Bill Babler

Guys, be really careful when messing with lines that aren’t yours. Lots on them are submerged and out of site, but really there are very few here. As you probably know, they can be marked with a conservative number you could write on a postage stamp. No longer is it required for you to put name and address, just that small number. I had a guy picking up my swim noodle float lines and watched him put them in his bass boat for 20 minutes. I was within site of the lines as they were not anchored. The trotlines can be left unattended. I approached him and he said he was cleaning the lake. Totally in the back of Mill Creek. Didn’t have a confrontation but I took his boat number and told him if he ever touched them or I any others again he was in serious trouble. Man, this water is big enough to share. If I get a hook in a trot line I simply get it out. It is against the law for me to run it or look for a conservation number. If it’s mossy and green you can call the agent, but it’s not my place to destroy something that cost that amount of money theses days and on top of that it’s against the law for me to mess with it. 20 years ago i May have thought different but now days I seem to look at things from others point of view. Good Luck out there.

Great report. Bass are really starting to shallow up the White from what I’m hearing. That oh so often magic 22’ to 26’ number that comes into play as the water hits the 70’s. Walleye bite has really slowed however as I think they start to also move this time of year Durn things start thinking about spawning when it’s still Winter and move up the creek and river arms really early If anyone is still on them let us know. Good Luck

Forrest was a bad guy. He got lots of play. If you don’t like Elvis music, don’t go. If you do you will like it. Both my wife and I really enjoyed it. There was a section in the middle when it was all about Forrest Gump that slowed it down but it was a 7,5 out of ten. Nice way to spend the afternoon with my wife. Date nite, lunch and a movie. Goes a long way guys.

Extremely well put RPS. Most of this fish are near impossible to see.

Ya, revisited my spelling and it is the a very similar definition of genre. Category of artistic composition, occupation, heritage of family roots or similar groups within a category, Jaunarajs. I like genre better, lot less work😜

Wife and I went to see Elvis during the rain yesterday. Movie is 2:39 hours long so potty before you go in. We had old dudes going to the privy multiple times around us. What a firecracker life that man led. Everyone took what they wanted from him and really he had ZERO financial sense. If any of you saw his live show, please chime in. It was said to be a life experience. After the movie I did some research on line, watching reviews of his voice by vocal professionals and coaches. He left them almost speechless and the women reviewer’s breathless. Read and watched one set of reviewer’s and their comments were “ perfect pitch, perfect note, perfect tone, perfect timing.”Voice was more than generational, one of the top two or three voices in history in any jaunarajs. “Hope I spelled that right.” In his early years he was described as Beautiful with a magnetism that melted women by the millions regardless of age to their knees. Even as late as 1977 in almost a constant drug stupor his voice was unwavering. His gospel renditions were extremely emotional, especially How Great Tho Are. He was described by women that watched him preform as a Stage Climber, meaning they would climb the stage just to touch him, married or not. 16 to 60, made no difference. Some of his reviews I watched yesterday were by young men and women of this our current time period and even these young 20 something women 45 years after his death melted listening and watching him on video. It’s funny, I was on the age of his latter time period and we considered him a bit to tame for our taste. We were 70’s Hard Rock kids. He set the stage for the music we enjoyed. I encourage everyone to watch the movie. Really a huge part of our American History.

I think you nailed it. At times I’m guilty. Never in a derby however, only fun fishing where all is fair in love and Bass.

Be careful of buying line in bulk or large quantities. It for sure has a shelf life. When I was guiding I’d buy 1000 yard spools and even then I could tell when I neared the end of a spool it was time to toss it. If you do buy a bulk spool or two, keep it in the house out of the sun in a climate controlled environment Good Luck

Bobby, for me this technique started way before FFS. The last few years it’s not been as good, but yes, you for sure could do it that way. At times however theses fish are stuck so hard to the bottom they are impossible to see with any type of underwater peepers. Dblades. I think I speak for most everyone on here. Bo is missed, that’s for sure.

