Got Lucky with Help

[Bill Babler]

I felt like I was a stumbling and a bumbling around for a couple of hrs. on the rock this morning. Last trip on Table Rock was on Thursday and man did I lose the fish.

When I pulled the boat at the ramp at Mill Creek on Thursday afternoon, the water temp was 63. When I took out today at 4pm it is 80. Seventeen degrees, makes a big difference.

My fish had went on a walkabout and I mean big time. All the fish that were pretty much zeroed in at that 26 foot range had skee-daddled.

Deep water here we come, but not befor a good bud, gave me the sceret 411 recipe. He said go deep young man go deep. No longer were those fistey critters on the fast food french fry, the had moved to the full meal deal on the drop shot.

You never have to know spots on the rock, only depth. When guides speak to each other all they want to know is how deep you are finden-em.

These fish put on the aqua-lung and dropped about 20 ft. further on down. Way to deep for this time of the year, but that's what happened.

Zoom finess worms in watermellon candy were the absolute best bait today and I hate to admit we had well over! I just can't go there keepers. All are still cooling their fins in deep fresh Table Rock Lake water. Big post spawn thin flanked females looking for a cooler gentler place to live with lots of bait.

As a guide, you want all your clients to do well, but one of my favorite boys that I have taken for years is Charles Wiles from Cape. Great Trout fisherman and sometime bass guy. He hit the grand slam today. Charles and buddy Gary Wrigley after a so so day on trout yesterday had one of those days you just never forget. I know i never will.

Here are some pic's just too many fish that all looked alike to keep the camera going.

I was the blind sow that found the acorn today.

[Phil Lilley]

Bill- you ROCK!

Nice camera.

[CMAC]

So how deep exactly were you finding these fish? Are you fishing summer time structure, bluff ends, long points, humps, etc?

[Bill Babler]

I didn't know bluff ends were summer time structure. Most of my fish were suspended over deep water in the 37 to 46 ft. range.

Everyone knows the type of structure I have been fishing, I just moved way, way out. I believe I may have mentioned that it's flat gravel.

Cannot get real specific as huge numbers of fish are concentrating on these very few locations and I just will not have people come and take them, for the skillet.

Whole lake portions of spotted bass will move on some of these locations after the spawn. They could stay there a day or for the entire summer. I will tell you that most of these locations are a cannon shot from the bank.

On one of the locations my boat was in 120 ft. of water. Move out and look deep. I told everyone last week to get a topo and learn how to read it. It is vital for the next couple of months. Every place i caught fish was a spot I found on a topo map. You can too. I just got the depth and you have it now.

Try a spot you find on the topo. Use your electronics to see if the fish are their. If you can't see your line, bait and the fish while you are fishing deep, you need to go to bass pro and gear up before your next trip.

I told the clients yesterday they were going to get bit about 90 percent of the time, I saw the fish moving to bite their drop shot worm.

This is nothing new, we have been doing this since the X15 paper graph. Electronics are and will be for the next 3 months your only tool to catch these deep riders. Good Luck.

[CMAC]

Glad to learn bluff ends aren't summer time structure. That helps. Also, I am not looking for specifics and I don't eat bass, never would. I don't prefer the taste, plus I support catch and release.

When you mean deep, you mean it!! Thanks for the help!!