Bill Babler

Here is what I have heard very reciently. You know my sources. Numbers were not to be at the 04 levels due to new regulations to take trout to a larger size before stocking. Total weight of the stocking was to be the same, just not as many fish. Thus the limit reduction to 4. Drought period in 05 put a strain on the other state hatcherys that help furnish fish to the trout parks and growth and numbers at these hatcherys were reduced. Especially when the opening of the season occured, as we were in a state wide drought at that time. Shepard of the Hills helped furnish more trout than usual to the parks and the Shepard trout already on reduced numbers due to the new plan, did not grow quite as well as usual, for the same reason. ie, not as many or as big as thought for taney. You will get no one to admit to this, but believe me its what has happened.

Dano, I can't get any closer than the cable. Rumor has it from non-revealable sources, we are about 6 figures under the ammount normally stocked by this time. Maby, Maby Not Thats all I have on the stocking or I'll be in big trouble.

Gotya! Good a theory as any. Personally, I don't think there is a lot of fish in the lake to start with. I am a huge sight fisherman, and am just not seeing any fish. How can I see them on deep water? Hardly a day goes by when these fish won't midge a bit. Myself or any of the guides are not seeing much activity. I can usually tell when I come across the 65 bridge how my day is going to go, even in the restricted area. Most times I can see hundreds of trout in the railroad bridge area, thru 65 bridge, right now I see almost none, yet there are swarms of midges coming off. They are playing around your head from the time you get in the boat. If something isn't eating them, then I don't believe they are there.

ReRead what I have already told you and your questions will be answered. Also check out my current tablerock report. Good Luck

Wayne, I don't understand your post the way it is written. I'm sure your right, but take another stab at it, so an idiot like me can understand your thoughts. Thanks.

Location, sometime is way more important in fishing than realestate. Yes, the cold water will shock the fish, but not for an extended period of time, they acclimate fast. Right spot, right bait and you will get bit. Clear, Extremely Cold and Fast in the restricted area yesterday and they chewed the fur off the flys. Bait guys had a terrible time from Fall Creek to Branson. I wonder how many fish are in that stretch right now?????? Those bait fish seem to being staying tight together, and moving quite a bit. Just not lots of spread out fish. If we get a generation pattern, we'll be able to tell more. Last couple of weeks, they were in the short creek to riverlake area by the hundreds. Everyone knew this and limit upon limit was removed. Then the generation started and now that area is just flat. You would think they either moved to cooper or lilleys', But they might have also moved up during the generation. You cannot however see very many fish in the restricted area, but there are enough to get a pretty good nip.

We are using a 7'2" rod designed by the Rod Shop in Kansas City, it has an extremely fast tip, with a solid middle section and extreme strength in the butt portion, with extremely long cork handles. Before most all the rods that were used before this were ultra lite, but were extremely wimpy and buggy whippy. This rod is the real deal for jig and float. How to fish this method is probably our biggest topic at the seminars that Phil and I do and I will try to explain our setup. First off you need a full size spinning reel with good line capacity, I am a shimiano man and use only stradic's in the 1000, or 1500 versions, these reels also have a marvelous drag system. Spool the reel with 4 lb. fluorocarbon, you don't need to over fill the spool, just about 2/3 full. The fluorocarbon throws like a rock and remains memory free and is all I will use. Lots of good brands out there. From the main line, I place a foam strike indicator on the line and then use a no 12 swivel below the float. I will also insert a small finish nail in the bottom of the float or a small split to help it throw. I tried a tungsten bead on the line but it cut the line and would not work. Float colors of either chartreuse or flo-orange work best. From there, depending on conditions I use 2lb. fluorocarbon to my fly, judging the length of the tippet on the speed and condition of the water. For actively midging fish I usually go about 2ft. of tippet, on most other times I try and stay near the bottom If I can. On extreme fast water, i will throw 9 to 10 ft. of the tippet material on the 7ft rod with no problem, that's how I got them yesterday. This is where the swivel really comes in handy, when throwing this much line, it prevents twists in your tippet material. The main thing to remember is you have to stay in contact from your rod to the strike indicator, at all times and cannot let your attention be diverted, as the fish even on a fast flow, just will not hook themselves. Keep your slack picked up without drag on the indicator and you will catch fish. I am constantly shocking the indicator will little rod tip snaps, this tells me I'm on the indicator and ready for a hook set. If I twitch the tip and the indicator doesn't move, you need to pick up the slack. Start on no flow or soft moving water, and then graduate to full flow. On full flow, fish the fly down stream from the boat with no drag and you will have a blast. As a footnote for the most part, I am adding on weight to the line to get the fly down. I either use weighted nymphs or micro jigs. If you attach even splits to the tippet and they hit the bottom they will just add another element to the tippet to catch the bottom and foreign material. I have had way better success with weighted bugs. Fluorocarbon sinks and that also helps get your trout appetizers to the bottom.

