Bill Babler

White River Outfitters Guide Service, Current Table Rock Lake Fishing Report Shell Knob Mo. Lake at 911.3 and surface temp at 79.8. Water Clarity is right at 15'. 9-21-14 Shell Knob, Missouri Out of the Knob the last couple of days and it continues to be Red Hot. Quite a bit of chasing action on the right locations, but for me it seems that these fish have moved out even a bit deeper. We are catching them on the drop shot in the 35 to 50 ft. range suspended mostly over either deep trees, or just suspended over open water off the major creek arms and off the very deep bluffends. There are several baits that have been working for me and are continuing to work. The best by far is the Yamamoto brown/purple 4" drop shot worm. Others will no doubt work, but I cannot seem to put this down. Fish are just screaming up for it from depth. We had K's today come up from 70' to hit the drop shot. You could just see them streaking as the bait was falling. The Dixy Jet is also still producing quality fish. Trick on it is to have the patients to let it fall and fall. Usually just about the time you think you should be reeling it in, they just crush it. Takes a little patients to let that thing fall 30' to 50'. Be careful, the hooks are SHARP!!! Do not jerk these baits, it is very dangerous and you never know where they will end up STICKING YOU. They are also biting a G-Fix 80 Duo Realis very well. Again you must have the patients to let it fall. You can throw both the 3/4 Dixy Jet and the Spinbait a mile. The fish are a bit harder to hook on the spinbait even after a hook switch improvement. They seem to stick really well on the spoon. I am still in a quandary about the correct line to throw on the Spinbait. Be very careful throwing it on Braid under 12 pound. For some reason or the other it really wants to get away from that braid. I have throw them off on the cast on 10 pound Seguar Smackdown and also on Nanofil 10# Really the best line I have found and I have not lost a single bait on it is 6# maxi. The last couple of day trips we have boated well over 100 fish on these methods. Kind of a funny story yesterday I was fishing out off a bluffend and a guy and his wife fished between me and shore. I could see him coming right down the bank, chunking a 1 oz. Blade on gin clear slick water and his wife looked to be throwing or better yet dragging a soft-plastic bait behind the boat. I am setting a full Shout-Out about 50 yards out off the end, fishing a set of deep bluff end pole timber. As he comes by he yells out. "Are you catching them today?" I answered, "yes, I think we have about 25 to the boat." He say's, "Ya, Right, I'm sure you do. So do we." I said, "that is really good considering how and where your fishing, that's great for you. " He yelled back," we have not caught any and you for sure have not caught 25 today, fishing how and where you are fishing." Guess I offended him. Just at that moment, both Randy and Kathy doubled up with really nice Big thick K's. The reels were just singing and of course they made a huge deal of it since this guy had bad mouthed us. Kathy yelled back at him as I netted her fish, " Hey Buddy, your right. We have not caught 25 fish today. I have caught 30 by myself and my husband has caught more than me." Before we left we put 8 more in the boat, with 4 on the spoon and 4 more on the drop shot. Came back past the point on the way to the ramp and he was sitting out over the trees, still throwing is Spinnerbait. It's never dull, Good Luck

Sweet

Springfield Missouri area and just South and West received from 4" to 7" so I expect to see the James come up quite a bit. Here at Blue Eye it is still raining and I have since yesterday about 1.2 inches in my gauge. Lake is 911.4 and that is the same figure I gave the KC STAR in my Monday fishing report, so we have not seen any type of a jump from this yet.

You can get those spoons at Bass Wishes from Tom Murphy as has been stated. The Dixy Jet is a more egg shaped type spoon and the 3/4 is under 3" inches long. It has a very good side to side flutter and it drops at the perfect speed. I have also used the little Cleo in 1/2 oz. but the jet is the deal. I replace the hook, and so does Tom, but Beck likes the Triple grip that is on it. If you are a jerker, you better replace the hook as the small bite of the triple grip will not stick. If you are a winder inner, without a hook set as Beck recommends, the hook on the bait will work fine, just cannot jerk it whatsoever. Good Luck

It is only good if you do the right thing. Fish like the fish want it or you are not going to be a very happy camper.

All the guides the last few days have just been hammering the fish. You all need to take a deep breath and do what late September and early October fish want and you will have simply a marvelous trip. Start looing off the long gravel points and runnouts and bluffends lake wide. Start looking just about where Champ lost his hat this weekend. They are eating a flutter spoon, a spinbait and a drop shot to their perspective A--. We had over 60 today and heard from multiple guides that said I sucked. The feed was on. Our best deal was the Dixy Jet in 3/4. Had to have a grip on the rod or they would flat take it out of your hand. Just about an even mix in LM and K's. Good Luck and get yourselves out there.

