Bill Babler

Again it was unbelieveable. Lots of trophy fish. Hate to post this Baby 21 inch 4 and a halfer after seeing that big boy, but I will. Great Job on that big gal.

Joe, you are right as rain on that Zipper, they just will not have it. Fish everywhere else just love it. I think it is just to big a profile for the majority of our Jaws and K's. I believe that is why they just love that little 1/2 pencil the Fish Dr. Joe again is right. If you think just cause its from the West Coast these fish have not seen it, you better check that at the door. These Clear Water Table Rockers, Didn't just fall off the Hatchery Truck, they know how to play the game. Swim that 4 inch Ctail, drag a very lite rig, and get after them on the long runnouts on top early and you will be fine. Good Luck

Tony Wedele put this deal together out of the Hilton, and we had a whole poop full of guides starting at 1Pm today to fish on taney. Really hard to put into words how good this fishery is right now. I started in the restricted zone near Williams house, and just floated to the Landing. We were bank casting a 1/8th. oz sculpin jig on straight line using 4 pound maxi. Easy over 70 fish to the boat in 4 hrs. It just completely wore me out releasing fish, I was all over the boat. All the guides reported fish in the 19 the 21 inch class, with a huge 21 inch fully kiped male bow being the stud of the trip I am going to say the 10 guide boats full of clients boated in the neighborhood and this is the high-rent district of 500 fish, all catch and release. We had so many fish between 15 and 20 that I lost track, and didn't even photo them. Get out there, it is as good as it gets.

Sam, absolutely no disrespect ment on your rig. I base a huge ammount of my crappie information on how you in particular are doing along with crappie, and crappie5, along with SKMO. I use you ase a barometer. WHen you are on them, I go. It ain't happened yet, and I hate to say it, but don't believe it will this year. As RPS said, maybe this is the year, before the YEAR.

Have a 1PM to 5PM trip this afternoon, and the guide business has been wonderful so far this year. My problem is the fishing has really not lived up to my expectations. Really started to deterate around Christmas with all the cold and snow, and to this point for me, some of the other guides and by the weights in the derbys has not came thru yet. Couple of things have been a problem, and even today, they still are. We still have Shad dieing. Denjac reported he was seeing lots of floaters in the Old 86 area, and around the dam. What is up with this??? We still have a very bad moss problem out to about 15ft. from Kimberling City area back to Clevenger. Just a green yucky slime. We still just have stupid very uneven water temps, from up the White River temps as low as of yesterday at 60.9 to mid 60's in Long Creek. We have some water that is as clear as I have seen it in years, and some sections are green or Ice Tea color. We have also had about as little of a breeze as I can ever remember on Table Rock. It has just been the doldrums, with slick pollen covered water. We have huge numbers of very small LM lake wide. Lots and Lots of 8 to 12 inch fish. I have not seen very many decent K's at all, I don't mean 15 inchers I mean 16 to 18 inch fish. I usually just hammer that kind on a stickbait, and nothing. I am not seeing the SM we should be catching this time of the year. Yes a few, but nothing like years past. Myself some of the other guides and lots of the "Fish everyday Locals," have told me this is the worst year they can remember, even the flood year was much better. Where are the crappie. Spoke to most of my crappie catchin friends, and they are settling for White Bass, as the Crappie are just not there. We will see how this all plays out, but right now you can go from Hero to Zero pretty durn quick on this pond.

