Bill Babler

Ran out for just a minute yesterday to try a new prop. Launched at Baxter, and the water in the backs of the coves across from Baxter was at 50.1 so there is some warmer water out there. Be surprised if it stays there from the weather reports. Sound like a great day Dutch, thanks for the report.

Just guessing I would think a lovely chocolate brown.

In 3rd. grade we had a nun that would take down the boys pants and give them open hand whippings right in front of the class. Probably would not go over so much these days.

Kind of local slang for us. You will hear it called an Ice Minnow or an Ice Jig here most of the time. Whatever you call it the little guy catches deep fish.

Mostly none at all if they are immediately released to the water, they will return to depth and their bladder will deflate. If you are in a tournament you pretty much have to needle them. I think last week in the tournament it was almost entirely a deep tournament as Arigs were not allowed and there was only 1 dead fish. Most all the guys that fished it however were locals that know how to needle and handle deep fish. During practice last week, we were catching fish 80' and for me that is way deeper than usual. Most times in the Winter you can find them, at 40' to 60' but this year they have been deeper, regardless if there are shad present or not. Watch Pete's video from January 2nd. and he talks about this. Also the amount of singles I have seen up in the column is the most I have ever seen, and they have been over some extreme depth, suspended at that 30' to 70' over as much as 150 plus feet, just cruising. I believe he also mentions this. those cruisers will bite if you can get stopped and get on them quickly, but it isn't easy. Lots of those fish up in the column are big LM so its worth the time to try and catch them. Good report Dock

Shell Knob to Viney for me Yesterday with a client that wanted to deep fish. Started at 0700 and could find zero deep shad or deep fish. Really struggled. Water temps at Shell Knob 46 degree at Viney creek 43.9 Lake was up close to 2' and really muddy and full of floaters. Last Sunday during the Bill Beck tournament the water temp was 49 and gin clear. Had zero fish at 9:30 so we picked up the stick baits as a puff of wind was here and there. He caught a solid keeper spot on his first jerk bait cast and that was it. He did not want to throw the Stupid Rig as Buster Loving calls the A-rig so we started throwing a Ned around on the flat water and it suddenly turned a little crazy. All fish under 12 feet and we ended up with 10 keepers and a total of 15 fish on the Ned from 11 AM till 3 PM. Nothing big but a solid limit of 12 pounds or so. Heard also that they were wacking the underspin from Baxter to Shell Knob, right on the bank on pretty flat stuff. Lots of brown fish on that underspin. Chris Tetrick said they had 15 keepers on it. Fished mostly transition cuts with chunk and gravel, above Shell Knob, not steep at all. Bite was mostly sponge and just got heavy. You had better jerk if you even suspected a bite as it was extremely lite. Used a 3/16 head on the Ned, but could have gotten away with less. Found out where the deep shad had gone as they are right on the bank. We saw massive schools and with 10's of thousands of shad latterly right on the bank in mostly 10' and under. The schools were right on the surface and you could see shad from dime size to 3 inches in the schools all mixed together. They would just swarm under the boat, you could almost stir them with the trolling motor. Most of the fish we caught were spitting small shad very similar to Sprints, and were just chocked full of them. Good Luck

Fantastic, but if I had to look at the color palate all day I would throw up. I'm sure it has multiple color and he probably could not have chosen a worse one. Action however is fantastic. I'm hearing in 2019/20 both Garmin and Lowrance will have compatable trolling motors for their units so the trolling motor race is going to be insane.