You Dudes would have won the CPA 3 day fish off with a one day catch. Nice.

I really wonder about the legality of that. If one person is in control of those fish, would not that put he or she over the limit. and is it legal to retain these fish. If they did indeed keep the fish would that not be commercial fishing as they did pay the participants? This smells like fish abit to me. Wonder what MDC thinks of this, it would be very interesting to know the logistics and the legality of a tournament sponsor, keeping the entire last day catch. Hmmmm!

Have you ever guided clients that have never fished? 1 hook ok, two hooks very, very bad, especially if one of them is a triple hook. On another note, lots of folks use a jig on the bottom, instead of a drop shot weight. As far as the jigging spoon, it catches the line and the drop short hook way to often. If your fishing it and you are an experienced fisherman you can tell if its fouled. Most clients have no idea and will fish it tangled. I can see it on the graph and tell if its tangled, but that is just another avoidable problem. Pretty fun to catch them one at a time at the rate we are snapping them. Thanks, great point however.

Yes it could be, however these fish the guides are catching for the most part are really deep. Saw a lot of fish yesterday setting at 50+ feet suspended and they would just come up to meet the dropshot as it went down. They seemed to want very little bouncing or movement on it, just hold it down there and they would just pull your rod down. Good Luck

Had good friend and Client Ed Shawbaker out of Eagle Rock hoping to repeat the performance I has on Friday. It was colder than a well diggers back side and the wind was just howling out of the North. Took us a pretty short time to about an hour of throwing the buzzbait and the fin to determine that was not the deal for us today. Switched to a 3/4 oz. pigsticker jig in the wind with a Fat Baby Craw trailer and it was on pretty good. 27 fish to the boat, the only problem was not a keeper in the bunch. Had at leat 10 fish nudging the line but would not have thrown one of them in the box if we had been in a derby. Sunday started a much better day as we went out of the Shell Knob ramp. Already about 30 rigs in the lot at 0700 for a derby but it did not bother us. On the first locations with Rod and Wil from Arkansas we put 17 fish in the boat. Mostly on a dropshot. Fish were at 30' suspended over 90' Yamamoto brown/purple 4" laminated cuttail was the ticket. Fish were pretty much everywhere we stopped up there yesterday as long as we had the boat at the correct depth. I usually start at 100' and edge in till I see them. They were just eating up the dropshot. I have not had a day I had so many follow ups on the shot. We had fish rising from 45' to the surface following hooked fish. Ended with 60+ fish a mixture of K's-LM-MM and Jaw's. Today we had a small limit with one good LM about a 3 pounder. Last two days my clients have put close to 90 fish in the boat and only had 5 keepers. You can see why they really struggled in the CPA derby this last weekend with small limits and no limits. Lots of fish to be caught however and its as fun as it can be. Lake at 911.43 surface temp at 79.8 and water clarity about 15ft. on the white spoon test. Good Luck

Yes, I think Champ hit it pretty well. These fish are going to be in captivity for 14 hrs. rather than just 8. Plus they are going to be in a 1.5 ft. enclosure instead of a substantial tank. Completely different. I think we will be ok, with the lower temps that we are suspose to have. Good to hear we will have a man on the scene.

Always good to see OZA guys on the water. Spoke to Quill and he said he was having a very nice day. I hit the drink at E-Rock at 7 AM and had a good limit of LM by 7:30 about 13 pounds. Unlike Quill I was swimming a fin shallow, and they were not messing with it, they were just crushing it. Everyone had multiple Death Traps stuck in a scale or lip somewhere. Also jumped off one over 4 pounds on a jig after it swirled on the fin and did not munch it. Was the only miss I had all day. Ended with 7 keeps on the fin all LM and had 3 very solid Keep K's on the flutter spoon. I could catch lots of fish again on the flutter spoon, but they are all pretty small. Best deal however was boat in 30' and let the spoon on a long cast go completely to the bottom and reel it very slowly along the bottom back to the boat. Out of E-Rock again in the morning with one of my very good Bass Clients. Hope they are still on the deal. Good Luck

Champs info is perhaps as good as any. Fishing Table Rock in Early September is super hard for all of us, even those of us that have the chance to fish everyday. I would be on the water at daybreak and fish top water off the bluffends. Does not matter what you throw. You can try the shallow bite, but I cannot get bit on it. I am fishing to the shad and throwing a flutter spoon thru the schools. With any type of electronics on your boat they are easy to see. I am also fishing live bait to suspended fish off the bluffends that I am seeing on my electronics or a Yamamoto drop shot worm. I have heard a jig bite in 20' to 30' but have not had luck with this on the gravel runnouts. I you see a big white Phoenix out of either Eagle Rock or Shell Knob this weekend motor over and ask us how we are doing. I will be up there thru Monday. Good Luck

