Bill Babler

Really nice Lake O report thanks for posting. Have not read back on your post but what mile mark are you fishing? Guide buddy fished the dam area today and said it was extremely challenging. He also said the pleasure boats were out in complete droves. Another buddy fishing the Mid Lake possibly where you are said he has been getting bit decent 45 mile mark. Most are in gravel pockets on a ned but that is pretty limited info. Said skinny bucks but he can get bit. Most fish in the 10' range and it had to be just gravel pockets. Said it was like watching grass grow but better than sitting in his lake house. If your 60 mile mark up the spoonbillers are out in droves and the crappie spider riggers are just getting started. Not many riggers yet in the major creeks but they are catching lots of crappie. Size has been pretty small so far, according to the reports from the guys with their feet in the water. Good Luck

Couple of others notes from our trip. We watched a guy jugging for cats for a while using modified swim noodles and he was catching them. Didn't talk to him but looked like he was having a ball. Looked like he had a couple of dozen noodles out and he stayed close dipping trees for crappie and within bino. range of the noodles. We saw a couple of the noodles dancing. Also talked to a guy that had just been slaying the blues on rod and reel, using shiners or shad if he could get them. This was a buddy on the phone prior to us heading up. He also said he and another friend had been fishing Lake O. which is a lot more stable and catching suspended staging crappie in Deer Creek, the Big and Little Buffalo, Lick Creek, Rainey Creek, and Proctor Creek. Said you could catch them by the hundreds in open water with the Spider but the size was extremely poor. Lots and lots of sub 9" crappie and good ones were 11 inches not the complete toads coming from Truman. Said they fished the Buffalo's one day last week, which are huge creeks and were the only boat in either creek. He said Truman has a dozen boats in every cove and from what we saw that's about right. Be safe out there

It has without a doubt made a difference in the finding and by watching videos it has also assisted in the catching, but there are and always have been a percentage of the fish that just will not bite and who knows how many lures or baits they have seen and what accounts for this. I think timing is a key factor. On another note however as the gentleman told me you might catch one on your first drop into a school but then the others will not touch the bait, either a minnow or a jig. i don't have any idea how to explain this. I will tell you this has been going on since I started fishing and that's been a while. We have spoken about this for years here on Table Rock where the K's will charge a bait either live or artificial and then get there and run from it. Or, at times you can see them on 2D sonar and as soon as the bait drops they scatter and are gone. Other times they come at it like they are starved and they might already have 3 shad in their mouth and a crayfish hanging out of their throat. I guess what I'm saying is we don't know what triggers them to strike. What i do know is if they are already feeding it is much easier to get their attention rather than being in a suspended state weather this be on cover ie like a tree or just suspended using depth for cover. What Panoptix is, is a time saver. It allows you to fish where the fish are. Not going to promise you will get a bite but you know they are there and can see how they react to the bait Watch Mike Bakers current Truman Lake vid on Spider Rigging Crappie, He made it just last Sunday and to your point he would not have caught some of them without Panoptix as he enticed a lot of strikes by working the bait as the fish watched it or pulled away from it. Also some would just plain run from it. I think as much as the tech has progressed, just the shear number of fisherman that are extremely learned is at an all time high. With all the knowledge that is available not with standing the electronics it has somewhat changed the game. The peach cobbler is the same size but instead of you and the wife eating it she invited the church ladies group home for a slice. Your's just became much smaller unless you beat the gals to the table.

