Bill Babler

I would fish petty light if I were you. It is also very important to get out very early. Tomorrow is going to be simply insane on this lake. It is going to be a beautiful weekend and not only will the locals be out but the play for pay guys are here in droves. Couple that with folks in wake boats still skiing and tearing up the H20 and you have lots of people in small places. I would throw a ned rig or a small shaky head for brown fish. Fish the pocket just past Rock Lane on the left and on down those steep interior banks. Keep the boats a full cast from the bank and most probably you will get bit 1/2 back to the boat. Fish slow and feel the bottom. Also fish close to and behind the big docks in that area. You can sneak up quietly. You wait and come out at 8 or 9 o'clock and you will not be so successful. Get out at 7. The first hour is magic. If you can take two rods each, put a small surface chugger on one and you might get someone to take it early. Good Luck

Some of the big boys around here have been on the HUGE CRAW for a couple of weeks now, and kind of keeping it on the QT with all the derby's and Fall fishing coming up. After the Open I'll post some pictures of the BIG baits we have been using. You will be amazed at the size. These bass right now mostly very nice Jaws are just inhaling them. If you catch one you can see pincers just as big and bigger than the one that 5bites posted sticking out of their gullet. Monday I had a great day, mostly on the RK crawler. I really struggled Tuesday and Wednesday. Yesterday we had one of those magical days putting a big 5er. in the boat and having 3 pounders in and on pretty much most of the day. Good Luck

I guided out of Aunts Creek today and my client said they have been breaking early and late from Hideway to Campers on the James. Mostly catching them on a flutter spoon.

wonderful report glad you all got them nipping.

They made that rig in I think at least 6 colors and color coded the engine. They made it from 71 thru 76. It was just about the best looking rig on the water at that time. I'm going way back now to tell you, most of them came with either the Johnson crooked shaft troll, or if you really wanted to spend the big bucks you could get a Silvertroll. Nice looking rig, thanks so much for showing it to us. I never had one but wanted one everyday I passed the dealership. There was a dealer on the 76 strip in Branson that had every color setting out. It was up across from the old walmart, when I was in college. AH 40 yrs. ago.

I believe it starts Oct. 1st. I think it is going out of State Park, but I'm not sure. I know this is a practice week, so probably see quite a few guys this week on the water.

From 2000 to 2005 Buster Loving and Tim Sainato were fishing team stuff. They were winning everything in late September thru October, and everything they weighed in was brown and BIG. It was just really when the FB jig was starting up and dragging it deep was the way to catch nice bags. Not A-Rig bags, but solid 18 pound limits. Those guys just hammered huge big jaws when no one else was catching them that big or that many. They had holes numbered from 1 thru 7 and would fish a rotation or as we call it now, a Milk Run. Those places are now gone, as there are big commercial docks setting over them. Buster and I won the Homer Sloan on 2 of those spots and that was at the time when you could weigh in 10 keepers. Buster and Bob Tindle won it about 8 yrs. ago doing the same thing in Oct. Those Big Brown fish love Crawdad imitations in the Fall. Good Luck

There is absolutely no reason to close that back ramp. If they say people will trash it, I call BS. It has been open and unsupervised in the Winter months for as long as I can remember. This is just complete crud. I use that ramp all Winter and never see any debris or any problem. There never has been a problem. I'll get a little clarity on it if I can and let you know.

Now that's funny, I don't care who you are. On another note, the LM bite is really off. I been jawing with good fishermen that are fishing everyday and none of them are catching LM. I tried my rear off the other day and stumbled onto a Big Jaw pattern. Just as good. Carry On.

Quill and 5bites, I'm sure the crank bite is coming on up there but to tell you the honest truth, I have not been above Campbell point in a coons age. Just have not had folks up that way so far since August. I'm missing my old haunts. There is starting to be a pretty good schooling and chasing bite. It just started for me on Sunday, and the boys in the dam area reported it to be very good today. You could not get any out of trees or get them to come up, but if you saw schooling or chasing activity you could get their attention.

I think I have some pretty good news for most of us. Lake temps this morning are at 77 and the water is still really off color, green/brown with a visibility almost lake wide at under 5'. Some places less. There has really been a pretty good bite the last week, week and a half on just about anything you want to do. Mostly throwing a RK or a Wart early, till the sun hits the water and then fishing a jig has been good. Sunday I had an excellent day with a regular client putting close to 18 pounds of SM in the boat and catching over 30. Friday we had a huge day with lots of fish. Yesterday I fished Baxter with one client and he and I caught close to 80 fish. 35 of a RK Crawler in Spring Green. The rest we caught on a Dixie Jet. only had 7 keepers but were just hooked up all the time. There are way to many derby's coming up for me to tell how we caught the big sack, but believe you me, the fish are biting. It will take a big bag if conditions stay the same for the Western Open. Only problem is the lack of LM. Everyone is catching tons of Jaws, but any big LM seem very hard to find. We did have over 30 LM yesterday but all were young and most very thin. Best 5 out of Baxter yesterday would not have weighed 9 pounds, Long and very thin, I weighed one LM yesterday pushing 17 inches and it weighed 1.2 pounds. Fish had great color and not visible injuries or hook marks. He fought big and did not have a large over size head. He was just a snake, as were most of the LM we caught. There are crayfish and shad just thick, so you have to wonder why. Get out and try your luck, you may discover the big fish pattern.

