Bill Babler

This is something that is not only a fishermans problem, although, I have had my equipment stolen twice. They also took shirts and coats with my name on them. You have to wonder? Almost every tournament bass fisherman in our area has had his equipment snitched in the last 10 years. None of them leave any rods in their boats anymore. They all go into the motel rooms at night, when on away trips. This is also a problem with the hunters. A couple of years ago on the start of quail and pheasant season in Northern Missouri, staying at a motel with about 50 other rigs, over 40 of them lost all their gear from guns to anything the crooks could grab. Lucky we had ours in our room, but they still somehow got in my truck. Took all the change out of the ashtray. How in the world they got this done with barking dogs and all the people around is a huge mystry. I have not heard of any capture. I know Colorado was having trouble with elk and deer camps being raided during the day when the hunters were out. This is just a problem, that we as sportsman deal with and its a crying shame.

Guys, they have found that the lock it up theory is the absolute worst thing you can do. REMOVE ALL YOUR TACKLE AND RODS IF YOU ARE STAYING AT ANY TABLEROCK LAKE, or LAKE OZARK RESORT AND LEAVE YOUR BOXES OPEN !!!!!! The thieves are really hitting any bass boat with a locker-bar. It takes about 20 seconds to break that locker-bar out of the side of a fiberglass boat, and if it is locked they know there are rods in it. On lake O and out of Baxter Marina on the Rock, they have just been after the high dollar bass rockets with locker-bars. All that locker-bar is good for is to keep petty thieves out and to keep simi-honest people honest. The real thieves want to see that bar, it means there are goodies that are inside and they are really easy to get.

Guys, I haven't been on the Rock for about a week, due to a heavy schedule on taney, but here is what I have. Please let us know if you have something that we don't. Tim Paige reports the dam area meaning Point 7 to Long Creek. Fish suspended in tree tops and long gravel points in 28 to 32 ft. suspended over 60 to 70 ft. He is averaging about 14 fish per 4 hr. trip, with a really good one being in the 20 fish catigory. Tim has worked the dam area by far more than any other guide this year. He has a good handle on whats going on. I have missed him on taney, but it is great to be that versitile. Bill Beck reports fishing in the Kimberling and lower James and up the White to Baxter being not so much today. Fish in that same 28 ft range on the bottom and suspended. in the trees and off flat gravel. Last week Bill won the Heartland Elite, and the Buddy and came in second in the Pro Am. Man what an accomplishment. Great fisherman and a way better person. Bill is one of the true gentleman in the sport and if you every get a chance to fish with him the money could be no better spent. Buster reports the Kimberling City area yesterday was just fantastic with lots of topwater action and then fish suspended in that same 28 ft range. It is simply being in the right spot at the right time. If you see those fish chasing in the early AM, they most probably will be down or suspended in a very near location. Both Buster and I have just been all over the entire White River drainage. From taney to Eagle rock it seems we are the jacks of all trades and the masters of but a few. Still when you work everyday for the most part you can get a feeling for whats going on. Buster is still one of the top bets for the rock and can make those trout jump most of the time. Good luck and let us knows whats up.

Yesterday, I could do no wrong, and today I could do nothing right. What a difference a day made on taney. Fished yesterday, from Clay Banks thru the lower restricted area and even a bit into the bait area and caught fish all day. Numbers just could not be described, but we had at least 40 slot fish, on top of all the others. Fished flat water all day,with a heavy, humid overcast sky. I mean there was absolutely no flow or movement. Anything that happend to the fly, you had to do it. There was no midging or much feeding action displayed unitl I reached below fall creek and there the fish were midging quite abit. Didn't seem to matter as the fish ate about any fly we presented, from small jigs to scuds to zebra midges. Today, what a different story. Boat traffic, even in the fog was ridiculas. Big power boats running in fog at speeds way out of line, and when the fog lifted they were even worse. Some idiot missed Buster by no more than 7 ft. while running at least 40 mph. Another numbskull ran past me so fast and close, his entire wake came into and over my back deck. Both of these guys appeared to be in their 60's. I guess stupid has no age limit. Fishing was tough, and we stuck to artificials all day. The fish would turn off and on with the wind. On a slight ripple, we would immediatly catch fish and when it died so did the fishing. Buster and I guided together today and we both ended up with a nice limit of 11 3/4 inchers for our folks, but it was way to much work, changing patterns at least 10 times and being on the move a bunch. I really don't think changing the fly helped. It just kept me thinking. The wind was the answer, you find it and you catch fish. For gosh sakes, be careful out there.

