Bill Babler

The picture of M. Davis today was at Hideaway, up the James. I would be very careful of believing anything you hear on the blog usless you see and know the location. As far as where these guys really are. Not to many locations on Table Rock with Gas Pumps, so it is pretty easy to tell. If you even get close to the Baxter boat dock throwing anything, the owners will bring down the heavens on you. They are very serious about not fishing around that dock or any attachments. He is not really letting that bait come in contact much with the bottom. He is reeling it as soon as it hits the water. If you notice he is not letting it fall or even pulling it. He is reeling it in a very steady retrieve. Be easier tomorrow with GPS tracking on the boats, to tell. And tomorrow, I don't think they really care if you know or not. Got to head for Taney for an afternoon trip.

Did you also notice that he is reeling that bait and not working it? I'm a little familiar with it, but really a novice at throwing it. Is the technique to fish it like a jig or drag it or swim it. Looked like Mark was slowly swimming it or schronging it Nice post Sprint

You all forgot the 11 inch Osprey he like to throw or some such thing. He was fine today. He said he figured it out. Just moved deeper. Right!!!!

MOTOMAN has given you several great tips. One of the best will be you need to watch the Saturday weighin tomorrow online. Do not miss it. The guys that do not make the 12 cut are going to tell you absolutely everything they can about W-w-w-w-w. They are going to give you lake sections, bank types and to a degree bait selections. Listen close as this will be priceless info for the next week or so, outside of the crankbait bite as it will go away the way this water is clearing. You just need to switch from cranking to soft plastics or a jerkbait and you will be ready to do the deal. Good Luck

MDC determined that LOZ was just to far North to get the growth for the K's. This is also based on the forage on LOZ that does not have a threadfin shad population, but only a gizzard shad population. Again to far North. Table Rock with its deep clear water and one of the largest thread fish populations of any lake allows the Spotted bass however slow growers to live a much longer life and repopulate a body of water this is not supplemented by stocking. 90 percent of the time the spotted bass does not occupy the same terrifirma as the LM or the Sjaw. Spotted bass here for the most part are like walleye, they love to suspend and live on the end of very deep runnouts and are continusly moving. Smallmouth are really mostly feeders of shoreline forage consisting of a huge diet of insects and small sunfish, not to mention eating LM and spotted bass fry. Of course they will eat a crawdad or a shad at the drop of the hat, but they are not in anyway threatened by Spotted bass on Table Rock lake. That is why we have the 15 inch limit. This will also allow the bigger K's to eat and work on the gizzard population. Going to be a great finish to this derby

Full is full. If there is more to eat than you can possibly swallow what difference does it make how many are eating. I unfortunately have been practicing this all Winter. I have never in 25 yrs. of guiding full time on Table Rock lake had one person complain about catching a bass of any kind. Let along a 13 to 15 inch Spotted bass or Smallmouth. Good Luck

Why would it improve the quality of bass fishing.? Have no idea how that works, taking fish out of the population making it better. Does Kentucky have a problem with the forage base in its lakes? We do not have any problem with feeding the ones we have in here. If we put several million more we still won't have any problem feeding them. As a matter of fact I wish we did have several million more.

Fished the Ice Berg today, just getting in. Started at 8 AM and finished at noon. The water I fished today had dropped from 57 degrees on Wednesday evening to 49 degree in my first location. In the second it had gone from 53 to 47 degree. The main White River Channel from Shell Knob Bridge to Hobbs Hollow had turned from a light brown to a turquoise green and there were 3 footers bank to bank in this stretch. I have never been that cold. We watched some Elite Anglers fighting the wind and waves. Their trolling motors would jump completely out of the water. Their Marshall's were wet from spray and looked totally miserable. It was just to rough for me to fish. The locations that we fished on Wednesday had huge waves crashing in on them. There were wrapped boats on every bank up there just going down the banks, not fishing anything in particular, just fishing. Never saw one catch a fish, but that does not mean they did not hammer them. We ended the day with 14 fish with 3 solid keepers, 1 K and 2 LM. Caught everything on a rig and a jerkbait off the bluffends. Tried to throw a wart, but it was just to lite in that much wind. It would blow a 10 ft. bow in the line and just scate the bait over the boiling surf. Anyone that caught them out there in this stuff is one heck of a stick, it is just now 47 degree with winds gusting to 40 mph. Way to hard for me. I start shivering just thinking of that boat ride from the Kings River back to State Park. It would be totally horrible, with cold wind and big waves. Good luck to all that braved this extremely cold windy day.

