Bill Babler

In the last week I have had the pleasure to check out 3 entirely different trolling motor and sonar systems. Today I went with Phil Stone in his new Phoenix 2022 PHX. What a big water beast. He now has a total of 2 hrs. on it. Just fished a little while and didn't get out till 10. Just played with the new toys. Phil has a solid Lowrance Pro-Staff deal. This saves a bunch of money but availability of equipment puts you behind full pay clients. His new ride has two 16" graphs and a Ghost trolling motor. Here are my thoughts; Not even close that trolling motor is the best thing I have ever seen. Easy one little finger deploy and retract, quiet as a church house mouse and dead balls accurate and smooth on GPS lock. Not Xi5 smooth, as that does not exist, but better than my Garmin and light years ahead of the other brand. Garmin and Minn Kota have a bit of catching up to do. No doubt my Garmin is faster point A to B but not by much, maybe 1/2 a mph faster but the Lowrance is way better defined and way more ergonomic, and much smoother. On his electronic set up it is what it is because the pro-staff could only order certain pieces at that time. His 16" screens on the bow and console are beautiful, Lowrance crystal clear. Still without a doubt the leader in the industry on clarity, mapping, GPS and 2D sonar. Where huge steps have been made is down and side imaging are extremely detailed. Count every tiny limb on every tree. I don't think its better than the Garmin, but a very close second. Now lets talk a bit about the Active Target. It's good, extremely clear, but clear to the point of needing to be a little less so. It just does not preform in the short time I've looked at it any where near the Live Scope. It needs quite a bit more defined resolution. His 2D was really picking up fish, bait and your line and lure way better than the Active Target, just the opposite of the Garmin. His graph configuration needs to be a 16" and a 12" on the bow or two 12" graphs up front. By the time you divide the 16" screen in GPS map, 2D and Active Target, you have cut your screen Down way to much, especially on the AT. Back to the 2D, another feature of the Lowrance is real-time. It has been a feature for years, it's a quick, ie real time flasher at the extreme right side of the 2D. We could see fish pull up on the bait sit there looking and then move no more than inches and take it. Really it's Poor Man's Live Scope. It is so defined and tuned in these units, if your vertical fishing its all you need to watch, if your directly above them. If you are running any Lowrance unit, enable this feature. You will simply love it. My Garmin set up, starting with the Force. Mine, knock on wood has never caused me a second of problems. Has worked flawless. Fast, easy to deploy and retract, quiet, quick lock but somewhat jerky on lock I have loved it. Lowrance Ghost is better, hands down. Garmin 2D sonar. It's really good, not as real-time fast or as bright and clear as the Lowrance but a close second best, and good enough for me. I may switch transducers as Garmin has a new model out that is a 100% upgrade, off their steadfast UHD 56, I have one for my new console arrays that Santa is bringing for Christmas and if it's that much better I'll get it for the trolling motor. Side and Down scan, I noticed a couple of years ago my regional Phoenix Rep. went from a Solex to the Garmin echo map Ultra Series, his side and down scan were spectacular. His Solix was really good but the Garmin and now the Lowrance is in another league. Live Scope. The live scope has a total range of adjustments, it's screen is not as clean as the Lowrance, but its target definition is way better, not close as far as I'm concerned but have not spent the time with the Lowrance I have with my Garmin. One of my best clients has a total Minn Kota Hummingbird set up, including Ultrex the mega 360 and 4 solix units. Played with it last week total package worked more than perfect, and does everything possible to assist a deep water fisherman. Really nice set up. I'm going to say at this point just a bit dated compared to the competition. His setup is new 2022 right off the shelf but I'm sure since this is an arm's race they will be the new kid on the block soon. That's all I know and probably more than you wanted to know. Good Luck

Not at all James I truly enjoy reading the shallow pieces posted by you and the above stated members. Loved Sprints Kings River post Just a piece about my upbringing and why I do what I do. It really doesn’t matter how we like to fish as there are a lot of ways to get to the finish line I simply love the technology and really would not enjoy bass fishing as much without it. Course when I was a kid I loved pinball, and video games🤪. Might be kind of the same thing.

