Bill Babler

Thanks Thumbs. I have tried everything and most every rod to find the perfect A-Rig outfit. Fishing an A-Rig and this is from one of the best in the country Marcus Sykora from Lake of the Ozarks is an Extremely long cast and then maintaining a constant depth of your retrieve. This all starts by throwing that critter a country mile. In the last 5 yrs. I have had hundreds of guys in my boat with all kinds of different rod and reel combos. A percentage of the folks have just put together the lowest price biggest heavy pool cue stuff they can come up with or others that have gone with light stuff. Almost nothing is matched to preform at its best level. I've had guys using 6' rods and 10 pound line and I have had guys using Salmon Surf Rods and 100 pound test. Yet everyone of them will tell you his boat and motor are perfectly matched for the best performance he can get. Most all of us started and lots continue to use the Curado 300e and a flipping stick. Pretty hard to beat. Throwing an AR all day is work. This Super Duty como weighs less than the Curado which weighs 11.5 oz. alone, not counting the rod. Lighter, Faster and Further. It is a matched set of socks. Falcon Cara T7/Lew's SD combo weighs a total 9 oz. rod and reel both. You all have heard me say this many times. Everyone of us are pretty much on the same level and catching fish in not one thing, but a multitude of the most little things. When I'm out with clients my goal with any of my equipment from boats to lures to rods and reels, is I want them to get another bite or two a day. Its not about the number of fish, its about the number of extra bites I can generate by fishing the best tool for the job, and fishing it as it was designed. I'm a Gear Horse and everyone knows it, but there is method to my madness. At least that what I'm thinking. This is the best I have seen. Good Luck

Bill Babler 417-332-7016 Well its that time of year, hate it or not, the A-Rig catches fish and catches the biggest fish on the White River Chain. I have reached the point of over saturation, even for me. Imagine that. I was getting all my junk ready in the shed and saw I had 9 of these rigs swinging from the rod rack. I need 6, but 9 may be a bit of Over Kill. Falcon Cara T7 Super Duty, CC-8-175S-T7 Action XH-Flex XF Line Wt. 15 to 30 Lure Wt. 1/4 to 3 oz. Length 7'5" 10 Fuji guides. Lew's Super Duty 7.1SD1H Speed Spool HD All three of these combos will be sold as such. Rods are all 2016 models and the reels are 2, 2016 and 1, 2015 These have had under 1 month of use, and I did not pick and chose from my rack, I just pulled down 3. These combos were built for the A-Rig but will fish any big swimbait and any jig in the appropriate weight range. I have fished 9" swimbaits on them and 1oz jigs. If you have some Christmas money left over you will not beat the price on these fine combo outfits. They will throw that Rig a mile with 30 to 60 pound braid or for that matter 20 to 30 pound Big Game. Price of the combo is $250.00. No tax. I can ship them for $30.00 if someone buys them all you can have them for $700.00. I also have 3 full grip 6'6" Cara MH spinning rods. These rods are $199.00 everywhere. If you purchase one of the combos I will throw in a T7 spinning rod for $50.00. Doubt that you can maximize your money any better than that.

Randy, anything that I can get you from Falcon is at my cost, so let me know if you want anything and it will be headed your way faster than the speed of writing this.

I was under the impression he fished Kimberling City. Nice report and very quality fishies.

Thieves are not so lazy anymore. They will rip a Locker Bar out in about 20 seconds and break open every locked box lid in the same amount of time. They will take time to take off a SS prop or for that matter even drop lower units. Randy, I am so sorry. We have talked about this in blog after blog after blog here. You don't want it if you leave it on Table Rock or the Lake of the Ozarks in an unattended boat. I think Lake O. has been better the last few years, but the Rock is still a thieves paradise, with unattended boats and equipment due to us being a corps lake with no houses at waters edge, and very little use even at the public facilities in the Winter months. Take those boats home with you and if that is not possible take your gear and leave your boxes unlocked. This is pretty much like Bull riding. Its not when your crash is going to happen it how bad. Again, this is very regretful.

I've been fishing the Rock since the early 70's and my biggest have been since the fish kill. In the last 5 yrs. along with most of my guide buddy's that have been here equally as long. Their largest also has been post-fish kill. Since I started double digits have always been rare as hens teeth on the Rock. Where I see a huge difference is the amount of large K's that are no longer here in numbers. After the kill not only did it reduce the numbers of spotted bass but it changed the fishing strategy for most anglers. Where tournament bags were mostly LM pre-kill, they turned into K's post-kill and latterly thousands of anglers learned and adapted to fishing deep water where the K's have been the most dominant fish. The pressure and the changing fishing climate reduced the numbers of quality Kentucky Bass. I'm talking about 3 to 4 pound Kentucky's. The lake is back in very good shape, as long as we take care of it. As Bo has stated many times, with no stocking program and TR being a Corps lake with every spawn having the possibility of being a complete zero it is our responsibility as environmentally conscious anglers to help in these regards. Good Luck and great fishing

From the junction of 86 and 65 you are 20 minutes from Kdock and 20 minutes from Tucker, you are exactly right between them. For me the fish seem to be biting better up stream from Mincy up. I'm going to put in a Diamond City and fish down either tomorrow or the next day and see what to make of it. Might go down as far as Buck Creek. Water is a few degree warmer at Tucker.

