Bill Babler

Not a pistol, and somewhat above the price range you stated, but we all tend to move up somewhat. Falcon Cara-Reaction Cara Jerkbait Special CCB-4 165JBS $189.99 Action M Flex MH Fuji Guides 9 Line Wt. 8-17# Lure Wt. 1/4 to 1/2 Length 6'5" Grip Split This is my go to rod for any type of a topwater splasher, chugger, or darter. It is a great Jerkbait rod and is also a very good spoon rod. It completely snaps the head of a spook and makes it dance. You can throw it a mile as the MH Flex lets the tip load and it just catapults the spook or yellow magic. Just abit undersized for a fin as I throw my fins on braid or 20 pound mono. If I can use a rod for multiple baits like this one, I'm pretty happy.

What He Said. Just about as simple and as good as you can do!

I use a 7' Falcon Cenduri, they are no long made. I wish i had a dozen of them, but the Cara Dropshot rod is very nice. I like a very sensitive tip with a bit of an easy midsection, that has some bend when a fish is on and a very strong butt section from about a foot above the handle clear thru the handle. You for sure do not want a ful flex rod or a extremely fast solid rod either. Most of these dropshot rods are medium to medium lite. The hook set, using the circle dropshot hook is just a lift, never a snap or hard jerk. Just lift. Remember when setting the hook, that the bait is only about 30 ft. from you and you just don't need to pull it to hard. Good Luck

Couple of quick point I have learned with years of drop shot usage and 1000's of fish to the boat on it. First, I like a 7' spinning rod. This enables me to move the complete outfit out and around the trolling motor if I need to. Personally I prefer a 2500 series reel. I am using either a Sustain or a Stradic. The drag systems are just heaver and more refined with this size reel. I always spool with 8 Pound test Maxima. It is by far one of the fienst mono-lines for a spinning reel, with absolute ZERO memory. From my main line I always tie a 3' section of 10 pound fluracarbon line usually invesX to use as the drop shot. My first move is to use a ball baring swivel like the Sampo. Usually a size 12. I tie the FC Leader onto one end of the Swivel with a palamar and then tie the other end of the swivel to the main line. This big ball bearing swivel complete eliminates line twists. I know you all have questions on why my leader is heaver than my mainline. Easy reason first is I Like the abrasion resitance of the heaver line, expecially for toothy critters line Kitty's and Eye's. Second the heaver line and I will go up to 12 pound falls better and straighter than the 8 pound and keeps the bait from ever wrapping around the main line. Believe me the less tangles or broken lines the better. Lastly most often line breakage 99% of the time occurs at the hook, so the heaver line helps me there. Most of my breakoffs occur on the last run a fish makes. You get him wound up and are just getting ready to net him when he makes a power dive and breaks the line. A Small Jaw will do this 9 out of 10 times. The heaver line helps to solve the problem big time, along with the smooth drags of the Shimano reels.. Now from the Swivel down the leader bo about 18" and tie a size 1 dropshot hook onto the leader with a palamar. Thread the line thru the hook eye with the hook facing you. This will help in making the hook point up when the bait is attached and finished. If per chance the hook is facing down, simply run the end tag line back thru the hook while it is facing you and it will turn the hook upright. I like a 3/8th. ball DS weight, as it gets where it is going quick. Most folks use a 1/4 but I'll take the 3/8th. everytime. It also lets the shot drop ffall faster and straighter. It also maintains more tention on the rodtime and give you a better feel of the bait. For baits I either prefer a Chompers 4" dropshot worm or a Yamamoto 4 inch cuttail worm, you choise the color. TR fish always line purple or flecks or shades of it, in a bait are most always a plus. If you get a chance go out with a dropshotter and see how they rig and that first hand knowledge is worth more than anyting I could ever tell you. From hook setting to presentations. Good Luck

