Bill Babler

Also and I may add, this is the visibility above the thermocline. Below the visibility should magnify many times fold.

Great report and fish. Must have murked up some as on the white plate test last week, I could see the plate at 15 ft. easy at owl creek. Clarity is correctly judged on the plate test. Drop a 6" white plate down and when it goes out of site, that is the clarity. This is and has been for years the method that the lake Biologist use to measure light penetration and clarity. Good Luck

Cape Fair is traditional river fishing for mostly Largemouth bass. Yes there are very nice amount of K's up there, but nothing like from Aunts Creek down. Smallmouth can also be caught in the James and some darn good ones, again not the numbers we have from Long Creek to Campbell Point on the Main White River, but they are there. I always tell folks when they want to fish the river systems they are excluding large amount's of fish. You are getting way more specialized, and your techniques should change from traditional clear water fishing to good old bass fishing. When I want to go fishing just to fish, I usually put in at Aunts Creek and fish to point 15 up the James. The lake is really dropping and I wish I could have been up there the past 3 weeks throwing a buzzbait around the bushes and on the shallow docks. Didn't have time. We are now below 916 and it seems to be dropping about 3 inches per day. Good Luck

IF I did have to go and buy a slip to put a boat in, it would be Emerald Beach. My heart starts to race when I pull into the beautiful park at Viney Creek. When I round the bend a San Succi and look up past Carter and Cedar Creek, a smile comes to my lips. That area my friends is what Table Rock Lake truly is, simply magnificent. It is surly one part of the lake that the fish are always biting. You did not hear that from me. Good Luck

To me the James fishes a lot like Grand, and Lake of the Ozarks. Which at times is wonderful Pretty much the same water color at times as the two mentioned. Pete does a wonderful job up there with his reports and info. He has maintained that video site so well it is just hard to believe. Great work by a super guy. Realtime info. that really matters. Capt. Rick is also good up the James however don't know how much he is willing to give away. Good Luck

Very well said. Thank you very much.

Wow!! There you have it. I might have gone at that a bit differently. Maybe, "Yes, all my colleges that were mentioned are very good at what they do. and if they or any other of the fine guides on the lake are booked please don't hesitate to give me a ring. to arrange a fishing day of your choice on Beautiful Lake of the Ozarks." Might have sounded a little better. Probably would not have slammed the previous posters recommendations with the best, busiest, and most versatile. Sounds like I really don't want the business I'm to busy being the best and the busiest, but for sure don't want you to go with anyone else. Good information however. As they say, " It Isn't Braggin if its true." Good Luck

Neither Missouri or Arkansas Law permit the use of deadly force to prevent thief or protect personal property. Deadly force can only be used to prevent physical harm and can only be used if deadly force is being used against you. Cases where deadly force may be used are in a car jacking when the perpertrator banishes a weapon or on the entry of a home or a business while the owner is present burglary. Missouri statute is RsMo-563.041 You shoot someone stealing a rod and reel and you are flat going to jail. Skeeter, you cannot protect your property with deadly force and I believe this has been on the books for a long, long while. RPS please add your thoughts to this as I'm sure you know. This is pretty serious doing's boys to chunk lead at people stealing lifejackets.

Gentlemen, that is more than wonderful information. Mike thank you so much for such specific info. Jeff put it to work and there you go. Hope I can get away from the Rock in the next week or so and I'll be down. Takes me 30 minutes to launch at Tucker. Good Luck

YOu are 100% correct. You must have a permit and there is size and depth specifications. This is a corp. lake and putting in underwater obstructions is a mighty different animal to putting them in on a private lake. Good Luck and please send GPS cords of the locations

Those are just fantastic results. You night derby boys could teach us day timers a lesson or two that's for sure. Thanks for the reports J. Lets us know there is plenty out there if your in the right locations at the right times.

