Bill Babler

Toby, hope you got along OK, wind was not a problem in the least up the White. Buddy is pre fishing in Baxter today and said it was not bad Wind is gusty but blowing in all 4 directions so its not stirring up a tsunami

Not a problem in the least today with the wind. Didn't see a white cap till I got back down stream to the ER ramp. River fished just perfect. I think they would have hit a RKCrawler too but I was not about to put that mega bass down. Did not see another boat all day and no rigs at all at either the public ramp or the ER marina ramp.

Launched at ER at 0700 and fished today between the 86 bridge and Holiday Island. Really just fished a single mile long bluff bank for 5 hrs. Don't think I went 5 minutes without a bite. Surface temp in that neck of the woods is 45.7, water is clear and with the winds we had today it set up more than perfect for the jerk bait. Absolutely nothing big, but 13" to 16" K's one after the other, it was a total blast. Last week I caught a ton of buck LM up the James. The White River Spots would have pinned them in a wrestling match in 15 seconds. The weight and strength of these spotted bass and their pulling power totally put those James River LM to total shame, on really cooler water. ! Just threw one bait all day, a mega bass plus 2 in TR shad. They hit it pretty close to the bank I'm guessing in under 15' of water. Few Buck LM joined the party so I wouldn't miss them. I've also joined the Quill Train as I had 7 walleye on the jerker ALL SHORT. 3 were 17 6/8 th. But short is short. Man that was fun today. Billy used to love to run up the White this time of year along with another buddy, Ron Vaughn. It very seldom disappoints. Beck got the biggest kick out of catching those fat as pig K's on cold water up the White on that suspending jerker. I can hear them both laughing now Some also like crawdaddys. Good Luck

Wind should not be a problem up there if you have a big bass boat. They ought to be all over that stickbait up there. I’m headed out the door for Eagle Rock. Jeff has been having all the fun up that way. My turn today Good Luck

Whites are starting a little bit on Bull. Buster had 5 keeper walleye, 6 keeper whites and 5 nice crappie on his guide trip yesterday along with multiple bass. Won’t be long now on the Rock

Man that sounds yummy

Foot Joy golf gloves are what almost all the pro’s wear. They have multiple sizes, a sticky grip you can fish with and are moderately warm. I just love em.

There are also massive blocks of moss floating in the dam area of the Rock. You can see them on the surface and down to 40 feet on live scope. The bottom is also covered out as deep as you can see. Possibly out to 20'. I think its going to be a super bad moss year

Beautiful fish. Sorry about the ouchy

Randy is a good guy but he is a fisherman with sponsors and try’s to sell stuff or at times may portray to know a little more than he might, just like the rest of us. Old saying, believe 1/2 of what you know and maybe none of what you hear Still like KVD,s saying, just cause it works for me doesn’t mean it will work for you. Good Luck

Randy didn’t catch a single fish yesterday on his mega bass deal, he took a Zero. Although the Rig caught fish a jig and that durn Blue Bandit Spro led the way in the Lake O. Toyota series yesterday. We’ll see what happens up there today

Sorry, the sticker is a suspending stick bait and the floater is a float-n-fly. Thumbs I don't think this rain is going to amount to much. It stayed up close to 50 degree all nite after ending the day at 76 here yesterday Few sprinkles here now and 50 with tomorrow to be sunny and low 60's. If we get sun and a bit of a walleye chop on the water tomorrow, it might start to get seriously good. There is a jerk bait only derby Sunday and that will tell us a lot. Rumor has it the Spro McStick in Blue Bandit and also if the sun is out the Spro McS. In Norman Flake have been crushing the Megabass. Most often I find the Spro better when the fish are a bit more active and higher in the water column. The MB in plus 1 and 2 usually work better when the fish are a bit more complacent and a bit deeper as they are now. Word from Lake O. Is the McStick, is also the bait dejure as far as the Toyota series, along with the A-rig. Good Luck