About a foot or two on the weight below the hook. Just experiment. Everything else you said is great. Check out the archives, I believe we have an article on tablerock bass titled Dropin in. Or something like that. Alot has been written.

The last explaination was the best. Not only will wind help postion the fish in the higher water column, it also inspires them to feed at a more vigerious rate. When fishing jigs, the wind imparts a more natural movement on the jig than either a dead drift or any simulated movement that you provide. For reasons I have no idea about even deeper fish will bite better on surface movement. When we are deep fishing for bass on the rock, using either plastic or live presentations, a flat blue bird day is a killer till the wind starts. Who would think that fish 40ft. deep should be activated by a surface breeze, but without a doubt, they are. Maby it just shakes our rods enough that it activates them to strike. Very Interesting. One thing for sure, wind chop on taney, is like a automatic turn on. The second there is a chop the action starts. Today was a good example.

I have been very fortunate to guide and fish from Missouri to Alaska, and have found that 99% of local tackle, fly shops and small resorts due their level best to price their products at a resonable margin to enhable them to carry a varity of items that work well in their balliwicks. They cannot and will never be able to sell their items at prices that walmart does. If you are staying at one of these lake side resorts and go the walleyworld to save 50 cents on a bottle of powerbait, shame on you. the resort has gone out on a limb just to have every bottle they can afford setting on the shelves for your usage and convience. I don't think Phil will be retiring on his tackle shop revenues in the next couple of years, and he has one of the best resort tackle shops I have seen. Find a walley world or a bp with custom signature spinning rods that are designed just for trout or any of the products that Michael or Phil or any of our small shop guys have. Have a fly or jig custom designed just for you at bp or wworld, it won't happen, Have a special order and see how far you get. I love our locals and will spend every dime of my tackle money that I can with them.

Kevin, there are some halfway decient ways to target smalljaw thru the summer on the rock. Probably the number 1 way is with the old standby pbj 5/16 oz jewell spider jig, with the same color twin tail trailer. Spoke to SKMO out of Shell Knob today and he reported he had a field day around the knob on monday dragging that jig. Fish were in 10 to 16 ft. early and then moved to 26 to 32 later in the day. As the fish went deep, he switched to a 1/2 oz football jig in the same color. Reported 14 smallies with 10 keepers. He also caught several really nice spots in the deeper depths, and had 2 nice largemouth in the shallow water. Top water on shallow windy long points and flat gravel banks works from about 5am to 6;30, after that go to the jig. Nothing is beating a clear 110 sammy right now. They are still on that crome fin early, but the sammy is better. Look for long flat gravel points and if shad are present that will only help. Always try the islands in and around Beardsley, Clevenger and Big Cedar Hollow. The long flat swim beach point at Gage's Marina is also a target zone, look for the guide boats, and then try and beat them to the spot the next day. Might Work. Early is always better than late. Fish till around 11am and then go take a nap till near sunset. If you like to catch big mean white bass, try the James river around Buttermilk, the White around Baxter and Shell Knob, and Campbell Pt. and the Long Creek arm around Clevenger and Big House cove across from Big Cedar. You can't miss the cove, lots of 1 million dollar plus houses. Good Luck

Water under the bridge.