Feel a little funny about making a Truman Lake report, but we went so here it is and maybe a little bit of very uneducated information. This is kind of a story in the works and I blame it all on the interweb as it got me going this Winter with nothing to do but sit here and spend money I don't have. Started watching Spider rigging videos and I got HOOKED. Was kind of hooked from last year seeing them work on Lake O. during turkey season, but the videos were the last straw. I got with Ed. of Southern Crappie Rods and fanangled a guide price deal and he set me up with 8, 14' Southern Crappie Rods. I also bought a dual front chair system and a Drift Master trolling set up and mounted it all on my 23' Alweld. Of course then I had to try it out. Side note, we only used 2 rods each so 4 was the max we used around the trees. Been reading all the Truman reports on the web and most have been crazy good so a few phone calls and some great folks on here got me and my buddy Mark on our way. Quick note there were no minnows available in Warsaw yesterday, but we were smart and I brought 8 dozen from Lilleys, which reminds me, I need to have them put on my bill On with the report, we hit Bucksaw at 8:30 and were about number 15 in line to launch. No problem as these people actually know how to launch and pull boats out. 4 rigs can launch at once and it is like a well oiled machine. When we pulled out a 3:30 Mark said there were over 100 rigs in the parking lot. We saw boats of every age and price you can imagine. One current theme was it didn't mater your boat cost or how old it is. 99% of the boats had PanOptics. We saw rigs including the pickup that cost less than their electronics These crappie fishermen are CRAZY about Livescope. and a 126 SV After the tips I received we went up and started at Pretty Bob Creek. I will tell you, the creeks from Jackson up to 13 hwy are totally full of fishermen. Seems like most of these folks are either Dipping trees or Spider rigging. We did not see a person make a cast all day and we at first were covered up with fishermen. One thing I was not familiar with was how close these folks will fish to you. We were even slightly bumped once as a guy went by us with his trolling motor in a narrow channel between trees. Huge lake but everyone concentration on the major creeks.and there were lots of folks. At one point there were over 20 boats in Bob and the next big branch up on the right. We caught a total of 37 crappie 5 whites and 1 channel cat fish. We caught everything rigging using either a Capps and Coleman or a Kentucky rig. Never lost a hook in all those trees, unbelievable. We had decided to keep only crappie between 12" and 16" so that's what we did, could have had two limits, but there is not enough meat on a 9" crappie for me to mess with. We kept 14 crappie and had just a scouche over 6 lbs. of fillets which we thought was super for a couple of dummies. We had 5 females and 9 male keepers. Big Caveat and no" PanOptics." The Lowrance HDS7 told me they were hanging in the 10' to 15' depth range over 18' to 20' so we used that old worn out machine to find our crappie, and did OK. Didn't see them snap at it but saw the rod tip dip or quiver and that was fine. We could not catch a fish on a soft plastic. Caught them all on double minnow rigs. Caught 2 of the white bass on soft plastic The Dippers/Dabber fishermen were interesting, they would scan the millions of trees and pull up and dab a jig or minnow on a rod that was 11' to 14' and watch the scope. Talked to one of these guys at long range. His mount put the 126 SV screen just below his chin. I'm guessing the mount was at least 5'. He said every tree in Truman in the last 10 weeks had been dipped. Said he could catch one here and one there but the majority ran from the bait like a chicken with its tail feathers on fire. He said in January at times you could catch a limit out of one tree. Now it was one or two no matter how many were down there. They were totally gun shy. We noticed that the smaller pockets, like maybe only 100 yrds. long were not being hit so we gave them a try and right off we started catching. We caught the majority of our fish out of 3 of these small pockets . If I were to go back I would concentrate on these small pockets only. They need to have at least 20/25 ft. of water however to make them work. Fish are pretty much suspended over the deepest part either on a tree or just suspended in the channel. The Lake reminds be of Bull Shoals only its very muddy. Still fantastic vistas and no houses to be seen . Surface temp was 56 in the small cuts. Creeks and big lake 51 degree. Just about zero visibility, looked like you were lowering your bait into plowed ground. I heard a guide say the crappie like it muddier the better and he was right. Good Luck This post has been promoted to an article

Bobby, it does not as it is a private ramp. We first stopped at Cow Creek and its fine but the dock has not been pulled in. Parking lot only had two slots available. Next we went to Yokum/ Long Creek and the ramp was also open but no parking as it was totally full. Stop 3 H hwy. Open with the dock in place 28 truck trailer combo's and a few open spots as they were not parking up the road entrance. Stop 4 Shell Knob Bridge. Totally open and dock in place but full and I don't believe that there was a single parking spot open. Talked to people at all 4 stops and not a single person had caught a fish. All said total waste of time but beautiful weather. Sounds like the fish were social distancing as well. Good Luck

