Bill Babler

I simply cannot tell you all the emotion and deep appreciation both Becky and I felt when opening the get well cards that I have received. I thank all my forum family for the thoughts, wishes and prayers that you all have sent thru your cards and emails. I had two old man break downs that both happened within a week of each other. First I tore my Rotator Cuff in 3 places and had to have 3 anchors placed in my shoulder. As lots of you all know, I also have bad knees. I was scheduled to have my left keep replaced after the fishing season in December so I could be back in the boat by March. One week after my shoulder surgery, which has gone fantastic as the Dr. was taking out my stitches I asked him to give me a steroid shot in my knees and that would power me thru fishing and deer season up to my replacement in Dec. That is where it all went bad. My left knee got a steroid flare and a staff infection it blew up the size of a volley ball. I had to have emergency surgery on the knee, and had to have a PICC line with antibiotic that I can give myself an IV for 6 weeks. I am on my 4th. week and can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I'm off the walker and using a cane and getting around really pretty good. I hope to get off the came by next week, but will not be entering any 5K's. I would say one of the good parts is that I have lost 25 pounds, but by some trick of nature the weight lost was the limited amount of muscle I had and it left all my yummy fat still intact. I am exercising twice a day and going to rehab therapy 2 days a week. I have loved the Therapy and the stretching as it really helps. I am very week however the remainder of the day after they get done pulling and stretching. Hope to soon get stuff tightened down and back in order. Again, with all my heart thank you for your prayers. And yes Dave I dodged the bullet again and they failed to catch me. Sincerely Bill

Several years ago, and I mean several, as this was back in the top 150 days before the Elite. There was a Top 150 won here by strolling a Fish Dr. My memory is probably off on this deal, but I believe the only disqualification I have ever heard of with the big boys, may have been Jim Bitters and this was long ago. James might know. I believe he was strolling a Carolina Rig, and got a DQ. I have seen and fished with the very top fishermen that fish the Rock, from back in the day. I could name a dozen. From now till creek channel spoon time they will drag a football jig deep from Kimberling to Cricket Creek, and that is the deal. We are off topic on this so getting back to topic is great.

Sweet, moves paid off. It would have been pretty hard for a novice to have adapted as fast as you did. Bill had a guest from our lodge that wanted to keep a limit and he only fished from your resort to Trout Hollow. Said he had about 20 all on the Pink Berkley Worm. 7' to 9' 6X leader. Great day on the water

Trolling or Strolling is done everyday and in every tournament I have ever fished. Just turn the crank every 30 seconds and there is no way you are not legal. Fall asleep with your bait dragging the bottom and catching a biggin may be a problem. Greg's advice was pretty durn good.

We were there last year and the lake was so low it was scary. The State Park marina was pretty much on the ground. There were hundreds of stripers swimming in the shallows around the marina. They looked like snakes that were starved. If you threw a piece of gum in the water 50 of them would rush to eat it. Hope they got some rain and its better out there this year. We did not fish, but it is for sure on my bucket list. Have a great time.

Folks, I have been off the water about a month with some medical problems, but am just about ready to hit the Fall fishing blitz. I just wanted to take a minute and thank and give a big shout out to both Eric Prey and Pete Wenners for the reports. As always Pete's reports are spot on. Eric has taken it to another level with some of the most accurate reports this lake has ever seen. You can see his reports on YouTube. If you follow either of these guides you can and should catch fish. The only thing that Eric is not doing for you is casting and reeling your fish in. He is not only fishing the entire lake but telling you the who, what, when where and how to do it, in a report that is exciting and fun to watch. Absolutely Excellent. The fish are really biting, I am receiving at least a 1/2 dozen calls a day from guide buddies that are hammering them everyday. EVERYDAY. There are some shallow fish, but this bite is 12' to 24' either on the bottom or suspended. We are really entering the jig phase, take a look at my reports from last year at this time and see the jig and craw I was throwing. It was also last year at this time that Watson caught them on the frog and the Pooper. There are also still drop shot fish hanging in that 24' to 30' range and lots of walleye out there with them. I believe Beck in the last two days caught and released 9 keeper walleye with clients, along with over 100 bass and other goodies including a 15 lb. kitty. You should be armed with drop shot, jigging spoon, flutter spoon, jig and of course a topwater. Get after them and I hope to see you soon on the water.

Sounds like a great trip outsides the Tom Foolery by others. If you guys are ever here and want to watch our Tigers, just come on over, you know the address. Fantastic game on Sat. nite. This team will ruin someones year in the SEC. Hope either Florida or Tenn.