I am very fortunate to be not only gifted lots of fishing tackle but also offered merchandise at both dealer cost and build cost. I have had reel bins with at this point probably 50 to 100 reels in them. If we are talking about spinning reels I have gifted reels from Plueger, Garcia, Lew's, BP. Shimano, Daiwa ,Quantum and probably about 1/2 dozen more brands out there, including Falcon, and yes they make a reel. The only spinning reels in my boats are Diawa and Shimano. For the lighter stuff 1500 to 2000 series ie the trout fishing I use pretty much only Diawa. Tactula and Certaite.I do have several Fuego's but they are the older versions and are still smooth as butter. All my bass spinning reels are Shimano 2500 to 3000 series size wise I'm using Stradic, Sustain and Stella. Have not tried the Exsence but will nab a couple of them this year. My spinning reels are my life blood and are used 300 days a year by people that for the most part don't know how to use them, or could give a flip what they do to them. Engaging the handle while baits are flying thru the air, cranking against the drag, dropping them all over heck's creation including in the water and treating them like a winch on a boat trailer. And yes this equipment is on the upper end quality and price wise I have spoken many times to the guys are BP reel service center both the guys taking in the reels and also the tech's. I usually will have 20 or so cleaned at a time and I will tell you the service is fantastic and the price is very competitive. To the man they will tell you every reel is judged by how it preforms against a Shimano or a Diawa. Every spinning reel is judged against a Stella and every bait caster is judged against a Steez. One of the guys told me once look in our repaired sales case and see how many different brands have failed. Do you see any Shimano or Diawa reels in our refurbish case? He said we sell thousands of them and 10's of thousands of reels. Very seldom do we every have any. I absolute love Lew's upper end reels and their Super Duty is as good as it gets for heavy stressful pounding, but when push comes to shove and grandma has left you a nice gift to buy an item that is your special treat or your one big splurge, that bait caster says across the front bar STEEZ that spinning reel says across the spool STELLA. With money most of the time being an eliminating factor you pretty much go from there. You will never be sorry you purchased the best either Shimano or Daiwa spinning reel you could afford. Good Luck

Guys, in the future please put this stuff on Buy Sell Trade. A short blurb is fine on the TR forum but any in depth advertising should go on the other forum. Thanks Bill

Totally agree. I have had good success on some of the gravel from the 86 bridge down stream for SM, but it seems when I get above the bridge I have caught very few. That long gravel run out point just down stream at the bluffend before you get to the bouy point across from RR has always held at times SM. Jaws here just love gravel. I get up steam of the bridge and its more LM than K's, for me especially on the deep winter channel swing cover. I do catch top water K's up there, but I rarely catch the quality of K that live between Campbell Point and Long Creek. I think it was in 2013 Bill Beck and I took a day in March and totally hammered the K's up there on a float n fly. We were looking for big LM. from Big M up, staging off the bluffends and we could not keep the K's off. All of the Bluffend points form the Bridge up to Holiday were totally polluted with them. None big, lots of 12 to 16 inch fish, but just crazy good fishing. I don't tend to get up that far in the Summer as most of my trips are Shell Knob downstream, but in the off season I simply love to fish from RR to the Beaver town Bridge.

You both would have probably been extremely disappointed.😅 At times I have had them blowing shad all around me and it was like i was not even on the lake, they could have cared less what I was throwing. Don't mind it so much if I'm by myself, but on a guide trip it is a bit embarrassing. At times they are so tuned to bait size and speed of the bait that no matter what you do, your chunking rocks. You accomplished the hardest part, you found them. and right now that is for sure hit and miss. Good Luck

Fish, that makes me think its about float n fly time.

Nope, they are Golden Eagles. They are noticeable larger than the Bald Eagles and somewhat easy to recognize even for a non-birder if you know what to look for.. They don't resemble an immature bald except for being a raptor instead of a vulture. Way to much yellow/buff on the Golden and the Bald darker to black. Golden Eagle has feathered legs and no white undertones while a immature Bald has white undertones under the wings on a much darker body that tends to run to black with legs that are unfeathered and can be yellow or an off white to grey.

