Bill Babler

Had a client help me break a 6'6" Avid ultra lite yesterday. Called St. Croix and was told a replacement was not available and no idea when there would be one. They said to look online and just forget it and buy a new one. There are absolutely none anywhere.

When I took them they didn't need to be shown, just given the chance. They were good fishermen from Minnesota, and yes we are always trying to find a better bait to keep them catching fish. Its usually nice when you let them use it however and don't stand there catching a fish cast after cast. 🤔

I really don't know. Both the jig bite and scud bite died out on me this morning by 8 and the traffic was lite. They are on the power worm below Fall Creek, but the quality is pretty shaky. Growth rate in the hatchery must be off a bit as the fresh fish were extremely uneven, some at 12" and some as small as 7". Phil and Duane were out with a camera crew early this morning and looked to be doing very well in the restricted zone. Don't know what on, but guessing straight line jigs

Willyfish I agree, the fuss was he only played 3 kids besides the starters with some of the starters getting 6 AB’s. Lots of kids sitting on that bench would have had something to remember their entire lives getting to play when your up 16 to 2. Your preaching to the choir to me, I was however speaking to 3 guys that were there this morning, out of Lilleys. They are season ticket holders and they thought it was the wrong thing to do. They said coach Van Horn would have been in a fight on the field if someone would have run it up on him like that. They said it was fun for a while and then, not so much. They really didn’t like the last two games. Thought coach mishandled the pitching, but you have to score more.

What a great past week we had even with an extremely low flow, clear 48 degree water and just about the maximum tolerable limit of fishing pressure. Our trout performed like Champions. Restricted Zone; Tan, Grey or UV Scuds were trout food dejure this past week. With the slower flow size 14 and even 16 were the bugs to have hanging from the string. 8 to 10 ft. was plenty of depth under the float. I will say that Peppy grey was by far the top dog. Roland Duffield just hammered them. Thanks again Roland for the goodie box. Another big biter was a 1/80th. Lilleys brown or sculpin/peach jig fished under an indicator at about 6-7 ft. Might have pushed the double tandem scud rig. Easier to throw and fish for sure. Footnote here. That jig really, really performed well up into the morning hours. When the boat traffic got bad the scud seemed to slow, but by switching to that peach jig combo, the bite continued. Capt. Doty reported the night bite was excellent on bigger baits. Fall Creek to Cooper Creek; Lots if the guides continued the scud theme, either on a drift rig or under the indicator. You had to go to approx. 12/14 ft. of leader out of the restricted zone under the indicator. Crawlers were excellent early from Fall Creek to Trout Hollow. 6am till 8am then when the traffic started drop down and float/drift the deeper water from Lilley to Cooper. Not much love last week on the Berkley Power Worm, but a bunch expected this week as guide talk has said 2 loads of hatchery fish were dumped from Roark Creek to Lilleys dock. Be interesting to see what they do with the water this week as its going down on the White and still rising on the Rock. Table Rock water has risen in temperature at least 15 degrees this past week and is now warm and very stagnant, it needs moved, or I feel we may see some adverse circumstances to that fishery. I think that water will be oxygenated as it moves and will not be harmful for our trout fishery. Hopefully another great fishing week ahead of us on Upper Taneycomo

I know what your thinking, but the national media including ESPN and D1 baseball don’t agree. I’m a big Dave Van Horn fan but he has had Pissing matches with at least 3 different SEC coaches this year about proper baseball etiquette and then drops 21 in a Super. I’m telling you right now, Nobody is feeling a bit sorry for the hogs except us followers. Back to day boxes. Carry on.

If your worried about a measly $150 for an oil change, don’t buy a Volvo, BMW Lexus, Audi or Mercedes. Once a year fitness check on my wife’s Mercedes depending on if an A or B service runs either $300 or $600. They do however give her a complimentary car for the day and all the pastry’s and drinks she wants while she waits🤪🤩🤣

My best friend just bought a diesel GMC Denali 3/4. Took 4 months to get it, and it cost double of what your buddy got his Chevy for. He had to order it out of Illinois. On the drive home from the dealer back to Camdenton, Mo. he said he didn’t push it and it got exactly 35 mph. over the road empty. He just retired and the Denali was a gift to himself. 67 years old and the first new truck he ever bought. It’s a beauty and friggin loaded.