I'm thinking about building a tree house on the island, kind of a How Stupid are you Inn. Brian is the farthers person I know from a Redneck. You had better rethink that. When your out there as much as he is things happen, and you just hope they will correct themself. It is a full time job just doing the right thing and keeping yourself out of trouble. A couple of years ago I saw a 12ft. boat going up stream with 4 generators, I told my clients those guys are going to be in trouble and I approached them to say Man that is way to dangerious. They told me to F-Off. 30 minutes latter the water patrol was on their way for the rescue. Yesterday I saw a small 3 or 4 year old at the conservation ramp by herself with her parents in the car and 4 generators running, she was down touching the water, If she had went in that would have been that. I was on the water patrol for 5 years and you cannot believe the stupid things people do. You cannot be responsible for others, you must take responsibility for yourself. I am extremely sorry for the poor fellow plight and would have helped him in a minute if I had been there, but I am not responsible for his actions. And nither is Brian.

The flats run on the oppsite side of the lake from Pt. 16 to Baxter. You can see the Marina from your fish catching spot. The entire flat is about 2 miles long, with underwater points and humps all along its length clear to the bouy point past baxter going up the white. good luck

Upper taney was about as good as it can get today, with the power generation, if you were doing the right thing. I am not seeing lots of fish in the river and I believe even though small, some of these little snots have been there long enough to know right from wrong. The generation rate was a bit confusing as I would no sooner make a run on the dam and it would seem, that there was very little volume or depth and a very fast flow, and I would have to back off. Be very careful during these conditions. You can get in trouble in a hurry. The water was running gin clear all the way to Riverlake, Bob Cline said it was as clear as he had seen it in 30 years in the area. During most fast flow times egg flys or bright sanjuan worms are more than enough to catch those tricksters on the upper end, but not so much today. Lots of boats and lots of fly fishing using bright patterns and they were just struggling. The drift boat guides were on the phones to each other, and I heard 1 say, don't come down here, we haven't caught a fish all day, its just horrible. He was in the tailrace across from Point Royal, and had beat the same stretch of water to pieces for about 2 hrs. When the generators come on line you flat don't want to be in a drift boat stuck behind an island. If you will move with the fish, you are in business, always a new customer. Rod and Will Sanders, a couple of my regular victims were with me today and we drifted size 10 and 12 weighted scuds in ginger, and the trout just ate them up. About 60 really nice fish on a 4 hr. trip with about 90% being slot fish. The fish were absolutely not interested in brights in the super clear water, they wanted real food. Ran the scud on both a drift rig on a spinning rod and also drifted it under an indicator on a spinning rod. The fly had to be on the bottom or you just would not get bit. With the current these fish had their belleys stuck to the bottom. On my spinning rods, I was running 9ft. of tippet in 2lb. vanish to the weighted fly with no additional weight, however, I don't believe extra weight would have hurt a thing. The drift rigs were 1'4 oz with the scud attached about a foot below a bright bead as an attractant. This pattern has worked for me more than once on clear fast moving water, It is an absolute staple in the rivers we fish in Alaska, on the very same water we had here today. We did not see another boat or fisherman catch a fish all morning, and from speaking to the bait guides, they caught from 1 to a couple of fish all morning. Try this pattern from the dam thru fall creek, when the water is running clear, fast and cold.