For me as far as the behavior of others here, I don't believe there is a lake in the world harder to figure out what is right and what is wrong. Table Rock fishermen, fish all parts of the lake, all depths of the water column and use every method and every product on the market. The reason is the diversity of our fish. We always have deep fish, we always have shallow fish, we always have suspended fish and we always have very hard to catch fish. It is very hard to tell, without studying what another angler is doing to determine how or what parts of the water he or she is fishing. You may think he is bank fishing when he is sitting out on a point and vertical jigging, you just have to watch to know. For the most part here we are very seldom target fishing. If we are going down a bank target fishing, cutting in front is more than rude. Pulling behind at an appropreate distance is acceptable. When deep fishing pulling onto a hump or sharing deep river channel is very acceptable. You cannot pull onto some of the deep flats and stake a claim. Just does not work that way. Kind of my rule of thumb, on deep fishing is if my electronics are interfering with another boat, I am to close. If I can cast into your boat or you mine, we are to close. This is much different than fishing a bank. When White bass fishing, it has been combat fishing since I started at the Pot-Hole and on the Rivers here in the late 60's early 70's, so that is not a new thing. If someone is catchin Whites, you will have friends. Has been that way for all time, not a new thing. Just got to do like the poster said, if you don't like it go finish the limit elsewhere. Boat cost has nothing to do with anything. Remember my Long Creek Rant from 3 yrs. ago. I was completely surrounded by a complete herd of Buzzing Bass Trackers, and as far as money or boat cost, we all know you ain't droppin a bunch of coin on a tracker. Before going to Batty, take a breath and think how you are fishing and try and think about the persons intentions. If they have pulled infront of you to get an advantage, they probably need a little visit. If they are just out enjoying the day and most of us are, there are lots of fish in this lake. Good Luck

First wave as usual on the banks now, but they will still be going till the 1st. of June, they always are and always have been in the past. With 3 Black Bass species here, the spawn is not a week and done thing. Nature takes care of her own, and does not usually put all her "Eggs, in one Basket." Last week of May there will be deep spawn K's all over the Baxter to Big M area, Bill Anderson told me once for every shallow bed you see, there are 50 deeper beds you don't. That is why MDC has never really been overly concerned about sight fishing beds. Bill has told me the beds you see are but a miniscule ammount of the total beds on the lake. With the water clarity we have so far this year, those fish will spawn out to 20 to 25 feet in May, no problem. It is just getting started, so enjoy the ride.

Gary is correct, and they are very good and probably the nicest bunch of guys around. Shop rate however is 90 bucks an hour, and I know if you are talking about an older motor, some of the locals Like Langly are less than 1/2 that, and can fix most any problem on the older mercs. As of just a month ago, Danny Vasques was traveling with the Bassmaster Elite tour. He may not be now, I don't know. If you can get him, you have the best.

Zoom bulk order 600 bags. Mark had some at Table Rock Tackle and Marine, but I don't think they lasted long. D5 is on to all our tricks. Good Luck Bill

Might try D&L out of Shell Knob, Dan Langley is a very good "Old School" merc. guy. Honest as the day is long. Also Phil Stone recommends a guy and it might be that Cassville guy. He too is very Old School, but makes it work.

Yes, Friday was a very hard day. You had to chase the wind. I still stunk it up with High Prussure, High Skys and very clear water in the Kimberling to Dam area. Saturday was a completely different deal. Annual Spring Aunts Creek derby is going on. Best Bag of 6 close to 22 pounds. Really great day. We had a lot of fish on Saturday, but not a bag of those.

D5, you described it to a T. As D5 said, any green/brown small cylindrycal drag worm from a finess to a cendpide, to a Fish Dr. to a Dead Ringer. Any of the Hundreds of others. Worm is usually 4 or 5 inch and really have no idea why they like it but fished on either a split shot, mojo, or a lite Carolina Rig ie 1/8,3/16,1/4,3/8, the worm is splended for staging fish moving on getting ready to do the deads. Did not fish lakewide yesterday, I was on the upper end, but I did hear they were positioned outside the moss on the midlake to lower section. We had 1 18 inch brown bass and a few others, mostly largemounh and KY Bucks. The SMJ was also a buck and was pretty light in weight, but he pulled like a madman. I thought Ryan had an absolute monster. He bend the T7 Cara double. A very nice 3 pound LM was our big fish, but lots and lots of 15 to 15.5 K's. Some of them just skyrocked out of the water. Try and get some pic's up soon.

"It's On!" Will post the pic's when I can catch my breath, but they are on the "Turd-Worm," Big Time. 12ft. to 16ft. and in the pockets, gravel and chunk. Would be really unfair to say a number we caught today on a 10 hr. trip. Yesterday fishing the same water, 8 fish and 1 keeper in 5 hrs. I went from Zero to Hero, and it was absolutely nothing I did, they just moved up and starting Feeding. I tried to fish a little today to just keep the boat in the correct depth, and really did not have time to get a bait in the water, as Allie and Ryan had a fish on from start to finish. The fish were just inhaling the Zoom Fish Dr. In Watermellon Candy. "Just try and get that color?" I dragged a shakey head, and I could not pull the head away from them fast enough that they didn't swallow it clear down. Just quit because of it. When you had a bite today, the bait was "Gone" they ate it to their butt. Surface temps where I was fishing started out this AM at 54 and ended the day at 58 degree. It is just time, reguradless of temps. Get out there, they are on the Banks.