Wish the Back's would have taken some better swings yesterday. I'm a huge Hog baseball fan but hanging 21 on NCS was probably not the thing to do. Made the entire country mad at them.

Didn't he get another DQ, somewhere for a navigation violation that did not even pertain to fishing? If I remember correctly he has had two DQ's.

We have had extreme high water with no movement for at least 3 weeks now. All the influx and agriculture run off out of the Kings river prior to the stagnation is really hard in the water down stream From Shell Knob. Same deal up the James or any of our River supply systems. Lets keep this water moving. We got to move it move it.

High levels of E.coli have been detected on the beach lake and marina area. Guided over there Tuesday and the water quality was just terrible, probably the worst water I have seen on the Rock. Dirty brown, yellow with streaks of green.

Client I took trout fishing today went with a TR Guide on Wednesday. Said the guide simply hammered them on a deep crank while they sat there dangling crawlers. Not real impressed with their day with him, but good info on the lake crank bait bite for the rest if us.

I believe Mitch pointed it out that Kevin spends lots if time on this cranking system. Kevin even pointed out he spends a huge amount of time turning his baits. Said right on the air they had to run Absolutely Perfect to work.

The Extra Heavy new Cara is 1/3rd. Lighter than the Expert, if you can believe that. I think I have some on order

Believe the Experts are going to be totally discontinued. Travis glad you liked them. There was a reason they were on sale. If you remember that is the second time Falcon tried the wrap Expert series. They were a total parabolic rod the first go around. The series they just discontinued has a lot of the same characteristics. I don’t think you will see them back, from what I’m hearing from my distributor. I simply couldn’t sell them and really did not care for the feel at all. I got lucky and got several of the new Cara’s and they are what a Falcon rod is supposed to be. We’re all waiting now on the new Cara’s. Bucco is simply a price rod. Nothing at all bad about the Lowriders, but for now on the Cara’s it’s a waiting game.

I would have been totally PQ’ed to have they hang up on me. Totally ridiculous.

Not available. Everything on back order. I’ve had a order in now since February. They have enough for replacement but nothing yet. I’m not waiting very patient cause I have a bunch sold that clients are waiting on

He got her done. Would have bet the farm he couldn’t do it. Said Rod would be available at a later date

I’ve had a $10,000 order in with Falcon for the last 4 months and have seen Nary a Cara.

I think he caught everyone of those on that early run on a scrounger. Bob Tindle had one tied on everyday he fished here. Buster still fishes it a bunch. Fluke Jr. On a scrounger is a killer for schooling fish sub surface, but you pretty much have to throw it on a spinning rod

Jordan was doing the exact same thing. That technique works great here also. Marty Stone has called out Avena both today and Friday for poaching. Avena is a total punk. I think he needs to get it together or get thrown off the tour. I love everyone and I can't stand that guy. He really showed his rear when they were here both times.

Man that lake is crowded and these guys are fishing the same locations as group A did yesterday. 100% timing and as Lee said you have to trick them immediately or they get conditioned to your bait. Believe I have learned more this derby on how to fish pressured fish in crowded water than I knew existed. Right now our fish on TR are doing the exact same thing, I mean exactly.

Edwin is 8 yrs. younger than KVD but he is by no means a spring chicken either. He was fishing it way slower than Kevin with lots of stops and starts. Kevin was just flat out grinding. Thanks Split for the reel info. For that kind of cranking, it totally makes since a 5 anything would just be stupid to work that hard, when there is no reason in the world for it. Wrench these fish see so much, your point was great. Just faster make them react and not get to say I know who made that bait.

If I have a Ford that runs 100 mph with the gas clear to the floor and gets 5 mpg and a Mercedes that’s runs 100 mph with the gas pedal 1/2 way to the floor and gets 15 mpg at that speed, which one am I going to use?