Not uncommon this time of the year to catch most all on the back hook, side of the head or in the back on a stick bait. On the walleye especially, they never eat it good. I had two others to the boat on the sticker that were hooked in the side and did not photo them. I will also tell you that I don't catch them everyday when I fish on my own. . When I'm fishing by myself and don't really care or if I try and bend the fish a lot of times I don't catch them. If I catch them I'll tell you. I fished float and fly for 3 hrs. and did not get a bite. That's the deal. If I struggle I'll tell you. Makes me no difference, if a person says they catch them everyday they may not be as truthful as they need to be. I will tell you this, I have been a Federal Capt. and licensed guide for 27 years and have never skunked on a guide trip. What I do when I'm fun fishing and what I do with clients are two totally different deals. I'll keep you posted when I do well or if they make me work. Honesty is what makes OzarkAnglers what it is. Good Luck

Yep, I suck. But on the other hand, I know it.

20 fish and 9 keeps is not what I call grinding it out. You all are making this seem much easier than it is. Great report. You catch that kind of fish in the toughest area of the lake to fish, shout it from the roof tops. Good Luck and Great Fishing.

I have two. I have a 2015 Phoenix and a 2015 AlWeld Custom built Bay Supreme. The bay boat is the perfect walleye and trout boat. It is total walk around center console and runs on a 4 stroke merc 115. I also have it interlinked with a MotorGuide XI5 and 2 Lowrance HDS 7's The fish on Bull were not kind to me yesterday with the absolute flat water and a sky that was so clear you could see Mars. I hit Tucker right at daylight and there were already 6 rigs in the lot. That is a bunch for there in December, that early. I fished till 1 PM and caught 12. Never more than a single on any location. Nothing on the jerkbait as it was just to slick. I had several push the rig and only had 3 keepers and they were not even really picture worthy. Caught my first K in the last 6 trips, and he was one of the squeeker keeps. I still don't count them unless they are 15 inchers. I don't care who you are. I have fished and guided these White River lakes for 40 yrs. and they will still just flat embarrass you from time to time. That's the nature of the beast. I was thinking to myself yesterday while I was getting my butt kicked that there was no place I would rather be. It was simply magnificent out there. I'm guiding trout today, but the next cloudy day, I'm going to be right back down there. The walleye have to be getting close, especially with Fisherman catching them up the White River yesterday at Holiday Island on the Rock. Good Luck All

Yep. Tim Hughes Custom Baits. Bo as usual your right on

Now your talking . I could not get bit on that flat water on a jerker

First time I have ever fished on Christmas day, but with Becky in KC I was off to Kdock. Played for about 30 minutes with the crappie and that is all the patients I have for that. Surface temps were 43 I knew the Bass were biting so I did not hesitate to take advantage of it. Saw the Duckster a couple of times and he was working hard to get him a mess of crappie. I on the other hand was having a ball. On any wind you could catch bass on a stick bait and when it would go flat or calm the Arig was the deal. I fished from Kdock to Mincy fishing manly channel roll offs with the boat in 25 throwing it up on the flat and letting it spin off on the edges. I also fished some major bluffends and caught fish. Most were out on the mud, just where it dumps into the channel. It has been a long time since I caught this many 3 to 4 pounders. Seemed like they are really feeding. I'm go to try it again tomorrow and put in at Tucker. Sorry about the upside downers, sometime my phone will do that and I can use every edit in my limited knowledge on both phone and computer and cannot get them to turn. Good Luck

That is one supper crappie

Scooted over to Ball and Prier for some trailer tires this morning. I had an appointment, but any time I'm that close to Eagle Rock I just have to dump the tub in. Only had about an hour and it was well spent. I have been catching them right well on Bull Shoals and so I was going to try the same deal on the Rock. Funny thing is fish were surfacing all over the friggin place. Out in front of both Panther and Owl they were busting shad. Surface temps at Noon were 48.8 and small LM were really busting. I caught about a dozen with nary a keeper, but fun. Nothing like upper Bull. You can gaze a my report over there. You could have stayed out there and caught these 13 inches till the cows came home. I was catching them on a grub, but any topwater would have also worked.

