Bill Babler

Been helping Becky at the Lodge the past couple of days so I have had a ring side seat to the boat races from the Open. I want you all to remember this tournament does not have restrictions, and these guys have been up here for a month, fishing most every day. On opening day while sipping my Java, I counted by 7:15 42 boats go under the Long Creek bridge. Spoke to Beck about this, and we mostly agreed that Long Creek and Brushy Creek just cannot handle that many boats. That is near a 1/4 of a 180 boat field going into a very small lake section especially with the water at the level it is. Now remember I said 42 boats yesterday and these guys for the most part earn their living from sponsorships to fish. Today during the same time frame I counted 11 boats go under the bridge. My question is how can so many professional fishermen that have literally lived here for a month be so wrong? Up Long or Brushy, you either throw a jig, you crank, you throw a blade or you toss a stick bait. There are also still some deep fish. Right now if you put much on the bottom in under 15" you get slimed. You may be able to fish a wart, a RK Crawler or a jig, but you have to continually clean them off. To stay productive you need to keep your bait off the bottom. That is not Long Creek or Brushy for the most part. Why so few today and so many yesterday? Did they decide it was just to crowded yesterday? Did they not catch the fish they wanted? Very interesting to me, and there is no way of knowing, but I will guarantee you that there were harsh words spoken in there yesterday and there were feelings hurt up there. If was kind of like the big bass bash, just way over crowded. Plenty of room in Long Creek today if you can catch them there. Another thought is a very impressive day of fish catching. Not size or stringer weights, but the number of 5 fish limits. This tells me they were cranking up the White River, or still fishing deep K's. Lots of very small limits, very impressive numbers. Just some ramblings.

Its fun to fish with "Big Boy" tools from time to time. I just love Grand. Probably were not throwing my beloved 5 and 6 pound Maxi was you?

I don't think these locations are reloading that fast. I would be really surprised if it took as much as you all are thinking. I'm thinking the top 3 or 4 will back up somewhat tomorrow. If you can catch 13 pounds a day right now that is pretty salty if you can keep it going for 3 days. I'm thinking the 12 man cut will be 25# or so tomorrow. I think we will see Stacy and Mike, get pretty close to what that had today, and make the cut. I also think we will see someone from back in the pack move up. Right now you get lucky and that is what it is and catch a 7 pounder and a 5 pounder and your in the deal big time. It can really happen right now. We have not seen any big fish come in the last couple of weeks and by this I mean a 7 pounder or better. I'm thinking its only a cast away.

6# Maxima. I'm fishing it on a Squirrel Tail and use either a 1/4 ball head or a 3/8th. underspin. When your trying to target fish 20 to 40 feet deep anything lighter is to light to get to them and to light to keep in the strike zone for the right amount of time. They are not hitting it on the fall as they would a flutter spoon, you have to swim it to get hit. Tried throwing it on a bait caster with 10 and it just did not work. My partner threw it on 8 pound mono last weekend and did well with it. I could out throw him but he still caught as many as I did. I do have lots of the fish head jig hooks and they do not catch any more than the ball for me. I've been throwing it on 6 pound Maxi for 20 plus years and never broke a fish off. I'm now knocking on wood. Good Luck

Can be on trees, but at least 70% of the time none are present. Mostly on Channel Swings and ends. A lot of time you can see the timber, like now but most that the fish are holding on are not visible. Also just because there is trees does not mean the fish are on the trees, they can be anywhere suspended in the area, not tight to the tree at all. It is kind of like fishing the bridge piers. You see people right on the pier and they have no idea there is as many of really quite a few moree suspended between the piers in the shade under the bridge as there are on the pier itself. Here is a pretty good example I fished the AIA with a buddy this last weekend. He had been down for 3 days pre-fishing and not found much. I told him I thought I had it covered. We fished 15 locations Sunday. He told me he would not have chosen a SINGLE location that we fished. Had no idea that they would hold fish that far off the shoreline, ever. We did not get the big bite we needed and the A-rig beat us but we came in 9th. out of 79 teams. All we needed was that better kicker fish, and we were fishing the right spots for it. Just did not happen. We had 9 keeps and 7 shorts, all on a Jewel Xspin and a ball head swimming a 3.8 inch Keitech. Good Luck

I think for this type of deal it is, but as you have pointed out, there are a bunch of ways to catch them.