Those fish are active and should have bitten. As has been mentioned you could have and probably did try two very different presentations. 1 an Ice jig and hold it completely still with very little movement. 2nd. and for the last several days I have been hearing reports of throwing a 3/4oz. under spin with a 2.8 in Keitech, letting it sink to fish depth and reeling it thru the school. In reality they are catching deep fish and I mean deep fish on an A-rig, letting it sink 50' and reeling it thru schools. Two really different presentation, with one moving and one stationary. Again as has been mentioned Christmas day they were chasing shad on the surface and would smack a small swim bait or a Ctail. And, on the other hand sometimes they just don't want to bite regardless of what we do. By the way, that is one of the best set graph pictures I have seen posted on here. You have the right receipt, for that 7. Clear, precise and not filled with clutter, if anything you could even turn it down a point or two, but that is about as right on as you can get it. Thanks for the post.

After that morning trip on Christmas at the dam and the stink up I had, I came home and warmed up a turkey dinner Becky had made for me and I just could not let it rest. At noon I jumped back in the truck and headed for Eagle Rock. Wanted to fish those deep river channel runoffs and see If I could catch a biggin or for that matter a fish. Was kind of surprised at the number of folks fishing, there had been no one at the dam. I saw at least a dozen maybe 15 different boats out. Did have one guy get way to close but when your fishing in the middle of the lake that's the way it is. It was slick as snot up there with surface temps above Eagle Rock at 45.6 and surface temps at Viney at 48 Caught 3 LM on a GP, 3/4 oz. Pig Sticker Quick 5 with a Nicholes Copper Craw in about 30 minutes on a mid-lake channel swing and then 2 smallmouth on the same jig at Viney. That was it. All keeps and just that. One of the LM might have gone 2.5 but that would have taken care of him. Fished till 5. Way to slick for the jerker or crank and I didn't want to throw the Rig. Did swim a Keitech a bit but no love. I did have a big fish on up the river, I banged into a stump with the jig and it got heavy I really leaned back on it and that fish took right off for deep water. I had it on for perhaps 10 to 15 seconds and it just came unbuttoned. Don't know but it had me bowed up and I could feel a big tail thumping. I have caught many, many over 5 pounds on that stump row. Randy knows the location. Just a good LM spot and at times a walleye or two, very seldom catch a spot up there and never a jaw. River channel bank is in 15' to 20' and falls vertical to 60' Top of the bank is lined with stumps, great spot and right in the middle of the lake. All 5 of my fish were in 15' to 25' right on the edge of the river channel. I looked off for suspended fish and fish in the guts of the channel, but didn't see any. There are lots of locations like that up the White above Rock Creek, and if a guy lived up there and spent time on the graph it is no telling what you would find. Trouble is fish catching gets in the way and its more fun to fish than look at electronics. Good Luck

Should have stayed n bed. There are shad from 30' to 130' I struggled with 2 swimmer keepers and 1/2 dozen shorts. Caught ever one of them either swimming a grub to surfacing fish or throwing a jigging spoon to surfacing fish, that were to far to throw the grub. Those chasers would without a doubt hit a top water lure. Surface temp 49 degree, visibility 20' conditions calm and slick. Fished from Gages to Beardsley Branch, but of course did not enter the creek due to licensing obligations.

Just a quick how-t-do. Kind of like Sprint had in the Kings a day ago, the bite main lake Knob was out of site if you could get any wind, even a puff. Launched at the bridge and fished from Play Port to San Succi on the main lake. Started with a custom Tim Hughes Pearl megabass and they were not having it. Water is easy 15' to 20' visibility. Really clear. Switched to a mega bass in clear Pro-blue and a Spro McStickin in Blue bandit and it didn't matter you were going to get bit. Nothing of size what so ever but a dozen swimmer keeps and many more both LM and K's on the jerker. Did not seem to matter the bank as long as it had a chop on it. As soon as the wind would die, so would the bite. Had to hop scotch around chasing it. Most all the fish were under 15" and I was not working it slow, just a constant short head turn on a continual basis. Bite was a strong thump and not a cold water hand shake. Started at 10 and quit at 3, and they were still biting on the wind. I did have a really nice chunky bank that I caught 5 fish in 5 cast on the jerker so I went back down it with the RK Crawler and no love. Picked up the McStick and caught one on the first cast. Not going to win a derby with my fish today, but just about as entertaining as you could want and I got to cast instead of drop. Becky ran off and left me to feed the cat and hold down the fort, so I'm right back out there again in the morning to see if they will bite at the dam like that. Merry Christmas Ya'll

