1-26-12 Table Rock Lake White River Section Fishing Report

[Bill Babler]

Just a little bit on the crazy side out there. Both Beck and I fished the White river arm today and between us I believe we boated close to 30 keeps and about 50 total fish.

Most of our fish were main lake transitions where gravel went to steeper chunk rock with some breeze.

Lake levels at 914.7 water temps at 47 and even with the rain it was clear.

Majority of our fish were either on the A-Rig or a sticker. Stickbait with the cloud cover was simply stupid. If you catch a fish on an A-Rig, before you leave that location throw the sticker. Worked everytime for me doubling and tripling on lots of locations.

They hit the jerkbait so hard I all most lost a rod. It slipped out of my hand and hit the deck. Grabbed the sucker before it hit the drink, but scared the bejezzers out of me. Nice 2 pound K.

Not a single K on a Rig, Just on the Jerker.

A-Rig was catchin them just as good, but kind of get tired of windin it.

My best was 3.6 but Beck said he had a 5.8 to the boat on the Rig.

Get out there

[Sore Thumbs]

I take it you are a big fan of the A-rig? Curious on your take about them being aloud in tournaments? You probably avoided that thread on purpose Dont blame you if you did. Thanks for your report. Just curious. Do you use side imaging and down scan graphs. Whats your take on them?. Are they worth the money?

[snakem]

Bill,

Glad to see you finally chimed in on this A-rig. Was kind of wondering what your thoughts were on this, myself I love it and will use it as long as it is legal. It's the bomb. I have done real well with it four times out using it. Very nice report, buddy.

Snakem out

[dtrs5kprs]

The guides are going to need extra first aid kits if their clients show up with these. Made a few and tore my hands up just dealing with the wires.

Thanks for the report as always. Anybody flinging the bobber at them this winter?

[Ozark Outdoorsman]

Bill how deep were you finding your fish? I am sure it varies but what was the most consistent bite?

[Bill Babler]

Guys, "Lets say this about that." A-Rig, "Simply a better mouse trap." "Right now." I will tell you however the fish are biting. A-Rig-Stickbait-Gurb-Jig-Spoon, you can get bit.

It would not bother me if they banned it or kept it, either way it is fishing. I do think the person that developed it and marketed it should have made a disclaimer about the cost of loosing a couple of these beauties a day. Very pricy. Just the same as loosing two megabass stickers.

I have been working on making it fishable for people that can only use spincast. This is a challange as the heavy braid and the weight of the A-Rig can be a very dangerious health problem for your index finger tryng to throw it on the spinning rod. Just tears your finger up. If you just use the tip its ok, but if you get that line in your first joint, you are going to bleed, Big Time.

On the spinner I am using the 7' Falcon either the origional or the lowrider in the lizzard dragger. Works as well as it can. McClullands 7'6" Flippin Stick on the bait caster with 65 pound braid is the deal. Absolutely no need for more rod.

Fished today up the James with clients and also ran inot Champ 188 and Denjac. Between both boats probably 40 fish with 3/4 keeps up to 7 pounds. Their best 5 at 17 our best at 19 due to the big gal. James did have a pig at over 5 to get that nice 5 fish bag.

Not a huge fan of the Rig, just a fan of fishing and new gear. As long as it works and is legal I'll play with anything.

My fish are deeper than most on the Rig as I am usually putting the boat in 30 to 40 and fishing suspended fish on bluffends and cove mouths. Most of our fish today came at 20 over 40. Remember this about the A-Rig. Everything that is on that bait resembles a shad, and the fewer you have on there without a hook im them is a positive. If the head of your bait looks like a shad and you have additional blades on there, it will increase your misses. With 3 out of 5 I have a 60% chance the fish will hit a hook. Say you are using a 5 place rig with an additional blade and a shad painted head you are placing 5 potential targets without hooks into the presentation. You now have a roughly 45 out of 100 of hooking up. Plus you will have some that just miss the hook. I am either using 3 hooked baits and two size 4 willows or 5 baits with the hook cut off of two. Head is a plain head. Using 5 hooks on Bull Shoals in Arkansas I'm hooking a much better percentage. My hookups are very good. No pattern on the catches in the hook rotation. However I am keeping track of the back longer or stinger hook and it is catching no more than any of the other hooked baits.

I have both side imaging and down imaging on my current boat. Will never purchase it again. Simply of no use to me. I am not willing to put in the time to make these fuctions worth the price of the product. It takes hours on the lake away from fishing time to be profecient with this type of tech. 90% of people just will not put in the time. I'm one of them.

As far as the floater, pretty much a No-Go. Last January we had Zero days at 50 or above and this year we have so far had 15 days between 50 and 60 degree. NO threadfin dying. Not a must for the floater but pretty close. Also the threadfin are growing faster in the warmer water and are bigger and more mobil thus hitting bigger moving baits. Floater is way to slow for what is going on now. Last year at this time the threadfin shad were the size of a dime or nickle. Today fish were coughing up threadfin 3 to 5 inches. "Huge difference." Bass are still jumping when hooked and are very salty, and full of power. Not so much last year. January stickbait bite was really off last year, and they are eating it to their A$$ this year. Don't know about the the floater, for 2012. That is whats great about this deal. Always learning and adapting.

Good Luck

[dtrs5kprs]

Great reply Bill. Good info and insight. Planning on working up a smaller version for my kids, maybe with a 1/8oz head, smaller wires and baits. Your take on the heads/teasers makes me wonder if the cheaper saltwater models with no fancy heads might be worth a look.

Sounds like it is just another way to throw a swimbait, give or take. Maybe the take home lesson of this rig is the need to try swimbaits in more situations than we have so far. Take care.

[abkeenan]

Just top notch insight and info Bill.....as usual. Hope all this mild winter weather doesn't cause mother nature to get even during the spring.

[dwiebenga]

Excellent information!

[Ozark Outdoorsman]

Bill me and my good friend from KS fished today around Baxter and did pretty well on spoons in 55-90 ft of water. 12 fish All K's and all fat as can be, but we fished from 11:30 to 3:30 and all of our fish were caught before 1 o clock. They seemed to shut off after that, we could not get bit on jerk baits (mcstick, pointer 100) and I also threw a 5xd, and slow swam a swim jig on channel side of steep banks with 1 bite but couldn't get him hooked. Gonna fish the James mouth tomorrow, hope to better our totals.