Bill Babler

That is one beautiful jaw😃👍

Got out today at 3PM. Thats right, late deal for me. Launched at Eagle Rick and fished till 6:30 Surface temp at 56+ degree and 7 to 8 ft visibility on the White Spoon test. Not the dam clear but really nice water. Fished from ER To Viney. 5 stops and caught them good on all 5. Not the quality as yesterday at the dam, but man oh man they just hammered the baits When I had any wind they hit the Jerker and on the flat water they snarfed the A-Rig like they owned it I’m like Jason Christie. When I’m fun fishing if it’s legal I’ll use it and the strikes right now on the AR are bone jarring. I’m going to say in 3:30 I had 15 bass, one crappie, one walleye and ten big sow white bass. Just a hoot. On a sad note. I lost one of my Tim Hughes baits. I’m going to say it was at the White bass hole and either a big white or a Walter as I had the fish on for about 15 seconds and then it went limp, the line that came in looked like you had whittled on it. I knew I would jinx myself by saying I had not lost one Hope this weather is not as severe as they are talking. Could not get the fish to load not a big fish, just what I was catching today Good Luck This post has been promoted to an article

Hound Dog works great. I have mine on a retractable dog leach and that helps

Nice mixed bag. Buster had a fantastic bag as did T. Sainato, both having fish over 5 lbs. I know Buster has really been onJerk bait fish on Tim Hughes Custom Baits Im fishing a pearl megabass 110 plus with a custom off orange bottom and a sparkle clear coat. I changed several times yesterday and always came back to it with the best results i love fishing that Spro thru the trees as the damage is not nearly so bad when you lose it, but right now I just can’t get them to eat it Im sure Buster is on a very similar color pattern. In the clear water the blues, pearls or translucent baits are by far the best. Im fishing it on 12 and some guys are on 14 or 15 lb in the trees with these better baits. I have not lost any this year knock on wood Lots of Jaws in the trees also. We are long pausing it. When you think it’s time to move it wait 15 more seconds and just twitch it’s head. They want it dead slow. Same with the swimbait move it as slow as you can reel and pull it Good Luck

Still having trouble loading pic’s

They bit yesterday like there was no tomorrow with 5 gates and in front of the cold front it was amazing Heard of 2 jaws over 5 lots of 4’s and 2 LM at 4.6 and 5.12 most all on Tim Hughes custom Jerkers and Keitech 3.3 swimbait in Sexy Shad and GP JERK Bait fish in the trees and SB fish in 20’ on gravel, boat in 30’ fish were taking it half way back slow wind on or near the bottom Best fish came on the Megabass They did not want the Swimmer on an underspin just a slow retrieve with either a 3/16 or 1/4 ball head in the clear 53 degree water from point 2 to point 5 This post has been promoted to an article

I also think Eric Prey may have a fluke video. He was throwing a tandem fluke several years ago and doing well with it. I believe he was using white. I believe he had multiple doubles on it. This was just prior to the A-rig At that time we were also tandem rigging Storm Wild Eye Shad and whacking them. Then the A-Rig bomb dropped and now you have the rest of the story

Ddlades hit this right on the head. Probably not another single bait that we throw where color is such a factor to such extent i have seen times when pink and mercurochrome won’t get bit and yellow or chartreuse gets hammered. Pearl or White at times and then you have GP and Mar-gra interesting bait and for the life of me I have not found that water color or rain or shine influence what color to use As dblades said, at times they will just peck or swirl on a color and a different color they will hammer Here is another deal. If you see one and miss him immediately toss either Ned or a small jig or small shaky head in there. Most times a done deal Good Luck and nice Thread

I really don’t remember our fish even in this type of water event using the eddies as much as they are right now. The fish we caught today stripping a dark Woolley and dead drifting a dark micro were very bright but really skinny Yesterday the few fish we caught at the dam were extremely fat and full of scuds and sowbugs. Their mouths were crammed with them and they regurgitate lots of them while being released Yesterday they did not want a dead drift for me, wanted it on the bottom on a drift rig. 5/8 oz lead just to get it down Challenging fishing to say the least

Great fish. You need to move to Kansas so you could fish that brown water everyday. Seems like every time we get it you more than hammer them i looked yesterday in the dam area to Indian Creek and the water here is just not that stained. Yet. It has not stopped raining since 3 this morning so I’m thinking it might get that way Great job and very cool pic’s. Looked like they were just flat putting it away very nice to show locations. Thanks

Engine history deal is pretty cool to look at. One of the local techs said he worked on a minor problem a few days ago and the motor had 600 hrs on it. Funny deal was it only had 31 hrs at 5 Grand or over. Sounds like a guide boat. I have 52 hrs on my 2017 and 4 hrs over 5,100 hundred Wrench here is a question for you. I see guys at the ramps and docks warming up and letting engines idle for long periods. I was told it has no justification, that the engines are ready to go just a minute or two after starting. I see folks litterally put loads of hrs on motors just sitting at the docks or ramps

Kind of funny I talked to a guy Sunday at Shell Knob Ramp about 4 PM. Said he came in the top 10 with a 5.67 he caught near point 15 up the James then drove it clear to Long Creek to weigh it in and then boated back to the Knob. Had an old Ranger with a 200 Merc on it. Must have had a 100 gallon gas tank Hard to figure total miles but that is a bunch of windshield time. Caught it on a wart.

