply loved it. I bet Ducky has some great ways to cook duck.

There are lots of ways to prepare it. My brother-in-law makes a pate from the liver and breast meat, grinding them together to almost liquid. He then fries the meat mixture in duck fat and sesame seed oil with red, green, yellow onions, garlic, ginger and several other spices and condiments. Puts that in a blender and liquefies it. Pours it into a terrine and puts it in the fridge to make a loaf. To serve he puts the loaf on a plate and covers with olives slices. His is hard enough to slice but I have had it with less firmness that you just spoon onto crackers or fancy bread or toast pieces. Serves this on holidays and the plate is licked clean. Crispy Duck Breast pan fried in sesame oil to Med rare with fat still on the breast. My wife loves duck and they are now serving it a the Osage House and most 4 and 5 star restaurants. Not to mention all Chinese restaurants. She orders it all the time. If it is not served in a pate, it is always served rare to med rare. If you don't like venison or aged beef it is probably not going to fit you. Duck is very close to the taste and consistency of both.

Hunters have not been out the last 2 days, so I guess they may be done. It was really great hearing them every morning, gave me something to look forward to during this cold spell.

Eagle Rock is also in fine shape, so I think your OK about anywhere you want to launch.

Really, or do I know better?

I would assume fish are like any creature living in the wild. Especially since they are preyed upon and not just a predator. Take for instance Quail and Pheasants, that can have a life span of 4 yrs. in captivity but in the wild 2 yrs. From birth thru that period there is a 80% yearly mortality. I'm sure rabbits fall into close to the same category. During reproduction and Winter are stressful along with the loss of fry, it would seem a very reasonable number that at least 35% mortality would come from natural causes. Really I would assume it would be much higher. On another note, no shots fired this morning so I guess my hunters didn't make it out.

Man, those are chunks. Thanks for the report for us guys that are just to lazy to get out there. No bass boats in the Clevenger/Beardsley stretch the last 2 days except the smooth bore bird hunters.

And that folks is why its nice to have a biologist on your web site. Thanks much Jeremy

I think they are all done this morning. Most shooting I've heard to this point It was pretty continuous for about an hour. Had to have filled their limits. The waterfowl must have really flown this morning. How much longer is the season in this Southern Zone?

I was going to run in there, but there were two Lund type boats fishing the flat roll off at the mouth and i just didn't want to run by them. Lake is pretty big this time of the year and I went down stream. Did talk to one of the Lund crew at the ramp and they said they had 3 short bass and 1 short walleye trolling deep divers slow on that flat.

I'm sure their guns are correctly plugged, they seem to be very professional. 8 shots is most I have heard in any volley, most often 4 to 6. 8 shots seems to be on the weekend, so they probably have an additional gun hunting with them. Let you know what they do this morning if their out. Ouick Edit. just heard them at 7:10. 5 shots so they are out again.

1-21-19 Goose hunter out again today in full force. First volley at 6:50 a 6 shot barrage followed by another volley of 8 shots about 10 minutes later. Another burst at about 0800 of 4 shots and that was it for this morning. No boats today, the wind is blowing 3 plus footers down this stretch. I'd pay cash money to know who these die hard guys are. What time do you have to get up to get your spread out and get set up if your shooting that early? They have to be locals coming out of a dock cause they hunt everyday and the ramps were solid ice the last couple of days I would have to go to bed by 5 pm to be on their schedule

Fish, if you had of caught them on a jerker again you would have had a passenger on your next trip. After seeing your fish I just had to get up there so on my battery trip to Battery Outfitters I just knew I was going to wack them I really think the cat has been in my stickbait box as they just "No Likey them."

In reality this is one of the finest groups of guys I have ever been around. All he would have had to have done was come on here and introduce himself. Let us know a little about himself and tell us he loves to fish Table Rock and would be happy to let us know how his trips are doing. We welcome everyone with open arms. Instead we got a ghost writer and recommendations from unknown sales persons and critiques on locals that give extremely valuable timely information. Probably not the best first impression. If Mr. Gibbons wants to come on and tell us about himself I will guarantee you he is more than welcome and we would be glad to tell him the little bit we know and would for sure gain knowledge from his experience. Mr. Gibbons, please come on board, we welcome everyone with a love of the Rock.

Last volley today was around 0900. 3 shots I think. The guys had a pretty good shoot as that was the 4th. time I heard them pull the triggers. I think they shot at least 24 rounds, maybe a couple of more. No bass boats this morning yet. If you guys remember about 5 yrs. ago I saw an Otter come out of a pontoon canvas cover. I looked inside and it was totally destroyed. Brand new boat and not a quarter size piece of any of the seats left. Just full of manure and fish parts. Completely totaled out. Critters

You really do want to be pretty quick with them. Some of these fish however are coming way up in the water column, going up and down and down and up. The other day in Viney they were right at the top of the column. A week or so ago they were 70'. When those guys come up you got to get them back quick or needle them. Nothing to do with any of that, but on MLF the other day they said the average time the fish was out of the water with them was 28 seconds. Man, that is just terrific.

The absolute messes that the geese make especially to you all with boats and covers stored in docks is unreal. It's already up to 22 so it is warming nicely with the sunshine. Lots of mist coming off the lake, it is simply beautiful out there. On CHIEFS SUNDAY.

Sunday morning at 0700 19 degree and the duck/goose hunters are really banging this morning. Have heard 2 volleys of at least 8 to 10 shots per volley. I'm thinking there are at least 3 of them. If these guys can shoot a lick they should have killed gosh only knows how many this month alone. As far as I know they have only missed 1 or two days the entire month. I'm just so impressed with these guys.

Fooled you didn't I. It's 4:35 here at the Lodge and I just saw the first bass boat of the day. 20 degree here and I know the ramps are iced so it must have came out of a dock. Flew past with high rooster tail headed under the Long Creek Bridge. Duck and Goose hunters were a no-show today for the first time this year. Oh Bless the of strong heart and soul.

With friends out of any business situation, most regardless of slang, abbreviation, spelling or incomplete structure are pretty easy to interpret. I'm not real up on my emoji's and that is where I struggle if the text is a complete emoji and I have received many of those. Back to Fissin Oops

Got this text yesterday. BP TOC ML Fstb Humong Sl DK Friend of mine telling me he was at Bass Pro's tournament of Champions and Mark Liddell just got the ball on a fast break and had a Monster slam dunk. My sons a chemical engineer and his texts are not even close to being as informative or literate as the one above. Text are just very age specific. Kind of like new math, you get it or you don't. In my case I'm so stupid I can read it fine.