Rumor had it the Cow Creek was gong to get its dock pulled in today. They waited to see how much more it would come up after yesterday, but I'm not for certain on it. Day before yesterday the parking slots were almost full when i put in and took out Never seen that on week days unless there was a derby, and there was not yesterday. I'm fixin to go look at it and also H hwy. out of the K-nob. I'm betting H is open as they are building docks over there and I'm sure they are working. State Park and Moonshine should also be open as they are both steep as heck, unless the Corp has shut them down. Another would be What's up Dock as that ramp is steep. There is a yearly charge or you can buy a day pass for 5 bucks. Boats are running by the bunches this morning, so someone is launching somewhere. Good Luck

Exactly 2 inches here at the Lodge this morning it has stopped and boats are running. Must be launching at State park as the ramps on this end are closed. Still shaking my head about the guy running this morning in lightning rain and hail.

Ramp at old 86 and the parking are extremely close at all times. Unusable right now. Almost everyone will launch and then pull their truck/trailer to the side so you can back straight in, leaving the two slots directly above the ramp open, for launching and backing the boat down the ramp. Absolutely love all my friends from the Natural State, but if the two slots or even one of them is taken it is away's a Arkansas plate, without fail, or some out of state fool with a Ford 350 pulling a pontoon trailer. Mentioned this to McClelland and he said Missouri people were the dumb ones for leaving the easiest parking spot open. Guess he has a point. I'm gong to blame this on the Corp as you at one time could launch 2 at a time there. They enhanced the shoreline with rocks to prevent erosion frankly where there was none or would never be any and caused this type of a jam. Should have left the ramp open to its full capacity. On another note, at 7:30 this morning in a down pour with lighting and hail coming down a bass boat zoomed from the North and went up Long Creek. Simply unbelievable. Carry on.

Good Grief is all I can say.

Has anyone every launched at Bethelham ramp? There are 3 main creeks and a lot of spawning coves in that area. Bob Creek, Hay Creek and Little Otter Creek. It is a few miles looks like up stream from Bucksaw. Lots of talk on the Grand River Arm, not so much on the Osage. Or is access better on the Grand and not so much on the Osage? Pretty big lake and probably can find them most anywhere,

Thanks for the Talley Bend info. I'll check it out.

Your right if your in pursuit of a 3 pounder any of the Mississippi lakes are way better. I've been also following those websites and as a matter of fact Duane and Phil had an April 1st. trip planned. I think Phil is out but Duane may still be going and he might have opening. I think they are mostly all still Spider rigging but by April 1st. Duane was told they would be in the flooded timber for wade fishing. Good Luck

Look at the MS crappie and then what they are pulling out of Truman and you may not want to drive that far. Truman is on fire and most of these guides on Truman are throwing back lots of big females at 1.5 pound and up. It is a slaughter right now up there if you know the W-W-W-H. One of the guides last week had a day with two 3 person trips. Cleaned 90 crappie for his clients with the biggest at 1.75 and the smallest at 1.25 I believe he said they had 125 pounds of crappie not counting the small and huge ones they threw back. Said he had fished Truman since it flooded and never seen the quantity or quality that is coming out this year.

Guys the papers are full and the interweb is full of current crappie fishing stories and photo's about Truman. I want to take a day trip up there and see if I can catch some of these Monster Slabs that are currently being caught. From whats out there this seems to be the best BIG crappie catchin in lake history. This Winter I went off the deep end and set up my 23' Alweld with a total Spider rigging outfit from the Driftmaster rod holders to a set of 8 Southern Crappie rods and all the fixin's. Every report says get away from the major ramps and find small creeks. Crappie are suspended in the creeks from 5 to 10 ft. in 20 ft. of water, staging to move up to spawn. Any ideas where to launch away from the major parks and any ideas on where to go would be of great help. My wife won't let me stay the night as she is a worry wart. I can only go and come and not allowed to speak to anyone. Going to be great weather the middle of the week so if you have a tip, I'm listening. Thanks

I have 38 degree this morning and a pretty nice cold rain coming down. 2 boats have gone by already in this rain. Oh, to be young again and that enthusiastic. Lake had a slight pause at 923. We have had a 1/2 inch here this morning and from what Jeff said Arky is getting rain in the basin. I see the line rising on the graph now, guess its headed for 24 or there abouts.

