Bill Babler

I totally disagree that you can throw the braid further in cold weather. As far as i'm concerned it is more than a total pain. 10 to 12 pound Sunline or Seagar in 30 to 35 degree weather will cast way further than any braid. I totally hate the stuff. Messing with a leader having it knot or pull down in the spool. Having it wrap around the guides, getting stiff in cool weather and the worst having one of the hooks penetrate the line. If I'm using it I go like Bo and tie it direct no leader. Only thing now I'm using it for is top water. Took it off the A-rig baits as i can throw the carbon further with zero problems Life's to short for braid as far as I'm concerned, but I know it has a following, and to each his own.

Did you get a Christmas card from Spro? Nice collection of baits, thanks for sharing. Good Luck, your ready to get after em.

Mine is banging hard in 8 to 12 feet and yes going to 10# would increase your depth. We have mentioned this before here and I'm going to state there are 50 guys on this forum that would simply kick my butt cranking or blading. I usually feel when I'm that close to land I should be deer hunting🤪 Mike M. Is fishing it on Sunline Cranker. 12# test. Now as far as depth on the Spro Rock Crawler 55 this bait is designed for a depth range of 9' to 14' When this bait first hit the market we all started throwing it Way to shallow and cranking it way to hard and fast. It's not a wiggle wart and was not ment to be There were well documented problems we won't go into here. For shallower application 2 years ago Mike designed the the MD" medium depth" Rock Crawler 55 to be thrown on the bank and out to 8'. Very similar to the depth configuration of the WW. Best colors in the clear water we have right now in the main White River are the Phantom green and brown along with the clear Gill. These are the 3 baits I have pictured in the 55 size. When fishing with Mike he keeps his boat in the 15' to 20' range. Bait does not land on the bank when he throws it. Usually 5' to 10' off, at times even more. He throws it simply as far ad he can and believe you me, it's further than you can throw it. This keeps the bait in the strike zone for a longer period of time and also allows the bait to achieve maximum depth. For most all hard body presentation throw that bait as far as your technique and equipment will allow. That's the first rule on cranking a rock bank, I've been repeatedly told. You aren't flipping bushes, your power fishing covering water That being said this is not a grip-em-rip-em presentation. After you achieve your depth the bait is pulled and reeled slow to medium, with spit second pauses keeping at all time in contact with the bait. When hard contact or reflection of the bait is caused by striking a hard object be aware as this is a premium time for a strike due to the erratic movement of the bait. I had fast success yesterday, but as it had been pointed out by way better fisherman than me on here 1 to 3 solid bites per hour are what is to be expected if your chunking it in the correct locations I know I butchered this so some if you cranker's and winder's clean this up for me. Good Luck

Box was open and no note not to put money in. As I was coming in I saw the Ranger checking the shack and I assume the box. He was gone when I got there or I would have spoken to him. I was the only rig there. I have the Senior pass on my mirror so I’m guessing he checked me. Ramp and dock in perfect shape. Easy launch

12 lb. InvizX Falcon Cara Cranker, Daiwa Steez. Sounds like Bill Beck doesn't it. I was simply amazed at the force of the strike. Just hammered it. Not at all like the deep fish that are more like a crappie bite At times in cool water trying to fish it deeper I will use 10#. Glad I had the 12# today as they were not happy to be tricked. With water temps still this warm a biggin pulls hard. That Large Mouth jumped twice and cleared the water both times

All those pictures of big bass from Bull Shoals got me fired up. Launched at old 86 at 0900 and went looking for some deep fish. Air temp at a balmy 30 degree and surface temp at 48.9 Had been looking for about an hour when the wind came up pretty good so I headed for some shelf Rock, the kind of stuff that Mike said they were on. Flat rock mixed with gravel. He had told me boat in 15 to 18 ft. Phantom Brown RK Crawler. First location 4th cast and wham! Nice K. Caught a total if 4 on that location and then just started to look for wind on that type of bank. It's amazing the wildlife you see right now up close I saw at least 1/2 dozen Minks, running the bank and fishing. Ended the morning at 2 pm with 9 fish. 8 K's and 1 LM. All keepers with the LM at 4lbs. 15 oz. Pretty sure most bites were in that 8' to 12' range. Bites were solid and there was no doubt, they all fought really hard. I know for sure I missed a couple of others, so a great morning on the Spro Cranker Good Luck This post has been promoted to an article

I more than totally agree, but we are in the minority. One of the best derby years we ever had and I'll date myself was on the Heartland circuit. Myself and partner won the circuit and came in 3rd. In the fish off. Back in those days you could win some pretty good money. My partner was also fishing the BASS Top 150 at the same time on the Pro side. Long story short he was being paid by Strike King and every time we did anything he would claim it was on a Strike King product. To my knowledge we did not throw a SK product all year. Course with him being the BASS guy he did the interviews. With the mention of any product either in print or live media he got an additional $25 dollars bonus. I can remember reading an article in the magazine with a dozen mentions. I'm still waiting for my check from that. I totally respect privacy on locations and methods. Just respectful decline to comment, don't make up fish stories Lying is never the right thing as what goes around comes around PS. Not referring to the recent derby winners, just a general statement On another note, 247 I caught some on a floater last week. Spro Phat fly. I had it rigged deep using a 14' rod and 18' below the indicator. Caught them in the Forrest I mentioned. Saw a wad in the top of a couple of trees topping at 30'. Threw it to them and they streaked up to it. I caught 2 and then I pulled on top of them and rigged the fly on a drop shot and caught another one. I'm like a fly fishermen that even though he is catching them on one fly switches to see if he can catch them on something else. Or, maybe just old and not as mad at em. Good Luck guys. Love your Bull Shoals forum