I would think it is about time for the crappie and the whites to kick in up there. I believe you are getting there about right. Had heard a rumor of a good A-Rig Bite just starting, but blew up with it yesterday, but didn't fish the Kings. That water is really low up there, so be pretty careful once you get very far past Sweetwater. Still lots of pole timber just under the surface. " It will bend a prop shaft believe me when I tell you." Anything from King's River Beach up is tricky. If you are to far up there, you are just trapped. Bout as easy to put the boat iin and out at Shell Knob if you are going to try and run in and out of the back of the Kings. Good Luck

What a total Brutal day for Beck and I. I believe they had 60+ teams in the event. I cannot remember a harder day on the Rock. We had heard rumors of A-Rig bite and started out with that. Caught a couple right off the bat, but short. Tried just about everything I could think of and we would catch one here and one there, with not a single keeper until after 1 Pm, and it was a squeeker K. Total of 11 fish for the day. Sleet and Ice rained down on us and by 3:30 we were toast. Just could not get the bite going. 1st. Place were the Dotson Boys and from what we hear, they ran from Shell Knob to Cricket Creek and spoon fed their fish. That is about a 100 mile round trip run from Campbell Point. 2nd. place was 13 pounds and it when down from there. Just really hard. Always fun to fish with Bill, but yesterday was more work than fun and for us it was mind games. OUr fortea" is deep fish and ours would not bite. If we had it to do over, we think we might have spooned deep pockets, but that is neither here nor there. Great event for the Chamber, but a hard day on the water

I'll do it. Quill, you ought to come fish. I really don't think its going to take that much and it is really fun. Food is outstanding. Beck and I just fish to be fishing. It is a great time for meeting and greeting folks.

Thanks for the report and Great Fish.

Lots and lots of boats out. This is a full derby weekend. Shell Knob will be a very busy place. Not a fun fishing weekend unless you want to take a number on a locaton. I could not get bit in a tree and worked it as hard as possible. Clear, high sky and flat water makes it next to impossible for a cedar bite. Wait a day or two and they will be on it. Good Luck

Duckster, I thought it was very hard this morning. Went out up at the Knob as a warm up for the derby. I had 6 keepers that weighed a little over 11 pounds. That is a complete Skunk. All my keeps came on topwater chasing. Struggled with the down fish and finaly this afternoon caught about a dozen on a jig 36 feet. No keepers but if you were derby fishing you would have had to measure them all. Great Guide fish. They jumped, pulled and went crazy. All the keepers I caught were LM skinny as a bluetick. Jig fish were K/s Pete Wenners caught them good suspended with some quality 3 plus pound fish. Deep trees with tops in 35 to 40 feet dropshot. Beck had to work also but not as hard as I did. You think this water is clear now, wait till it cools off for a few days. This water will turn gin clear.

That can be a big problem if your not local. Most of these long running events usually have a certain day or week each year and Homer Sloan is always the 1st. Sat. in October. We will try and keep you as current as possible. Good Luck

Saturday the 6th. of October is the date for the annual Shell Knob Fishing Derby, the "Homer Sloan." This is a benifit for the Shell Knob Chamber and it draws very nicely. It is a great event. Starting time is 7:30 and you can resgister at the ramp. They have a start from the Viola Ramp up the Kings River and also a start at Campbell Point Marina. Weigh In at 3:30 is at Campbell point for both starting locations. Top Prize is $750.00 for 1st. Place team--$1,000.00 for big bass and the event includes a steak dinner at the conclusion of the tournament along with about a zillion draw prizes. You have to be really unlucky to not walk away with something. It is great fun with some of the areas best sticks fishing. It is a total laugh out and blast to fish. This buddy event is $120.00 per team and $20.00 per team for the big bass pot. Come on over to the Knob and fish with us this weekend and you will be more than welcome and just have a wonderful time. Y'all Come

Cannot tell you how fortunate we are here to have Fred Ulrich in our area. Ulrich Marine at Branson West is without a doubt at the extreme top for any Mercury related issues. Janet and Fred are always there to help and have kept me on the water this busy season. Instead of having to order parts or fixing things the next day, they have one of the largest parts departments in the area. You break it and I'll bet you they have the part on hand to fix it. Also more important to me is you make one trip to the shop and its done, and done right. Cannot thank them enough for what they do for the Table Rock area fishermen and women. Good Luck

