Bill Babler

Was going to post about seeing quite a few Gulls this morning on TR so there is that. Lots of diving in the Long Creek Arm

Was up there this morning. There was really quite a bit of color on the James at the bridge. Probably to much for me but I'm a clear water guy. Flat creek was running clear an beautiful

Quick supplemental from Yesterdays guide trip. Started with Ray and Jim at Noon yesterday with super heavy generation and flow. Just about the fastest I have seen in quite a while. In the restricted zone my GPS was showing a drift at times approaching 5 mph. Surface temps at 44.9 and really clear. Cable down to the brown trout raceway was really slow for us, we used multiple flies, including egg patterns, scuds and shad flies and caught zero. From the raceway thru Big Hole and down to the ramp it was fantastic, with multiple catches on the above mentioned patterns. We used 3/8th. to 1/2 oz. of weight on the drift rigs as it was just running like a freight train. Best deal for us was the drift rig with and egg and a scud, both patterns caught fish. Had one giant rainbow break a line and that has not happened to me in years. When I tie the drift rig, and I'm using 4 lb. mono, I tie the egg pattern with a palomar and then tie the scud about a foot below on the tag end. The line broke at the palomar on the egg. It was a really nice fish, I'm guessing in the 23 to 25 inch range. With that type of current any mistake will kill you. I was using size 12 hooks and we did not lose many after hook ups and at times with that much current its hard to keep them on. Finished the day drifting from Fall Creek to Lilleys throwing the same drift rig setup on shallow gravel off to the sides on the flat side of the lake and caught them pretty nice right on the bank. Different technique totally from just drifting the rig with the boat sideways going down the lake. Casting the rig to the side and letting it slow tumble and drift down the shallow gravel. Saw one other boat and one guide boat so we pretty much had it to ourselves. Fish were spitting scuds and sowbugs clear down to Lilleys that were from size 18 to size 10 with lots of them being bright orange. At times their mouth was just full or grey and orange bugs. Good Luck

Rainbow Shad is without a doubt the number 1 used swimbait on TR that Keitech makes. If you look at derby boats what they have hanging on either their A-rigs or under spins most often it is Rainbow shad. Blue Pearl is also a fantastic color. After the spawn in the dam area, smallmouth magic can be a real go to.

If 4 Extra Strength Tylenol are PED's I bet a lot of those guys would be in serious trouble. Everyone one of those guys over 40 that I have fished with eats them like candy. Most of those guys have back, hip and rotator cuff problems out the KaZooo. Just way to much pounding. The two hand rod has really helped on the shoulders, but lots of them over 40 had the damage done prior to all the new wave equipment.

One of the local guides was having a rough time up Long Creek one day last week and stumbled on a huge school of white's at the LC/Cricket creek split. Kind of pulled him out of the fire. They caught quite a few on a small Keitech swimbait. Fish were scattered from 30' to the bottom.

On a double post here, Sorry. You are just not going to find the type of information anywhere that Dock, Bo, and Quill have on the above thread. These guys are fishing now and the information is as insightful and current as can be. God Bless all our wonderful posters and to tell you we appreciate your insight would be a understatement in any language.

Both Bo and Quill could not have been more spot on. If you come down this time of the year, especially as Bo said with the constant running water the fish are in very specific locations and just for sure not everywhere. It's really hard to come and find and catch a lot of fish. The bite is very specific and as Dock and Bo both eluded to, timing can be minutes, not hours. The guys that are catching numbers are making a milk run and are fishing lots of days per week, When the fish stop biting on their runs they look for more locations but as you found out they are not easy to find. Deep ones are even harder and even more time specific. Early bite usually starts to turn on first up the White and James, so keep that in mind. I really think the White early is best and I mean Point 19 and up. On the James Aunt's creek is most always the first to get decent, especially on an A-rig or a jerker. Good Luck

Watching those guys on MLF grabbing those treble hooked fish just scares me to death. Its not if, its when. Like snagged said trout will continue to roll and flop to the bitter end, they don't freeze like a bass. Best way for trout is to turn them on their back holding them upside down and they will then for the most part hold still.

With the depth of the fish lots of talk about either a wart or a RK Crawler, but not hearing good results. Switch to a jig or a ned and "Whoop there it is." Even on Bull right now the guys are talking the fish they are catching even on an A-rig are totally full of Mac-Daddy Craws. That water gets to 47/48 and above and I believe the crankers will get going, but for now, seems like something slow and creepy crawly.

On the wart deal, that hook is a number 5 with a shorter shank and it't really hard to come by. When you start changing them up a lot of times the hooks will mate and are just not quite right as far as size. I have mentioned this before I heard KVD say he never throws a crank bait in a derby over a couple of hours with out either changing the hooks or tying on a new bait. You want to really see how sharp a hook is take a small piece of glass and lightly press the point of the hook into the glass, not so hard as to bend the point but enough to feel it bite. There is only one out there that will bite and hold a piece of glass and it is not the Owner or the Gamakatsu. It is the scariest hook out there, the Death Trap. A good buddy of mine had one stick it the cap of his Ranger and latterly pull a small chunk of the gel off. Just pick a unseen part of your cap and even see if you can stick a hook in it. Not very likely. Every time I go to unhook a jerkbait fish I just am as careful as I can be and it still scares me to death. I just love both the Owners and the Gamakatsu hooks and use both everyday, but for treble hooks I pretty much only use Diiachi if I can.

Been seeing some pictures from Bull Shoals and the A-rig bite is to the point of completely stupid with bags of 25 pounds and guys talking about catching 20 to 40 keepers a day. I'm guiding this week on Taney with the Missouri Conservation Federation and some of the other guides have completely gone crazy on Bull Shoals. It is at least 10 days ahead of TR.

