Bill Babler

Hit the main lake go down steam 2 miles around the point, and you will see the Big Marina on the Left. Keep going bearing to your right past the marina for 4 miles and you will see the Big and Little Indian Creek on your right Just inside the Creek on your left is Baxter Marina, campground and boat launch. You will round a long Bluffend bouy point on your left just before you get there it is a paperclip quick turn to the left. Continue down the main lake another 5 miles and you will be at the mouth of the James River on your left. I would for sure get a very good lake map. Fish should be in transition at that point good luck

You guys are getting pretty close to giving away a very seceret bait. The Bevy Shad has been around for quite a while. That little rascule fished on a spinning rod is an absolute killer. We always fish it as a jerkbait, and on a spinning rod you can toss it a mile. Think Schooling Kentucks like it???? It is an ideal bait to throw on a 6'6"spinning rod with 8 pound maxi. The bait is about a 10 ft. bait which is super. Be very careful if throwing it around schooling White Bass as they will completely swallow it, and you got yourself a real sticky problem. Hard not to get hurt. Couple of years ago, Buster Loving and I took a weekend to go fish Lake Fork. They were not on our big rogues as usual. We saw some gulls diving on barr fish, about the same size as the bevy and started throwing it. We threw it on Bait Casters with 12pound maxi, and that is not the most ideal setup, especially if its cold and there is any wind at all but I had a 7pounder a 9 pounder and Buster caught a 13 pounder on it. Always carry a Hounddag lure retriever and you got no problem. Good Luck

The first runs of this bait last year, did have a problem with some leakage, and Spro and their retailers are aware of it. Take those back to the retailer you purchased them from and I'm sure with the reciept they will replace the baits. I have about 2 dozen of them and have not had the least problem with any, but I know some of the other guides have had some issues, but they have been very satisfied with the replacement. Most guys, just shook the water out and super glued the seam leaks and were good to go. I believe the price point was just a little higher on these baits than most of us thought it was going to be. It is a very close replica of the megabass and was designed as such, but the bait itself is not nearly as finished as the megabass. It does however have some excellent colors especially for Table Rock and it throws perfectly and when its not leaking rides very nice in the water. It is very nice as far as depth, as the bait is a 6ft. to 8ft. bait with very little if any weight, depending on surface temps. I understand this year they are coming out with some new paint and some holographic colors. And I would be really suprised if any of the baits you purchase in 2110 leak. OOPS, Of course I ment 2010. Hope folks are stll a fishin then. Thanks bb Good Luck

Slabhunter, you are pushing the early envelope on the Jaw's at Shell Knob. If you are after SM that early you might want to consider maybe the Kimberling City to the Dam area. Don't get me wrong, everyone on the forum knows my love for the Knob. Caught my biggest jaw ever in May across from Big M Marina, at 6.3, but it seems the Jaws really get going just a little later up there. With an April Start, you are getting closer. Be best to concentrate your efforts from Campbell Point toward the Baxter, Kimberling Area. The Point 19 to point 8 area should be just getting started the first week of April. Something you will have working well at that time at Shell Knob, is a very nice Largemouth and Kentucky Bite. We have a home at Shell Knob and of course our Lodge here near the Dam. I fish up there almost everyday in the Spring, so monitor the forum and you should get some really good tips. Swimming a grub, and fishing the Stick, should be in full swing. Jigs and Hula Grubs are also to their liking along with a wart on windy banks that time of the year. Can't wait. Good Luck

Ran in to, two boats full of guys gasing up at Cedar Jct. Last evening. Both rigs had fished Bull Shoals Friday and Saturday. Asked how they did and got the thumbs down. One of the teams had fished the derby last weekend, and I believe he said they weighed in over 18 pounds. Said last weekend they had 15 keepers, all on stickbaits. Friday and Saturday fishing the same and similar areas, both boats in two days had 8 bass with 2 small keeper K's and about a 1/2 dozen short walleye. He said they just could not get them figured out this weekend. With Hawndog catchin 5 keeps at 17.5 in a short 4 hrs. He still has it figured. Going to try and get down there in the next week or two. It sounds like it is way ahead of the Rock. Thanks for the reports from down there.

