Bill Babler

That is one super report. Glad you all got on them like that. Probably the best top action we have heard of so far this year. I didn't know any fish lived in Powerline Cove. 😂 Is that boat a 747 XLV Charger?

Dave, yes I have. McClelland has the new spot lock Motor Guide. I'm going to say it may still need some tinkering. Right now the Ultrex is probably better and this depends on your electronics. If your a bird man you just still have to have that Ultrex. On another note if you are a Lowrance guy their new Ghost is a great motor and if your like 90% of the current buying public. The choice is pretty easy if you have the $$$$$. Leading the way of course would be the Garmin Force equipped with PanOptix and the rest of the Garmin to good to be true goodies. Good Luck

White River Outfitters Guide Service May 4th. 2020 Cow Creek to Point 5 and after Breakfast Ole 86 Pulled up to my first spot at 5:50 this morning and could see just decent with the cloud cover. Wind was out of the North East pushing in on the flat gravel between KC and point 5. Put the boat in about 20' and he first cast with the megabass vision 110 I had a nice jaw. I worked the flat point and continued to catch fish, all nice quality SM. Got back in the pocket out of the wind and started looking for beds and the pocket was just absolutely full of beds with bass on them. Probably 30 plus beds in the pocket and bass on at least 1/2 of them. Beds were in 4 to 6 ft. Could not resist and flipped the ned in on one and caught a nice LM. I didn't mess with any of the others but could have caught them as they really wanted to bite. McClelland has been catching Goggle Eye by the stringer full so I though I would try and catch enough for dinner. 1st. pocket I stopped in and started swimming the keitech I caught 6 really, really nice ones. If it had not been for the goofy 2 lb. smallmouth i probably could have caught more. I think the durn things this morning would have bitten a baitless gold hook. They just tore up the 2.8 I figured 6 Gog's were plenty and they are really to many once I got them filleted. Should have stopped at 4. I got back on the SM on the jerk bait on any of the windy flat points going back into Cow. Really just one right after the next. Went into Breakfast at 9, as Becky was fixing Homemade Cinnamon rolls for our guests and I hate to miss out on those babies hot and fresh right out of the oven. Yum. Put back in at Old 86 and just dropped the trolling motor. Caught 8 more SM in about an hour with 6 of them solid keeps. The SM were really dark green this morning a total change of color from the other day. Just beat it back in prior to the rain. Water is clear to 15 plus feet in the area's I fished and the moss seems to be subsiding. Surface temps this morning at 62.6 on both locations. Good Luck

There you go. Thanks.

Couple of things in play. With the pandemic right now the folks that are not working and the kids that are not in school are using some of that time for early vacation. Yes folks still have some money. Talked to the neighbor and she rents VRBO'S and said its great right now, the best April and May she has ever had. Folks are renting entire houses on the lake and just having a blast. People doing this don't come in contact with a lot of other folks outside groceries and gas and they would have to do the same thing in the city and feel this is far more safe and on top of that FUN. That is not to even mention the people with lake homes that are also enjoying the extended leave or can work from their lake cabin. Lake of the Ozarks was from what I heard yesterday dangerous. As many as 4th. of July and possibly more. It is of course surrounded by lake homes and boats that we pretty much never see down here. Good friend has a home at the 40 mile mark right on the lake. It is a big house and both his son and daughter have their families there and have been there for the past 3 weeks. They are school teachers and are working and enjoying themselves from the lake, and not missing a single check. He and his wife are also there and said yesterday was the most boat traffic he has seen and he has lived there since 1968. That's not even the busy end.

Don't think you will find a tournament pro for under $120. Great reel for $200 and you will not need to replace it. I've got a couple of dozen of them and have never had a problem and they just keep getting better and better. I am also just a huge fan of the Heavy Duty, I simply love those reels. Vandam moved to Lew's last year and I think he made the comment he never knew reels could be that quiet, throw that far and be that worry free, if they weren't Daiwa or Shimano. He had a great deal with Quantum but he is at a point where he can do what he wants to some extent. I also will say I fish Daiwa Steez but that is not even close to comparing apples to apples against any bait caster.

We were in perspective mode. It seemed to compress the view and really garble it up looking that shallow. Crappie were in less than 4' and there was not only cover but wind blowing in. we had the motor spot locked and with the wind trying to turn the bow of the boat away from the bank the view was not that great. At the end of the arc of the 180 degree view the deeper the water was the clearer the view became Another problem is there were 2 footers coming in on a 4' bank. As I said later when going down a dock line or looking under deeper docks it worked but I'm just not sold yet you can go down a windy bank in under 5' of water and see much even on perspective view. You for sure can't see your jig, the way Greg had it set up. Tim if you have seen this under 4' and seen your bait I believe it but we couldn't.

Nope. If your going down a shallow bank and throwing in like that your transducer is not pointed into the bank where you are throwing, its pointed ahead. If you are fishing that shallow that's not what the unit was designed to do. We were catching crappie and bass on a section of wind blown gravel in 4' of water and had the transducer pointed right at it and could not make out anything. We later moved off and looked under some deep docks and could see just fine. But no up shallow.

I'da probably pulled an Ike on missing those type of topwater nips.😊 When they get a face full of fin, its usually on. Weird last few days for sure. Good to hear they are snapping at the top down there might need to venture down. Can I guy get in at the upper ramp at Diamond?

We caught some absolute Giants on Thursday bass fishing in the Gravois. Stick bait in about 4 to 6 ft. of water on gravel windy banks. Told Greg if we had a jig and float we would have slaughtered them. 58 degree and stained when we started and close to 64 when we ended the day.