Freak, A really good area, is from goat island about 1 mile above point 16 all the way up to Baxter on the flats across from Baxter Marina. The fish were going up there early on topwater. You would see them break, and it was usually 2 or 3 Ky's. If you would hustle over there to the last place you saw them and throw topwater, you had a good chance to capture them. To tell you the truth, I was just fishing the flats in that area in that 18 to 26 foot range, and when the fish would blow up I'd hustle to them. Did this till my guys got tired of getting up and down, and then went just to the dropshot. I was up there for the whites that will from time to time blow up in that area. Lots of fish and lots of bait on those flats. You have to move around and I cannot tell you this strongly enough. Catch a fish or two and move or you will waste your whole morning. Even if you see a ton of fish, after the first couple they will get lockjaw and you will try everything you have for nought. By move around, I mean a move of only a couple 100 yrds. sometimes does the trick, or you may need a major move. Have not fished the Bluff Ends, but if I did, I feel they would be suspended in the 26 ft. range over a greater depth on the outside edges. I have only been fishing long points and channel roll/offs on flat gravel. Good Luck, let us know.

About like it has been. If you can catch a couple you are probably doing as well as the next guy. You have about a 20 minute bite and then its over. The bite I heard was from 6 to about 6:20 this AM. Heard Mike Webb got there abit late and didn't do any good. I would probably not run 9 Miles to risk it now. Most all the guides are saying the numbers just arn't there any longer as what they are seening is not schools, but singles.

Spoke to most of the guides that were up there this AM. Tony Wedele caught zero on live shad, Dave Welch caught 3 on live shad, Buster and Tim P. spooned with very slow results. I asked Buster if he thought the Generation moved the fish and he said he thought there was just to much prussure on them. Some days up to 16 to 20 boats with 3 persons per boat dropping spoons. In the next week, I'm sure if conditions remain the same the slot will become empty, it was a good 5 week run, for the pay for play boys. All good things have to end.

Seem's the White's were asleep at the slot this morning. Spoke to Paige and Beck and had comments from Buster. Paige only had 3, Buster 4. It may be coming to an end after 5 weeks of getting the early morning nip at the moonshine beach. It was a good run and we will let you know if it continues. Don't depend on it further. Both caught Ky's as we told you in our Shell Knob report, so it is probably time to follow those fishing location, and forget about the whites. At least we can get a little sleep and not have to get there by 5 am.

It's a gamble, but what ever it takes to slow her down. When they kicked on the 4th generator, I have never seen the ammount of muck and sludge that came thru. Rafts of moss and muck as big as a boat were floating in the upper section of the lake. Fishing was over, with no way to present any type of bait. Hope it has cleaned out a bit at this time, 7pm. May be tough on the morrow in the upper end with all the water, but I think the trout may be accustomed to the cool down. Even with the water running last night, by noon the upper end was well into the lower 60's before generation. When the temp is this hot, the water is heating like a fired furnace. I wonder what the temp is at forsyth.

Steff and Jean did it to me again. My clients said man those guys are really catching fish. My commment was when the strike indicator goes down you need to set the hook. I probably forgot to tell you that about 50 bites ago. If they catch 5 and you miss 5 it seems like 20, just hang in there. I had to get away from them as they were doing very well on the blood midge. Steff was even catching fish. MAN, was that water flat this AM. Fish still would bite but you had to be really on your toes. Just a shake on the indicator or a slight turn. After 1pm water was on and drifted egg flys. Caught fish with consistancy. Went to the dam around 2pm and drifted a san-juan worm on a drift rig and the really nice rainbows hammered it. Lots of fish in the slot till they kicked on 4 and then the water turned to muc and moss. Steff and Jean are here for the week and I am inviting them to the lodge for liquor drinks, hoping to convince them to stay away from my guide clients. Much love.

Steff and Jean are very tricky. I'm going to watch them today and steal their secretes.