Git, that is a bit of a different deal. That is more of a Summer and a Fall bite than this time of the season. The Dixie Jet is perhaps the best tool for that and it for some reason is not what they want during this period. That flutter spoon deal is more of a thermocline bite than this is. As you all know I just love the Dixie Jet, but this is not that. Sounds like it should be but not. That falling spoon is just moving to fast in these cool waters for what they want and they have to go to it or chase it. When your very slow winding and pulling these A-rigs or very slow cranking that swimbait or just fishing the C-tail grub vertically, they don't have to go to speed Mach 1 to catch it. I really think the falling Jet is just to much speed for this bite. That's why if you are in the correct water column with the fish, a pause works great on your stickbait. Most often they take it when it is in the pause mode after you have jerked it several times. Just like the float-n-fly that pretty much just hangs there suspended with very little to no motion. Also the spoon bite is really not real good during this period. This is a swimming bait type of bite. Not saying they positively won't hit a spoon, but you will catch 10 to 1 on a vertical fished C-tail grub and a Swimbait right now over the spoon. I did hear last week there was a short spoon bite in the deep docks, but it went South as quick as the weather. Also heard they were on a wart and a RK Crawler but no one really did well on those type deals during the 200 tournaments we had here last weekend. Being a bit sarcastic there. Now is the time for that very slow rolled swimbait. Don't hesitate to try it.

I've had a guide trip in the books since last Fall. I'll try and make it over to the weigh-in.

Mike, kind of all of the above. This is not so much a Winter technique but a pre spawn deal. Lots of times the fish are in the deep guts or deep channel swings in the Winter and move into the timber on transitions, bluffends and major creek or cove mouths. Warming water and bright sunny days bring these fish into these locations and as we have called them before fish travel lanes or highways. At the time of the year you are coming there will be fish on everything you mentioned to be caught as you mentioned. There will also be deep staging LM mostly that can be caught by deep swimming. As has been stated here many times, on the White River Chain there are always deep fish and there are always shallow fish. Now thru March is a chance to catch big pre-spawn LM that stage in these locations. It is also if you can get the right conditions to fish a float-n-fly to the same fish. The floater only gets down 15' to 20' but it catches the same type of fish as deep swimming. Big pre-spawners. If you notice and I think most missed it, thinking Donna had on a Ned Rig, I don't believe she did when she caught that big 5 plus pounder. Looked to me like she was deep swimming a C-tail. Don't let James fool you to thinking he only throws a blade or a Ned. He knows about staging fish and I think they were on them day before yesterday. Just my thoughts. Bill Anderson our old lake biologist once told me there are fish here that never go really shallow, they live in deep water and spawn in deep water. They move and chase shad, they eat blue gill and they most never approach the bank. Lots of these are LM as well as K's. Lots of those are what we are targeting now. 3 of the 5 fish we weighed in Sunday were caught with our boat in 90' of water and the fish were suspended in about 30' They were our 3 biggest fish, with two of them being LM. Good Luck

I believe in the early 90's Sonny Chafin was one of the pioneers of this technique. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong. Sonny at that time fished with Jerry McCutchin out of Warsaw Mo, I believe in both the Heartland and the Redman series, along with Central Pro Am as it got started and this time of the year, that team was deadly on catching White River chain deep suspended bass by swimming a grub deep. They used a 1/4 to 3/8th. ball head and a 3 to 5 inch C-tail grub to swim to deep suspending fish. I can remember talking to Jerry and he said they had a coffee can with pre-rigged grubs, said they usually had at least 50 already set up to swim thru the deep tree tops. Told me if your not losing baits, in the deep trees your not catching fish. He said you just had to be daring in your approach and let it fall to the last second before you started to swim it back to the boat. Long cast were as important to them as they are to us today. They wanted to cover as many deep trees and as much water with each cast as possible. They weighed in some huge strings of fish doing this prior to the fish kill and even after the kill. They were fishing the same fish that we work with a stickbait now, but the fish as today at times are not high enough in the water column to take a stickbait. They swam a grub deep, sometimes as much as 50' for their catches. Swimming covers much more area than a vertical presentation, and they also did that when they would find fish congregated. In those days there was 10X the amount of timber that we have now, but they not only worked the timber, they also worked humps and channel swings. How many of us go out and find a swing or a hump and fish that deep with a swimming technique? not many I'm guessing. It works. Your never after numbers in this type of fishing, more after that one or two big keeper, kicker bites on those locations. It takes patients and success to fish like this and continue to fish like this. Most of us don't got it. With the invention of the A-rig, in modern times both the Fann Brothers and Brent Algeo took this presentation a step further and caught really good bags doing the same thing with the A-rig. Today in tournaments that allow it, it is usually a winning deal. I Sundays Anglers In Action derby I saw lots and lots of A-rig retrievers. Most are 30' telescoping aluminum poles with either a big triple hook on the end or a pig tail to wrap in the wires of the rig. Most of these are patterened after a golf ball retriever and you just rip the rig out of cedars or deep trees. I counted at least 30 boats with these on deck. Most everyone that throws the rig uses extremely light wire hooks that bend out when they are caught. Depending on how bad the hook is they either bend it back or just replace the bent hook and bait with a new one. Takes about 15 seconds. If you have not tried this style of fishing, get your map out, mark some spots and go ply the depths with the A-rig or if your a purest tie on that Chompers C-tail a Yamamoto, or if you have deep pockets the Keitech paddle tail and see if you can get one of those big old deep Table Rock Bass. Good Luck