We are so blessed to be able to pursue a sport we truly love in a variety of different ways. With multiple species and a plethora of different techniques, we can pretty much catch or let me say fish as we choose. Deep fishing for bass has pretty much been around for decades. In the 1960's we used Texas rigged worms on lake of the Ozarks to catch LM on Bluff ends out to 35' deep. The same thing with suspending jerk bait's from Bollinger Creek down on clearer water, in the same locations as the fish would rise in the water column to take the slow moving suspended baits. Table Rock and every lake on the White River chain has had this type of fishing from when they were impounded. There are always fish in most all layers of the water column it just lets us target them on our chosen method. Using flashers, paper graphs, 2D sonar, side scan, live scopes, or now active target are just other ways to explore the sport that we love. Do we need it to fun fish? Yes, if that's the way we like to do it we certainly do. Do we need it to catch fish, no we don't. Most times you can go down a bank with repeated casts, in the correct locations with the correct conditions, baits and technique and catch fish. It's kind of like, its all about me, what do I like to do. I've always loved deep fishing, it started with our guides on Lake O. Catching white bass in Rainey Creek trolling and seeing them suspended on Hummingbird flashers, this was early 70's. Maybe 73/74. Then after college in the middle 80's fishing with Rex Grady and seeing deep bass on Table Rock come to a bait on an X16 paper graph, I was totally "Hooked.". I can spend hours just looking at side scan, 2D sonar and never make a cast. For that matter I don't much like to cast. If I can open a bail or push a button and watch a fish bite the bait, that's my deal. I don't mind throwing to feeding top water fish but going down a bank casting and casting is just not my deal. Other folks love it and God Bless them for it. Sonar and under water eyes has also helped us ie professional guides bring young and inexperienced fishermen aboard. Folks that have a hard time operating fishing equipment. Those that only fish once or twice a year, have a really hard time cast fishing. First they can't control their cast and second they have an extremely hard time hooking and catching the fish when they do make a presentation that a fish will bite. At anything you do you must have a little success to keep wanting to continue with the activity. I think a lot of times folks just don't like fishing because they experience very little success. It's been my life work to make folks experienced or novice alike, successful in the art if fishing. Simplifying the sport has been my best tool. I wish all on the board continued success in all life endeavors and a happy and safe holiday season. Good Luck.

One of the local tournament guys that I can really trust said it was a total Zoo. Said they boated so many they just got tired and went in. LM and K's. Best 5 at 17/18 pounds. Spoon and Ice jig. 50'.

I'm working on it.

Guided on Taney, took a short boat ride on Table Rock. Both clear as a Bell. Not a drop of rain here in the Mouth of Long Creek and really very little wind. Didn't have a single stick in the yard to pick up. These weather people are terrible calling Wolf. Also now I guess St. Louis weather is part of channel 10's Northern counties. I know Bentonville is part of their Southern counties, according to them.

Got a new toy. Friend told me a location to check today at Shell Knob. Said one of the guys fishing the derby last weekend told him there were dozens and dozens of keeper there. Guy placed in the top 10. Really very close to where I have been catching them so I strolled by. Kind of an odd place and really I would not think deep there. ZERO Shad. Bottom 50' to 60' looked jumbled with quite a few trees made a drop between the trees and the bottom lifted. 13 keepers in 13 drops. Missed one and then it was a fish about every 10 minutes. Fished a couple of hours and they just quit. Area about the size of a tennis court. Never saw a single school of shad till I got out where I had been fishing, which was about 300 yards from there. Shad at Shell Knob today. 50' to 80'. Most of the fish at 55' but not on bait. Almost all the fish were small keepers. Never had a fish over 2.5lbs. and I've been catching bigger but not near this number wadded up, that you could just catch and catch. Lots of numbers but squeekers. I have quite a few pic's of 15' spots and LM Surface temps were 54 to 56.5. Didn't get out till 7:45 and was off the water by 10:30

Great morning. Thanks

Bobby I have 2 of the remaining T7 Cara Squirrel Tails. They are just what your looking for but they are used, but in great shape. Don't have any new ones but I am getting ready to order. Don't know when an order placed now will arrive. Used ones are $150.00 each or both for. $275.00. I also have used CS-4-169 T7 Cara Spinning. Same price.