Guys, this has gone far enough. I would like to sincerely apologize for my hasty post this moring at 5 am. I cannot tell you how hurtful and disrespectful I found that post to be, but then Rich owes me no respect. This is an open fourm and he may say what he thinks. I hold several things very dear to me with my family and friends being what matters in my life. My word and the way that I treat people are how I justify the good Lord placing me here. For someone to suggest that I would lie on fishing reports to profit on the sale of a few stinking flys is just not the life I have chosen for myself. The entire tone of the post was to disrespect me by calling me Billy, I am called William by my relations and Bill by friends and aquantances. It all just rubbed me the total wrong way. Like Michael said, this is a fishing fourm and not a soap. I do think Rich is right in the aspect that perhaps these posts have become a conflict of interest. I find that to be my fault and have been warned by other guides that being to free with the info and the hows and whys are going to get me in trouble. They seem to have been right. We have wonderful full time guides in this area that won't post and expose theirselves to the redicule and I guess you can't blame them. I may have crossed the line. I feel any of us in the fishing industry should probably let the fish for fun guys answer any of the product or tech. questions. This way it won't be construded as trying to make a profit off the fourm. I will continue to post fishing reports in the areas I fish and will try to do so in a more professional mannar. I have guided the lower restricted area for 1000's of days in the last 15 years and feel for the most part that I have a pretty good handle on it most times. I make no claims from Clay Banks to the dam in the wade area and only speak of what I know. Thank all of you for your kind words and I hope to continue to keep you updated as to what me and my clients are doing. William J. Babler

I am always very careful with my post to try and be as accurate as possible. The question was posed how to tie this particular jig and I explained as it had been explained to me and from what I have found after using the jig for the last 10 years and littterally catching 1000's of fish on it. Every boat fishing guide uses it as his staple for the lower section of the restricted area and will continue to use it. I have never promoted my guide business, or any other venture on this fourm nor will I ever personally do so without paying for the advertisment. And for that matter, you probably really don't need me to post further about the fishing. Thanks all, enjoy the wonderful site that phil has provided to educate and entertain.

Turning your grayline to max, intensifies your bottom reading and highlights any object between your transducer and the bottom. I always run my grayline at no less than 96%. It should in no way compromise your screen. You can however get your sensitivity set so high that it reads your trolling motor, and this will distourt your screen. You cannot however run two graphs at the same time. This will totally compromise the one you are looking at. I am going to try and get Mike Webb to do an article on the tuning of the Lowrance LCR. No one in this area is better than Mike. He has gone to Lowrance school a couple of times and has it down. Everytime any of us get a different or a new unit, we have Mike tweek it for us and it pretty much stays good, unless we start to mess it up. I don't have all the whys and where fors on how this works, I am not a very mechanical person. I have just experimented and had the right help. I also look at the durn thing several hundred hrs. per year. I have a two year old X15 on the bow and a 332c gps unit on the dash, both read very well, but the black and white X15 on the bow is by far the best unit. I can drop a 1/64th. oz BB split shot and see it fall all the way to the bottom. Lowrance has a vhs and a dvd with all the imfo on tuning and operating the X15 and X17 I have found that if you just devote time to the graph instead of fishing until you get it set the way you want also helps. Easy to say and hard to do.

Michael, If you guys are thinking about or going to have a 1 or 2 pay clinic, let me know. We are getting lots of inquires about lessons. We need to have some dates if you have any. Thanks White River Lodge 1-800-544-0257

The fish will usually hang at the thermocline or just above. Usually this starts in the 26 to 32 ft. range. You can usually tell when we have the thermocline as the fish will move off the bottom and relate to it. The boys fishing the dam area today said they were catching fish in that range suspended over 50 to 60 ft. I find this very tough fishing and don't really like it. The dam area from Long Creek to K City are famious for this type of stuff and it just really makes you work to keep up with this type of fishing. Once you get above K City on the White or even the James, those fish will still, even with a thermocline relate to some structure like a hump, deep dock, cable or bouy marker, long point or channel swing. Much easier to catch as they will be locked in that 26 to 32 ft. range on the same type of stuff you have been fishing all year. Boys, get on here and give us some good thoughts on this, this is a very good topic.

Fished my chart speed at wide open this morning. For the life of me I could see no difference in the target size or shape. I don't know what this means, but slow and fast the picture was the same. I could still see everything just as before. There is so much we don't know about this stuff it is unbelieveable, after all the years we have used it. If you run a split screen on a 2X and a 4X zoom you can see more of the critters that are down there, sometimes. It's fun playing with the electronics just to keep tweeking it.

Lilleys' Landing has a very nice selection.