Welcome and take a quick peek at my October 1st. Lake Report. It is as accurate as I can make it. Good Luck

For me it just flat takes to long to scan the clusters. I can move thru the trees extremely fast and am throwing ahead rather than to the extreme side. We do find crappie schools from time to time however by doing just that. Right now, I wish I could tell you what to eliminate, but I cannot. They may be on a cluster, or a single tree on a point or in the back of a pocket. If you see shad in the back of a pocket you can bet any cover like a tree would be more than great. Like I said, you have to cover lots of tera firma. Put the trolling motor on 3/4 and start chucking. Good Luck

Surface temps vary but mostly in the 72 degree range, with water clarity at about 15ft. on the White Spoon test. Lake at 907.6. Lots and lots of fish still being caught on a dropshot. Seems really that live bait vs plastic does not matter. Most any color of 4" soft plastic dropshot worm will catch you just about as many as a crawler. You will however cut out a large number of walleye and catfish with the artificial. Fish are still very active in the 26 to 40 ft. range on the bottom and suspended,. Instead of looking at the same old places you fish time after time, start using your electronics more. If you are so luck to have a GPS system and a Table Rock Chip, look for contour line changes in the depth mentioned above. Look for locations off of the long flats or humps that have depth striations that are extremely close after a flat or as we call them Roll-offs. Lots of these locations are loaded with fish. Mostly K's, but they are also holding eyes and cats. Beck had 42 this morning with about 1/2 being keepers, on these types of locations. Topwater bite is starting and if the clouds are out and a very slight ripple, it can last all day. Again, last week, Bill had a 8 hr. day with over 80 fish. Monday I had 54 all dropshot fish. guided with Bill on Tuesday and both boats put 108 bass in the two boat with 30 keepers. He caught the 80 on Wednesday, they are biting the dropshot. Topwater seems to be the spook jr. You chose the color. Buster is just hammering them in the dam area on it. Try the commercial docks, not the Marina docks, but the other big docks. You don't have to throw it tight to the docks they can be anywhere around them. Last weekend Phil Stone won the Buddy side of the Joe Bass, fishing a blade in the cedar tops. This is not for the faint of heart or the novice angler. For the most part you got to be good. Phil said they fished about 50 trees for each bite with probably 20 perfect presentations out of each 50. Tips on fishing trees. 90% of us screw up the tree before we ever start and I'm going to lump me right in there pretty close to that. Position the boat properly before you make a cast. ie put yourself in the best position for a positive result. When you make your presentation to a tree, never under any circumstance look at the tree. Look where you intend to cast. If you look at the tree, you will throw to the tree. Cast past the tree and work it on either side usually the outside first. The US Army in the 60's invented a shooting method called "Quick Skill or Quick Kill as it really was. It was shooting the paper off a washer with a BB gun as it sailed thru the air. Quick Skill was immediatlly looking at the target and firing instintively at the object without aiming. The BB went directly where the eye went. It works. Same with casting. You look at that tree or anywhere near it and you are gona catch it. Don't lob a LOLLY POP at the tree, shoot a bullet past it. As the bait edges past the tree flutter or kill it for a count and resume your reeling. If you hit it or make a bad cast, "Move along Baby, cause for the most part you are wasting your time, you done been measured and weighed." A client and I fished trees week before last and it became quite clear he was struggling. I would cast past the tree and hand him the rod, we fished close to 100 trees and caught 2 and missed 5 others. Both of those we caught were 3.5 pounds. They are there, but put on your work cloths. JIg bite is still very slow, but only a matter of time, before the Big Brown ones get on it. Good Luck

That was a problem we would all love to share. Great Report

Really? I have never asked anyone to hire me and I know of no guide here that has. Thought we were helping here a mite. Give me a minute wihile I run my head into a brickwall.