This has been a problem at SK on their small derby's for as long as I can remember. As Slowbait mentioned there are some great guys and gals that go the extra mile up there to keep the fishery as viable as they can. Some very good fish care. Problem is there are also several small tournaments out of H hwy, ie Baxter on the SK side, SK and Campbell Pt. that don't give a flip. You might remember a wig-out I had several years ago after a Friday nite deal about this time of the year out of SK. When I went to ramp that Saturday morning there were at least 2 dozen floaters. This just looks horrible and puts a very bad face on us fishermen. There are several things you can do in addition to fish care we have covered on here 1000 times. 1st. is put a 3 fish limit on these buddy tournaments. This does lots of good. For one the livewell is not over crowded, for another those teams that are killing fish will have lots less to kill. It is not usually a dozen boats with a dead fish but more often a 1/2 dozen boats with multiple dead fish. Penalty should be you lose one, the dead fish does not count and your big fish does not count. Besides education on fish handling and care it goes back to the old adage that everything you learn either hurts you or cost you money. Having that fish float around on its side for 4 hrs. in a livewell and then getting fizzed at the ramp is horrible fish care.

Be interesting to know how many spotted bass were measured and if there were any smallmouth measured in the Yak derby. Bet most of them were LM.

Does it really matter? Rule of thumb being white for bright and black for nite. I have thrown both in either situation, and it seems it you get it in front of one that wants a buzzard they will slurp it regardless of the color. Couple of years ago with the water was up on Bull on the brightest day out there a buddy and I were fishing a white and a black and we got the same number of bites on a brite cloudless day. Just had to tick the right branch. That was when the water was up nice. I really cannot remember ever catching that many for such a long period. They were just wanting a buzz bait. Lots of guys on Table Rock will fish the bluff pockets with the black this time of the year, clear in the backs of those little cuts, throwing it over the debris that is always back there providing shade. I have seen some very nice bags come in doing this. Most always LM on these locations.

Just a quick chime in here. Don't know if any of you all are facebook people but you need to take a look at Ed Franko's past 3 weeks including this morning August 17th. Just got off the phone with Ed and one of his clients had one on so he had to go. Big Ed's Guide Service Ed has been fishing the dam area and the bite has been outstanding most of his fish are coming at the cove mouths to 1/3 of the way back on the steep ledges. He is bouncing a drop shot with a 6" purple worm down the ledges. He is also fishing a big red 10" worm and a 3/4 oz. jig and doing extremely well on all these types of locations. His fish and he is catching big ones. Had a monster a week or so ago at 8.6 pounds with lots of 4's and 5's . are coming 18 to 30 ft. on the ledges just pitching the drop shot up there and letting it settle in the 15' range and then just slowing bouncing it or walking it down and back to the boat with the worm about 1ft. over the DS weight. This presentation is used on the Elite series by lots of the play for pay boys, pitching the drop shot and walking it down ledges. Here on the Rock we mostly fish it up and down, but pitching is for sure a great way to fish it. He has his own brush piles and has found hundreds with this side scan. When he sees one in the right area his is casting in that big worm Texas rigged, pegged and weedless. That's how he got that big sow. For numbers it has been the dropshot on the ledge banks with no structure except the ledge and depth itself. He is catching them this morning with no water running but he says when they are running it the fish will bite all day. Sounds to me like something for you all to give a try, and if you see Ed, give him a shout out for the great info. Good Luck

Got a very stern reprimand for misinformation in an email this morning and truly apologize. Good buddy of mine had told me that his son placed in the top 3 using a black buzz bait and his big fish was 19 inches. Reprimand stated that the 2nd place finisher did not catch them on a black buzz bait but on a white buzz bait and his big fish was 21" instead of 19" My entire reason for posting was to give congrats to these guys for a great day on the water and that yes there is a bass bite on lower Taney. If any of you went out a bought a gross of black buzz baits and headed down there I hope my misinformation did not ruin your day. If the future I will watch my information and try to verify it in triplicate before posting. Back to the original topic are the bass biting, I'm going to say yes with much guarded reservation.

Guy that took second caught them all on a small black buzz bait with one at 19" Sounds like you all had a wonderful day on Lower Taney.

Mike, it worked really well for me one day this summer on Middle Bull Shoals, when the water was in the bushes. I just swam it from shore out and down the small lanes. I had been throwing the Pooper, but they were just not having it and changed to the Rat. Totally different action and just flat life like. They hammered it.

Refer back to my upper bull shoals post on the Rat. It is not an everyday topwater and it has to be fished dead slow, but it will for sure catch them. Maybe a very good flooded shoreline bait and a cedar top bait. Pricy, but effective.

I have tried everything that this old boy can think of to make the Buckeye attractive to our TR lake bass, and have just not found a way to get it done. It is fairly lite and throws ok, but the very wide slow wobble just does not get-er done here. Yes, you can catch one a stick at times, but this bait no longer comes out of my box, and for that matter is now hanging in the shame on me area of my tackle room.