The sponsors are already paying everything as there are no entry fees.

YOUR HIRED! What a great day. Jeff were those crappie just out cruising with the bass on that point? Those were some fantastic bass, they look clean as a pin and have had time to rest up a mite. Thanks, makes me believe its getting about time. 0800 and I'm about ready to go down and work on the trout boat. Lots of boats running this morning at the dam. I want to point out again, you can say what you want about the quality of the cell phone pictures, but that camera just flat out knocks the fish pictures right out of the park. Way better than any cell phone I have seen. Good Luck

We are in line of site for their Hollister Tower. If you can believe it we are paying $35.00 per month. We have had it since they went into business down here and have a locked in price as long as we don't upgrade. No problem at all with Netflix it really only buffers for about 10 seconds as the movie loads and then nothing else. We do have trouble uploading video to the internet, it takes a long time, but again we are not on their faster plan. Suddenlink runs right by my house down to Williams Landing, but most everyone here uses either Direct TV or Dish and uses Total Highspeed as the service is about twice as good. Becky says we have their Elite package

First boats I have seen since early last week. Lake on this end has had zero traffic. 2 bass boats this morning at about 0800. Bet it gets busy this weekend calling for nice temps. It was kind of funny as we have not had temps below 20 either of those cold nights. A week or two ago it got down in the teens. Difference in Spfg and the Arkansas line was 15 degree.

Most folks in this area are using Total Highspeed Internet Solutions. 417-851-1107. I think they are out of Nixa or Republic. We are on the old plan and ours is pretty slow, but they do have plans where it is fast as lightning, you just have to pay for it.

Bull is very accessible to bank fish either side from the pot hole to Swan Creek. It can be very challenging to fish and whom ever stated great one day sorry the next 5 is more than correct. I've fished that area since 1972. Not a ton, but a dozen or so times a year. Mostly when the whites start to run. Last year I had a great day over there with some clients that had the heads up prior to going, with me telling them it was really hit and miss. We had 4 big walleye a mess of whites and several crappie and a really nice 6 lb. LM. It was 1st. of March. All were caught on a A-rig above Swan. The same day there was a guy trolling up there and he had 2 walleye over 10 pounds, trolling an A-rig. I thought he was going way to fast but guess not. He said you had to move it not to get hung on the bottom. He was also catching whites like a crazy person. Nice guy we visited quite a bit and he said he spent about 2 weeks every March on upper bull. Said at times he will not catch a fish for 2 or 3 days and then on the 4th. day he will simply load the boat. Said if he can get up there he has caught them on either current or flat water, with the best being 2 units or a nice soft flow. My biggest brown trout ever was caught at the pot hole it weighed 13 pounds and I caught it on a jerkbait about 12 years ago. It's really a mixed bag up there and also includes rainbows and stripers. Bite is almost always early and it can go to zero really fast in mid-day.

Is that further up or not as far as Swan Cave Rd. I looked at Google Earth and man its a long way to Shadow Rock Park. I don't think you could float that in a day. Lots of bluffs, and big bends in the road. You can see the white water, and I bet it is really shallow. Lloyd also said the suckers will run up that far.

I don't know really now far that is, but Lloyd says you can float it at times in a canoe down to the lake. I should have asked how long the float was. Also, I bet you can look at it on Google Earth and try and determine the distance. Swan Cave Rd. to Forsyth. I might give it a try and get back.

At this point it really reminds me of the 10 fish days, back in the day when you could weigh in 10. Most here probably don't remember that.

i will almost get sea sick if I look at it for an extended period of time. I usually have to look up a while and just move a bit.

Some friends have been remodeling a really nice cabin that was build in 1926 off of Swan Cave Rd. at Chadwick, Mo. It sits with a beautiful view of both Swan Creek and the area mountains. It is a simply fantastic setting. Swan Creek bubbles by the corner of their property. Lloyd tells me the white bass and walleye run clear to the slab that crosses the road off of Swan Cave and he and his family have caught many along that stretch. Man that is a long way up stream from Bull Shoals. Their property is 80 acres but it borders their parents and a brother with another 300 acres. Mark Twain Forrest is all around them and you even have to navigate a short stretch of federal easement on the 3/4 mile driveway to their cabin. He has to leave his gates open due to the National Forrest access. They have lots of deer and turkey and trail cam pictures of "Really Big Black Bears on their decks." MDC did an original stocking of turkeys on the farm along Swan Creek in the 1960's. Lloyd had lots of very interesting stories about bears as a cousin at Walnut Shade talked to some biologist last summer that were transporting bear traps, ie big culvert cages to trap black bears in the area of Bull Creek and Walnut Shade. He said the biologist told him there were quite a few with some really big ones. They had tracked a radio collared bear from Taneycomo near Rockaway Beach to almost Springfield. The bear had been up both Swan Creek and Bull Creek and seemed to follow the creeks hopping back and forth. We had a wonderful afternoon looking at their lovely home and hearing a lot of history about nature in that area, especially about the black bears and how far up Swan Creek the walleye and whites run.

Great job Quill. On the shad deal Becky and I went to Flat Creek for my birthday and when we crossed the KC bridge there were quite a few gulls diving. Some of the shad have been pretty close tot he surface so I think your right they may get stunned and may see some come thru TR dam. I read that Phil said the trout are just starting to notice white jigs, but it has been really tough down there the past month or so.

You are rapidly becoming my hero. "Man Crush" Nice job and great fish.