3 days ago at the 86 bridge over the Kings on the way to Eagle Rock the Kings was Chocolate Milk. It has probably pushed down stream to near Happy Hollow. Maybe. With Sprint saying he started to hit it at deer bluff, you can assume its stained between.

As I mentioned the majority of this stuff was back in the Hayday. Still out there somewhat and Wrench was right about the warranty. I was told I would have to pay out of my pocket for repairs. This was to keep the warranty clear and be able to let the new buyer get the original warranty. Again, I was lucky and the dealership would fix it no charge to me or for cripes sakes when I was down here Fred would fix it. NC. Guys that had straight motor deals the motor company usually would pay parts and labor. As again mentioned way backin off that these days. All this has changed now as everyone buys the boats, even the big boys. Yes there are a few guys running around with D-tags but not much. If you look on FLW and BASS boats you will see state numbers and tags. As far as the warranties now of day they are so many years with more available for purchase that it is just enforced upon purchase no mater who buys it. All these guys have to sell their boats. Use to just turn them back in. This is all advertising and goes under that budget. Billboard, radio, TV or giving an on water test drive to 300 people a year that are fishermen, or seeing it with your favorite pro Who can say whats the best advertising medium. For sure advertising is built into the cost of every unit. Look at the Billions spent on car ads, that has got to get paid back somewhere. Forrest Wood started all this and every other boat company piled on board. It worked, they sold boats.

Thanks Jerry, In the 80 thru early 2000's there was probably not a dealership in the country that got as much attention. Every Bass Master Classic winner and every boat manufacture walked thru those doors, they knew everyone and treated everyone in a professional manner. To tell you how fortunate I was to tag along would take way more time of yours than I have wasted today as it is. Their friends were also their business associates to the likes of Gary Clouse, Alan Stinson, Forrest Wood Earl Bentz and Ron and Rick Pierce. That is some pretty powerful names in the fishing industry. It was said Johnny Morris made multiple personal attempts to get them to carry BP products, but it just never happened, as during that time span they felt they were caryring the finest fishing platforms in both Aluminum and glass in the world. Be hard to argue that.