Pretty tough go of it down here compaired to stockton. As Fin said, you may find a few, but it it much different fishing. There are some eyes around the bridge at 86 from time to time, but mostly K's. If you go up there, put in at Eagle Rock and try the bluff bank across from the ramp and the bluff bank across from Devils Dive Resort. There is quite a bit of pole timber for the crappie and some cedar. For the walleye, I would work more toward Big M on the gravel flats and drag a crawler rig in 25 to 30. You will still catch bass and have a shot at an eye. Another alternative is to go to Truman. Word has it they are having the best White bass and Hybred Fall season in history. Of course Crappie are always available. Good Luck

Hopefully I'm blessed more than Lucky. I believe in anything you make your own luck. Everyone tells Becky how lucky she is to have and run the Lodge. She works a minimum of 70 hrs. a week, and people just don't see that. Had a lady the other day ask her, "Now that you have served breakfast what are you going to do the rest of the day?" She starts at 6:30 and ends each evening at 10 PM and works 7 days a week, except to go to Church on Sunday if she can possibly make it. We like to sit on the deck and watch the boats and the birds and have a cocktail in the evenings, other than going out to dinner a day or two a week and having lunch at Twin Islands Restaurant, that is the routine. People wonder why business fail and some thrive. If you don't love it and take advantage of your opportunities and do the best you can reguardless of how many hours it takes it does not work well. I really cannot imagine someone only working 40 hours a week. What would you do with the rest of the time? But we are working for ourselves and enjoying most every minute. Here is my day, most days. Wake up at 4 AM Shower and Shave get dressed 4:30 Kitchen Duty Set Table Places Unload the dishwasher, fill the guest refrigerator, make 3 pots of coffee and one tea. Harvest plate condiments from herb garden and make sure deck is ready for guests. Take a quick look at the KC Star and STL today and if time write a short blog 6:30 Load Ice into boat cooler and head for trip Fish to usually 11 AM or 1 if it is a 3/4 day. Meet for Lunch as she goes shopping most everyday to have fresh breakfast foods available. 2 PM Water all plants and take care outside of Lodge. 4 PM Go back to shed and reset boat for next day. If It is bass two days in a row, Now, I will retie and clean every rod and reel we used that day. If I am using 5 drop shot rods I will complete retie them all. Know the clients that I am going to have and rerig all the rods to "Their Capabilities." I clean and disinfect every rod that anyone uses during their trip. Replace line on any that need it. I will usually do at least 3 rods per day. And also spool for the fishing we are about to do. Restock the boats baits and check all the boats systems. Repair any small problems and clean the boat, and get the battery hooked to the charger. Make a list of anything I need to pick up at the bait store. If I am going to trout, I have to complete rerig the entire boat, taking out all the bass equipment and putting in the trout. I have this very organized into special boxes. that I also check each day and refill from my shed tackle store. Yesterday evening here is what I rigged for my trouting for today, for two clients. 3 rods rigged for crawlers or powerbait with drift rigs 3 straight jig rods for throwing sculpin 1/16 oz jigs 4 rods equipped with a float and 2 different color trout magnets 4 rods equipped with a float and Turner Jones Micro Jigs 3 rods equipped with a float and 125 th. oz . jig heads for deep nympthing powerbait under a float----Deadly! 4 rods with small to medium stickbaits. Not a single one of the rods or a single bait had been fished before and all had been completely retied. Every drag had been tested and every spool with filled with the appropreate fresh line. I always have on board at least 1 extra rod for each fishing method we are doing for each client. It is a waste of their time if they break off watching you retie their rig. I want to be able to hand them a new rig at any sign of trouble, no mater how we are fishing. If it is a fly fishing trip that is a completely different song and dance with more equipment to rig. I love it. Try and get done by 5:30 or 6 PM and sit on the deck and have supper or have it watching some TV in the theater room. Usually in bed by 9. Guess I forgot the book work. I'll do that tomorrow Other than that, I don't have much to do most days. It is a wonderful life and we both enjoy it, and would not have it any other way. We are indeed "Lucky."