Started again this morning at 0630 launching out of Aunts Creek. Surface temps 40.34. Headed up river to point 13 to fish my way back. Very little if any boat traffic all morning so I could do what ever. My new handle is going to gave to be Bucky as I was on Buck LM from start to finish. Nothing like those big gals that were posted yesterday. My claim to fame today was 11 keepers in 11 casts all staging on a bluffend. All Bucks and all Largies and not a single one of them would weigh 2 lbs. Had one that was a shade over 17 inches that weighed 1.65. Probably close to 20 keeps today with a solid 16 incher that weighed 2.44 being my Hog Mama for the day. Caught every fish on a 2/8 in. Keitech. And a floater. Threw the Rig a bit but my heart was not in it, and it was just flat and slick so did not crank or throw the sticker. Water color up there is James River Green. Back at the ramp at 1 pm and surface temps had risen to 46.9 Had a few over 30 fish today but I was sure fishing the grade school class. I think I could have weighed in a whopping 9.5 pound limit. Again as yesterday. Millions of shad visible in huge schools swimming just under the surface on most every stop. I don't think the cold weather got many of them Good Luck

Launched at Cow Creek at 0630. Air temp 37 water 41.83 Just brought a floater and stick bait. One keeper K on the floater and one decent LM on the jerk bait. Lots of moss on the dock floats, hanging 10' and lots on the ramp. 15' visibility at Cow, maybe more. Fished from Cow to Mill Creek, just above KC. Had lots of help, at 10:30 there was a boat on every pier of the KC bridge. Don't even see that in the Summer. Someone on every Bluff end, and I counted 5 boats in Hoot Owl. Really just insane for a mid week 1st of March. New normal. The amount of housing starts in that stretch is simply staggering, and dozers running and clearing home sites is something that is hard to believe unless you see it Some of the new homes going up from Mill Creek to point 6 are simply mansions and they are going up by the dozen Pulled into some creeks early and there were millions of shad from on the surface to 40' deep. Only saw a dozen or so in the death throws Pulled out at 11 and the surface temp was 42.84. Rick Lisek caught this 7.14 yesterday on a megabass and had a 6.12 on a floater to go with it. That's the right kind.

During my lifetime I can not remember a wider gap in the have and have nots The disparity is simply unreal. The thing here is the upper middle income folks are really not upper, in my opinion they are way more than that The super nice folks from Cally that bought the lot down the street call themselves “very middle” income. He just retired and she has 5 more years at an executive position that pays her $290,000 a year Its not just Cally. My best friends wife in frigging Spfg. Mo. makes more than that That 35 something to 70 age group and that is a wide gap of ages, if they are professional people a huge percentage have lots of money, and I don’t mean borrowed or money they own, they have lots of income My son at 36 had made more money than both myself and his mother will make in our lifetime by the time he was 28. I think he still has every penny of it as he is still driving the car we bought him to go to college New norm is lots of folks using lakes, parks and all the things we are blessed with Have a good one there is still room for us ole codgers out there

Unfortunately, this is the new normal. Even during the week this early in the season there will be plenty of people on the water We have a neighbor that is in the VRBO business. She currently has 25 lake homes to rent. She is keeping 10 for nightly rentals and has already rented 15 for the entire season to single families that have homes else where. Their kids are going to school online and the parents are working from these lake homes. She told me the other day that the lowest monthly rental she had was $8,000.00 and her top one was $15,000 per month. Just unreal that people have and are willing to spend that much money. Spoke to Booker Cox one of the top area realtors and he said his dad was in the business here for 30 years and he now for 20 plus years and it’s totally insane. Dock slips bringing Sixty Grand and lake and view homes way over $200 a sq. Ft. We had a couple at the Lodge from Cally last week and they just bought a 1.2 acre lake view lot for 240K. ya got something to sell now is the time.

In 77or 78 I forget which I was the Water Patrol Officer out of Climax Springs I had the 58 mile mark to Big Buffalo. Don’t remember the mile marker up there At the 60 mile mark it was so low out in front of Rainey creek and from there up stream, you had to traverse a city wide channel as that was it This was in May. Smart weeds grew up all over the flats and looked like a row crop corn maze 3/4 across the lake. We had huge rains and those flats flooded. They simply filled with Bass and it to this day is still the finest fishing for at least 6 weeks I can ever remember. You could simply see everything. I remember there was a push to find sewage and pipes flowing directly into the lake. We were directed to hand in a list of any we thought were doing that. I think my list was at least 200 cabins long, and that was all on the Warsaw, Climax Springs side as I could not even think about getting to the Ivy Bend side from Proctor Creek up I can also remember in the mid-60’s prior to Truman when it got just about as low. Every dock in Pine Cove and Golden Goose was on the bank