Vern, rumor has it there was no upfront money. Just the percentage of the intake. Pretty sweet deal if you can get it. On very good information the only private course will be Top of the Rock. The other two will reopen open to the Public. Thanks for you knowledge, always good to hear from someone that has been there and done that.

Jim, thank you for posting that. Very well done and said. Not but a few years ago they could not catch squat and most were wanting MDC to stock fish immediately. I can remember the Gman saying this is a wonderful fishery, but if you locals don't catch and release here you are going to be in trouble. Now several of them that I guess don't like catching hard fighting smallmouth and spotted bass that are sublegal want to rid the lake of an over population. Those guys were just insane. For that matter, who in the world weighs in 15 inch K's or smallmouth with any hope of winning. Not going to do that here anytime soon. This is one of the best Northern Spotted bass fishery in the country. It takes those spots and smallmouth time to grow here this is not Texas, Georgia or Florida. I am simply tickled beyond a shadow of a doubt for folks to be able to come here and have a day catching and releasing 2 pound bass. I really think BASS needs to address those that made the fish fry comments and we need to have an apology.

Got a feeling you are pretty right. I however tried to see every picture of the fish they were holding. For sure the most pic's were with a jig in the fishes mouth. Did see a spinner a swimmer and a crank or two also. Right off the bat however there was a picture of a guy fishing the rip-rap at Eagle Rock bridge. At full tilt from State park and if you then run up the Kings away, you are going to use 50 gallons on the deal, or very close to it. From Ahoy's to Roaring River a couple of weeks ago I ran over 30 g. thru the 250 merc running at a comfortable 72 mph, without really cobbing and gutting it at 76. Those boys are cobbing and gutting.

Teddy, kind of like Dave said, and I do apologize if I conveyed my message in a poor manner. The Cape Fair derby and the charity deal on Saturday are not normal results here. This winter the results in all the big derbys here if you look close and yes there were some tremendous bags, were caught by a very select few and their names popped up week after week. I love this lake with all my heart. It is my life out side of my family it pays my bills and provides me with joy and constant entertainment. It also even fishing close to 300 days a year for the past 30 yrs. KIcks my tail so bad its like I have never fished here some days. There is several rules on Table Rock. 1st and foremost you had better fish where the fish are biting. When you posted you would only go 5 miles that 99.9 percent of the time is a deal breaker. Did you hear Mark Davis say today for his second place bag he drove 100 boat miles? Did you hear Double E say he ran 66 gallons of gas thru this Nitro/Merc. That engine is friggin stingy so you had better believe he put 100 plus miles on it today. Hear is the deal. You don't make the rules or say what you want to do here. You do exactly what the fish want or you go home pretty sad. You saw today how many of those guys the best in the world caught big fish. About 1/2 a handful out of 106 of the best of the best. That is why I posted a 4 pounder always makes me smile. As for the numbers you get a clear slick, high pressure week with blue/bird weather and you will not think much of this pond even in April. You almost always need a condition to catch them on the Rock and it is known as one of the best foul weather lakes in the world. You get a overcast windy raw day, with surf pounding the shore and you had best hold onto your rod really tight as they are gona try and take it away from you especially around Kimberling if those big brown fish get going. You saw a few brown fish today but not many. What did that tell you? It told me the boys were running. 20-30-40-50 miles one way. You stay with this deal and we'll get ya bit, but as I said before you got to catch the first one, and you may have to take a ride to do it. Welcome and good luck

Ryan, Bo and Champ those are just great points on the Kings river. Ryan you have really helped me with your post, I know that fish are in continual movement this time of year and it is really timing, but golly durn when I go in that river and see 30 boats from Viola boat dock to the mouth scouring everything I just have a hard time putting down the troller. I just cannot do it. That river gets just as crowded as Long Creek maybe more so. I don't remember the year, but It was early 90's It was the year of the wart on Table Rock. don't remember who won the top 150 event here but on that bluff bank before the big turn up to the blue hole there was at least 20 derby boats each day following each other down that mile long bluff throwing warts. They would just cycle and cycle. It was before the fish kill and that bank was simply loaded with LM. Just goes to show that regardless of who is there, be patient and take your number. I:m going out of Shell Knob in the morning, but will not be going in the river. To many fish on the main lake and not near the pro's.

Thumbs you need to learn how to take a picture with some background in it. How do you expect us locals to know in Ozark vernacular. "Where you was."

Folks in the know are telling me they think they will really bite the wart tomorrow. As I said, I am usually wrong on the pro deal. We'll see

Man, that is really, really good information. Thank you so much for the clairification, it was just driving me bonkers. With this shallow bite and to see all those back hoe boats back off tossing at the piers my poor stupid mind was just spinning.