Looking back on my records, it should be getting close to time for those crappie to be getting close to the bank. Did you try any of the deeper stuff, at the mouth of the Long Creek -Cricket split? You usually do pretty well early. You know, I believe they are really catchin them on lake of the Ozarks up shallow. Hope this does not mean that something is missing and we will not have a good season. Hope it is just running late. Kind of worried about it though. Sam is usually catchin them good by this time, and I believe he is still lookin hard. The old wifes tale is when the Dogwood blooms are the size of a squirels ear the crappie are bedding. The Service Berry Trees are in full bloom ie sometimes confused with Dog Wood as they are white. Redbud are doing their thing, and the Dogwood in my front yard are now in full bloom. How about MUSHROOMS, Kind of seems with all the rain and warm nights we should be seeing some. It is going to get really green and brushy way quick, and that may hurt us mushroom seekers. Good Luck

I believe Gone Fishing is one of the best fishermen that contribute to this board and have sent him an email saying so. He had a great day on Sunday in the midst of a very hard situation, when other struggled. His post brought great interest. Not from me, so much as I have not been on the board due to guiding and beng out everyday, but otheres that fished the same waters at the same time, and found the situation totally different. Not one person, not two people but a multitude. I will lump me in here. We were just not as good as he was. I too after reading his catch and success for one of the toughest days I have ever spent on the water doubted him. I should instead, have defended his catch, and congradulated him on it, during a tough fishing day. I let the wishes of the few outweight the whole, and I apoligize. Gone Fishing has been emailed my apology and the reason for the post. He Knows what it was about. I sincerely hope him continued success, and participation on this board. That will be the end of the subject.

Okiedog, Yes it would for these "Idiots" to wait. Always happens this time of year at 86 and at Baxter. The shame is the dead fish at 86, were half wasted. It looks like they were filleted with a chainsaw. After they got done,they didn't end up with enough to hardly stink one skillet. I counted 10 carcusses, with just about half the meat on each body wasted. I bet if Quinton whould have seen them they would have gotten a ticket for Wanton Waste of Wildlife. If you feel you must kill these pregnunt females, at least for gosh sakes do a decent job of cleaning them. Down on Taney this morning, there were two guys filleting trout on Phil's dock with a electric knife. I saw both of them clean two fish each, and throw all 4 fish and the small fillets they had butchered away. One of them commented, "These "Blankin" fish are not even big enough to clean." I had to stepin here and said, "Boys, let me do one for you. I filleted a very nice trout, smaller than what they had butchered, and gave them two nice fillets. I fillet with a Rapala 11 inch fillet knife. "NOT ELECTRIC." Phil has knives in the office if you need them, I got them one and they did a good job the rest of the way. For most of our area panfish, you need to stick that electric fish waster where the sun does not shine and then turn that meat wasting buzzsaw on. If you cannot take the time to clean 4 trout or 5 bass the correct way, 'Don't Kill Them." The electric chainsaw is only useful for Big, and I mean Big Crappie, White Bass, Catfish, and Big Walleye. All else should be filleted with a hand fillet knife. If your in to big a hurry, you know my answer to that.

You had all these patterns working on a late afternoon bite? Man If I were catching fish like that on the blade and the wart, I don't believe I would have time to have went thru all those baits. Probably if I were catching them like that on a blade I would not have even picked up the wart, let alone a grub and a stickbait. I went to the back of Cricket yesterday afternoon, and only saw 61 degree water. My gauge might be off, but there were 3 of us and all had surface temps in long creek, from 54 to a high of 61. Most of us guide types thought we had good days with 15 to 25 fish in 8 hrs. in the same area you were fishing, with a keeper or two thrown in. Lots of purssure and not a ton of bites. We had 17 fish with 4 keepers and were glad to have them. I had a very good fisherman. Thanks for the info. Good Luck