Ham a guy like you with your experience and lake knowledge would have ZERO problems using it A report i made last week on the Rock details an area I have fished without the scope for 30 years. Its a jungle that is full of deep fish in the Winter. You can most always catch fish there but at a big loss. Risk reward. No longer with the scope. You can swim any bait thru it without loss as you can see the bait and every limb on the trees and simply increase it decrease speed of retrieve to avoid hang ups The web is full of YouTube video on tuning and fishing it. Totally simple even for an old dog like me, and if I can do it anyone can

No, I’m running ProGuide series 31. Your buds are right they are thirsty If your running a tandem set on the console in addition to the bow, best to keep them on standby when fishing Have a buddy last year that was running series 26 I think interstate. livescope and 4 12’s. He was fishing a derby had both wells running along with it raining so the pumps were running on his Kitty. Garmin graphs kept warning him but he kept fishing and then it was over. Both the force and the graphs will tell you to cool it and they aren’t kidding when they say they need to be charged

These folks were from Texas and did not pay the ticket but they showed it to me and this was in October. He needs to tell his Rangers not to write them for not paying the day passes then. I’ll go and look at old 86 when it stops raining and see if the fee box is there or if there is a sign

A few years ago Buster and I fished a Winter deal out of Buck. We had 19 pounds with a 7.14. We got big bass but barley. I think there was a 7.10 and another 7 pounder. We were out of the money on stringer. I think it was close to 28 lbs to win. All the placing teams caught them on the Rig including us. On the way in Buster said the only check we would get was maybe big bass. Man there were some fish weighed in that day Jaw Dropping

I'll take your word for it but an almost 27lb.bag on a modified RK Crawler shows probably all of us how little we know about fishing. I think there was a bag of 28 pounds caught s coup!e of years ago down there on a mega bass 110 that I know to be true but in modern times that probably would be a Bull record outside of the rig. By the way, what is the hesvest bag since 2000 that anyone has heard of on Bull? Thanks for the heads up Cat.

Would bet the farm those were A- riggers. Regardless that is a monster bag. Thanks for posting, I think. Now I'm going to have to get down there.

Nice trip congrats. Probably if they were up a bit in the water column. Gizzards Shad

Guys right now the Garmin factory store has a 1022 bundle which is a 12" screen with a panoptic live scope for $2,700.00. The 1022 is a map unit but it also works as a screen for the panoptics. Troller and electronics does not mater if you have any bow unit you can still have 12" panoptics plus your existing 2D and GPS. They also have 7"-9" and 10" map units to run the live scope on sale. If your interested take a peek

Not the case at Old 86. One of our guests went down to walk in the park in Late October and did not pay the day fee. Had a ticket on their wind shield when they got back to the car

Yes the decals were removed. To get your materials you just need your boat serial no as Wrench stated. I sent a picture to Phoenix with the serial number and they sent me the products to fix it Rick Lisek did the work. He is a full time guide but does repair work thru the Winter. He was up at Eberlins doing fiberglass these past few weeks His wife has coivid and is not doing well and he and his daughter are in quarantine right now. Please say a prayer for them.

The Corps of Engineers Dewy Short visitors center gives the length of the White River system at over 1,200 miles and says the Table Rock section is 110 miles on the White River. I'm guessing from Beaver Dam to I really don't know where. I'm guessing that a portion of Long Creek must be included. Sounds like a fun journey

Dutch I believer your correct. I believe all the houseboat rentals want the bow of the boat grounded for overnight lodging

You all might have noticed a comment I made in one of Fisherman's post about fiberglass repair. I had a couple of scratches from being out in a bad storm and getting in an unpadded dock. I got a total of 3 bids on the repairs that ranged from $3,500 to $5,000. I got it fixed for under a grand. All three repair locations were locals and all three wanted me to run it thru my insurance. All three said there was at least 20 hrs. in repair time. "Actually repair time was 6 hrs." All 3 said materials for the repair would be between $1,500 and $2,500. "Actual material cost $135.00." Purchased directly by me from Phoenix. Not naming names but you need to be really careful with any fiberglass repairs. If the first words from them is who is your insurance co. Beware. Depending on facilities and overhead I more than understand that folks have to make a living and those facilities are going to cost different for each company. That being said there is no reason to inflate hours into repair projects and simply no reason to mark up parts 100 to 200 percent. Do some research, no one is taking care of you, but you. Right side. Gel and white also spider cracking Perfect repair Left side 6 in cut thru cap1\4 inch deep Never have a clue it ever happened Good Luck

Fish I don't know if you got your scratch fixed or not from that day in the wind storm that we both got eaten up but if not give Rick Lisek a call. He fixed mine and it is perfect. Very reasonable I had two local fiberglass outfits look at it and one wanted $5000 and the other $4000. Cost me nothing like that. PM me if your interested or tell Rick I had you call him

Great job. Mike is catching them shallow cranking too RK Crawler in Phantom Brown. Not a boat load but 1 solid LM keeper per hour. That turns into a salty bag but he said you just throw it and throw it I'm to lazy. I like to sit on my butt and look at them. Great report Sprint.

If your catching 3 to 6 pound and sometimes above trout on generation dragging jerk baits on 2 pound test line I totally yield the floor to you. Again, I just need a bit beefer set up to protect my lite line and still be able to control these bigger than average trout. 2 pound on jerk baits is above my pay grade Good luck

I've had terrible luck with those things on bass fishing with them sliding and a braiding the line, and that is heavier line. I'd personally be scared of them on 4 and 6 lb test. The swivel also lets you select a different leader line size from your main line. Great suggestion however. I also like the swivel as a prevention as far as line twist on these small baits