It is pretty hard to read what folks are saying and telling you to do, but most all these posts are slam dunk correct. Coming to Table Rock to crappie fish in the fall is pretty tough, check that really tough. You are coming to one of the better parts of the lake however to TRY. Look for fish to be suspended under the bigger commercial docks. You can flip a tube or a marabou jig into the stalls with some limited success. Most times these fish are no deeper than 15'. May be shallower this year with the allege bloom. At times up the big Indian you can find some around cedars, but again you are coming to a Bass lake to fish for crappie. It has one of the lowest if not the lowest density of crappie in any of our state lakes. I say this hoping for you. Good Luck

I'm in from my first trip today. We had a very good day on a Wart. Cow Creek to the Dam. Fished with Buster and Beck on a deal for the Chamber. We had 25 today with 3 keeps, one around 4 pounds and Beck had the same with 5 keeps with one around 4. Buster also caught them and I believe he said he also had one really big SM. Beck's clients caught all of their fish on a Rock Crawler, mine all came on a Wart. I didn't have the RC box, and Buster caught all his on a Tube. Probably close to 75 fish to the 3 guide boats today and everyone was a Small Jaw. Could not get bit on a point, all our fish as well as Beck's came on mix chunk rock and gravel side pockets and ledge. Had the boat in 20' running about a 45 degree cast. Most fish came in the 10' range. Water was 81.9 visibility 3' and a really nice chop. Headed for Taney for an afternoon trout deal. Good Luck

Fished the same area yesterday and only had 9. Every fish came on the Dixie Jet. 2 solid keeps and about 1/2 a dozen more jumped and spit it right back at us. There were guides fishing crawlers out of big Cedar in the area and they were struggling to get a bite on live bait. It was really hard.

Nice photo's. I would bet ya that is a straight rainbow. You will see slashes of orange and sometimes red is the creases and jaw line of quite a few bows. There is no or very little natural recruitment in the White River below Beaver Dam to think that is a crossbred. The chances would be extremely limited, to durn near impossible. Arkansas does not stock a hybred or cross between a rainbow and a cutthroat. I have seen 10's of thousands of bows with the natural orange or red jaw slash, from Alaska to Arkansas. Makes ya think though.

I think Tough Nut to Crack that I posted last week, might be a little better representation of the fishing that is currently going on here on the Rock. I try to make both my reports to the instate newspapers and on our fishing forums as accurate as possible. Hope they are honest and trustworthy for everyone.

Magic, I really think that's the deal.

I have to tell you that I am currently just about baffled. It is harder than hard for me. On my trip this morning out of Baxter we had 8 total fish with 2 pretty nice keeps, and I would not have had them had Pete Wenners not told me a trick. Beck guided out of Baxter yesterday and told me not to fish Campbell Point to Point 16 as it was just to hard. I really had no chose as my folks were staying in the back of the little Indian. Surface temps at the H hwy ramp were 76.9 at 6 AM and the water is kind of a brown green with visibility at maybe 4'. I had been catching quite a few little fish on a tube down by the dam, but these guys up here would have nothing to do with it. Saw a guy in a nice Stratos catching some topwater fish in the Big Indian, but he did not look like he was ripping them and did not want to encroach so I just fished mostly a crankbait-jig and tube. I did throw the underspin that I have been having luck with on the lower end and they were not having it. Caught 6 on the tube, with my lady in the back of the boat catching everyone of them. All short SM, she was just dragging it behind the boat. My crankbait thrower narry had a nip, on the cranker or the underspin or the jig. Called Pete about 8:30 and he said he had been on just a wonderful wart bite at the dam, on transition stuff. Said they just ate it up from 6 just before daylight to about 7:30 and he had only had one bite since. At that time he also told me he had very hard fishing in the area I was fishing 2 days prior and that he had to move clear to Kimberling City to get any kind of a bite. Said he thought If I hit some of the deeper docks with a flutter spoon I might be able to salvage the morning. Low and behold, the first dock we hit, Gary had 2 solid keepers both quality LM close to 3 pounds off the dock ends. Champ would be as proud as a speckled pup just knowing I caught them off a dock like that. Trouble was we hit 8 docks and that was the only two we captured. Also heard word of some suspended fish out deep, off the ends, suspended anywhere from 15' to 25' over bottomless. Pretty tough for this country boy. Also spoke with a couple of really nice folks at the ramp. One guy caught a short on his first cast of the day and nothing the rest of the morning. A really nice guy and lady said this was there second day of no fish. I suggested they try the gills, but he said he had paid 75 grand for his new Ranger to catch bass. Good Luck

Just simply cannot understand people at all. That is just terrible. You make every effort to really have a great time and harvest fish that are of no consequence to anyone. Marking your lines and staying out of the way of all traffic, and having someone do that. I would just about bet someone hung a bass lure in it and got pqed. or really now of days you don't know. Sorry this happened to ya.