CPA in past years was one of the best if not the best Mid-West amateur fishing circuit. It in recent years has fallen on hard times as has many of the weekend bass fishing tournaments. Corporate sponsorship is really the only way any of these weekend derby's can make it. Simple participant entry fees are just not enough to either make it interesting or to provide the necessary funds to operate these events. I'm sure the current owner of the CPA, Mike Webb has had many sleepless nights trying to figure out how to make this work and receive any type of profitability. Exposure and Corporate sponsorship is really his best avenue. He is more than working diligently on this. Trouble is that he has chosen a week here and I have no idea of why he chose Early-September for his championship, but it is a very traditionally slow fishing time here and the water temperatures are at a seasons high. I wish Mike success in his business, but wish he would perhaps of chosen more wisely concerning the fish. Especially with the tremendous facilities they have both at Big Cedar and LongCreek. I know however that the Tracker Boat annual Show and meeting is going on right now on water at both of those venues and that perhaps was part of the decision. Presuming of course he had no other recourse than to hold his championship in early September like this. Best of Luck to both Mike and the Fish.

Really a very tough nut to crack out there for me today. The White River arm is holding some massive shad schools and after this last weekend I'm looking for them. I found 4 such schools today but there were only fish on two of them and they were tiny. Had the day off, so I just went by myself as I have a full rest of the week of guiding and several days on the rock that I have to have some fish found for. Launched at the Shell Knob bridge and the surface temp at 6:15 this morning was 83 degree. Saw about a 1/2 dozen feeds and that was it. Just about the only deal that I could get to work this morning was the Dixy Jet. Had 32 short fish and 1 fairly nice LM keeper about a 3 pounder. Most of the short fish were beyond short and I mean TINY. Caught fish on the same shad school in the same pocket I had this last weekend and then started looking form more. Eyes were peeled for just a fleck here or there to help me locate the shad. Found one school between Shell Knob and Basin Hollow that was a good solid 30 acres of shad. Caught 2 fish there and that was it. On another school at the mouth of the Kings and this was probably 10 acres I again caught them decent on the spoon and caught a couple on the spinbait. Found one more school in a deep cut and try as I might, nothing out of them. The one Keep came on just a bluffend. Caught two here with one being short. Spoke to Denny, Beck and Phil Stone this morning and I don't think any of us were doing a Poop. Good Luck

The interior of my boat is a fish free zone. Hardly ever had a triple hooked fish in the boat that either someone or something got hurt from it. Hard lesion to learn, but not easy to forget. I will tell you I have very seldom had the success on huge schools of bait that I had yesterday. Usually it is not like that. It was just one of those magic deals. This school of shad liked the 30' to 50' depth range, but would also stream to the top. Most of our bites happended in that 20' plus range. The Fish were easy to see feeding thru the shad schools. I'm not stopping till I'm on bait tomorrow and see how that works. I know however that there are suspended LM over depth off the bluffends and the Dixy Jet is the way to catch them.

Got on the pond really early with Jerry and Jerry from Indiana yesterday. Very strange weather with very strong wind on some lake sections and completely calm just around the bends. Started off in horrible fashion, and we went the first 3 hrs. with 2 bass a gill and a 12 pound channel. Surface temp at launch was 83 degree even and the water was somewhat of a turquoise color. Continually graphed fish and would even have a few follow, but nothing seemed to want either a dropshot worm, a crawler or a spoon. Spoke to Beck and although he started slow, his client had one over 8 lbs. on a flutter spoon. He commented that he was really in the bait. About 10 o'clock I saw a feed near a flat gravel pocket below CP and we stopped and eased in. My graph just lit up and I could see shad flickering in about a 20 acre area. They were a combination of Gizzard and treadfin of all sizes. Put a 3/4 oz. Dixy Jet for both my Jerry's and it was on. In the next 3 hrs. I just followed that monster school of shad around and we caught them about as good as it gets. Nothing big, but we caught catfish, perch, and all 3 Black Bass verities on the spoons. I also dragged out the spinbait and they just hammered it. Nothing big and really surprised we did not have a single white. Best 5 maybe at 12 pounds, but we had at least 4 triples and lots of times there would be 10 or so trailers behind a hooked fish. The entire area around us was covered with shad that our fish had tossed up after being hooked. This school could have been the same one that was fished in the mouth of Big Creek last week, as they were pretty close to BC. After the first surface fish, we never saw another surface feed the rest of the day. just a shad flick here and there. Shad were in the entire water column from top to 45 ft. Most of the bites were in the 20' to 30' range as we counted the casted baits down to about 30 before we engaged the reel handle. Lots of times they were on the spoon when the boys started to reel it in. For cripes sakes I had a double on a Duo Realis. 2 fish on the little bait. Both were short and one came off as I was picking them up, but I guess there is hope for that deal. We hooked lots of shad on both the spinbait and the spoons, as the baits fell thru the shad schools. I turned from a ZERO to a hero by just watching and getting lucky. Good Luck

You can thank our ignorant Governor for all of this. We basically have no on water law enforcement any longer. And if you really want to see what people in the media think of him google Fox news Mo. Governor Jay Nixon. See how he feels about law enforcement and how the Fox news pundits feel about him. Dressed his Arce down on National Tv, calling him a complete idiot.