We won't have any in this weekend. They are on order. We do have olive and olive with a copper and gold head and they work extremely well also. If water is moving pink with a bright chrome head is unbeatable, we have those in stock. If you think you can tie this bug, give it a try. The head of the bug is flat molded tungsten with florecent body paint and a hand painted two part eye with iris and inner eye. It is then clear coated to an extreme shine. I have never had the paint chip or discolor on any I have ever used. I have never had one of these jigs, come apart that were made by the original maker. 1 of these bugs will litterly catch 100's of fish and keep fishing. Most fly tiers won't mess with them just for the reason that one will last for days of fishing. No money in that. Initial cost at over $3.00 each still isn't as much as the couple of dozen hand tied bugs you would use for the life of 1 micro jig. The scud patterns I tie are tied off on 3 different steps and glued twice and I will tell you, no one puts a bug together like that for resale. It will still take 2 dozen of those to give you the durability of 1 micro jig. The head resembles an egg shape, only a bit flatter on the sides. The total length of the jig including the hackle and tail is 5/16th inch. the total depth of the jig including hook shank is 1/8th inch. The hook is a mustad size 14 straight shank with a jig eye designed only for micro as I know. The hook is extremely fine and chemical sharpened. The tail and body material are hen hackle, extremely fine and the body and tail are attached to the head with srink wrap. The head has a molded body to hold the srink wrap and a design also to attach the tail. Lucky Strike makes a similar jig and sells them at walmart, They come completely apart after a couple of fish. The srink wrap fall off Everyone from Lucky Strike to Tim Buck Too has tried to tie this jig, and no one has even gotten close to the way it PRESENTS ITSELF IN THE WATER. If you are thinking of tieing it on a lead head or using maribou as a tail, forget it, way to thick and heavy on the tail and way to light on the lead head. The closest material to the hen hackle I can find is bunny zonker, and it is still way thicker. You can sit this jig in a glass of water and the tail will trimble with the glass sitting still. It is so fine and well designed, the ammount of hackle used in the tail is extremely fine and miniscule. Phil had some great maribou micro type, hand tied jigs in sculpin with the orange head and they worked really well, but I believe he is out of those also. They would catch about 3 for every 10 the original micro would catch. We had caught so many fish yesterday that I had my client in the front try one of the maribous and the gal in the middle of the boat, continue with a regular micro and the client in the back try one of the maribous. She easily caught more fish and got more bites than both her brother and dad got on both sides of her combined. Both said give me back my sculpin micro. They immediatly evened the slate and got the same number of bites. This nympth is fantastic from Clay Banks to Branson and works at it's best in the lower stretch of the restricted area on moving or flat water. These jigs arn't a secret they have been around for 20 years. Sales in Arkansas, Colorado, Montana, Utah, Wyoming and California are in the 10's of thousands per year. A book has even been written on the presentation of the miro as it is fished on the White River. Nothing will touch it below Beaver Dam thru the restricted zone. This new color is just really hot on taney right now. The Olive and the Copper and Olive have been our standby for 10 years. Phil should have some in by the 23rd. We didn't know how the new color would work so only ordered 10 doz and that was a mistake, on my part. If some of you are interested give Phil a call or email and let him know how many your want and that will help us keep our inventory in check Thanks./

Guided upper taney with Tim Paige yesterday. 3 persons each so we had boats full, to fish the restricted area. Weather was a little of this and a little of that with rain, clouds and quite a bit of heat in the afternoon. No wind or water flow before quitting time so we fished flat water for the most part. Fishing was way better than it should have been for the conditions. Both guide boats caught and released over 100 trout, all caught on a sculpin and flo-orange 1/2 micro jig. We fished the jig just off the bottom,usually about 3ft. Tried every scud pattern I had along with zebra midges and some alphebet bugs that a friend of mine gave me from one of the local guides. Nothing and I mean nothing even held a candle to the 256 oz. micro. It is a size 14 and a very compact perfectly weighted bug that hangs extremely natural and looks identical to sculpin fry. The flo orange head just seems to be a fantastic attractant. Just a slight shake of the rod tip to activate the strike indicator would induce a bite, and the bites were not soft yesterday, they wanted it. Fish were extrely active and most would shoot out of the water when they felt the steel. With the flat water, I could see a lot of the fish that ate the nympth. They would swim up to the bug and wait for any movement. As soon as it twitched they would grab it. We had been catching a few fish on a big beaded egg fly even on flat water, but no deal yesterday, they just wanted that sculpin micro. Spoke to a couple of locals that were fishing the same water, and both thought it was really tough. There always seems to be a bug they will bite, even when it's tough, you just have to stay with it and not be afraid to change and move.

