Bill Babler

Like I said, I don't doubt it, but it is not s-t-o-p for AIA as most live right here and would throw a fit if someone did that to them. And, for sure yes you were the bigger man. There are plenty of places to fish on the Rock and I commend you for keeping it under your collar. I probably would not have. I tend to be cranky.

Inhibitors are available thru the website. The Inhibitor. He has all kinds of rust proof products. The Flambeau boxes are also extremely rust proof. That is why I usually have at least 20 Ned's pre-glued. Buy your gel at Harbor Freight, it is extremely low cost in the small tubes fold the tube from the bottom up just as you would tooth paste and once you open it up make sure the spout is upright when you store it and you can get every drop out of it. If not, its so cheap, just throw the rest away and open a new tube. It is currently 10 tubes for $2.99 but most of the time you can get a coupon and get 10 tubes for $1.99 It's gel and really holds well.

That my friends is why you fish up the White River. Quill I'm commin to goin ya as soon as I can get out of the Tin Can.

Not doubting you in the least, but I'm guessing they were in the KVD BB CHALLANGE. The AIA guys are not for the most part fishing that close together, as they are usually after numbers and not just looking for one big bite. Also most of the AIA guys are locals that fish here everyday and just like you don't want to fish side by side, with you or for that matter any other guys fishing the same derby. These guys really know the lake and unless your setting on a gold mine pulling out 4 pounders they would not have crowded you that close. 5' for two boats fishing a derby is really unheard of in a tournament series like AIA. The competitors just would not fish that close to each other or to you. At least I hope they didn't. I know lots of these locals and they just don't fish like that.

Just about time to start thinking about being a Ned Head. Varmint fishing is just around the corner and here are a couple of things that will help you keep the little guy working to the best of his ability. Ned storage for some is a problem, a major problem. I'm going to show you how to pre-rig the Ned and keep them for as long as a year with no rust and no baits melting or sticking together. First off lets talk about what ya need to fish him the best. I like 1/16th. oz and 1/8th. oz. mushroom heads. Dave makes the best with the small weed guard. To tell you the truth, the weed guard will separate after it fishes a while and I just snip it off at the head. I really cannot tell any difference in the hang ups where I fish it. I most always use 5# Maxima Moss Green to fish it with. I'm fishing it on a Jeff Kriet Squirrel tail Falcon rod and using a Shimano Sustain or a Stella. Pretty much top of the line junk. It will propel the Varmint just about as far as I can see. My three favorite colors are Dirt, Brown/Purple and Green Pumpkin/Orange. Don't know that you need any others. Dave has talked and shown you how to fish it on a slack line. I'm gong to show you how to be ready when you hit the water. You need baits, heads, gel super glue, a box and Inhibitor strips. I pre-glue and set up my box well in advance without worry of rust or a melt down. I use the Flambeau rust proof boxes and the inhibitor strips and they work to perfection. This is a small box for small baits with 6 compartments to keep colors and sizes apart. As I said I use only the 3 colors so I use a compartment for each of the three with the 1/8th. and a compartment each for the 1/16. Get these pre-rigged and you will only need a quick retie in the event you lose one. More fishing time on the water and less rigging. It's almost time to Varmintize them.

Hydra Tec is the Regional service center for the Yamahammers. They work on motors from everywhere. When I was running one in 2008 they were the best by a landslide. I know Denny is running one and they do the service and are fantastic. They are also the top in extended warranty for Yamaha. If you need an aftermarket warranty for your Yamaha they will most always just cream the dealership you bought it from.

Stinker. You know I Love each and everyone of ya

We have big trout here. 280th. of an oz. Or are they 256 of an oz, I don't remember. Whatever the deal, they think there food

I have to say, that I have fished this lake for "Yikes 45 yrs. and I have never fished a wind day like yesterday. If was STRAIGHT out of the NORTH.. I usually don't mind a North wind, in fact kind of like it. Not so much yesterday. The stretch from Chateau to LC Bridge was rolling 3 plus footers, Huge swell like rollers. Fished in my friends Ranger and we took waves over the sides, the bow and the stern, just depending on how the boat was positioned. Had to run completely nose down or it would throw you out. Not the boat, just horrible conditions. Pumps came on several times just from waves coming in while we were fishing. They were coming in on the least wavy sides of the lake it was that bad. There were places that were totally unfishable. I think we although we caught tons of fish, we fished extremely poorly. Just could not get the boat the bait and the speed in any kind of a decent attitude, we were always fishing in front or behind ourselves and fishing and covering water at light speed, or a dead slow. We both were completely worn out. My knees are really bothering me this morning, I'm glad I don't have a trip. If we would have had to fish out of my. Bay Boat we could not. have done it. Big boat will be here the week of the 17th and I'm wilting on the vine waiting for it.