Started at 7AM on Saturday and boated to the Dam. First drift from the cable to outlet 3 was nothing. Could see a few shad floating in the foam, and knew they had to be there. Just an absolute Fierce North wind, that was chilling us to the bone. Made 6 drifts and finly ended up catch and releasing 8 very nice bows full of shad, all taken on a 1/8th oz white jig. They were spitting shad on the deck. Guests wanted to keep a limit of Stockers, so we boated down to Lilleys' and that is where the boats started. The lake was Full from the Resort to below Branson, just about as much traffic as I believe the Lake can handle. For all I fuss at MDC, they have this time released some extremely nice fish. I saw quality being taken from Phil's place to past Roark Creek. Not tons of fish, but when you catch one, it was a KEEPER. We worked with all the traffic pretty hard to catch their 4 each, and they were all 15 plus inches, three of those were 18 inch stockers. We caught ours drifting gulp eggs, as the jig was not working for me on Saturday. Meat on the Stockers, was very white and extremely soft. I had to be very careful when cleaning them to keep them together. Just imagine how nice those fish would have gotten if left alone for a month or two. With that kind of a head start they would have been fantastic on a fly rod in the restricted zone. It is not all about fly fishing however, and everyone deserves to catch that kind of quality fish. I bet a few will make it to "Nurvana, above Fall Creek" Took a pic or two of the Shad Fish, and should have taken a pic of the Stockers, but didn't.

T. Sorry about you being under the weather. Beck and I fished and I thought it was one of the toughest days we have ever had on the water. Fished the main lake dam area and it was so rough, we both had to stand on the bow, just to keep the troller in the water. We had 11 bites all day and put 9 in the boat with 4 small keepers. No need to weigh them in. I thought it was just brutal out there. Never took my life jacket or hood off all day. Spoke to one of the Big Cedar guides and he had taken a limit of LM off one of the banks we were going to hit. He was right in front of us. There are just not a lot of places we are catching them. With 70 degree weather coming this week, and the water starting to clear, they will start biting lake wide. Big bag yesterday at 20 pounds, came on a wart. 2nd. was a sticker. Fish were caught from Eagle Rock to Long Creek, on every manner possible. Jig, Wart, Deep Crankin, Stickbait, Spoon, grub, Spinnerbait, and dragging. I guess about everything, but a Spook or a Fin. Put that pattern together. Bottom Line, is we stunk it up. We seemed to be just a step behind all day. It is just about to get better though.

Thanks, great report. How deep would you guesstamate that grub is when you are getting whacked? I am probably just not getting my sticker down deep enough. From the sounds of where your boat is and starting on the bottom at 10ft. I am gussing you all are fishing the 16 to 20 ft. range, depending on how you are a crankin. As you stated slow, slow. and then slower. You know on Friday out of Shell Knob I was throwing a jig, just to kind of piddle around and stay out of my clients way. I was dragging it in 40 plus feet, on the same type of locations you are fishing, and caught 3. There are for sure some that are very deep. Good Luck

Joe had a short post on the dam area, in his James Aunts Creek report. He is catching them pretty good. Looks like he also found a little warmer water than I have, so the bite is there, you just have to work for it. Yesterday, I could not find water out of the 44 degree range, and spoke to several other that were also in that temp. We fished from Indian Point to Long Creek. I got a little bumbed out after seeing all the dying shad and the gulls, and did not take care of business. I probably should have swam that grub, but I was by myself, and I just can't do that. I have to catch them on a stickbait or a jig. Probably why I went home empty handed.

Snake, that is outofbounds for you. You stay up the James. There are no fish biting in the Kings River.

Had a couple of hrs. off yesterday after replenishing the wood supply and launched at old 86, Started at 11 and fished till about 1:30. Fished Clevenger, Jaques, and Beardsley, and the water was just like Ice. Warmest I found was 44.6. Dead and dying shad everywhere. I have never seen that many on the Rock. Hope a few filter thru into taneycomo, it would be great. There are litterly thousands of gulls working from Powerline Cove to the Long Creek Bridge. Due to my reputation as being a fish catcher, I will not comment on the number I caught in the two and a half hours. Good Luck

Guys, all the Chronarchs are gone, thank you very much. We received over 20 calls. Still have the Calcutta's. Thank you so much. Bill