Here is another memory. Joanne dropped BassCat and Ranger and went with Triton and Skeeter, I believe in the late 90's early 2000's. She always kept Stratos, That is most probably when Guido and Sport Boat became an item. I know she opened in 1982 and I don't think SB opened until late 80's. She also might just have had the motor deal with Guido or it is even possible and I cannot remember when the companies started writing checks instead of giving motors to Pro's. in 2008 I went with Champion but Guido was still at that time a fixture at SVM open house. Joanne was one of the most astute business people I have ever known. She did not have to borrow money or floor plan boats, you bought a boat from her and she got the entire kit and ka-bottle. Back in those days interest rates were high on toys and she was really in with about a dozen of the bigger banks in KC. I can remember her telling us at show meetings at times she was making 1 to 3 points on the loans people were getting from these banks, depending on their credit and terms of finance, plus the boat sales money. She could get people financed that really had no business buying a boat. Lots and lots of 15 yr. terms. As soon as they bought it they were way upside down. Is that irresponsible of her. Yes I think so, but she was not in the business of health care, she was in the toy business and if you wanted it and she could, she would put you in it. Also Joanne priced a boat and that is what it was. She sold more boats for way over the price you could buy them for if you shopped for better prices. She pretty much owned KC to Desmoines back in the day. For some unknown reason people just wanted to buy from a woman in the boat business, and also I will give her that her service was second to none. Her backdoor income thru the 90's was probably more than most boat dealerships in the Midwest were making thru the front door. She also sold Lund, Aluma Craft and Godfrey Pontoons. Mike White the Lund Regional Sales Rep had a territory from Michigan to Arkansas and had close to 60 dealers. He told me Joanne sold more boats for more money than anyone of those 60 dealers and KC at that time was not a deep V alum. market. Of course until Brunswick bought Lund, everyone of them had a Johnson or Evinrude on it along with the Godfrey Pontoons, which were way ahead of their time. I think it was 2000, I was working the KC Boat Show for her. Not the BST show but the Boat Show. Her display was to put it in a single word magnificent. I believe both Guido and Deon both were featured speakers at her siminar's. I was working the Lund Display as there was a ton of folks working the glass boats. I remember we had over 20 Lunds there and I think in the entire show she had close to 70 boats. Not heard of today. Me, Mike White, Tom Knox and Richard Viets sold a total or 28 Lund deals in those 2 1/2 days. Done deals with financing approved and cash deals. It was simply crazy. If memory serves me she had over 80 total sales for close to 2 million dollars in that 2.5 days. She had done really well at the KC Boats Sport and Travel Show a month earlier and sold close to a million in boats. She still had her March open house coming up and just thru those 2 shows she was over 3 million, in 5 days worth of shows. That was big time fishing boat and pontoon money 19 yrs. ago. With the internet and competitive pricing, those days are over. Cripes last year we drove to Dallas to buy a car. Sorry about the Rambling A bit of nostalgia.

At that time I don't think SB was much, I can't really remember them till Joanne gave up Ranger.. Joanne handled, BassCat, Ranger and Stratos. She at the time I believe was one of the Largest Johnson/Evinrude dealers in the country. Guido and Denny were always featured speakers at her Spring Open House. Don't know when Sports Boats opened but both Denny and Guido were big friends with Joanne and Catfish. I can even remember her having a boat or two of Guido's. Guido was Johnson and Denny was Evinrude. Don't remember any boats of Denny's but she did have some of his motors too. They pretty much for a while had Guido's motors most every year as she would buy them all from him and just write one check. Here is another deal. She would sell them as new and I think she got in some kind of a situation on that deal as that was for sure a No-No. Joanne at one time had so many new motors in boxes she had to build a warehouse. I remember she had another conflict of putting 3 yr. old new box motors on new boats. I guess on the first sale I have been told that the outfit would be registered as the year of the boat and not the year of the boat and the year of the motor. Interesting stuff.

This is going to be way back there, before the fish kill on the rock, back in the early 90's. We were catching big fish and I mean big LM up the Kings River , it was post spawn and the big females were really munching. Fish were biting a zoom Fish Dr. and we were catching 4-5-6 lb. LM like you catch perch. Jaws were really rare up there and I had a guy off Twin Rivers catch a Huge Carp. He swore it was a SM from the second he hooked it. It was a magnificent fight and pulled like a freight train. We had been catching these big bass and he swore it was 10 lb. Jaw. I don't know if I ever really convinced him it was a Carp. Back in those days of the bag phone we didn't have a camera. He wanted to take it in and I finely let him. Never heard from the guy again, but I'm sure he thought he had a lake record Jaw and his guide knew exactly SQUAT.

The eagles must all be up here on the Rock as they are absolutely thick in not only pairs but flocks. Big Creek day before yesterday had 8 sitting in one tree and there were at least a dozen more flying and sitting around. Guy I was fishing with guides up the James River and he said he has never seen the amount of Golden Eagles up there. Has been seeing at least a couple a day in conjunction with lots of Balds. Said twice he has seen Bald Eagles grab fish only to have the Golden Eagles take them away. We'll send some your way.

Duck, your getting as bad as Buster. If there is a walleye anywhere near you, its going to get a hook. Great trip with friends and fantastic pic's.