Beck and I were fishing a derby with the float-fly. I probably told this story on myself before, but we both hooked up on our first cast. We had two keeps flopping in the bottom of the boat. I jumped down and unhooked them both and started to weigh and put bouys in them. He cast back out and swung another one in the boat, before I could even breath he did it again and we had 4 keeps, for me to get into the wells and marked. He then swung another one in. This is in a 3 to 5 minute stretch. He said, "cull that one with the bad eye, I hate the way he looks, I don't care what he weighs." I was starting to get rid of him and he throws a 6th. fish in the boat. I had the bad eyed fish in one hand and the smallest fish in the other and just threw them both back, giving us only 4. Did not really matter as we culled the entire bunch, but it was hilarious to him and embarrassing to me at the time.

I'm going to jump in here a bit. The Kayaks are just out of hand down there. Sometimes traveling right in the middle in the fog or even in very low light situation. On two separate occasions I have rescued over turned Kayakers that had nothing to do with boat wakes. Just extremely inexperienced people on the water. We did have an accident this weekend and I am presuming it was from running to fast in the fog, by a person that either did not know the lake or was simply an idiot. A Ranger boat was wrecked into a tree across from Short Creek. On a whole however Taney is one of the safest bodies in the state. For the amount of traffic, probably the safest. If you are coming from Branson headed for the dam, you have to remember the is an open unrestricted waterway for navigation. Inside bouy lines are the only place you are responsible to come off plane. Common sense should prevail and it does for the most part. It is a very long way coming or going and it is Impossible to crawl up or down the lake. I have not seen anyone bust the bouys at Lilleys, and I have been out everyday. It is possible as Phil said they are out a bit far, but it keeps wakes off his dock. Last week, I saw the State Patrol run right by a herd of Kayakers and he was running on plane. This is not Bennet Springs or the Niangua, this is the main channel of the White River. Power boats operate here. I'm out there almost everyday in the Summer, and try not to be one of the problems. In reality however there are very few problems. I will say however if I had to stop for every kayak on the water now of days I would have to cancel my guide trips as the lake is completely full. They need to keep them to the sides and if waves are a problem, they probably need to not rent them. Again by and large and we all fuss about a wave or two or someone that is moving to fast in the fog, this is a very safe waterway.

Should have come over and said a big Howdy. We usually make a run every other week to Green Forrest. My wife uses the bacon from the butcher house over there. It has won lots of awards and she likes to serve it as a local flavor at the B&B. We make a buffet stop and then hit Wally World for the round trip, unless it is Thursday and we can get the ducks in a row, and then its over to ES to Myrtie Mae for a fantastic lunch. And, James is right, this time of the year, we try and get done as early as possible. Two reasons: Its HOT out there and its also very HOT out there. TTFN

Quick weigh-in on the topic. Never feel responsible to give a guide a tip. A tip is a very subjective thing. It is really not how well you do or how well he does but just how you feel about the day. Guides use guides. We use them where ever we go, from Alaska to Colorado to Florida to Louisiana to Texas. My criteria is preparation. How well does this guy or gal know the body of water and how much information and in what manor do they give it to you. How does he present him or herself and what is the quality of their equipment weather it be new or old including boat and gear. Is the guide punctual and has a plan in mind? I want to learn more than just about fishing, I want to know about the area and a bit about the guide. I want to ask their opinion about seasonal patterns not just at the moment we are fishing. If you are quiet, most often the guide will be quiet right with you. Ask questions and you will 99% of the time get quality answers. I don't have very many trips as a guide that I don't pick up a tip or two from a client. You should pick up a bushel from the guide. 99% of the time trout or fly fishing guides do not fish. They are either on the oars or positioning you in the right locations. 90% of the time pan fishing guides or saltwater guides will fish. Some at the invitation of the client, most thru necessity to correct changing patterns and baits throughout your trip. On the White River system it is almost impossible to get front ended by a guide. Yes under some circumstances it can happen, but most often this is not target fishing, it is open water fishing. I only know of a couple of guides here that will take some advantage and fish hard. Every fish you catch, I catch, so for me it works great if you catch them all. It is also a big joke and a laughing point to tell the buddies that the guide caught 1 and you caught a dozen. Not a trip goes by that I will have a client say "No one ever told me or showed me that before." In a lot of situations you can tell and tell and tell, but if you show someone it gets their attention. It is never and I mean never any one thing big, it is a multitude of very small little things that make us more successful. Most of us want to teach you one more little thing or 1/2 dozen if that's possible. On the Rock, it is not only what we use but how we use it. Technique is important in everything we do as is our equipment. Only a certain percentage of my clients will fish live bait. Most want to learn how to present and use artificial bait on Table Rock. In the past week, I have had trips that I got zero tip and I have had trips that I got enormous tips. Two different trips out of our Lodge. I took a couple fly fishing this past week. The wife caught 20 and her husband caught 27 all rainbows. Probably one of the nicest best trips I've had in 2016. I cleaned 8 rainbow trout for them that were simply magnificent. The other also out of the Lodge. I preformed way above my pay grade and the fish more than helped me as on this 3 person trip we caught and released 40 rainbows and these folks had never fished much before. All on artificial. No tip on either trip. Last Monday I took a bass trip with 3 guys from Florida. We had a decent trip, but nothing to write home about. I think they had 7 or 8 each, all on artificial. Decent day, but they gave me $200.00 each, tip over the guide trip price. One of them saying there was no way I could make a decent living with the equipment I had and what I was charging for a 1/2 day trip. Said the same trip in Florida was twice the price. I have other folks ask why we charge so much to take them fishing. It is all perspective. The guides here on the Rock are not getting rich in comparison to our brothers and sisters elsewhere in the country. Most are just hoping for a great life meeting super fantastic folks and guiding them to the best day they can on the water. Most of us have investments in equipment ranging in the mid-six figures and it really has to be that way to be competitive in todays market. Everyone wants to fish with the biggest baddest and best. Hardly a bass trip I take from a new client that he or she wants to know what boat I drive and what kind of gear I have. Most even want to know the tow truck. Lots goes into being a fishing guide, and doing it the right way. If you feel your guide did it the right way regardless of the total number of fish on the trip and you feel he qualifies I will guarantee you that he or she will appreciate that 10% or what ever you deem is right for the day. Our slogan is we never expect it and always appreciate it. Good Luck