If he gets rid of one of those cars he can afford the 25 buck lure. It is all what we chose to spend our money on. Some like cars, some like ranches, guns, tools or elaborate homes and vacations. Hear more people criticizing a 25 buck item than a #100.000 dollar spend. Makes me no difference, as I said you got it spend it as you see fit.

This is fun, and really can apply to anything. I have a friend that is a shade tree mechanic of sorts that just built a new Morton Building150'X100 with 2 lifts in it. The lifts are complete subteranian as he said the post lifts take up to much space and look like crap. The building is completely finished with both heat and air and a complete shower and restroom system. He has at least 20 of those big stand alone red tool chests and his benches which circle the entire shop except for his vintage car display are lined with peg board holding tools. He only works on his own stuff and is not for hire. He will peddle with the neighbors breakdowns, but won't take dime for it so most no one will ask him to do anything. He has several vintage cars, several tractors and he and his wife's vehicles, along with all the other mechanical junk that we all have to keep running. I asked him what he thought he had in this deal counting all the tools and he said about $350,000.00. Of course that is not counting the cars trucks and tractors that line the West side of the building. My best friend in the world and I grew up together and went to school together since the 3rd. grade. He just bought a 600 acre farm next to the family farm and is remodeling the cabin ie 2,600 sq. foot house for us to use as a deer hunting, as he calls it "shack" Spending $120,000 on the remodel for us to use for about 45 days a year. The entire 600 is designated as a cattle free zone and is only designated for deer and deer hunting. He also built two Vaughn building that are climate controlled for us to keep our gear, vehicles and tractors and 4 wheelers in. Price for all is about 1.5 mil. I don't feel bad about spending 25 bucks for a fishing lure.

Why would anyone in the world even care what another man spends on anything? We all have things we love and want to cultivate. I personally love all types of fishing and have an affliction for very high quality fishing equipment weather it be fly fishing gear of bass fishing gear. I can afford to buy what I want, and for me my clients just go goga-goga over it. For the last 20 years, I have yet to have a client get in my boat and not say that he wanted to get the kind of gear that I'm using weather it be baits or equipment. Have NEVER had one tell me you should get this or try this. Mostly cause what they bring to the boat is not even comparable to what I put into their hands, with mine being light years ahead. I have had tons of folks tell me that if I used the gear you have I would be a better fisherman and catch more fish, just from a performance stand point. That being said, I do have clients that fish better gear than me. Sometimes a single spinning or casting rig will be well over $1000.00. I am more than happy for them. Now we have not even mentioned the price of top flight fly fishing gear, that is an entire different realm. Let's all get along and fish what ever you feel comfortable with. When the Megabass baits first came out they were selling for way up in the 100's of dollars each. I have clients with tackle boxes full of them at that price. Big Deal. One of my best clients gave me two of them at that time that he paid in excess of $350.00 each. I asked him "what if I loose em?" He said I'll give you another one. Now after all these years, one of the best and highest price baits in the world is the Megabass line of hard lures, they are priced at double the competition, and out sell all brands 2 to 1. What ever you may give for anything Scarlet, Frankly I don't give a durn.

On my trip Monday, I did not see a boat of any kind. Launched at Baxter and fished till 10 AM and had it solely to myself. Champ was pretty correct on what you should do as far as the boat size you will be fishing in. Couple of suggestions for you that should work out well. Here are 3 parks that will more than work. Eagle Rock up the White River. You can fish upstream from the 86 bridge and be just fine. Cricket Creek on the Long Creek arm fishing either Cricket or LongCreek up stream from the campground. And lastly if you go up stream is Viola Camp Ground. I would really hesitate to go to any of the other main lake faculities including Viney as the Big boat traffic is just to severe in your time frame. Monitor the forum for fishing information and you will have a nice trip. Good Luck

Let us know how that model works. The guy I talked to said that model has the fastest sink rate of any of the spinbaits, and is designed for open water suspended bass fishing. Don't know how deep you are fishing in the Elk, but I would have a lure retriever on hand just incase it finds the bottom on a continuing basis. Good Luck