Sorry, I'm late. I use a jig head. Kind of a process, the best one is an 80th oz. We take the jig head and put it in a vice and wrap it with thread. Cut about 1/32 inch off the big end of the worm, as it goes on tighter and put a drop of gel super glue on your thread. attach the worm sliding it up the hook to the head. The thread will make it stay on the hook much better than without the thread. As Phil said I'm drifting it usually about 7 to 8 ft. under the indicator. Yes, this time of the year, a lot of 4 person trips.

Guided yesterday with a regular and we had 41 total fish. Only 4 keepers. He just bought one of the same scales they use on MLF and I have to have one. They work so good and you can get the fish back in the water in a jiffy. We measured and weighed a lot of fish. We had a Spot that weighed 2.39 and was an even 14" She was just loaded with both eggs and shad Just about to get her pic, and she flip flopped back in the drink. Said the scale was spot on and ran very close to the AIA scales. Maybe a couple of oz light on a limit of derby fish. Caught most of our fish on a jerkbait, but did have our two biggest both LM on the Keitech. Although we did catch a lot of jaws none would measure. Every fish we caught that measured was a LM. He is fishing the BFL so we kept pretty good count of keepers. Fished AbK's beloved Beardsley for at least 3 hrs. mostly hiding from the horrible wind. Warmest water we saw yesterday was 56.7 and I bet that has gone down this AM. Not to pile back on to the Carbon lite rods, but Dave tried to swing a 14.5 inch K and you can guess what happened, 3 pieces. He also hung a jerkbait in a cedar and tried to shake it off with the buggy whip. I told him stop!, that rod is not going to take that, but on the 3 rd. whip the tip and about a foot of rod broke. 2 in one day. He said he had just wonderful luck with those rods on lake O and had broke a couple, but never 2 that easy. I told him I was on a forum with some of the best fishermen in the Ozarks and most all that had tried them had a problem. He broke one of the older black ones and one of the new white ones. I will say this, that old black one is so light and balanced it is a great JB rod. I threw it a couple of times and really liked it. Not a Falcon, but its $119.00. Chris Tetrick guided Tuesday out of Indian Pt. and told me he had 60 total fish, mostly jaws and had 3 keepers, continuing the theme of where are the biggins. Good Luck

Bill Beck always says, "When the boys start chasing the girls, it gets really tough on the Rock." With 40 plus year of professional guiding here I tend to listen to him.

Who is that guy that throws the Kast Master up the James. I have not seen anything from him. I really like his reports. He fishes a very unique style and it works well for him. Uses his electronics and works an area pretty thoroughly once he gets on them. He fishes it both as a flutter spoon and a jigging spoon. He usually is catching them this time of the year. For some reason I can't remember his name.

Had the very same thing happen last week, only this was with a custom painted megabass. I'm still fishing it on pretty light line and I snagged it up in the lower branches of a cedar, about 8 to 10 ft. down. There were about a dozen other trees right there that I very much wanted to fish, so I hit my gps lock and marked and then snapped it off. It was late in the evening and I thought I would be the first guy back in the morning and went on fishing. I did catch another couple of big LM out of the cedars and felt pretty good about my decision. I went back the next morning and there it was gleaming down there and I dropped my hound dog and pulled it up. If it had been a single tree, I would have went ahead and gotten it out. I was on a great pattern there "for one day," so I took a chance, and got lucky. Here is a very good tip by Kevin Vandam. When he hangs a lure that he wants to keep he does not approach that lure head on. He approaches it from water he has already fished. He pulls up to the lure and then retraces his steps back thru the pre-fished water, or backs out with his motor on a very low setting. He then resumes from the spot where he snagged the lure. If you pull directly in on the bait on high and then swing back out you have totally disturbed the bank in that area that was holding the fish. If you use stealth and approach and then back out the same way you entered you leave a lot smaller foot print.

There you go.

Talked Becky into going out for an hour yesterday evening as it was so nice. She did not fish but I caught 3 out of the tin can, all on a swimbait. Fish are really staging on windy banks in front of the big spawning coves. 15' to 25' seem to be just full of suspended and moving fish. Saw lots of bottom fish along with fish patrolling the bottom and really the entire water column. This most times means jerkbait time, but they seemed to still be on the swimmer. Did not drag a jig or a C-Rig, but I'm sure they would have eaten either. Water temps on the main lake were 57 to 59 and back in the pockets on the west bank up to 61. clarity is perhaps 10 ft.

