Bill Babler

Plus 1

Great Job Cheese Close to 40 fish on a jig is just super. My guys threw a blade on Saturday till it changed from Bronze to Silver and never had a touch on it. Champ and Fish figured out the blade bite. Really our best deal also was the jig, just not near the numbers you had. Thanks for the report. As usual, someone somewhere is catching them.

Fished with Sr. and Jr. yesterday on our annual jaunt, with this year being out of Shell Knob. We fished 7 total hours and it was just about as hard as I thought it could get. We fished from Campbell Point to Big M. and found water temps to be 54 to a top of 56.7 Fished both main lake and pockets did not see any 60 plus degree water. We looked a little for beds and only saw maybe 1 but nothing was on or even near it. We did see a few crusing while we were bed hunting. Had 12 bass with 3 keepers, two solid LM that Jr. caught on a Jig and one squeak that I tricked on a 110 plus 1 jerker. Also had a very nice 18 inch rainbow that we caught at Viney on the same jerker. Wind totally beat us up, it blew everyway but up and down and at times seemed to be doing that. These boys are not Ned riggers, but it would not have mattered. The fish would have had to hit a topwater Ned as our line skated all over the place. Hats off to Fisherman for catching more than he could count. That did not happen to us or anyone we spoke to. It is always the case on Table Rock, someone is on them somewhere. Just was not us yesterday. Good Luck

My guess is that you are SPOT on.

They need an editor really bad.

Were are going to have to wrap your truck and boat and get you a jersey. Thanks for the info, it just does not get any better than where to fish and what to use to catchem. Good Luck

Thanks for the inside infor, Always appreciated.

On the Albright that I tie, I make a loop with the FC and make 4 and only 4 wraps with the braid. I go back thru the loop, under the loop and back thru, then cinch it down. KInd of an improved Albright. Knot is very small and it takes under 30 seconds even if you have never done it before. Never had a knot break. Making 8 wraps X two is just a lot of tying. Yes you can do that at home, but try and pull that off on the water when time is of importance. If they are breaking either one of those, its time for a new reel with a drag system that works.

I don't think any of it will get you very many extra bites. What I do think is that it will get you extra fish during your day by fish retaining the bait and holding onto it longer than a totally unscented bait. Think it works much better on the creepy crawler type of baits. No reason to put it on reaction hard plastics as that deal is quick charge violent strike thingamabob. I know that gulp will without a doubt catch more trout than powerbait, they just hold on to it. I really like the KVD stick in craw and also the gulp in craw, for the little guy. Fish say its Yummy.

Be interesting to see how that would compete with an Albright. I can tie an Albright in under 15 seconds and I have never had one fail. Just watched Knot wars, and the Double UNI beat the Albright. Quite a bit different than Shaw is tying it, but basically the same. The UNI is tied with 8 wraps on each line for a total of 16 wraps and the Albright is tied with only 8 on the leader. Albright knot is 1/2 the size. Looked like 14 pound test with the Albright broke at 17 pounds of direct pull. Nice topic, thanks

That is just a wonderful spotted bass. Gal holding it ain't bad either

Ab's would you give a quick recap of the winners story unless it is already posted here and I'm just not seeing it. TKS

Just to much boat traffic this past weekend at the dam, Indian Point to Cricket Creek. These fish will start to come to their senses as soon as they take of their Kevlar vests and Helmets. Should be later this week. Good Luck

After Quill made that really nice post and you followed it up with a bigger one, I had some doubts. You got me on the 4-1 deal Stinker. Robert and Jeff, that was a great day. Glad you got to share it together. Jeff you look a bit cool. We saw guys in shorts and short sleeve shirts yesterday at SK. I had on longhandles and everything else I could wear and was still cold.

Pretty Windy this morning at Shell Knob. We caught them good on the main Lake. My boat had 28. Ned and a Tim Hughes jerker . Tim Paige had one client and was with me. They had 18 all on a home made underspins 1/4 oz and a 2.8 Keitech in Electric Shad. Mostly gravel chunk mix. 5 to 10 ft of water

Great report and pic's.