Spoke to McClelland today and he said he cranked for 14 hours in 2 days this week of fishing with a sponsor group and had 4 total fish one day, 1 total fish the next day. Mostly K's, so they are not everywhere. Congrats go your buddy Sprint. Two best bags were by Justin M. And another guy fishing deep. 38 and 37 pounds each for the two days. Be interested to know how many guys caught shallow fish in that Oak derby. I can't get bit on a jerk bait shallow, have tried it in wind two days last week at Shell Knob and I used to know how to fish it. Again, congrats to him.

Pundents today said Kirby against Saban is not a fair fight with everything else considered equal. Probably right till Kirb wins one

Should go great with the pulled pork. Tks.

I’m going to do smoked Mac and Cheese for the Friday Fish Fry. I’ll bring some drinks also

Guided the same area I fished Friday yesterday. Totally different bite with the wind and cloud cover. Took me about 3 hours of a four hour trip to figure if out but landed on a nice set of LM and K's. Had about 15 with with a couple of good LM. Broke off a big one on a drop shot that was pulling hard. I'm thinking now it may have been a walleye. Really strong fish and I never or very, very seldom have a line part. 48 to 52 feet for us and not stacked but scattered. Just singles on a big hump. Huge balls of shad were off the sides in 60' to 85' but no fish around them. All the fish were scattered on the top of the hump. I have my electronics dialed pretty well in and my 2D sonar screen looked like a fescue pasture, the live scope picked them up better but they were absolutely stuck to the bottom. Normally I don't spend anytime if I can't see them. That would have been a huge mistake. For you Garmin usesers, have you noticed this? Perhaps better bottom detail on the live scope than the 2D? Good Luck

Georgia Got a Belichik pulled on them yesterday. What you do well we will take away. You have the best Linebackers in the country, they are of no use to you. We have the 3 best offensive players in the country and the two fastest players in the game hands down. Get on your horse. Georgia can't score enough pts. to beat Bammer. Georgia has a great front 7 but if you can't out pressure on Young, Bama is to FAST. Against Bamma Georgia brings a knife to a gun fight with Tricky Nicky at the helm

Most baits I like to give a little extra so I feel like I'm doing my part. 😂😂😂

You could go out there NIW with worms or maybe better, some small crappie minnows and fill the boat. Good thing I have a nice deal with Keitech as they drove us crazy again today, tail after tail.

Nope they were all bluegill not a size identification as much as a school or cluster ID. Saw it so many times this morning and they are not small, they are palm size fish. Snagged 2 on a white spoon and caught one in the mouth. Identical graph picture. I don't think the bass are in those schools of large gills. In all my years of fishing deep here I saw more gill schools this morning than in my entire previous 40 some odd years. Lake is totally full of them. I also snagged 3 shad and should have taken photos. All 3 totally different in size. From dime size to 4 inches. And yes, to your other point. I made 10 stops in 4 and a half hours. Bass seem terribly spooky, and why shouldn't they, they're under siege 365, it's relentless. I'm pretty sure I had 14/15 keepers out of the18 bass I caught. Don't know if that's worry some or not. No weight however. Maybe 11/12 pounds at the high end.