Talked to Pete about 1/2 dozen times last week and most of us are doing the same thing. Swimming a 3.3 to 3.8 inch Keitech on either a round ball head from 3/16th. to 3/8th. or doing the same thing with a 3/8th. Underspin. It is far from a secret. I however don't know what he was doing this weekend or where he was fishing. Catching fish where we are fishing right now is nothing but timing as most all the guide types are doing the same thing. You can pull on a location and not get a bite and the next guy can catch a 5 pounder. We did it Sunday, twice. both times we watched boats pull away and both times we caught keepers on the same location not 15 minutes behind the other guy. Most of them however were throwing Arigs. Arigs are winning tournaments right now, but you have to fish them correctly and not be worried in the least and I mean the least about losing them. We saw guys counting down to 30 to fish tree tops Sunday with them and break off. We also saw guys drop them way down like that and catch goodins. If your not fishing a rig, we are doing the same thing with the Keitech. I believe my partner lost at least 15 underspins on Sunday and I probably lost a dozen ball heads. Price you pay to play like that trying to catch a hog mama. Good Luck

There may be some up there by then, and especially if we would get some warm rain and a lake rise. White bass are always hard to count on however. I fish most everyday and I do not risk taking clients unless I know it is just a done deal and it very seldom is. The slightest and I mean the slightest thing can run them back down stream or make them clam up. If I were you I would go over to Lilleys' and catch trout. The bite is fantastic and for people that don't get to fish a bunch the bite is everything. You may skunk, you may do ok or you may do well on the Whites, On Taney with what is in there now, you will do great with lots of laughs, memories and fun chasing those wily Rainbows. Just something to consider Good Luck

Not a bit. I have had some with your heads in a special box with the ZRust material plus an Inhibitor strip since last Summer and the hooks are not rusted and the bodies are in perfect shape. Used them yesterday on my guide trip. and caught the 1st. keeper of the day on that Dirty little rascal. Anyone not using the Flambeau Zrust boxes is making a huge mistake. If you then add an Inhibitor strip to the bottom your tackle is good for at least 3 yrs. I have had great success with both products.

If you ever go to Harbor Freight, they have the best gel super glue in the world. It comes in a 10 pack card I think for $3.99 A few weeks ago, I had a big discount coupon and bought 5 ten pack cards for $10.00 total, including tax. I should be stuck for the Summer now.

Nice FEESH

Yep, two dayer, but 15 pounds a day right now is really good. That is a very good derby for Pete. Congrats.

That is only part true. They had a 22.9 percent decrees in 2016 freshman enrollment. But had the highest Freshman retention from 2015 in the entire country. 87.7 percent of freshman continued on into their sophomore year at Mizzou, no other public university even came close. They also had huge gains in there post graduate studies, the most in the history of the school with students enrolling in their Masters and Dr. programs, at record levels. Enrollment is 33,390.00 and is only off 2,300 students from 2015 Application for the 2017 school year are said to be at a record level that was set in 2010, so I'm just guessing they may be ok there. If you take some of the Local Universities Mo. State 26,000, Arkansas 27.000 and the University of kansas at 28,000 Mizzou is still ok with 33.000 students. as the Star pointed out. KC Star did a piece on this a few weeks ago.