I have never tried it at full chart speed, it may be better, The Lowrance boys told me a slow chart speed and a high ping speed causes the lcr to have the ability to build images at a slower rate to more define the targets. The higher chart speed moves thru the traget zone at too rapid of a rate to build a defined image. This is for depths of under 100 ft. The higher chart speed reading I was told by the Lowrance boys, was for greater depths where the image is so deep, it must read it quickly or it will be gone. The diffenation and I know I miss spelled it, will not be as good at the greater depths, with the high moving chart. I will move the chart to max speed and see if it increases my images. If it would, I would be able to see the innards on the targets. You must also remember, though even your screen is up to 10 inches wide, you are only looking at about 1 inch on the right hand side. For the most part the rest of the screen is old news.

I have had no experence with garmin electronics, so can't really say. I know Hank Parker says they are the bomb. Here are some tips that will help. Set you sensitivity to the maximum you can achieve without distortion from your trolling motor, usually 96 percent. Set your grayline at 100 percent and knock out the top 10 feet. Set your ping speed at max. and your chart speed at minimum and see what that does. Never run more than 1 unit at a time, I don't care if your tranducers are at different freqency levels, it dosen't work good enough for me. No one and I mean no one runs anything here but Lowrance. X15 and X17 I can see a 1lb. line and a 256oz micro jig on mine. A drop shot looks like a submarine. I can see fish move on the bait and tell exactly when they will bite. The only time I can't is if they are tight to cover or on the bottom.Good luck. Appreciate the kind words. If I can be of further help, give me a call at 1-800-544-0257

Fished taney on Sat and Sun, but the boys had great days on the rock this weekend. Very little traffic and lots and lots of quality fish. Tim Paige guided out of Kimberling and fished from K City to Aunts Creek and reported over 20 fish on his trip, using plum chomper drop shot worms in about 24 to 32 ft of water off the main lake gravel points and midlake humps. He said he saw almost every fish they caught and would just slowly use the trolling motor to cruse over the area, untill he saw a fish and then would tell his customers to drop. This really works. I absolutely love to look for fish in this manner. It reminds me of the movie topgun. Do you remember when there were 2 blimps on the radar screen and then the russian migs split and there were 4. Sometimes you only see 1 or 2 fish but when you drop, the screen will light up. If the fish are really close together, they will read as one and you really don't know how many there are until they break apart. This can also be a tactic that will backfire big time as if the fish are hanging right on the bottom, you can't see them and will pass over thinking there is no one at home. But we will do what we will do, its a lot more sexy to say drop and have someone bow up and say man, how can you do that! The Knob was very good on Sunday, and Buster guided up on the old home spots. He grilled me good before he went up, but didn't need me as they bite every where he went, on the drop shot. Same situation as with Tim, he saw all the fish they caught and said he really had a screen full at about every stop. Buster also reported lots of topwater whites at Shell Knob, but his clients were bass fisherman and not interested in the whites. He said they were blowing up in small schools off all the major lake points from Campbell Point to Carter Creek. T. Paige reported that the fish in the dam area were indeed on their midsummer patterns and were deep and hard to come by. Check out Don's post on summer fish and you will have an idea where and how. Deep, Suspended, Prussured and tough. I'll stay up the White River, if I have an option.