From Cooper Creek thru Clay Banks, fishing has been on and off the last week. Have strickly been on artificial and not bait, but have not seen the bait guys doing a whole lot, while we were fishing around them. Size 14 to 16 either zebra or blood midge is probably the best getter right now. A gold or copper head really enhances the flys preformance. I am using one of my own design called a blood midge. I am tying this on an Orvis scud hook no 62KC in size 14 and 16, with the 14 probably catching the most fish and getting the fewest bites. This midge is tyed using a 5/64 tungsten bead and dressing the hook in black thread and them using red copper to segment the body raps. I am fishing it about 4ft. below the indicator when the fish are not midging and about 18 inches when they are midging. The orange headed sculpin 1/2 micro is still catching fish as is the gold headed ginger jig. Everything is working better on the wind. Alot of fish were holding from Riverlake to Short Creek, but most have been flushed by the rain and earlier power generation. These fish should bite from Lilleys' on down on crawlers and sunrise or bubble gum eggs. From Clay Banks thru Short Creek, go with the midge or the micro. Lots of fish on the hump in front of Fall Creek, up to the boat ramp on the jig. From the ramp to Clay Banks they are on the midge better. Tony Wedele has been using a tandem with a huge egg fly on a bead head and swinging a size 16 copper midge under it, about 4 1/2 ft of depth. He is catching limits on this pattern. He also uses the micro as the top fly and swings the midges under it. He said both work about equal, but the hook in the egg is stronger than the micro hook, for fishing doubles. They are hitting the big egg, about 30% of the time. Let us know how your capturing these trout in this area of the lake.

Started yesterday at Baxter, early and worked my way clear to Big M on a sunshiney flat water day till the storm hit about 3:30. Caught and released about 20 keeper size Ky's and one really nice Largemouth. We fished 27 different locations with a fish or two per spot, even if we saw more on the graph, we just couldn't get them to go in numbers. At the start there was a bit of a topwater bite on a silver-blackback fin. I think if I would have went after the topwater harder, we would have been able to fish it the entire morning, but just didn't want to run all over the flats chasing them. Fish in the Baxter to Campbell Point area were on the bottom from 18 ft. early to about 31 ft. after about 11 am. There is a thermocline at 26 ft. so that is a good number to start with, either suspended or on the bottom. I am sticking with that watermellon candy zoom finess worm or the chomper drop shot worm in plum. They seem to be outpreforming the crawlers in the upper lake region. I am using two worms about 2ft. apart and dropping on the flat gravel and hump areas, just next to deep water and on channel swings. Long points are also producing early. We caught about the same number of fish late as we did early, just a pretty consistant bite if you didn't hang in one location to long. We had to move to get bit. It seemed your first drop, was by far the best, even if you could see fish. After you caught 1 or 2 you had might as well go as the rest just wouldn't bite. They are biting the plastics, better than crawlers around the knob, I don't know why. Had a trip on Sat. that I put 3 dropshot hooks on a line and placed a crawler on the bottom and one on the top and a drop shot worm in the middle. They took the plastic almost every time. Comtinued to move the worm to all three locations on the dropshot and it didn't matter, they wanted the plum worm or the wattermellon candy worm. The crawler only caught a couple of fish. Had a school of white come around me chasing and just couldn't get them to bite, threw the kitchen sink and they just didn't want it. They were chasing shad that were about the size of a dime or smaller and just would not consider anything bigger. Didn't want them anyway, as my guys were after the catch and release Ky's. I can say that since I didn't catch any, if we had caught some I would have wanted them. Guys we are always intrested in what and how you are doing. If only a few of us are giving information, that establishes very few patterns. Don't always take our word for it, try something different and let us know, we are always ready to learn. Whites are still going in the slot at the dam. Seems, 6;30 to about 7am, then over. Ky's are suspended in the 26ft. range on the guide holes and traditional spots. Fishing over the trees is becoming a very good summer pattern in the dam area. James has slowed down a mite, but fish are coming from Buttermilk up to Cape fair in that same 26 ft. range, suspended over trees and on the bottom..