I would stop counting after I reach the number of points that the Razorback football team gave up in the second half of games this year, but the number far exceeds my fishing ability. 2016 Mizzou vs Arkansas Football Mizzou Men's Basketball Split Men's Baseball Mizzou best two out of 3 Women's Basketball Sweep Mizzou Women's Softball Sweep Mizzou Women's Volley Ball Sweep Mizzou People that live in glass houses should not cast stones at other folks windows.

I used to think that, until I got into guiding corporate guide trips. On another note, I had 2 People on Taney this morning and they caught and released right at 100 in a 4 hr. trip. My last several trips over there we have caught and released close to 500 rainbows, and 1 brown. Size is very marginal with schools of 10 to 11 inch trout swimming everywhere over there. We saw schools with what looked like 50 fish swimming per school. Its kind of like a jail break on Taney right now.

That is one fantastic day, kind of reminds me of several years ago when the BASS guys were here just about this time of year and they were totally wacking the LM on a wart from Campbell Point to Eagle Rock on the flat gravel. Pretty much like James just posted you have to catch 10 to get a keep. Do you all remember the weights. I cannot ever remember seeing so many 5 fish limits weighing from 9 to 12 pounds. That was the year that someone caught such a huge amount on the wobble head. I fished from Old 86 up Long Creek and turned around and fished up to Spring Branch. My partner had 2 keeps, I had 2 keeps and we only had 2 short fish. The K's are just not up down here yet. I have only caught a couple on the points, not counting deep fish in the 60 plus ft. range. Most of us that fished Baxter down toward the dam yesterday really struggled. That upper White River just seems to get them hopping quick. Great report and Super trip.

Your right Magic, If I did not love him so much I would just strangle him and steal his fishing buddy. Guys, I still don't think this weather is headed back very cool. Water temps will drop back a tad this weekend, but 4 days of 70 plus degree weather and we had 87 yesterday will not cool this pond down much. I'd tell everyone good luck, but with all the traffic this next week a better close is Be Careful Out there. By the way, Thanks Mitch, that is interesting stuff. Poor Warsaw hottest to coldest.

CHRIS TETRICK IS NOT THE ONE FISHING THE RC STICK. THAT IS THE 3RD TIME I HAVE SAID THIS, THAT SHOULD BE ENOUGH. Buster fishes the RC for Whites and Whites only. He fishes a megabass 110 plus 1 for walleye and bass. I believe the series of RC he fishes is the 90 or a 78 or some number smaller than full size.. Buster is sponsored by BP and gets a very good selection of BP gear with the purchase of his new boat each year. Here is the deal guys. All fishing guides get promotional products of one kind or the other. If you use them and your clients catch fish, they buy them. It is a simple as that, purely advertising. Everyone thinks touring pros get the goodies, but guides for the most part have very good factory deals as they put product in buyers hands every day. Some guides get paid for using products like the Pro's but most just get product. Usually a medium amount and anything over the freebee at manufacture cost. Boats, Motors, Trailers, Rods and Reels and every kind of fishing gear you can imagine and sometimes other stuff like bottled water and soda. Anything that an advertiser wants in the publics hands might get into a guide boat, if the guide wishes to have it. By the way, water temps in the back of Spring Branch today were 65 degree at 3 PM. Good Luck

Chris does not throw one, Buster does, after he modifies the heck out of it. The main reason he throws it, is because he gets them FREE.

Well Putt James. I will be riding in a brand new Kitty during the Anglers derby trying to find a long skinny one to bring to the scales.

The whites are pretty crazy on Bull, I have been getting my Facebook account and emails of loads of whites being caught. Buster is just hammering them and Chris Tetrick is limiting on whites every time he goes over there. Buster is using a small RC Stick modified with better hooks and rings and Chris is catching his on a Arig. Walleye are in full blown spawn and there are lots of them at the Pot Hole. Also lots of fishermen. I know Buster has had some trips he is taking starting at 3 or 4 AM for the Walleye as they get pretty fussy with the traffic and the sun. I agree it is not like April, but there are lots of folks catching limits. Here is a photo Chris sent me a couple of days ago.