Welcome and nice report and video You can tell your buddy running the boat fishes by himself a lot. Looks like you pretty much had to throw over his head to hit the water One little bow point out and you both have a good shot on those locations however you looked like you were more than holding your own Thanks again for the Report

Pete is a home builder in his other life. He has built several since moving here. He lives in them a few years sells them and builds a new one He is not going anywhere.

Good stuff wrench. On the Everstart battery deal I tried 6 of them and they all pooped out on me in no time. 4 in the boats a one each in my tractor and the wife’s car. Tractor I only start about 1 time a month and it was dead all 6 times I tried to start it in a 6 month period On the boats they would not either take or hold a charge On wife’s car she accidentally left the ignition on one night and ran it completely down and it never worked again Put in Pro-Guide and have had zero problems

I’ve tried for 30 minutes now and simply cannot get anything to load. Really is frustrating. If you want to see any painted baits I will have them with me tomorrow Sorry this has really tested me

Well here goes. Fished out of Eagle the Rock Wednesday and Thursday and Big Creek today. Wednesday 8AM. ER launch temp 46. Fished on merky water up to Leatherwood. Threw a wart mostly. Not good. Also fished some swings and 45 degree banks. Tough. 3 total fish LM NO keeps. Fished 5 hrs. Usually this time if the year the river treats me better Thursday same launch, fished down stream, channel swings and last deep shelf in pockets, much better. Temps up to 52. LISTEN CLOSE, YOU NEED 48 RIGHT NOW. It’s not 48, Rethink what your doing. Fished to the Kings. 2’ to 4’ visibility. I cant get bit on anything Red like Bo or 99.9 others, they want green for me. On cranks, pull them and pick up the slack, if your reeling your moving to fast they want it super slow. 7 keeps 1 short all LM Today launched at Big Creek and fished to Shell Knob and then back to Baxter. Best bite I have had. 5 keeps on a Wart and 6 really nice keeps on a custom Tim Hughes MB 110 plus. Regardless where I’m fishing this has not been an early bite for me. It’s starting at 9:30, so if you don’t get bit quick hang in there. also when you find them stay with them. These fish are not everywhere and if you catch one he will have friends. Muddiest water is from Viney to Big Creek. Struggled in that stretch but did have a few back in the main creeks on the last deep water on the wart. Best bite was Big Creek to Baxter on the custom painted sticker. Thanks Tim. Durn it’s been a long time since they snarfed a sticker for me. Caught my first Ky’s of the season today, 4 of My keeps so they are starting to move up. Fish seem to be in the channel side going into the pockets , coves or creeks on the last shelf rock. Not so much on the points. Hope this gives all an idea where to start if you hVe not been out yet. Good luck tomorrow and can’t wait to see you all. Could not get half the pictures to load, sorry. This post has been promoted to an article

Can CPA use an A-Rig? Didn’t know that

Was out everyday this week in the dam area, just doing what I usually do looking for clear water Probably a huge mistake. Fished mornings with the water usually starting at 47 degree and warming to 49 by a 1pm take out water is clear from point 9 to the dam and then colored up LC. Been starting on calm water with a floater then switching to Arig on wind. Bluffends and channel banks. Been catching 6 to 10 fish per Trip with most all being LM or Jaws. Seem to catch a K about every other day 8 out of 10 are solid keepers, not a lot of short fish like last year. Fish are somewhat congragated in very small areas and large stretches of the same kind of bank holds Zero Spoke to Pete Weeners and he was finding it the same. 1 eighty yard section of bank will hold fish and nothing else for miles. Going to fish some shallow colored water this week and see how that treats me. I like my size ratio right now, but just not enough bites View full article

There going to drop this lake like a rock. With the cool nights and the wind it will clear up quick, unless we get another dose of rain. Tks for the report saves me a drive up there. I get scared if I see murky water

Yes people are fishing them now. Keitech is without a doubt the most popular. Head sizes can range from an 1/8 to 1/2 oz depending on your depth an application Colors and location are something you will have to work out on your own mostly. Popular colors are Rainbow Shad-Blue Pearl-Tennessee Shad- Black Shad Good Luck

Those are this morning on a Spro Phat Fly. 3 shorts and those 2 keeps. Mud line from Long Creek has reached the mouth of Big Cedar