Not suppose to be by myself yet, but I just had to push the envelope. Knee did fine. Fished from 10 to 12:30 and that pretty much wrung me out with loading and unloading the boat. Launched downtown so I would not have to push the knee up Cooper Creek ramp. Surface temp at the ramp 43.7 Moved up to the high line above Monkey and drifted a power worm 10' under the indicator thru the island, twice. Caught 6 each pass but man were they silver bullets. Saw several guys flinging hardware and they were catching the same fish. Moved to the flat below Cooper and drifted the Derrick hole one pass. Caught 4 more of the same. They pretty much look like a silver test tube. Seem to be hungry and willing to attack however. Went into the restricted zone up to Andy's and drifted to Fall Creek with a white mega worm 10' under the float with 2 BB'S. Caught 4 nice ones. Saw Chuck up there with 2 clients and they were fly rodding. Looked to be hooked up about every cast Lots of silver and white chunks drifting in the water up there. Most the size of a pencil eraser I'm thinking ground up shad but don't know. Lots of big schools of suckers too. Always amazed at how early they start pushing up. Becky said she would love 1 trout each for dinner so I motored back down to the Short Creek ramp and picked up the power worm. Still 10' and 2 BB'S deep. Caught 4 really nice 13/14 inchers between there and Trout Hollow. Kept her 2 dinner fish Really super couple of hours since I had not been on the pond since November. Got trips coming in March so I'm going to keep going and working up my stamina. Really happy with the catching today Good Luck

Totally agree with Ham. I have pretty much had zero success on the Rock when surface temps are below 42/44 degree. Seems like at 45 degree a total new world emerges, especially if the sun comes out and the water starts to warm further. I’ll wait patiently

Good buddy fished the dam area for 5 hrs this morning with pretty sorry results. Surface temp at 35 degrees at launch and 37 at 2pm. He fished an A-rig and a jerk bait and never got a sniff. Said he saw a couple of shad but not many on the surface. Few gulls diving around the Long Creek bridge. Said he also looked for some deep fish and really saw very few. Did see some shad balls in the 80' range and tried them but never saw a fish near them and did not get a bite. Looking out the window here at the Lodge and the lake is really busy. Lots of boats on the bank in Clevenger and lots running back and forth. Not all bass boats, I have seen several spitoons and a few pleasure boats. 77 degree here as I type this. Somebody go find some. Big derby this weekend. We'll see how they do

Wall Street Journal. Is a great source. Also American Medicine Journal. Both rate any type of surgery you may need. Problem is finding one of them close to you. Also word of mouth by a friend that has had positive experiences. I was lucky. COG top 10 nation wide for orthopedics. And quite a few of my clients and piers had gone there

My father-in-law had his done at 83 years young and that was 15 years ago. PT hurt him like heck. Mine was uncomfortable, but never really hurt in the least an I'm a big baby. I think mostly because I worked at it prior to surgery. Good friend Bill Anderson our retired Biologist had his done at COG year before last and he said his hurt worse the day he walked in than thru any of his therapy. From what Quill has told me both his and mine both felt better even thru the PT. I just got a complete new set of PT today thru Force Therapeutic so we'll see. If you have seen the exercise ad for the Mirror or any if the other work out products that's kind of like what I'm doing online. Cool Stuff

Thanks Bo. CPM machines have been determined to have no clinical effect on the healing process and have been attributed to irritating the incision and inner muscles that have been affected during your surgery. The machines for years were thought to increase the flexation of the muscles holding your new knee. My orthopedic surgeon thinks they do more harm than good and strongly forbids them. Probably why you had the swelling. Right now he equates knee surgery to computers as it is changing on a daily basis or phones that last year were 3G and are now 5G. He told me currently there are some new procedures that will make mine obsolete in the near future. It's cutting edge on knee, ankle and hip surgery. No pun intended. Good Luck All

Here is the deal on Texas. They chose to not be part of a national or regional coop. They are the only state outside of Alaska and Hawaii that does not belong to the big power grids we have in the US where we are able to help each other.

I'm still out of commission till March 1, but look out then!