Every guide is different on this subject. Some will not allow GPS and consider the day you are with them the day that you have paid for his locations and his expertise on how to fish them. I'm from the other school. I don't privately own a single gallon of Table Rock lake water. If you fish with me, bring all the maps and follow up gear you want. On most guide trips, we fish lake sections and really a very small fraction of them. If I fish you on a 1/2 to a dozen locations on a section, you are more than welcome to return to any of those anytime you please. I know Beck feels the same. If your going to fish somewhere else the next day on the lake, bring your map and I'll mark where I think you may have some success. Just way to many variables for client fishing guide locations to make much of a difference to me. I have over 1.200 way points on my Gen 3. A hundred clients fishing my locations will not make a difference to me. I would just grumble that my junk was being covered up. A huge factor on Guide locations is fishing locations that your clients can have the most success by their ability to not only fish a location properly but have the ability to present and fish baits that will have the best chance. The guy or gal that fishes a dozen times a year with a zebco or a spinning rod cannot fish locations as comfortably or a thoroughly as a guy or gal that fishes 50 times a year and throws any type of rod real combo you put into their hands. Age and physical ability also come into play in a guides mind when selecting locations for his or her clients as well as lake locations. ie, if I fish from a resort at Baxter, Shell Knob, or at the dam, most of these resorts want clients fished in a close proximity to their resort, reasons are obvious. If possible I always present the plus and minus of each lake section for that day to determine where I will take them. I will fish any location on the lake on any day depending where I believe they have the best chance for success. I'll take clients from BC that will say we just want to fish around here. Lots of times I will say, I can fish you here and we should catch a dozen, or I can take you out of Aunts Creek, or Baxter and we will catch 30. About 25% will go to catch more. Lots will say lets just fish here and have a fun morning no matter how many we catch. No problem, but I offered you the information. "I Never Just Take A Client Fishing." You do that, you are not doing your job. You durn better have an idea of their ability and have an area that suits it as close as possible or you are just simply not going to do well, even if they say they are happy just being on the lake. Another point is you usually have a very hard time bending the fish. You guide on TR and you had better give them what they want. These fish very seldom bend. Yes you can catch some doing most anything and at any time, but day to day you better feed these picky so and so's what they want. The only time that really bothers us or hurts the fish when clients return to the locations we have shown them is in June-July when the post-spawn thermocline fish get on the ridges, humps and run outs. This is a time that the lake is in real Jeopardy. It can be extremely fragile as huge lake sections of fish mass into very small locations. Folks can do very serious damage by keeping limits of K's during this period. The numbers if you get on the right place seem inexhaustible. In reality huge percentages of the bass are in a very few limited locations and they are congregated. These locations are mostly from point 22 on the White River to point 12 on the James to the Kimberling City Bridge. Were talking about a 30 mile mid-lake section that 70% of the Spotted Bass are going to be on a couple of dozen locations. Most guides will not set a spot long, just long enough to catch and release a few and move to the next locations. Long winded answer to I don't mind if you return to the locations we fished during our guide trip. Good Luck

Lots and lots of views, by not only the B Bass guys but we are having several national derby's and most of them are off limits right now. Also the Elite guys will look to see whats going on here as not very much information on Bull. It is also Spring and our views always go up as folks are looking for any information on getting out of the durn office and getting on the pond.

Really? Might agree to disagree a little on this one.

It is never easy. Denny and I fished with a very good guide out of Port Arthur Tx. A few weeks back for Redfish and Sea Trout. Big cold front came in and we had ZERO bites the first day and 3 bites the second day. Guide worked hard but reminded me of the photo of Christy in the classic. Just could not put it together. Absolutely no fault on his behalf. He knew the water and tried everything he could think of and it was just not going to happen. Yesterday on the Rock was as mean as it gets. I know two of the best lake guides here that struggled mighty. One had 3 bites in 8 hrs. and the other about a 1/2 dozen. I had 2 trout trips and it was just miserable down there also. Sometime they go hand and hand. We only had 30 trout in both combined trips. That is 5 people fishing, so it was Super slow. You do the best that your clients can and give them congrats when they boat one on a very tough day.

Yep, he had me weeping also. Alex made a great point in his post, if you read close he usually does. Alex and his bunch are totally committed to what they are doing. Rest of us pick up a bait and throw it 20 minutes without a bite and back in the Bull Pen it goes. Right now especially if you are targeting big stuff, there is not a lot of bites. The Elite guys were fishing last week for about a dozen bites in 10 hr. days. That is enough. How many of us can fish like that? Alex can and he can do it as well as anyone that has fished this lake in recent times. Just complete respect for that. We threw big baits Saturday and we caught big fish. Not many bites. Went a 2 hr. period as Alex said without a nip and then had a 5 and 6 pounder back to back. Then, back to the 2 hr. no bite deal. Appreciate the reports buddy, nice to see what is lurking out there in the Briny Deep.

Thumbs, they can put in anywhere. It is not a shot-gun start out of BC. Everyone gets on their favorite location and they get a text to start the festivities. Believe you me they will fish from Holiday Island to Galena to Both Arkansas portions of the Kings and Long Creek. The Beaver suggestion is a great one. This can be a great time down there. Lots of staging fish can be caught in the trees in front of the spawning pockets. Throw that jerkbait or if you got a hankering the Rig in woody places in front of gravel pockets. You will catch fish. You might even catch one of those Big White/Silver ones that will take your junk. Good Luck

Are you reliving my life or is it just a Co-Inkey-Dink?

K. Just make sure you tell a loved one or show a child or a friend before you go. Taking such info to the grave is a waste of the valuable education you have worked so hard to learn and perfect over your lifetime. Treasures like that should not be wasted. Good Luck

I really don't think early is the deal on this crankbait bite. I think it is more timing. Some guys are catching them on chunk, some on flat gravel and some on ledge. If they are there, its on. If not you suck. Guy coming in 45 minutes later working the same bank can catch a toad sack. It is all timing, and really does not depend as much on what your throwing. Then we have Alex. That boy is just plumb special. Maybe one day he will take me. I'll blindfold myself or take a blood oath. Alex and his clan are without a doubt in a league all there own with plastic crawdaddy deals.