Quill, what was the surface temp up there? It has dropped like a rock down here to around 80. This water cools off and with the rain, I believe the fish kill deal is probably dead and gone. Been getting quizzed about it a lot from Fall Clients.

Never caught a K yesterday. First 5 biggins were 4 jaws and 1 blackie. Everything up tight was a jaw. They are shallow here the big gills are still in that 20ish. ft. range so if you stick it right up in front of the bushes you will get nipped. It's really kind of funny, it is like old time fishing where you will see your line start running away. I believe when one grabs it there are a couple trying to take it away from him and he takes off with it like a shot. All these fish are just fat as toads. Some have shore minnows in them and a lot of them have pincers sticking out of their gullets. I caught one yesterday that was about 12 inches long and he had a crawfish that was about the size of a Rock Lobster you get at Red Lobster sticking out of his face. Beck had about a dozen this morning on his guide trip early 15' to 25' on a jig. Most all were keeps. They are kind of liking that bigger jig right now, so don't be afraid to throw a 1/2 to 3/4. Good Luck

No trip yesterday, so I got out for a while after helping Becky serve breakfast here at the Lodge. Hit the Pond out of the Cow Creek ramp at 9:45. I know that is late. Surface temps were at 81 degree and the water was really a green color with visibility maybe 3 ft. Started the day with a new bait that Al at Pig Sticker has been working on now for several months and for the 1st. 45 minutes with it I thought it was the do all show all. Had 5 solid keeps on it and I will show you the bait and how to get it when it is ready to market. That was that. It got really tough at 10:30. I fished for about another 1.5 hrs. without a bite and then I saw a fish break up pretty shallow. I had been keeping the boat in exactly 30 and my bites on the Pig Sticker were half way back. I had a very small Strike King GP mini-tube and of course a Varmint tied on. For the next 2 hrs. I caught fish after fish on either. If I would break off one, I would catch them on the other and this kept on till I was tired of messing with them. I'm going to say probably 30 fish. None even close to a keeper, as the title of the thread states, "A Little Fun." There are Jaws on everything I fished in the dam area. Right up in front and in between the bushes, on most all the points. Best fish I caught was probably 13", Lots of 10 inch stuff and at times there would be 1/2 dozen of the little guys following the hooked one to the boat. Not going to win you a derby or for that matter keep you as interested as it did me yesterday, but I was giggling at the antics of these want to be meanies. Probably not kid fish either, as you had to cast it right in front of the bushes to get them lured out. I'm saying probably under 5' of water. By 2 PM after taking multiple waves over the top of the boat I headed in, but for sure with a smile on my face. I'm really easy to entertain when I'm by myself.

Bo is a big boy and can take care of himself. Lots of concerns about fish care right now in this algae filled hot water low oxygen pond. For gosh sakes we just got a write up in a National Mag for dying fish. How bad is that? You can see why folks are a bit concerned right now. Bo knows how to take care of his fish, he has fished derby's here for a coons age. Cannot weigh in dead fish and for sure transplanting dead ones won't work. I'm sure he handled them with kid gloves, and a dose of O2 mixed in with salt or what ever formula he stirs up. That's another good topic. What do you all use in your livewells as a fish care product, and how do you handle them in warm water situations in these Wednesday and Friday Nite Shindigs? Time for us to get back to helpin and quit the Fritten and Fussin.

Bo, that is a pretty typical trip for most of us guides the last 3 weeks. Anywhere from a dozen to a durn good day with 30. Most often, we have been in that same 12 to 20 range your hitting in. Exactly the same depth in daylight hours as after dark. Fish are coming off of 1/2 dozen locations, if you fish 20 spots your going to have some skunks or zero's. and you are going to hit a home run on the couple of spots that seem to be holding them. Majority of the fish are keeper size with maybe a better LM or a big Jaw if you get it around them. Fish have not been on my beloved gravel, except up the James River on a very few locations. Best baits by far have been a 5/8th. oz jig or a 1/2 oz. Underspin, moving both at a painfully slow rate. Just durn near the same report you have just written up. This is lake wide. I would just about bet you a jig, most of us are doing pretty much the same deal, with the same results. Good Luck

Just about as astute of an observation as could have been posted. Thanks Thumbs, Great Post