Phil, got a report from Tim Paige, that today was the best day thus far. Also spoke to Casy at Big Cedar and he said Mike Webb, and Paige both came in with huge limits of 3 to 4 pounders. Paige said he had triples on several times. It lasted about 50 minutes, but boy what a run. Went from 6:20 to about 7:10. No one was catching them early, and all of a sudden they turned on and everybody was filling the boats. Ended as fast as it stated. Tim hung around for 45 minutes after the 7:10 mark, and never had another bite, although they could see fish on the graph. 35 to 45 ft. suspended over 90 ft. These fish are extremely fickle. When they go they go and when its over, look elsewhere. Tim said the graph was just blacked out with fish. Don't know how much longer, but for now it's business as usual.

Yip's my secret is out. I'll try and shower more often, except when I'm fishing with you. By the way, I'm thinking about the far North, we need to talk. Did you get through to Jim? We need to be a making plans if it's going to happen.

Think about this a little bit. You had already been out there and we had extablished the depth of the fish for you. You were fishing suspended fish over a great depth, if you had no prior knowledge of the depth you would not have been so successful. You would not have known to fish in front of the bouys or out in the deeper water without us finding the fish on the locator. I sent one of my clients out there without a depth finder, and he caught nothing until he heard some of the guides say they were at 35 ft. suspended. He then guessed the depth with the judgement of the length of the rod and he started catching fish. Again he had help from someone else. Tim watched you closely yesterday, and he thought you were fishing abit shallow at times. If you could have seen your spoon or the fish, you would have been right on them. Sure your going to catch some fish, but I think the eye in the water may be a pretty good help. I think since I bought it, I'll go ahead and use it on the suspended fish.

Great post by jOrOb. Bass fisherman have a very strong tendency to drop the rod tip, prior to establishing a hookset. Using the 9'6" rod should allow you to maintain very nice contact with the fly or the indicator, whatever the case may be, as this is a slack picker-upper. A vertical lift with the rod in allignment with the fly, rather than a quick snap hook set should allow the rod to absorb the shock of the set and go alot easier on you 7X. You should have no problem with the 6X with a double surgen. Being on the commercial side of things, I have had very good results with 2lb. vanish. The diameter eludes me right now, but this line is very strong and has great shock absorbant. I have not had that good or results with mirage, or frog hair. I need to try the Rio. A couple of years ago, I preformed a test on several 4 lb test lines, by tying a bucket with a weight of 4lbs and testing the strength of several 4lb. lines, by lifting the bucket with a 7ft. rod and the 4lb. with about 4 ft. of line out. Every line I tested would lift the bucket without breaking, but the slighest quick snap or jerk would break them all. Vanish preformed the best, and frog hair was by far the worst, with mirage a close second to worst. Vanish also had the best total wt. pickup, it would pick up 12lbs, on a easy lift without breaking. I did not test the Rio. Guess I need more things to occupy my mind. PS I am not selling vanish or do I have any kind of arrangement with Berkley.

Fished Shell Knob today, and didn't go to the party on the proch,with Phil and Tim Paige. Tim reported he and his group corraled 17 whites and then caught a dozen Ky's suspended in the dam area in the 25 ft. mark over deeper water. Most of the white were taken at 35 ft. over like Phil said about 80 ft. You really need a good graph to do well on this type of fishing. I expected somewhat of an early topwater bite at the knob, but got nothing on the surface. WE were on the water by 5:45 and there was absolutely nothing coming up. SKMO, reported that he has not had any topwater action, in over a week. Most of his fish are coming on the football in the 35 ft. range, with not many per spot and lots of moves. He mentioned if shad were not present it was really a crap shoot. Look for the bait. With the overcast, most of the fish, we found were in the 24 to 30ft. range, and on the bottom. Had 3 really nice 17 inch Ky's on a football jig and another dozen on a drop shot. Total of 8 pretty quality keepers and really the shorts were nice fish in the 14inch range and extremely healthy. All are still swimming in the briney deep after getting a peek at the boat and the two ugly guys standing in it. The sun got up and boats with skiers got bad so we were in by 10:30. Not a great day, but I'll take it for the 4th of July on Table Rock.

OPP's Might have let the bass-cat out of the bag.