If that's the case, it will be in the 40's or even the 30's at Camdenton. Carthage area and Camdenton are usually the lowest price gas in Missouri.

It cost a buck 80 on the hiway, get a can and fill her up. Probably cheaper than that at the Camdenton Walmart

Thanks Dave, great report. Spoke to McClelland this morning and he has been out a couple of times since getting home from Tejas. Said he has been trying to catch them on a McStick, but his wife Stacy is killing him from the back of the boat with a small swim bait so when in Rome? He was also going out this morning to fish run off in the backs of the creeks and coves in the mud, so he was going to call if he caught any good ones. Said the ramp at Old 86 was closed due to high water. Good Luck

Don’t know about this morning but late yesterday evening there was water in the parking lots at the Landing. Ramp unusable down town and camp ground evacuated. after that last blast at 7 yesterday evening we had a total of just under 5 inches for the day. I dumped out 2.5 yesterday morning so that’s a bunch

Your Dad looks just like the late great Harold Ensley. Great day

All the car companies are now making all wiring insulation with either soybean oil or cotton seed oil and there in lies the problem

The Gossett boys that came in second only had 12 fish all day, all keeps 10 LM 2 Jaws. 2 of the LM were 5 pounders all on an A-rig. Spoke to Stone a couple of times and he also had 11 pounds pretty quick. Told his partner we might as well dump them, we need to do something else. Started flipping docks and caught two 6 pounders really quick and knew he was on the right deal. I fished yesterday for 2 hours and had 17 pounds of SM with 2 over 4 pounds. A-rig. Perfect SM Day. Just thumpers. If the rain stops I have a guest waiting here at the lodge to go Good Luck and Have Fun. It’s starting

Chipmunk invaded my wife's Mercedes engine, and lets just say $300 was pretty much the tax on the repair bill

Love the guy like he was my little brother. He is. Reminds me of Bill Beck almost to a T. and that is not a comparison to be made lightly. He treats everyone with respect and would not say crud if he had a mouthful. Not enough good things could ever happen for him. He is without a doubt a guy that if he tells you something you can believe it EVERY TIME. As a matter of fact, probably 8 yrs. ago, he put Beck and I on a crankbait bite that won us a tournament. I don't mean he gave us a tip, he put us on the exact spot with the exact bait and there was no question to it. Back then, you could win a Spring Derby on a crank bait and Phil took care of us. Probably does not even remember. Phil Stone is like the rabbit and the turtle, slow and methodical wins the race. Very analytical fisherman and I have the privilege of being one of his close buds. Great Job yesterday Bud

Quill that was an excellent piece, thank you so much for posting it, and I could not agree more. Again here we are going to talk business. I know right now some of these guys fishing Bass Pro Tour, FLW, BFL, and BASS are in somewhat at a battle with Garmin. These guys were getting some really good discounts, free merchandise and some are getting a nice advertising check. That is coming to a HALT. Garmin is saying thanks, but no thanks. We are selling more than we can make, we have the most superior Live Scope, 2D imaging and by far the best down and side scan and we may not need a lot of you guys. Garmin is just not renewing contracts with the pro's at the extent they were. The guides can still get a discount, but it has been cut by 2/3rds. and that stuff is expensive to say the least. It is a decision as much as buying a new boat. If I would change over to the extent that I want the retail price would be in excess of $20,000.00 retail. Who would have ever thunk it. With a team deal or a family/friend deal its still a super major investment.