Just a quick minute to speak about docks. And, yes we have one. For one thing, we need to get this and keep this in mind. They are not personal property, they are not your safe place they are indeed nothing more than a hole in the water to throw money and time into. As has already been mentioned. They are not your private or personal residence or your lake home. Nothing of the kind. and the crooks know this. They would not enter your home, but they will pick up your junk on a boat dock. Dock's are nothing more than a wooden structure setting on public property most times out of any type of view that is covered with huge amounts of expensive toys and traps. Our dock is the most expensive yearly investment we have a our lake cabin at Shell Knob. The only reason we keep it is for the kids to swim off of. We very seldom put a boat there and never leave it unattended even over a lunch break. You leave your boat in a dock even on a lift and it starts degrading immediately. Not to mention you really must not leave anything in it for fear of destruction and theft. Birds, animals, constant movement dirt, insects and the elements immediately start aging your expensive investment. Tarps collect moisture. I have very seldom seen a boat at a dock that was not molded or wet or damp. Some people were dumb enough to pay 20 to 30 grand for their slip. ie "hole in the water." You could have built a wonderful drive thru garage for that and not restricted yourself to a very small area of the lake to fish. You could have learned the entire lake and fished where ever they are biting, instead of hammering on the same old spots day after day. Even if they are not biting there. I'm 58 and it takes me no more that 3 minutes to launch or load a boat. It takes longer to raise or lower the lift in our slip. As has been stated I can fish Taneycomo, Bull Shoals, or any part of Table Rock with easy access with in minutes. If I read that Quill or RPS are hammering them up the river, I can be there in minutes. If Denny is catching them at the Dam. I'm there in 30 minutes. If Champ is catching them out of Kimberling City it is only minutes for me to be helping him. If my boat is on a lift at the Knob and my gear is in the Cabin I'm just sunk. Yes I catch fish at the Knob, but I'm not opposed to run from Baxter to Eagle Rock either. Most folks with docks will not make those type of runs. They fish a little milk run around the dock where they have caught a fish from time to time. Took some folks this last week from Baxter. They had a cabin and a dock and they have had the cabin for 25 yrs. They said they wanted to see some new technique and water and learn how to catch Summer time fish. I picked them up and buzzed out of the Big Indian. Kanakut was in full swing at 6;30 in the morning and just beating the water to a froth. We blew 10 miles above Shell Knob and caught and released 52 bass and 2 walleye. In 25 yrs. they had never been above the Shell Knob Bridge. They said why are we going this far? After 30 minutes of fishing there were no more questions, only smiles. I told them If I could catch numbers and it does not have to be 50 right now at Baxter I would have stayed there. That type of fishing is not available at Baxter right now. But by being mobile it is available. They said they had no idea they could catch fish like this on Table Rock at any time of the year, let along the Last of July. They are always biting somewhere on Table Rock. I drove the boat that far, I'm getting paid. I would usually have just trailered up there to start if that is where I wanted to fish. Another point is that I never fish the same water two days in a row. NEVER. Nothing will hurt you more than fishing used water. This is one reason that the Big time derby boys struggle here at times. Table Rock will very rarely let you go back. You can fish similar and different, but going back is a receipt for disaster. Just a few thoughts from a dock owner about docks. Good Luck all and back to fishing.

Truly wise words and deeds. Thanks for not only the thread but the wisdom you have departed. BB

Please check with Lowrance before purchasing either of the maps. Lowrance now sells hot spot maps and unfortunately the new units may throw a tizzy if you try to put another brand in. Lowrance may be having words and a slight tug of war with Navionics. Personal experience on my New 2014.

My wife was a grammar school teacher for 25 yrs. and a durn good one. I have asked her many times, how many times do you need to tell someone something before you just give up. She always says, "as many times as it takes." This is a topic that will never give up or go away. For some reason after all these years people still think that unattended boat docks are private and a nice neat keep off sign will surfice in warding off those unwanted or suspicious types. I will say this again. You leave equipment on a boat dock you don't want it. Period. As Champ and many others have said this didn't start last night. At our resort on Lake of the Ozarks in 1964 it was my job to take the gas tanks out of every rental boat and every guide boat and make sure there were no life jackets, oars or any equipment in any of the boats. It was placed under lock and key and yes we had a steel door on the dock shack. We had two minnow tanks and had to lock them also.. Raccoons you know. 6 footers. All our motors were chained to the transom of the boats and we still lost some. As you know I have had equipment stolen from my dock at Shell Knob. My fault plain and simple. Just to lazy and slotherly to remove it. I helped perpetuate the theft by making it available. I don't do that any more. Yes troller it curdles my stomach to read and hear about this. It also just burns me up to think that people just leave equipment in boats and not expect this to happen. Not if or maybe it will happen, but WHEN. Picked up at a couple of big docks in the Baxter and Shell Knob area this last week. 10's of thousands of dollars of electronics, fishing equipment, props, ski's wake boards and Mustang Life Jackets lying all over the docks and in the open boats. Saw one Bass Cat with 2 big hummingbird units on the console and the bow, mounted on Ram's 2 SS props in the floor and 2 Mustang Life jackets in the seats. All had cobwebs and dust on them. Would take a thief 2 minutes to pick up 6 grand out of that boat. Another dock had an overhanging rod rack and I counted 31 rods either bait casters or spinning hanging from the roof of the dock. Some were Shimano. Most in fact. There were bass boats in all the docks with electronics and tons of tackle just lying in them. And you wonder why we have a problem. And you wonder why I don't feel sorry. I chose my words wrong. I hate the crime and the criminals that are doing this, but I am just shocked that some one would think that they would not. Lets pick up after ourselves and not give these crooks the opportunity to take what we have all worked so hard for. Just take responsibility for you and yours. Good Luck

