Bill Babler

Wow, great report. Nice pictures really appreciate it.

Very nice. From what I heard yesterday that dam area bite started early at 6:30 with the fish shallow, 12' to 15'. Flat water and sun by 8am moved them pretty quick to 20' to 30'. There is a very strong thermocline at 17'-18', to that 30' range with a ton of bait hanging in it. Boys said all the fish they caught were totally full of crayfish. Bass, catfish and Walters were chocked full and spitting them up. Most guys were using a 3/8 to 1/2 oz. GP/Orange with GP trailer of choice. Thanks for the pics and report. Been pretty slow on here.

Ulrich does sell boats, but not many. Their main business is repair. I believe they have at least 4 techs and they are totally covered up. Every time I’m there they look like ducks feeding off the bottom with their head in a bilge and their butts in the air. Really busy place. If it’s something that takes 15 minutes and they don’t have to roll it into a bay they will look at it, but they just can’t roll one out and roll you in and tear it down. Good folks over there.

Pan fish series are way weak. Not quite Eagle Claw weak but close. Saw this post and called about a replacement for an Avid series we broke earlier this year and they told me they still did not have a replacement. I'll continue to wait. They told me earlier they would not replace it but this time they said as soon as enough were available they would.

Neal finishes with 168 pounds and 56 bass. That dude can fish. He is good everywhere seems like a fantastic young man. Really happy for him.

Just after Phil came by this morning my client had a Super rainbow on, that jumped at least 4 times. There was a 15 lb. Brown trying to catch and eat it. The bow was a solid 18 inches. The brown slammed it at least 3 times. It was amazing. The flow was simply perfect this morning. Just the perfect fish catching day.

Totally different rods for me. On my Ned/Small Swim bait rod I'm looking for as long a cast as possible. I want an extremely fast tip and a sturdy backbone up to the 3rd. Guide above the handle. I want a rod that will throw a 1/4 oz. bait close to all the line on a 2500 series spinning rid and have the tip and bone to hook the fish at that distance, using 4 to 6 lb. Line. On the drop shot rod I want a 6'8" to 7' with a sensitive but much flatter tip. I'm still fishing fairly light line, but I'm only 15' to 30' from the bait. On the lift I don't need that fast tip, I want a lot softer, but still the bone in the back end of the handle. I use totally different rods for shotting and swim bait or nedding.

I'm sorry, I do not at this time. As far as spinning all I have is Ned Rig and small swim bait rods' up to 3/8th.

5 new Amistad came yesterday. Price on these rods is $229.00 no tax picked up. If shipped add $20. Price structure is totally strange and hard for me as each shipment of the same rods is varying up and down. Crazy. Thanks. Bill

Bobby that sounded like my trip. I just got lucky and found those top water bites early. Dutch 23 is a great day right now. Nice going

Beautiful overcast morning. Fishing for really over 2 hours without a bite during prime time makes your last sentence kind of mute. I was looking really for some fish in the KC area for a trip I have on Wednesday. Didn't do my job and find any. Got extremely lucky in the dawn topwater deal. Seriously doubt I could replicate it with clients and for that matter a fishing trip is 4 hrs. Not 45 minutes. Hope others did better than me. 7 bites in 4 hours is pretty slim pickins, especially when 5 of them were luck. Be safe this weekend

One of the local guides told me yesterday that last week on an AFTERNOON group trip out of Big Cedar, that he and 2 other guides sat on one gravel point 26' and caught and released 21 walleye with lots of keepers. Crawlers. More walleye in here than bass. I would think you would just hammer them on a traditional bottom bouncer rig in that 24' to 30' depth range on gravel if you put your mind to it. RPS moved to soon.

Day began out of Kimberling City, at 0600. It was really dark Started on a bluff end way out but saw lots of shad right on the bank so I moved in super quick. By 0700 I had a really nice bag swimming a Berkley Surge Shad and a Spro Poppin Frog right on the bank. I mean under 5'. Had 5 that would weigh 14 plus, all LM and not skinny. Caught everyone that bit. Hammered it, no doubt. Sad to say, but I was pretty much washed up at 0700. Had 2 dinks on a jig but other than that all I did was watch a guy trolling up some really nice walleye. Surface temps around KC at 80/81 degree way cooler than Shell Knob Big M was on Sunday. Put her on the trailer at 0900. Only 3 rigs in the Mill Creek lot when I put in and took out.