Talked to several guys that fished the AIA on Sunday and practiced on Saturday. The A had been winning everything in that derby the last two tournaments. Not so much this last weekend. The guys I talked to said they wish they had put it down much, Much quicker, as the fish were just not having it. One of the guys I talked to was in the top 10 in points going into the derby and skunked on the Rig. Did weigh in one on a jig. Most said the jig and the jerkbait were much better this past weekend. It is hard to put down when you are fishing for money and points and every winning stringer has been on it up until now. At this point, I'm pretty much done with it till Fall. Good Luck

Yep.

Fantastic Post. No one thought of that one. Of course you wouldn't unless it happened to you. I'm surprised it has not happened to me. Usually if something can go wrong it does. Not so much Ford bashing, but when you get those 350's and up including the customs you either need a climbing rope or an elevator to enter the tree house.

They won't weigh ya, but they durn sure will count everyone. Especially if you have a huge number. Speaking of pontoons, when I was on the WP we always watched for persons in front of the cage on the front deck and also if the pontoon was taking water over the front in the waves. Distribute the weight of our peeps so the boat rides level with a bow up posture and make sure you have your pfd's out and not in the box. This is a great time of the year to go over them and make sure that they are in good shape along with your other safety equipment. Have a safe season.

Sweet. Great report.

Yes, and yes again you can get cited, and most probably will. With the Hwy Patrol now our law enforcement and a strictly go by the book attitude regardless of the situation, you need to carry no more in weight per person or capacity per person than is stated on your hull capacity plate. If no lifejackets are visible or a multitude of other possible violations, they have just cause to stop you and check. The capacity plate also tells your max motor size along with weight restrictions and it is more than wise to follow them to the letter. Overloading is not only dangerous but it is just a great way to be noticed and then be stopped. Don't take the chance. You want to take more peeps, than 5 think about a pontoon or a bit bigger boat. Good Luck

Just a further note on the fishing. I guided everyday this last weekend Friday thru Sunday. Fishing from Lilley's up to the base of the restricted zone was just exceptional even with a extremely large volume of boat traffic. Most everyone was very cordial and thoughtful on boat operation this week, prior to some very questionable operation the last couple of weeks. There had been a very large concentration of trout from the Landing thru Monkey Island. I believe with the water release we have had those trout have moved up. It has gotten pretty slow from Cooper down. From the launch ramp at Cooper up would be classified as very good. As Phil stated there are a very large number of "Silver Bullets" in the lake, but there are also some very nice Shepard of the Hills fish. You have to wade thru the small fish, but lots of fun and lots of bites. These fish will take artificials and there is really no need for any other types of baits that could be swallowed. The are taking the Power worm in Pink, and Orange. They are back on the Trout Magnet in Salmon or Pink and they are just flat out killing a Micro Jig in the small 280 oz. size in Ginger. Saturday afternoon I sat in one location for the entire 4 hrs. of my guide trip with 4 clients fishing the micro and the pink P.Worm and never moved. We caught and released well over 100 rainbows, lots of 4 on at a time. Nearly wore this old guide out. On Friday we fished the restricted zone from Clay Banks down dragging a Y2K in pink/Yellow and it was very good. When the water stopped we switched to an olive 280 or what is known as a 1/2 micro. Olive or black head and olive body. It is a size 14, the indicator could only move a foot or so before it would go down. Fish were a much better size on the micro than the Y2K and better size than below Fall Creek. Bite was best using 6X tippet, but early on a slight water movement I got away with 4X. Using both fly rod and spinning and about 7' of tippet under the float. Good Luck

Big Bass in AIA Sunday was 8.11 so there is also that.

I'm a little late on this, and usually don't know sickum about fixing anything, but I can remember when one of the Pro's and it might have been Skeet Reese went to that big custom built Ford and said it would not even pull his Ranger without the boat jumping side to side, vibrating and wearing out the inside of the tires on both axels. As has been mentioned many times on here, Ranger told him when towing you had to have the boat perfectly level or a slight nose down to hitch attitude on the trailer. I don't know if there is a picture of it somewhere but his ball extension looks like its 3 or 4 ft. long drop hitch coming down from that big truck, to make the boat level when towing. I believe it was Skeet, but it was for sure one of the Ranger Pro's running one of those big custom built Fords out of Alabama. This was probably at least 7 to 10 yrs. ago, so I don't know how accurate it is now, but be sure your Ranger is more than level and slightly nose down. It sounds like your problem, Especially if you see any wear on the insides of the tires on both axels. I just looked and it was Skeet's rig. He now has a total custom built trailer and a custom built rear bumper for his F650. Good Luck and let us know what it was.