Jersy, You missed the boat there guy. Man, you could have made that sweet. "ie" Saw a slight shadow on the water of the upper limbs of a massive cedar. Breeze was blowing across the top of the tree so I knew I would need a precision cast. Taking the wind into consideration, I Kentucked the cast 6ft. into the breeze. The Falcon Cara StickBait Special equipped with a Shimano Core and 8 Pound Seugar Fluracarbon deposited the Megabass Wagu Wagaski, just on the outside limbs. I jerked the bait 4 quick times and it suspended in the gin clear water 4ft. next the the largest outer limb. Knowing with the water temps at the 40 degree range it would be a slow presentation, I turned the baits head from left the right and right to left. The huge fish seemed to rise from the center of the tree in somewhat of a mystical appearance. Fully a foot from the suspended presentation, the massive female Largemouth flared her gills and the magicial presentation disaperared into her huge mouth. Knowing the tree was a clear and present danger, I coaxed the huge fish into clear water. Being aware of fishing 8 Pound line I eased the pedal of the trolling motor forward and guided the boat and fish away from the danger. The fish realizing she had met her match, came to the net with ease. AH! YA! Another day on the Rock.

Great, If I get one I'm going with the same mount as it just looks great. Since my 37 is working perfectly, I'm going to ride it till it drops. There will in fact be some give-aways. Hat's maybe, but might not hold my breath on any Megabusters. BUT, you just never know. Talking maybe like it might be in the mid-40's tomorrow, with a little breeze. Are you boys getting the twitch?

Joe, Looks great. One question? Buddy of mine has a Lowrance deal, and they told him not to mount on the Jack Plate. Have also heard this about the Hbird mounts. need to be on the transom step, under the boat. Lowrance told the buddy, way to much vibration on the jackplate mounts. Told him even the 4 strokes vibrate to much for a jackplace mount, at idle speed. Wonder where Don H. has his Hbird mounts? Bet its not on the Jackplate, but don't know. On the other hand, really hope this works out as it is a very clean look. Maybe some day when I move up I'll be fortunate enough to get one, and if the Jackplate mount works I'll go with that super look.

Personally, I am not ready to throw out the welcome mat again this year, for the FLW Superstars. For the most part last year their visit was a complete disaster for most of us locals, that fish the Rock. I am sure most are just wonderful folks and some of our locals and contributors that fished on the Co-Angler Sides reported most to be very nice. My problem was their Dog And Pony Show took over the Ramps, lake wide and they for the most part parked where they wanted out of desiginated areas and completely blocked ramps. Cut locals and other fishermen off on banks, and then tried to say what kind of rigs could be parked at the Landing and where you would have to park. At this stage of the game, we really don't need this type of activity. I would rather fish with any of our Ozark Angler members than anyone on that tour. Kind of like Jimmy Houston eluded to, I believe the bunch is so spoiled and mollycoddled they think they can do anything. Personally, wish they would just stay away.

That is a Wonderful Fish! I would have fished all day for those two bites. If your man enough that is the kind of bite you can get this time of the year. May be your personal best for the year. I would take it as mine. Great Report.

I believe you boys are right, good call. Went into town, and saw 3 wrapped rigs and got to looking at some going by the Lodge, and they were all lite up with advertisment. Have not heard a thing on the Whites. High temp here for the day was 36. That is just to cold. The water would not have warmed any and with the flat, flat water, and cloudy conditions, I would think it would have been just tougher than a boot. Probably could have caught some deep K's, but it would have just been brutal.

What in the Holy Heck is going on out there this morning. Helping Becky serve breakfast to some guests and looking out the windows of the Lodge, and we have already seen 7 bass catcher rigs zoom by Clevenger this Bright Snowy Morn. Is there a derby this weekend that these brave souls are a fishin? Temp here this morning currently is 27 balmy degrees. Boats started going by at daylight, and here goes another one up Long Creek as we speak. Someone should have a fishing report for us today, hopfully. Spoke to SKMO briefly yesterday and he reported a very good simi-type deep grub bite around the Knob. Not exactly explaining what he is doing, but they are hitting a grub, up there. Me, I'll just continue the Honey dues and wait a little bit for a 40 plus degree day. Maybe tororrow or day after.

Just wanted to touch back with you all about what we hope to cover in our stickbait talk on Feb.16th at the Nature Center in Springfield, Mo. Seminar starts at 7 PM. Want to point out, that this is very strictly informal. "You got a question or comment, shout her out". If your like me and try and just remember it for later, I'll usually forget it, and say Shuckey Dern, I forgot to ask him that. Everyone, Please bring your favorite Stickbait rod and your best fish catchin sticker. Bring your setup and let everyone take a look at how you setup and how you go about catching fish on a painted stick, and string. Program Outline Stickbaiting a State of Mind, and patients. Stickbait,WHY? Eveloution of the bait Care and Brands Colors Boyancy Equipment Rods and terminal tackle Where/Locations Movement and Action Water Temps Fish Food The Bite ie or Miss Green Swarm Maintaining tention Care of both Fishermen, and Fish Q&A Stickbaiting is without a doubt my very favorite form of catching or not catching Table Rock Bass. Hope you can come and here what 30 years of tossing these do nothing baits around TAble Rock lake has taught me. Don't hesitate to call or email for further info.