On those Tennessee River impoundments the big deal the last few years has been long line cranking. Read an article of a local there letting out as much as 300 ft. Of line to crank/ pull the river ledges I’m thinking that’s about as close to trolling as it gets. Someone might know how to find the MLF rules on moving the bait. Either with the reel handle or a twitch of the rod. Jerk bait fishing is durn near strolling if the water is cold. The way I do the deep jig is with the boat in the 20/30/40’ range is to cast the 3/4 or 1 oz. jig as absolutely far as I can. As it’s sinking I usually open the spool and let additional line out. I’m constantly trying to put some additional movement on the jig by twitching or hopping it, but I do use the trolling motor to keep moving and I’m not reeling in line. Most often I’m letting out additional line. You need a heavy 7’2” or longer rod for this and at least 15 pound test line to get a good hook set. With a hooked fish out this far, take your time, you don’t want it to jump or it will sling out that heavy FB jig no matter how well you set the hook. This method is a great way to locate and catch fish from now to December. Some years way better than others. You can cover a lot of water and a lot of different depths. A 3/8 to 1/2 ounce Underspin will also work but most times not nearly as well as the jig. Also use as big a craw as you can find on the jig or even a baby brush hog. Those big Jaws want a big bait in the Fall. Lots of nice K’s and LM can be out there roaming with them too. Good Luck.

Don’t know about the upper james, but was thru Cape Fair 3 times yesterday and water was nice. Shell Knob and the White to Eagle Rock is clear. Bobby we we’re running around a lot and it seemed the rain was heaviest in Branson West, Reeds Springs area. Seemed really localized.

James, I thought the same thing. (Scary). The biggest Jaw ever for me was caught just across from Big M Marina over 20 years ago so that 6 plus pound fish kind of blew his theory. Didn’t weigh the fish pictured, but he was a whisker either side of 4 pounds. It’s getting pretty close to deep jig strolling time around KC for those big brown fish. Again Bo comes to mind, as he hated strolling. Personally I love it. Do miss him, he was our Table Rock Fishinwrench

Early the White is loaded above the Kings River bank to bank with Gizzard Shad on the surface.

Steven and I hit it for 3 hours this morning. Before he headed back to KC. Only 3 boats at the ramp when we launched and the same at 9 when we pulled out. Water is really clearing at Shell Knob with probably 7 to 10 ft. Of visibility. Surface temps this morning at 82 degree. Fished from SK to Carter Creek and we had 4 on a jig, one on a flutter spoon that was chasing and 2 on a drop shot. Only 2 keepers, one on the jig and the other on the flutter spoon. The flutter spoon fish was a dandy 18” K no picture, but I did catch this total toad of a Small Jaw on a jig. He was by far my biggest smallmouth of the year. Picture doesn’t do him justice he was black/brown with deep green stripes. Simply beautiful fish. Becky had French Toast and Sausage ready by 9:20 so it was a great morning on the water with the boy. Still way to hard and if he had not been here I would have left the boat in the storage unit. Back up North to place the towers we put together last week Good Luck.

Started at 6:30 out of the SK bridge. Surface temps at 80 even money. We saw a few chasing but not enough to throw at. Steven caught the only top water fish of the day on a Surge Shad, nice keeper K. I never had a sniff on a variety of top deals. Threw that jig today and I never had a look, but Steven caught 3 on it. Boat in 35 was best. Started to see suspended fish and me and the livescope came alive. I ended up catching 6 all small keepers and Steven caught another 3. Total was 13 fish done by 10:30. Nothing picture worthy. Surface still 80 degree when we came in. The deep DS fish were 30’ to 36 ft over 40’ to 45’ suspended.

We have been putting 5 panel Booner blinds we buy on sale at Menards on the towers Usually have about $1,250.00 in the setup. This should finish us off unless we have some storm damage as this will give us 7, on 3000 acres.

They pretty much have it torn down. Took out the Morton Building, and have taken off the entire lake side of the house. Spending millions on it. We just love the Muddy 10’ Elite Towers. We put our own blinds on them. Theses came from Presley Outdoors at Bartonville, Il. Theses stands have super heavy ladders and really heavy structure. Two guys can put one together if you don’t mess up in 5 hrs. $7.99.00. Put one together yesterday, going out to work on another right now.

God Bless you it’s not working for either one of us. We’re living basically in a small one room apartment kitchenette and it’s tough, going from a 10,000 sq. ft. House and a 50’ by 60’ outbuilding with all my toys. Don’t feel sorry for me 🤩🤩🤩🤩 Only boat storage we could find was 5 miles away and it’s been way to hot to spend time there. We’ll get over it.