Fished taney the last couple of days with varing degrees of success no matter where I fished. Saturday I had 3 regulars that love a good trout bake and boy did I have trouble coming up with one. Anytime you are looking only for trout to eat and really nothing else, its always a stretch. Rumor had it that there were fish stocked in the Branson area last week and late this week, but no matter what tricks I tried we could only come up with 9 total in the lower section and 6 suckers. Water temp at Branson was 72. Moved up to the bait holes below fall creek and came up with the rest of their limit but I am sure glad it was 4 each instead of 5. Water temp was 49. Can't even describe the size of the fish I cleaned as they were so small. Narrow no meat silver bullets about 8 1/2 to 10 inch. I'm sure glad we dropped the limit to 4 fish per day so we could stock a higher quality fish. It's really worked out. NOT. Sunday, I fished late in the restricted zone catch and release. Much better. Lots of quality bows in the 12 to 15 inch size but you had to know what you were doing to capture them. We switched flies and moved continusly. If you caught a fish in a spot you were done. Simply move about 30 yrds. and you could do the same, catch 1 to 3 and either change flies or move abit. I did both. Best fly of the day by far was a size 16 ginger scud. You could lay it right on the bottom, with no drift or wind and they would pick it up. When the horn blew and the water started it really didn't get any faster, We caught them at the same pace only we didn't have to relocate or change flies as the boat was drifting. Beaded egg flies in orange or pink were producing far better than sanjuan's or pink jigs. WE fished these 7 ft. under a strike indicator and caught fish at a nice pace from 4 to 6 pm. Fishing is much better late. Early is not the time to be on taney, sleep in and let the water flow or the wind blow. Good Luck

It's the island in front of wolfpen. Lots of houseboats use it as a docking point to ski from. The whites were breaking between it and the bluff on the oppsite side of the lake.

If your on the rock as much as I am, you tend to have those lucky days. I have been having a couple a week, and the other days are just fishing. Usually good with enough to keep everyone happy, but then again there was today. Today's lottery winners were Phil Jones and his buddy Ron from Oklahoma. Great guys and I'm sure they deserved all the eagar beavers that stretched their strings. Things started pretty quickly at point 10 with chasing Ky's and we managed to coral 4 but not on the top, these were bottom dwellers, shallow about 16ft. Lots of company, as 4 other boats pulled in on me and we skidaddled for other spots up the white. I was rounding goat island when Ron tugged at my shirt, I was thinking about my next hot spot. Off to the left in about 170ft of water, it looked like the lake was having a volcanic eruption. Huge whites were blowing up at least 10 acres in 3 different pods. I voomed right into the middle of-em and we already had our top waters on the ready. The boys caught about 25 whites in about an hour and a half with the smallest at 31/2 and the largest over 5. All were caught on sammy's and a crome and black pradco, redfin. Not a single boat came past during the maylay, thats why I like that area. The other morning from my deck at the lodge, I could count over 30 bass boats and this is during the middle of the week. Here are some quick tips on the whites; If you arn't going to eat them, KEEP THEM OUT OF THE BOAT, AT ALL COST. These fish will and can really hurt you. always use pliers to extract treble hooks as they will flip and ruin your day. The whites we are catching are just monsters and all are full of bloody eggs and stuffed to the gills with shad. Eggs, manure and vomit are just the good things that will be in your boat if you allow them to enter. Their gill plate is as deadly as a razor knife and they will cut your legs and fin you while thrashing around the boat. It is so simple to just use the pliers to shake them off at the side of the boat. Bring a couple of pairs, I lost 1 today. I will eat whites in the spring, but these are just so nasty that I think I and everyone that is catching them with me will just have to pass. They pretty much smell like road kill. They are without a doubt one of the best game fish in the rock and are more than fun to catch. They will pull your arms till you have to rest if you get into a bunch like we did today. After the whites submerged and were gone, we went looking for real fish and from the photo's you can see that we found them. Some guys have all the luck. The Ky's were scattered today and on the ends of the flats from about 22 to 52 ft. We caught several in the 42 ft. range and caught the 52 footer as I was turning the boat at the edge of the flat. Ron said he was on the bottom so I believe this was a pretty deep fish. Again we had in the neighborhood of 20 plus keepers, after catching all those whites to boot. I am abit concerned about the lack of short Ky's, as 90 percent of these deep fish have been toads. The rest of my boy's are telling me the same thing in the white and lower james and lots of shorts in the dam area. Also a ton of shorts up the white bast twin rivers, clear to roaring river. All the Ky's were on a dropshot, plum chomper worm worked early, but watermellon candy zoom finess worm worked better as the morning progressed. Good luck I was trying to get the graph in so you all could see the depth, but as you can see I'm not that clever. Also, you may notice there are no pic's of the whites, they were just too wild, mean and nasty to photograph. yuck, but in a fun good way.

Are you sure they weren't threadfin shad? They are running the shore and spawning in the shallows all over the lake. Haven't been very far up the James however to know if it is the same critters.