Wish I could have gone to Alaska now as Becky has just kept me hopping. Have guided everyday for the last 3 weeks and there seems to be no end in sight. Did take this coming Saturday off as the Mizzou game at South Carolina is at 2:30 and did not want to miss any of it. Combinations of Fall Corporate trips, regulars, and a lodge or Lilleys' guest here and there. Fantastic weather and everyone is wanting to get out. Surface temps have dropped to 76 in most of the areas from Campbell Point to LongCreek that I have been fishing. Water is in fantastic shape. All the rain has not caused the lake to move either way much. Hanging in there in the low 8,s. Walleye bite slowed down for me a couple of weeks ago, but has came back strong last week and into this week. Had a 8.5 and a 7 pounder on the same trip. Lady caught them both. Lots and lots of catfish, mostly flatheads. Most of my fish have came on crawlers, but they are starting on the jig a little bit and to tell you the truth, they are hiting that little purple yamamoto worm just about as good. Only problem is you eliminate the cats and the eyes with it, so I'm keeping my guests on the squirms. Today I was out of Chateau and it was my toughest day in a while with 12 bass, but we had 9 very quality keeps. These were complete toad K's and were caught suspended at 28' over 60'. Could not find bottom fish today in the dam area, most everything was suspended. My trip started at 8:30 and I got on the water at 0600. I threw a spook, blade and a square bill for 2 hrs. without a bite in the Big and Little Indian before the trip. Saw zero topwater fish. Started in the dark with a swimbait off some long runnouts that I was catching fish on earlier this Summer and nothing there either. Figured once I picked up the clients it was a crawler day. About a dozen guides out ot Chateau today and and the couple that went above Kimberling City, had the best go of it. That is an insane run at $3.75 a gal gas. There comes a point when you just have to say, we got to catch them here. I ran all the way to Kennel Branch and really had my best go up on that end. You just got to get away from the fishing prussure that is in the dam area. There were easily at least 30 to 40 boats fishing the same water as the guides today so we had plenty of help. Good Luck

Did ya catch that walleye on a Redfin?

Good Golly, how hard was it? Way to hard for this old country boy. Good friend and client Ed from KC was in and we decided with the Fall derby's coming up we would just fish a practice tournament. Hit the water at 6:30 and right out of the box, we pulled onto a windy chunck rock bank that seemed to be teeming with bass type fishes. Trouble was it was over, really before it started. In the first 45 minutes Ed put 3 nice Largemouth Keepers in the boat and I had 3 shorts, and then it simply ground to a halt. Let me say, it did not grind, it just flat quit. By 7:30 when that sun hit the water and the high blue, high prussure hit it was a total nightmare for us. Fished from point 9 to the Shell Knob bridge and should have just saved the gas money. Total for the day was 15 fish with those only 3 keepers that Ed popped early. Just amazing. I believe we could have had another couple of dropshot fish if the water would have cooperated. It was hard for me to hold on the flats and humps with the 2 footers and the wind howling. Caught 2 jig fish all day, they would not havve it. Usually on a front you can slow down and move to timber, but nothing there either. Tried a dock bite, or as it was a non-bite. We lost the make believe derby as we only had 7.5 pounds. Looks rough out there again this morning with the complete high prussure. Wish I had better news and good luck.

Good information Quill. I did a piece on the walleye in the White River a few years ago, and at that time ADFG told me there was minimal recruitment in Bull Shoals and if the stocking program discontinued the populations would disapate to a very sparce level. Missouri does not stock for supplimentation they stock to establish. Arkansas and the White River including Norfork, Table Rock, and Bull Shoals, has proved that Walleye stocking for supplimentation works and has created a very viable fishery, in which we are seeing huge benifits. Quill, I believe they also harvest sperm and eggs in the Kings River. Phil lilley may have been on one of those research trips a few years ago, but I cannot recall all the details. Big thank you the the Wonderful State of Arkansas on this one.

Combination there of channels and flatheads. Also some are catching blue cats. On the walleye, still don't know about recruitment. MDC has said in the past that all the walleye being caught are stocked. I would have to think that some may be spawning sucessfully. Hopefully. MDC last stocked in 2004 and 2005 in the James River Arm. Walleye are stocked yearly by the Arkansas dept of Conservation, in the Kings River and the Arkansas portion of Long Creek, according to their website.