White River Outfitters Guide Service. Got on the water at the Knob at 6:15 to a fantastic morning, just glorious. Air temp at launch 58 degree. Surface temp main lake White River 58 degree. Creek arms and pockets 54 to 57 degree. Started looking in the creek arms and started looking at about 70'. Really got an education watching the bait this morning. When I launched the bait was all over the ramp and service dock. Millions of shad. In the creek mouths the bait was right on the surface, with some chasing. Just like Doc said. Minute by minute as the day brightened the shad kept getting deeper and deeper. By 11 AM they were down to the 60' mark. Now for the fish catching. Been so long I just about forgot how. Caught 6 LM early swimming the Keitech thru the shad from surface to about 30'. 2 nice keeps and 1 more skinny borderline. I will tell you just like Doc said, these fish want plastic. Never caught a fish on hardware, Ice Jig and Spoon. Best bait for me was a 3" Yamamoto C-tail on a 3/8 head and a drop shot with a shad shape worm vertical. Bluegill nearly ate me alive at any depth till I got on to the buggers. When I was swimming the Keitech early the kept biting off the tails. All those are Gills. Lots of whites around the mouth of the Kings, probably had at least a dozen. Ended the day with a dozen K's most all like the one in the picture 15" to 16.5", the whites and the 6 LM. Lake and ramp absolutely packed. Really good morning with a lot of action. I will again reiterate what Bobby and Doc have said, If you see 2-3 or more you can catch them, but a single is not having it. Had 4 out of this group all K's. Only location I caught over 3 except for the whites. Majority of my fish came 46' to 62' with 55' being the best number. Don't you just love seeing them worm up and do that silly stuff? Good Luck

Your a man after my own thoughts. I'm not blasting anywhere.

Just what is the cost of having fun and what does that mean to you? What's to much, what's not enough? It has got to be geared to the individual. If you had all the money you could ever need, how would you spend some of it? Would you buy the best equipment on the market or buy something that was serviceable? If saving money was not a factor, would it even enter your mind what something cost. If you take money out of the equation how would you spend it? Please give me your thoughts.

The Falcon price range is hard to deal with as it fluctuates constantly. Most of it is geared on how many you buy and the time of year you buy them on a wholesale level. I have had them since they started. Know for a fact I've never made $100.00 on a rod so you must have been at a different buying level than me. At one time the T7's got into the middle $300.00 price range with the old Expert series and Centuri series pushing $400.00 Both the Centuri, which is a fantastic rod and the original Expert went by the way, the Expert was expensive to build with the mat graphite and really was a full flex parabolic rod. No good it was a failure. The Centuri was priced on a Loomis scale and just to expensive A fantastic rod however folks were not going to pay that and instead bought a Loomis. I still have 6 that Mike M. gave me and use them everyday, they were way ahead of their time. Right after that time the Cara's then the signature Cara's, then back to a different foreign made Expert and now back to the foreign made Cara. It all started with the Original and then the number one selling casting rod that has ever been produced the Falcon Lowrider. Along the way the Bucoo got thrown in by Jason Christie as a price rod. Falcon wants a single order per year with your entire years inventory on it regardless of how long it takes to sell them. That of course was pre-covid. As you noted the retail I have on them is less that the Big Box stores, and has fluctuate little over the years. Tackle Warehouse especially as they are the number one rod retail store in the world. Pre-covid TW always had a year end sale dumping them at great prices as their next year order was due. Now we are all, TW included scratching for product. As you know Falcon sets the retail price on their rods and know exactly what we retail them for by the sales receipt and the warranty card. Really for the last 7 years or so they have been really serious about the retail price and want it to be what they tell you. I have always tried to be a bit under that but not enough to be punished. You can look back on your old promo's and see how it is possible for TW to pay $75.00 to $100.00 less per rod than I do. Most I ever sold in a year was 50 some odd. TW has had years they sold over 100,000. And, I'm proud to say I'm still less than they are.

Durn Doc, you are without a doubt one of the most informational posters here and always come with great info and pics to back it. Can't tell you how grateful we all are. Thanks from all of us here on the OATR forum.

They have some nice colors, but just about everyone that uses them changes out the hooks and splits. Kind of like what we were speaking about with the Duckett rods and really the RK Crawlers way better now than the early models.

Know what you mean. Not a good look at all for this guy. The locals were not the shiner team.