On another note, there may be good news on Viney, but I'm not saying I know anything yet. You may however keep on using it at this time FREE.

Spoke to a person in the know, and Johnny Morris has leased the facility from the Corp. That is campground and launch and the entire Kabottle. Don't know how he got the lease or even if it went out of bids. But none the less it belongs to him now and that is another launch that we will pay for.

Alex, why were there guys fishing the bridge piers at Long Creek today. Should not influence your marshall status if you know the answer, it really puzzled me.

Bo, I was throwing that little A-bomber yesterday and my client handed me my you know what. We were fishing shallow and I had my boat turned at all times so he could cast in front of the boat and work in shallow. He was throwing an undisclosed wart pattern that I was sworn to keep to myself. I have never seen one like it. This guy was a super fisherman, just about as good a stick as there is fishing the rock. He had fished it 30 yrs. and just wanted to see another perspective. To tell you the truth I learned more than he did. All I was able to do was fish some locations from a different perspective than what he usually does. Long story short, I went to the original V38 and was able to catch up somewhat, but that A-Bomber, really let me down. Not a bite or fish on two different colors. Switched to the wide wobble wart and the party commenced. Being about as stubborn as a mule and thinking it really did not matter that if I got it in front of one he or she would eat it put me in the hole 7 to Zip. Don't get me wrong, I was tickled pink as punch he was hammering them. I just had to figure out what this old dum-dum was doing wrong. The V38 figured it out for me.

They are calling for a low of 39 to 42 in the lake area tonight. with a high of 54 to 56 tomorrow on a variable wind of from 10 to 15 with high blue skies. Tomorrow night might get into the high 20's to freezing. By Saturday if it does not rain again, all that what is now just stained water will really be getting clear, even from Viola to Campbell Point. Where there was just a huge amount of the field today. I do not think that wart bite will improve from today. They had the best condition today with clouds and breeze from their 6:45 take off till the storm hit after 10 AM. Most of those guys had their fish by then. I don't think this cold front will move the spawners up tomorrow or even the next day. Some of the jerkbaiters fishing the deeper transition pole timber might be in the right place. I'm usually wrong on this stuff and very pessimistic but I think it will be hard. I just do not believe they can fish slow enough. Today was just flat out shallow power fishing the Rock. Got to expect to catch plenty of Buck Bass doing that this time of the year, with the conditions we have had the last week. I'm gonna throw that jerbait on deep trees and fish a jig slow tomorrow and see where it gets me.

Martins was way lucky with that 8 pounder. you put a 3 pounder there and he is back in the pack. I like where McClelland is with a bag of cookie cutters. I know Mark D. is running the White River. We really did not get very much rain. Maybe a 1/4. The lake up at Shell Knob is clearing fast, cool evenings and the High pressure will clear it more each day. I'm thinking the number of limits will probably be cut in 1/3 tomorrow and you may still see a 20 pound bag, but not by anyone maybe other than Davis that is up there right now. Mike catches another 15 tomorrow and he will be in solid position.

Yes, that was kind of funny. I very clearly remember when they were here last time they were crying cause there were no fish in the lake and it should be stocked. I believe that only Faircloth and Evers had a limit of fish all 4 days in the last Elite here. Lets kill the fish under 15 inches so there will be more big fish here? That is about as educated approach as could be. DUMB. Our forage base is strong enough to support way more bass than this pond is holding. I look for tomorrow to be harder. They are going to have to slow way down on everything they do. That is going to be really hard for people trying to come from behind. Jeff Crete fishing his shaky head and fishing slow to begin with may had a good day tomorrow. Those crankbaiters may be in for a way harder day, cranking those long rock points like they did today.

At times we will throw big swimbaits at the piers. These guys were casting big baits back off the piers, either stickbaits or swimmers. Beck said it is possible for some big fish to stage on the piers that can be caught with either of these baits, but you would have to think there are better places. Guess not as it was crowded with pro's that are suspose to know what they are doing. We did not have enough rain here to muddy anyting. Maybe a quarter of an inch. Fast and mean, but not anything to measure. Temp did drop 10 degree from 81 to 71

I came across the Long Creek bridge on 86 and there were wrapped tournament boats fishing the piers, this was before the storm, so it had nothing to do with it. Came back by an hour later and they were all gone. They were throwing at the piers, not the rip-rap on either side, but working the piers. This was about 9 AM and they were gone just after 10. Have no idea why elite pro's are fishing bridge piers with the shallow bite we have going on.