If we would have had any type of breeze today it would not have been a problem. It was just flat still and hot after a rain. I don't know why that sometimes triggers the flies to bite you, but it sure does. It was about 9,9:30 when it really started to heat up that they went on a biting frenzy, so I think you will be A-OK. Good Luck.

I bet you are probably right. Really anything except a big Crawler rig would catch them. I should have taken a pic of those 5 as they were just toads. You can see them moving up and down in the water column. A lot of folks would think they were bass, but after you log a couple of thousand hours looking at the Lowrance, you can tell exactly what they are. Durn things were so bad they would catch the Crawler Harness falling and eat my bait before it even hit the bottom. I moved out to over 40 on some of the flats just to get it down unmolested, but the screen was pretty bare out there. I'm kind of like Mike, believing the walleye are in that 20' to 35' range if you can get on the right stuff and keep your bait on long enough to trick one. Probably should have cleaned those 5 gills as they would have really been enough for us for dinner, but had also had a dose of getting chewed on and was ready to get in the truck

Got stormed out early from my Guide Trip on the Rock, as clients had to be out of their lodging by 11 so there was no way we were going to make it after this mornings fireworks show. After reading Mike's report, I was ready to go to Bull, so headed for Tucker and launched at 8AM just after the rain. Surface temps at 83, air at 67 and no breeze. Water at Tucker has a lot more color than the White River section of TR. Maybe good, maybe not. There is a very solid thermocline, at 25 feet in the Tucker, Horseshoe bend area. I pretty much had the Bull Shoals slam I had 1 crappie, 1 short walleye, 1 yellow perch, 5 big bluegill, 1 LM bass, 1 SM bass, and 1 gar. Used a big box of crawlers on a harness and the gills just ate me up from 25' to 35'. Some really nice ones, I threw the 5 biggins in the box and if I had caught just one legal eye Becky and I would have had dinner. I didn't so they got a reprieve. Those gills are locked in at 25' so if you are a gill guy, grab some crickets and get after them. They are on the long flat runnouts. I also got eaten up by house flies. I tell you these little suckers were the meanest I have ever seen. As soon as they landed they took a bite. Thru socks, shirt or bare limbs. It was so bad I had to retreat. Probably would have anyway as the heat was on big time. I pulled off the water at 11:30 to 88 degree air temps and still no breeze. As I was pulling out a group of skiers also came in and said they just simply could not take it and they were getting off also. The flies were eating the boat passengers to the bone. I had Deep Woods Off on board, but I think they thought it was mustard and I was the hotdog. Buster said they just ate him up also one day last week. I've had flies bite before and after a rain like that but it has been a while. Today was the perfect storm with rain, heat and absolutely no breeze. It was just flat miserable. I saw 3 bass boats at the ramp and only saw one black Lund on the water in the H. Bend area today. Fished flat gravel and threw a flutter spoon and swimbait on the bluffends, along with a slab. Caught the crappie on the slab, it was very small, the gar on the swimbait and the rest on the Crawler rig. I really did not see much activity except gar and carp and lots of perch at the thermo. And, of course the man eating black flies. Good Luck

Plus 1. Owner or Spro will not fail you.

I only have 20 or so of the 90's, but all of mine run perfect and catch fish as good as any bait I have ever fished. I did have a tail stop once on a 130 and it was wrapped with a small 1 inch strand of braid. Was a bugger to get out of there but when I did, it came back to perfect life.