Check out the Table Rock report, same day or Thursday. Bite was extremely hard to detect and then almost impossible to get a hook in them. Seems it went from Lake O. to the Rock to Lower Bull, same bite. Interesting. Thanks Fish I always really enjoy your reports.

Guys, those are all insanely great reports that we really appreciate. Accurate to a T. I was at lake O. on Thursday and the bite was the same on a jig, a ned or a brushhog. Working the bait like normal it would just stop for a split second and you thought you were hung on a small rock and then it would quick twitch and when you struck back nothing there. I set the hook about 100 times up there to catch a dozen short bass. I also didn't get the hook set about that many times as they just dropped it after the quick twitch. Lots of pics of spawned out bass above and one with a LM that is yet to do it. Thanks again, Good Luck

Great Pic's Doc. That tells the story pretty clear.

That's what I tell the waitress in a restaurant if she asks me how my meal was and it was just OK but could have been way better. I say, " OH, It was just fine," And, it is, and these for most people are toys. it is like buying Bushnell Bino's verse Steiner or Swarovski, you can see a long way with the Bushnell but you can see a long way better with the others. It's about is fine, good or ok good enough, if so there you go.

Wow, really nice fish. This time of the year that takes patients to look for them instead of just pulling up on a windy bank and just chunking. Mike McClelland called me yesterday and said he and his wife had the best day on the Rock that he has had in years. Said they easy had close to 50 keepers, biggest at 3.5 in most all wind facing pockets. Said they were chasing like crazy but he could not get them to hit on top. They totally ate a McStick and a 2.8 inch Big Bite swimbait. Mike's wife Stacy has caught thousands of fish and she commented to him this was the most big keeper size fish she has ever caught in a single day. They had all 3 with the majority big K's that had not spawned with some really nice Jaws, and said the LM were mainly spawned out, but the jaw's and the K's were clean and still had full bellies of eggs. I went to Lake O. yesterday with a buddy, as he is fishing the AIA this weekend and our luck was not as good.

In that point 1 area to 86 bridge the moss is out at least to that 20' depth range. Is terrible in some locations and not so much in others but it is a factor on either a small swim bait or a bottom bait. As the wind picked up, I'm sure the bite got better yesterday Point 9 to KC TO Indian Point have some but not nearly as much as the dam. We probably should have backed out more but we were having fun visiting. Good friend tried to fish Powerline yesterday and said it is almost unfishable at any depth. Moss hanging 15' off all the trees and bottom looks like a green carpet

You don't have it set right. I have also seen it on a 9" screen and a 12" screen and the view is not the same. Major miss step if you didn't get a 12 inch screen. Watch the Baker Video and you can tell by his. He is going to do a complete set up coming up. Also, Pete did a set up in his garage on video and it was pretty good. Buddy on Lake O had a 9 inch screen and got rid of it in 2 months. His 12" looking at crappie under docks up there is killer. Also in watching Mike M. this Winter his field of view was great, we had no trouble staying on shad schools and those critters were really moving side to side.

Not so easy for us this morning we only had 5 bass, one bluegill and 2 goggle eye's, on the flat water at the dam. Fished from 7:30 to 10;30. Water is super clear 15' plus of visibility, probably closer to 20' and when its that calm and bright its hard. Moss was terrible, could not put a ned on the bottom anywhere Phil and I fished.

Watch Mike Baker Videos, of him using is Panoptix on Lake O. It is amazing. Also on Truman. Phil Stone just got one and he took his wife crappie fishing this past week up Long Creek. He said you can count the crappie in the tree and see everyone eat the jig. Said it was totally crazy. The Baker Videos are just unreal.

There are lots of resorts on the Rock, seems only the nicer ones have fishing guide trips so it narrows it down. We all hate to lose one of the really nice ones. Kind of funny as I have had 4 bookings from clients that have moved to Chalets on Table Rock Lake. I guide there also quite a bit, they have properties all over the lake and even some on Taney. They are very upper end of the price range, One set of my clients booked a week in one of their Big Chalets and its $14,000.00 for the week. That's 5 nights. Guy that booked it is a great customer from Houston Tx. He usually stays at Indian Hills but thought the Chalets were really nice and was not afraid of the price at all. He and his wife at times will stay with us but his Summer deal is 16 people including children. They need dock space so that knocks us out. Chalets properties are nice, all their properties are fantastic. He always books 3 guide trips, 2 on the rock and one on Taney. I don't have to tell you I always look forward to seeing him and glad he got in at Chalets.

Dave, that happens to me I'm simply going to tell the wife its time for Panoptix Livescope. I keep trying to figure out a way to kill the HDS 12, but its like a cat and has 9 lives. I'm one lottery ticket away from being a Garmin dog.

Table Rock fish hate thunder boomers, nothing will ruin a bite on the Rock like Lightning and Thunder. Hopefully its gone and they will be ready to get with it again in the morning.

Just was informed that Indian Hills Resort, one of the Premier Resorts out of Shell Knob has closed for the 2020 season due to the virus. They are currently booking for a reopening in 2021. This is a huge blow for me as I take 20 plus trips a Summer out of this fantastic resort located in the Big Indian. It is located down HH off of 39 Hiway Shell Knob. I have guided hundreds of trips from Indian Hills since I started. Real Shame. You wonder if this is but the first Domino to fall.

Yep, bought some baits in there last week, as if I needed them.

I agree, it sounds like the sky is exploding here. The Kitty crawled under the coach. Man what a lightning storm. Not much rain or wind with it but God is going to have a big electric bill this month.