JBrant, targeting the White River that time of year is never a bad idea. As water and air temps start to warm in March our bass ride the water column, from deep to shallow. Due to the lack so much of depth and it being a real river channel. Fishing from "Lets say", the mouth of Roaring River to the Arkansas Line Just below Holiday Island is a very natural early season location for fish to start getting active. Unlike most times of the year, where direct sunlight is your enemy, early season bass just love a light breeze and warm sunlight on the water. Really does not matter to me the surface temps at the beginning of the day, just so they are warming how ever slightly throughout your time on the water. Suspending stickbaits and jigs work extremely well up the White at this time. Windy sunlite banks along the river channel will have fish activly rising in the water column. These fish may not necessarly be on the bank. Not uncommon at all to have your boat positioned in extremely deep water, targeting travel channels along these windy sundrenched locations. If pole timber is present place your boat on the outside of the timber and cast to the bank, usually a full cast, depending on the lake level. Work your suspender from the bank completely thru the trees. Most generally the strike will be about half way back to the boat. Lucky Craft, Spro, Rapala, Smithwick, and Megabass make jerkbaits that are fish catchers that time of year anywhere on the Rock. Best colors are usually Table Rock Shad, Tennessee Shad, Silver Blue Back, Silver Black Back. Or most all of the handpainted custom colors most include large quanities of purple. Someone pointed out targeting large cove mouths, excellent places to look either suspended or on the bottom for prespawners. In a nutshell however, where ever you choose to stay in mid March on the Rock, you should be in for a great time. Good Luck

Yes, you need to try one of my new Cara Finess Jig Rods. Next time your down, I'll loan you one for the weekend and see what you think. Is that Browning a Boron? Man is it nasty down here. The weather is terrible!!

If that 150 on the tooner is an Opti ProXS, it will be the Bomb. I would guess right now it is by far the best, most reliable engine on the market. What a turnaround from the 05's. Fuel economy is just as good as the 4strokes and I believe if you follow the the recommendations to the letter on the oil changes for the 4 strokers, the ProXS will use less oil. I have had my 09 duce and a quarter ProXS since July, and have never seen anything like the savings on gas and oil. It just flat does not use oil. Kind of scary, but it is great. The Yamaha's are still bullet proof, and a motor that will last a lifetime, but the merc is just not as thirsty. Excellent Winter time topic Thank You All

Yea Skeeter, this is kind of Bad News. We are doing a construction project in one of the guest rooms and have taken Becky's car out of the garage, so we can use the space. It is covered in Ice and the powerlines are getting coated. This did not happen last week. My deck is solid ice pellets, and it is even sticking to our large windows. Seems now to be kind of a freezing mist. OH Boy!!!!!

Chris, I wish the guy would have just gone ahead and used the boat. O5's with only that ammount of use really don't thrill me. If he had used the outfit a reasonable ammount I would much more prefer it. The lack of use is not a selling point for me other than perhaps the estetics of the rig. It should be immulate. I would still not even consider it with out at least 2 full years of warranty on the engine. I know for a fact that Mike Webb and Tim SAinato popped 7 of those 2005 opti's I believe Tim Popped 3 and Mike popped 4. I believe Beck also popped a couple. Hence the warranty. Ranger, Stratos, Champion, Skeeter, Bass Cat, right now for the 05 20footers, and the duce and a quarter's are selling in the $25,000 range, with at least 2 or 3 years of warranty, and these boats are in 9 out of 10 condition, with electronics and tandum trailers. 20 ft. Nitros rigged the same are at $18,000. Kind of some guidelines to go by. Knock off 2 grand a year for 2 years if the warranty is expired or 21 grand for the top of the line outfits and maybe 15 grand for the Nitro with no warranty. There is a very special deal on new boats right now. You can buy a Nitro Z8 with a 200 ProXS, 2010, I believe for about 34 grand with two HD8's and a tandum trailer. Pretty good deal, but you still have a Nitro, when all is said and done. And we all know the resale on those rigs. I'm sure Wrench can give you his thoughts, its good to have a Professional Wrench here for these things.