Saw a guy trolling today in the KC area and watched him catch a 5 pounder. He trolled by and caught another one about 3 pounds right in front of me. Said he had 11 this morning with with 9 keepers up to 7 pounds. Said he threw them all back. I don't doubt him as I watched him catch a third about 15 minutes later. Looked like 25 to 35 feet trolling DD Cranks.

TD, those are bigger than the Lobsters they serve at Whipper Snappers. Most likely better too.

That looks really good. With the water color and what they are spitting up we are giving them a solid dose of orange or copper.

Dutch we couldn’t find them deep Sunday, but they hammered that big jig shallow. Son Steven lost a jig and said he wanted to drop down to a 1/2 oz. since we were shallow Big jig was the deal for us even shallow. He switched back pretty quick.

Canadian border is now open. I think he went to lake Ontario at least 2 days. Lots of these guys the last two derby's ran 90 plus miles each way. I believe I read somewhere they only fished 2-3 hrs. the rest was drive time.

We didn't do it but I'm assuming there is a Pooper and a Flutter Spoon bite on the shady side of some of these docks. Water is way colored up enough for a shallow bite. We did hit some 90 degree water at Big M. most however was 86 degree. Looks like 90 plus for the next couple of weeks. I'm ready for some High 70's.

Mostly, getting off my big butt and getting outside. Now that I’m out of the brace I can do that. If it not 90 plus degree. Lvn2Fish there were a lot of fish suspended early. We caught some on the Dixie Jet, just letting it fall on a tight string. I’m guessing they were at 20/25 over 30/32. Shad were just above them. Our 1st. Top water fish came at 7:45. We had I think 5 on top. Steve had 4 and I had one. We missed the usual amount too. We had 4 on the Jet. I caught all of them. Steve is to enamored with the top water. We then had our last 8 on the jig. I think we split that number, but he had 5 of the 6 keeper LM. He had 6 keeps and I had 3. He helped his mom and I clean the garage yesterday so I let him have the front of the boat and he made it work. Now I’ll have a durn hard time getting it back. We should have had close to 15 pounds of LM, but I bet we only had maybe stretching it 10.5 or 11 pounds. They were just huge head skin and bones. Everyone of them. Got to be a reason.

Shell Knob 8-29-21 Steven and I got on the water at about 6:20. Only 2 rigs at the ramp. Surface temps at 85/86 degree. Took us till 7 to find them, as I was looking to deep. Water color 3' visibility and James River green. Really surprised with how dingy it was. Had not been on the pond in two months. All the fish we caught were shallow, under 20 feet and the LM were really skinny. Several top water fish that entertained us on a Table Rock color Surge Shad. Steven had a nice 15" jaw pounce on his and it jumped behind it and smashed the lure on the way down. Really cool. We used 3 baits. 1/2 oz. Dixie Jet, Berkley Surge Shad and a 3/4 oz. GPO Pig Sticker with a Nicholas craw. We had 8 shorts and 9 keepers 6 LM just like the one pictured above. Big Head and really skinny body. There are tons if both gizzards and thread fin shad so I don't understand them being poor like that. K's and Jaws were in good shape spitting craws all over the boat. We just took the one picture, fish really didn't need the stress, and some showed it as they came to the boat like on a leash. Quit around 9:30 and had breakfast at the floating restaurant at Big M. Bite by then was over for us. Fished 7 locations. Caught fish on 4. Really nice morning for my first day back. Ankle did really well. I start back guiding on Wednesday morning. I did get super tired by 9:30 but I'll work my way back into fishing shape. Good Luck

Did you see what it took for the Toyota series on the St Lawrence river? 15 fish almost 78 pounds. Geez.

Online Nicholes bait company

Seems like most everything bad always has a top water bait involved

In the late 90's I was guiding for Big Cedar Lodge. I had 3 clients that could all fish baitcasters really well. They were all 3 running Tim Hughes custom painted spooks with front runners. This was 1st. of June and fish were surfacing in Old 86. I mean it was a zoo, everything was blowing. Why I had the Runner on I'll never know. 2 guys on the front deck one on the rear and me taking off fish. Just about as dangerous as fresh water fishing gets. My rule was no swinging fish on board and no taking off or unhooking. I'll Do It, Be Patient. "That never works I always pay the price." Well, that lasted about 45 minutes until the guy in the front swung one and the guy in the middle caught 2 barbs of the size 4 triple hooked front runner just above the knee cap. 4 pound LM with a mouth full of spook caught him in the sock it was terrible Got the fish off cut the line on the front runner took them back to the dock. Last I saw of them it was stuck in his knee and they were headed for Skaggs Hospital. I've got a million of them.