Got to admit that throwing a 10” worm in 40’ did not enter my mind. You all are way better out of the box thinkers than me. Saying that I will admit that I do have a 10” plum worm tied on. Just didn’t enter my 1/2 brain. Bobby you are right. If I didn’t have the farm to run up to in central Mo. I would be in trouble. Wife and I are used to being around people and it’s just the two of us in a very small house now. We are excited about starting on the new home but right now just in a bit of limbo. Both getting COVID did not help. We are well now thanks for all the prayers. I’m running up to N. Illinois tomorrow to pick up 3 deer hunting towers. We will assemble them this week, so that really helps.

Man did it get tough for me. Surface temps at 83 today and really not much fishing pressure out of Shell Knob. Just fished from the bridge to Campbell Point but it was bad. Might have caught more running up the White, but didn’t have the time. There are some deep K’s in the tree tops you can catch on drop shots or swimming a small swim bait around them if you have forward facing sonar to keep an eye on the bait and keep it out of the trees, but man the ones that hit us were tiny. Saw no surface activity and never caught a fish that would have resembled a keeper. Son is coming next weekend so I will probably take him one morning but then I’m not going again till I can drag a big jig for brown fish. Maybe October. Might run up to Wisconsin as Lisek is catching some huge Jaw’s guiding up there. Or maybe just work on deer hunting stuff. Good Luck

Looks like from what I’m hearing 3 or 4 guys are either retiring Or pursuing other interest. HVe to talk to Mike after the last derby and see what his thoughts are.

I’m with you, I just can’t stand more regulation, but these people just have ZERO common sense and care about no one but themselves. Needs to be a no wake zone from the bridge to the corner, about 300 yards. Why in the world they have chosen that small busy stretch to plow huge wakes, boggles the imagination.

Single motor but very similar boats. WP boats are cleaner and in better order and condition.

Agree with Quill completely. You need to hatch a plan and just hope it works and stick to it. You can waste an entire morning running thru the tackle box. I thought about the Cranker early but I believe that window is probably closed by 0800 and I was on a mission. I did throw a top water down some shady banks the last trip out with no love. Yesterday I pulled away from the ramp at 05:17 which was to early. I just don’t like ramp traffic. Speaking of that at take out there was a big wake boat putting in with 8 persons. They were right on the ramp and it took them 23 minutes to get launched. Yep, 23 minutes. I didn’t say anything but it was just terrible. There were 3 of us waiting at the end. Another pet peeve is the wake boats right at the SK bridge and ramp. There was not a single boat on that big water from the King’s up the white to Emerald Beach. There were 4 of them in that tiny spot from the bridge to the upstream bend, rolling 4 footers right at the ramp. The curtesy dock was coming completely out of the water and pounding down. I barely had my trailer in the water. Just backed in wet the bunks and jumped it on at high tide. Just totally ridiculous. Rant over.

Well, it might have been. I made it my mission yesterday to try and relocate the walleye. I came with CRAWLERS. Tried the spoon for over an hour and nothing but a few small K’s and 3 perch. Got serious with the crawlers and it was really more than I expected. I had again and I didn’t count but I’m guessing 20 plus walleye with more than 1/2 keepers. Kept 2 small ones for dinner. One 18” and one 20 inch. I had one that was a total monster at 26 inches I’m guessing. I will tell you the walleye are in schools. Multiple fish if you can find them. I now know them really well on the Live Scope as well as the 2D. They look and act way different from the bass. I just have not figured out how to safety photography a big walleye, first for their safety and also mine, so I get them back as quickly as I can. Another note here is when you bring a walleye up from 35 plus feet they seem to blow up almost immediately, way quicker than bass as I believe the bass are moving a lot more thru the water column and the walleye yesterday were really stationary on the bottom at depth. So, really no time for anything if your not keeping, just get them back in the water as fast as you can. First time I’ve been checked in forever. I caught about 1/2 dozen bass while he was watching, and he saw me chunk them all back. He wanted to see my license but when I told him how old I was he couldn’t believe it. Had a good laugh. Surface temps at 85. Fished till 11:00am. Used 40 crawlers and I cut them in half. Had a total ton of keeper and short bass all 3 varieties. Fish were deeper for me, best walleye and bass bite on the live bait was 35’ to 40’ with 37’ being the magic number. No perch out that deep, I don’t think I had a perch bite other than the spoon Fish were not suspended like earlier in the week, sucked tight to the bottom yesterday. Good to hear about the jig bite I’ll try it on Monday. Goid Luck