Lots of gulls diving on bait, not a lot of fish around that bait. The bait they were diving on are dime size. Bull is on fire right now especially upper Bull down to Tucker for bass fishing. Busters clients on his guide trip out of K-dock had best 5 at 23 pounds including a 7 pounder yesterday on a megabass 110 plus 1 and a football jig. Said they had 14 keepers. Bass were pretty much at the first channel drop at 15'. I found the same thing. I fished from K-dock to Snap and caught a really nice limit of bass on the jerkbait and a swimming minnow with a 1/8oz. head. My best 5 would have been 17 pounds with two at 4 pounds. Trouble for me was I was looking for walleye and crappie. Never bad to catch nice bass however. I will tell you both Buster and I never got within a rifle shot of the bank. Both of us were fishing roll-off-channel swings, fishing the first drops. Good Luck

I greeted K-dock as the sun came up and worked it pretty hard for me. I fished till about 1 PM. Using the same baits as Dwayne did yesterday. I caught 2 absolutely monster crappie on the stickbait. The two will be plenty for Becky and I this evening. I also had one very small walleye and at least 1/2 dozen bass up to 4 pounds. Wasn't skunked but could have done better. I did see something that was really interesting. Along with a 1/2 doz. eagles there was a huge striper in the middle of the lake right out in front of K-dock. It kept coming up and shaking and I knew it had a problem. I motored out there and it was at least 35 pounds, maybe bigger as I don't judge the weight of stripers all that often. He had a very big largemouth bass stuck in his throat with at least 1/3 of it handing out his mouth. I'm guessing the bass was between 4 and 5 pounds, you would have had a hard time culling it in any derby on either Bull or the Rock. He was going in circles on his side but he could still dive below my net handle. I never did net him and I guess I should have just gotten out the camera instead of trying to capture him. I messed with him for at least 3 minutes before he disappeared. Good thing we all know they won't eat bass. Good Luck

Great job, I'm going to give it a spin in the morning. Your welcome to go if the boss will let you have another day. I know him pretty well and he is pretty easy. I tried to get him to go, but he said family business. Thanks for the info.

Bo is not only a great poster here, he is a fun fisherman. With the weather we have been having its not been a lot of fun to be out there, either night or day. I'm ready to read what he has been up to as soon as he lets us know.

Jeff, speedy recovery. You are going to be my mentor on this deal. As you know I was suspose to get mine done, but it is to soon after my staff infection. I'm expecting you back on the water in late January or early February and that will give me hope that I will only be out 8 or 9 weeks once I'm cleared for surgery. Good Luck, God Bless and for sure a hassle free, pain free recovery. Sincerely BB

There is usually a little more failure in the higher performing rods simply do to higher modular graphite thinner walls and less weight and material in the rod we always warned folks against bringing top of the line Orvis-Loomis and Sage fly rods to Alaska to horse Salmon with . Make the tool fit the job. Its hard enough to feel the bite on a wart some times especially when they push it. I want to feel my crankin bites

Or your boat could come equipped with 32 sleeved rod holders. Just sayin. Price on the Falcon Cranker is $229.00 This is a top of the line rod company Priced pretty much with the St. Croix and the Loomis. Lifetime warranty As a full time professional fishing guide, I have to have tools that function for a multitude of fishing situations and I love a rod with more than one application. Falcon has been an industry leader for close to 30 yrs. now and they are not trying to get it right, they already have done that. Their rods are designed by fishermen for fishermen. Using the lightest, strongest components that are available. I love the Lew's reels, but they are still in the process of scrapping rod lines and starting new lines with new materials. They are getting closer, but have just not hammered the head of the nail completely into the wood. I'm also wondering what the take over is going to do to their research and development. I usually have rods on hand to try and most years I have pre-owned rods for sale, that I have only used one season. Due to my health problems this year, all I have on hand are new rods as mine were fished less than 1/2 a season. I still can get very good prices on rods I have in stock if your interested email me.

Plus 1 to Vernon's. My best friend is a retired banker and has told me there is absolute no reason to ever have or use a debit card. It is like throwing out a handful of checks at every location you use it. It has direct with drawl from your account. It has absolute no benefit unless you cannot get a CC as has been mentioned. When they first came out a few years back I got one and immediately it was compromised both mine and my wives on two separate deals. We got our money back but it was a major pain in the caboose. Several hours on the phone and a letter. Also mentioned is the current pay back on most cards. It is fantastic on the Bank of America Preferred plus cards. I put all my business on them and it pays me back literally thousands of dollars a year. I know American Express is better, but there are so many business that won't take it that it is not worth it to me. Sorry about theft.

Without a doubt the Falcon Micro Cranker CCM-4-17M 7' 8 to 12 lb. line 1/4 to 1/2 OZ. bait size. 12 guides on this split grip with grade 1-A Portuguese cork. Rod weight is 1.2 oz. Mike McClelland designed this rod for the Rock Crawler and the Wart. It is my go to rod. I also use it for a Dixie Jet flutter spoon, a wobble head, a Redfin, and a 3/8th. and under spinner bait. If you throw a lipless crankbait or a square bill it will work to perfection on those also. Good Luck