How many times to we have to go over this. I do not feel their pain. My thoughts is that they did not want anything they were more than stupid enough to leave in a boat or on a dock unattended. Pretty much like leaving your wallet on a street corner and expecting it to be there in the morning. People that leave stuff in full view unattended perpetuate this type of crime. You shoot a gun at anyone on or around a dock either stealing trinkets or not and you will go to jail longer than the person stealing your junk. Folks, please take better care of your equipment. Do not leave it in docks or boats on Table Rock lake unless you don't want it. Good Luck

Bo, that is a pure experience type deal. It sounds like that type of fishing is something you do and are really good at. Even with the quality of the jigs we have today, it is a little harder for most of us. I can work the big worm thru the trees better than the jig as I can get the texas rig hook and weight pegged and buried in the worm. I still can be a little bouncy and burry that jig in a limb if I'm not concentrating pretty hard on it and I fish a lot. No way I can fish everyday throwing a jig into trees and not losing one for 30 days. I'm going to loose some everyday, and you notice I said some and not one. Good Luck

No problem, probably my mistake, but I saw he was not jumping back with more info. I probably would not have either. You catch fish like that on that type of a pattern and mum is more than the word. I will tell you that 2 yrs. ago, Kevin VanDam had a very similar pattern here using crankbait in the tree tops. This time of the year. He was catching them off the secondary points in the deep trees banging that crank. I mean good ones mostly brown. It did not work last year for him and he tried and tried it. May be the deal this year as its pretty much the same presentation as the jig deal working the same fish. Good Luck

This is a pretty liberal and informative forum, but that is pretty much asking how much money he has in the bank. A couple of years ago there was some real trouble on the Bull Shoals forum about giving up location and way to much hard earned information. With the pattern described I will guarantee you it was very hard earned with lots of jigs lost. Don't care who you are or what jig you use, you throw it into deep tree tops you will lose plenty, at 2 bucks a pop with the trailers. He more than earned and paid for those fish taking risks. A very good pattern has been posted. Use that and try the locations you mentioned, looking for that type of cover and see how you fare. You get bit and it means you really discovered the same pattern only in a perhaps different location. Something to hang your hat onto. Wishing you the best and good Luck

Absolutely on Table Rock. My diver buddies said they are just thick in the 24 to 40 ft. range right now. The end of our dock is in 38 ft. 4 chicken necks in a trap will put a dozen big dads in it most every night

If you have quality electronics and are running anything on auto, you have more than wasted your money. Take some time and get your unit set correctly. Fish should never be confused with the thermocline. They are for the most part singular objects that move, not stationary bottom or dark fixed lines, or vertical interference at depth. A great way to learn is to go with a friend that is really tuned in. If you just aiin't got one, hire one of the guides here. and it will for sure open a new book for you. R. Lapoint and now Mike Webb are as good as they get with Birds. Capt. Don House is right with them. Most of the other guys are running the HDS units and they all know them in and out, including Phil Stone that has posted on this topic. Bird or Lowrance HDS units, Table Rock has you covered with some of the best deep fisherman this country has to offer, and it is there for you to take advantage of. Good Luck

The thermocline will read on most HDS Lowrance units as some what of a heaver darker screen or depending on the sensitivity level you are running as a second bottom feature. ie if you know you are in 40 ft.it will tell you 40 ft. but your bottom line will show "example" 32 ft. It can also look like a heavy dark reading starting at the thermocline all depending on your sensitivity adjustment. I am running 83 percent and can see it easily. It just shows as interference at 32ft. over depth. Heavy water. We have discussed turnover on the White River. That is pretty much a done deal

She Represents That Remark!! You would think a guy with 30 years in the photography business would not have a PP growing out of the middle of his bass fishing stuff. She does however make any picture look good. Someone might have a huge crush on her and we both know who we are. Ya'll need to get off the golf course and get back on the H2O. Great Jig bite today, 15 pounds of Jaws. Come get em.