Fished today, from Kimberling to Shell Knob

[Fishin' Freak]

Bill,

Your reports are awesome. Thanks!

[denjac]

I remember back in 1989 I fished and won the BASS federation on the Rock the end of sept. Sounds like conditons are the same as then. Pre fishing was tough and during the tournament tougher. I ended up fishing in the back of Indian creek doing a Paul Ellias thing, kneel and reel with a Manns 20 plus.Fished in about 15-35 ft of water banging into trees all day long. 3 fish the first day and 2 the next. Couldnt believe that was enough to win but it did. Around 12 pounds for 2 days. I dont think I could throw that man killer all day anymore, lol. Had even hired a guide during prefish and he had to resort to night crawler to catch some fish, but ended up fishing my spots as I had more confidence in them. I would think they would have these events later in Oct. when you can catch some fish. The rock does this every year at this time. I am working with a customer now who lives in Idaho and his fishing buddies are Dave Dean and Stacy King. Small world!

[Bill Babler]

Guys, got in early from Taney and am going to the weigh-in.

There are several of the guides that don't have trips for tomorrow, that are running a special of $125.00 per man to follow your choice of the top 10 pro's for the day. This is on a two man minimum. If you don't have another guy, you will be paired with another guy that wants to watch the same pro as you if possible.

This is about as fantastic as offer as you can get to learn some fantastic info. on the rock. With full day guide trips at $350.00 plus this is as reasonable as it gets.

We know where most of these guys will be going, but you are not guarenteed to get the exact pro you want unless you have two men. There is also a slight possibility that they could lose the guide, as they are all running 250's and most of the guides that want to do this are using 225's.

You will have 95% shot of the pro of your choice however.

You cannot or will not be able to get this kind of insite on the rock anywhere else.

Skeet Reese burned $135.00 in gas yesterday, so if you are following you know what it takes to follow these pro's.

You will also get the play by play and the reasons of the where,what,when and How. These pro's are doing what their doing.

If you are interested give me a call at the Lodge at 1-800-544-0257 and I will hook you up.

Don't know when you will ever get another shot like this.

The sooner you call the better shot you have. Offer closes at 9pm and we only have a limited number of guides, so if you want to go call now.

[Bill Babler]

Faircloth, Faircloth, Faircloth, Man this guy is tough on the spotted bass. He is wearing the flats out in the Baxter area fishing those long gravel points and rolloffs. 39lbs. This Texan is turning green into Gold.

Edwin Evers, Double E is whacking our spotted bass like he owns them in the 35 ft. range in the same area. 35lbs.

Kevin Short, Man can this Pink Peepers of Arkansas Orgin catch these deep water fish. Same Area. 32lbs.

John Bondy, You would think a Canada Guy would do well here catching our green Walleye. How much difference is a spotted bass from a walleye. I submit, on Tablerock, that are one and the same, If you can catch walleye, you can catch spots. He is fishing the same water 30lbs.

William Smith, He is putting a few smalljaws and a largemouth or two in the polk, but everyone says, he is in sight of the other top 5 30lbs.

All of these guys, are not fishing trees, or suspended fish, they are either dropshotting, rigging, jigging or spooning the bottom.

The Kimberling City to Baxter Run, started last Winter on the stickbait and then moved into the splitshot time and then in to the dropshot. I have written article after article on this area and most of you have tried it with limited success, some better than others. I have told you streight up, this area of flat gravel is absolutely loaded with fish. It has been the fish factory of the rock this year, and continues to be.

From Kimberling City to Shell Knob, there are literally hundreds of off shore structures and long underwater points of flat gravel that hold fish 24-7. Most are a solid rifle shot from the bank, you just have to look for them.

Probably won't be a debate on if the river or the deepwater guys rule the rock this week. When your trying to put 20 keepers together in 4 days, which is a monster effort, you have to fish deep.

I probably would have tried the Big Mouth Bite, but like Bill Beck last week, you need to take your wippin and get on with the lickin and move deep.

Have fun chasing the boys tomorrow. 50 lbs. projected winner.

I still believe Shaw will catch them again but who knows. KVD blew up today and that really suprises me. He said it wasn't today but both days before he had a chance for a bigger bag and just lost fish. Today, he didn't get bite.

All the guides struggled today and very few even caught a keeper on their guide trips.

Man these guys are good to come in with the bags they came in with today.

Big shoutout to Shannon McClenend, Mikes little bro. 3 limits of three out of the back of the boat. Come on!!!! You got to be kidding. Great Fishing, Shannon.

See ya at the weigh-in.

[SKMO]

Bill Babs has done such excellent reports on the current Rock fishing situation and the BASS tourney that ended today that I hesitate to add anything, except for the fact that I talked to him earlier today and he was Out of Pocket for the weigh-in. So with that in mind I’ll try to fill in a bit with some info I garnered at the Final weigh-in.

For your edification I am just going to put up some bullet statements as I heard the guys say as they crossed the stage. Any of my comments will be in (brackets).

I’ll put them up in the order they came across. Don’t gig me if I misspell some names and stuff.

(First off there is going to be some hoopla on Grigsby’s disqualification but from what I saw Trip Weldon addressed it at the onset of the weigh-in very diplomatically and he explained it well. I think it is to SG’s credit that he bellied up to the bar and admitted a mistake.)