Fished the dam area on Monday for 5hrs. from about 10 to 3. Worked bluffends and trasitions in 5 major cove arms with completely still flat water where ever I fished could not get one lick of breeze. Nothing for about an hour, using first a Blue Bandit Spro suspending Jerkbait. About Noon I switched to a Megabass GB Stain Reaction, and caught two K's in the 3.5 pound range on a Honey Hole transition back in Clevenger that I really like. Caught the fish back to back and the bite was just Mush. I had let the bait on both bites sit between 30 seconds and a minute. The first fish I had the line completely tight, and still didn't feel her till I started to twitch the bait and then it just felt heavy. The second fish was a very light tick. No other bites the rest of the day. Conditions were extremely calm water temps 42.3 at 10 AM and 43 at 3PM when I quit. Visibility is an easy 15 ft. or more. Water is 5 ft. higher than it was last week and is rising as we speak. Really did not think dumping 7ft. out of Beaver would give us a 5 plus ft. rise. Really has dicked up a good thing. Get that level in the 908 to 910 level, and it is a jerkbait paradise. We were getting there at 912, before the Beaver flood. Surface temps need to be just rising a couple of degree or two during the day, reguardless of how cold you start. If you can get a warm breeze on the water, sunshine and a nice chop, the fish will bite, reguardless of how cold it is to start the day. Just need the water warming throughout the day. The water coming in from Beaver is extremely clear. This is not murky runoff it is clear White River water and the lake is staying very clear. If it were rain or runoff, I believe it would warm the lake a bit and be somewhat different in color and add a bit more character to the water. Good Luck

Excellent Info. Thanks. I was told by my GM dealer, that my Flex/Fuel Avalanche is capable of using E85, but the price needs to be a full .50 cents per gallon under the price of regular gas to justify the inefficency of the E85. I have lately heard that the true number is .30 cents a gal. under for it to just break even. It is strickly physics. Also the price at .25 a gal under for the E85 looks great, it is acculey less efficient and more costly than straight 87 oct. that is at that .30 cents more per gal. figure. GM figrures it at total cost at the 50 cents per gal. The 30 cents is just cost per gal of gas.

Getting an early start this year, Phil has asked me to put on the Who, What, When, Where, and Why of Stickbait fishing. I'll post a complete outline of my seminar in the next couple of weeks. The program will be at the Nature Center in Springfield, Mo. on the evening of February, 16th. Baits,locations, and my complete array of equipment that I use everyday will be on hand for everyone to look at and ask quesitons about. I'll have at least 7 different rods rigged in completely different manners for varing situations. These baits are really my favorite way of fishing, even over topwater, and I have litterly worked a lifetime to perfect my techinques. We are without a doubt on the best chain of lakes in the world for these types of presentations. Table Rock and Bull Shoals made the suspender famious. Everyone is invited, Hope to see you there. Sincerely Bill B.

AH, what a week to be commin to the Rock. I believe this year, if you are a week after Easter, you are thinking the weekend of the 10th. and 11th. You know you can do a lot of stuff then, but alot better to concentrate on a few simple things. Yes the Aunts creek area is very good that time of the year. It is really mid-lake. You can easily access the lower James River, the Clear Water of the Kimberling Area, and not a big drive at all to the White River and the Campbell Point area. As T. said, you can bet I will still have a jerkbait tied on and be ready to use it. Perhaps the two best technique that time of year, are swimming that rascule 4 in Ctail grub on either a 1/4 or 3/8th oz head, or dragging a Fish Dr. or a turd worm of some kind. A shakeyhead is also always in vogue to hungry pre-spawn fishies. With the right situation, a wart is still in play and as T. said, a fin is just starting to make noise. For my efforts, I would only need a couple of boxes with the terminal tackle, and the soft plastics, and the stickbait box. Don't overcrowd your thinking, location is the key.

In the immortal words of Larry the Cable Guy."I don't care who you are, Thats Funny."

A 6 minute video is now up and available on my new website www.whiteriveroutfitters.com Under the vid. is also a couple of stills and a short fishing report of Phil and I on Upper Taneycomo just click on that to read the report and look at the photo's. We used straight line, flyrod and jig and float. All preformend well. Good general Lake report from Phil.

Great Post Captain Joe. I try and support people who support this forum. No one spends more of their time and money here than Phil. It is also very hard to find any bait or tackle shop that sells the quality of merchandise that Lilleys' sell for less. I just have not found it. I was asked a personal question on this thread and probably should have responded by personel message back to the sender. Had no idea everyone and their brother would recommend someone that might have swimming minnows for sale. Phil has thousands in stock of the origionals and would have what anyone needed and never say a word, unless pressed. My Gosh Guys! Lilleys' and Lilleys' tackle store is what supports this site. If you need something they sell, please give them the first shot, you will not be disapointed. I also know for a fact on Swimming Minnows, you flat will not find a better selection or price. PERIOD!!! I keep mine in clear tupper ware and have absolutely no discoloration. I have some large pruple minnows that we took to Kodiak Island 4 yrs. ago and they look as good as the day I bought them.