It was a real neat atmosphere at the weigh-in. Rainy as you know and the guys and gals that were there were pretty subdued. Hard to explain but it was not the typical big dog and pony show in my opinion. Very well done. No reason to give weights and numbers here as they are all available on the ESPN/BASS website.

Anyhoo here’s what I heard and saw:

1 - Ish Monroe– They showed some A+ videos of his graph as he fished, i.e. baitfish and his rig. Lowrance 332. He was very complementary of the Rock. No specifics as to location or technique. (Pretty cool dude)

2 – Murray – Spooned, caught “walleye and other assorted species today” Zero information otherwise.

3 – Reese – Had a nice fish what looked to be a 4ish largemouth. Claimed his success was Lucky Craft BDS3. Fished “big baits” all week.

4 – Biffle – “Shallow in Creeks” and also said “When sunny they were shallow but today went deeper” . (Man does this seem backwards to me but who is to say as I am not a pro bass pounder). “90% of fish on the Sweet Beaver”. (I think I remember him saying 10’ was “deep”.....Holy cow does this guy not know the definition of “Table Rock Shallow”, i.e. 20’ is where the mid-range depths begin, and "Deep" does not start til the 30’s). Anyway I digress…

5 – Snowden – “Fished spinnerbait until 1100 in shallow water”. (Big Yawn. I guess he was the guy with the most to lose if he gave up a tidbit of info).

6 – Lowen – Had a video of him close to a little rip-rap bank on a roadbed catching a nice fish. Caught them “18” (INCHES) to 3’ deep all week.” (seems ridiculously shallow to me but I guess they are there. Every big tourney someone with the patience does this)

7 – Bill Smith – Lost “Big Ones” all week on this miserable 6# line we all use. He wants to figure out to do his dropshot on braid and then he will be a contender. Whatever.

8 – Bondy – “Beautiful day in the Ozarks” was his opening statement. (Sure brought the local crowd to his corner. Only a local fisherman could appreciate what he meant, i.e. we love getting some clouds and rain if nothing else except for the heat relief, maybe the fish will bite). Said he had 4 by 10 AM. Said he was fishing “a cast away from 120’ of water”. Classy dude.

9 – Short – Held up a nice SM. Said he had to fish new water all day (for whatever reason). His screen shot looked like he was dropshotting.

10 - Evers – Caught fish “30-42’ on brushpiles and rockpiles”. Said he had to hold it still on the dropshot presentation.

11- Faircloth – Got real emotional on stage. Understandably, I do not say this in a negative way. He done good… reeeaal good.

Said he caught them on 5” Slim Senkos. Not sure of the presentation but I think dropshotting was assumed. Said when it was cloudy he used Green Pumpkin, when clear he used Watermelon Purple. Also said he had an easy practice…. That is when he did the same (dropping in on the fish) he got bit real hard, but it got tougher for him through the week

Hope this info is useful or at least interesting to some.

[Fishin' Freak]

SKMO,

Thanks for the info. Why did Shaw get DQ'ed?

[SKMO]

SKMO,

Thanks for the info. Why did Shaw get DQ'ed?

Quoted

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"A BASS official notified BassFan on Saturday night that Florida's Shaw Grigsby (tied for 11th) will not be allowed to fish on day 4 due to a violation of Rule 3 (ii). The official said Grigsby violated the portion of the rule that prohibits pros from receiving information from non-boaters or observers.

Since the infraction occurred after day 3 competition had concluded, Grigsby was allowed to keep his 27-08 total and Top 12 finish. The lost opportunity to move up could be costly for him in terms of Bassmaster Classic qualification – he was 47th in the points when the tournament began, and the Top 37 after tomorrow receive Classic bids."

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Whatever happened emphasizes in my mind how much the 6-figure payout has made the whole bunch goosy and gun-shy. There is no way SG was trying an end run. Not sure what happened or what was said but I feel badly for this guy.

[Fishin' Freak]

Interesting. Thanks for the post.

[Bill Babler]

Appreciate the back-up SK. The Concert was fantastic. Will Try and get out on the Green River this week.

Good info. I was in Faircloths' corner all week, seems like a very classy guy. Too bad about Shaw, it is unbelieveable how careful these guys have to be in public.

6 limits on Sunday, and I believe most all these guys could have caught a limit if they thought it would have done them anygood.

The top six with limits, did what they had to do. How good is that?

This derby, defined what a good 5 fish limit, of spots should weigh, at this time of year, and it is about 12.5 lbs. 2and a half pounders.

Hope you all enjoyed the coverage, as much as we did bringing it to ya.

As Ish Monroe said, he caught a 4lb. smallmouth, a 4lb. largemouth and a 3lb. Kentucky, this week, and there just ain't very many places in the dadgum world you can do that.

We all should be very proud of the fantastic fishery we have in one of the most beautiful lakes in the world, Tablerock.

[Bobby M.]

I got out saturday and found a couple of pro way up long creek, past the yokum, long creek split.

one was guy eaker. he was flipping a jig and throwing a 1.5 lucky craft crankbait. said he had had some good days but saturday he only had one. he said he lost a monster out of a tree on friday. biffle was even further up eaker. biffle had to make the long run back to Kimberling satuday as he found one the many tree stumps in long creek and busted a hole in his boat. I never got real close to biffle, because he was fishing such small water that I couldn't get close with out interfering. he was way up the creek. kinda different from the rest of the guys.