Eagle Rock Extravaganza

[Bill Babler]

Beck,Lilley and I took a beating trying to catch muskie "ER" I mean walleye on upper Bull this Am., So Beck and I decided we couldn't quit on such a sour note and headed the fishing caravan to Eagle Rock.

WE both had a couple of places we wanted to give a whirl for early season stickbait bass. First stop on Bill's second cast he caught a really nice 3.5 lb. Largemouth and that kind of just got the ball rolling. WE only hit 4 total spots in the couple of hours we had to fish but caught fish where they should be this time of the year. Water temp, up the river 42 degrees.

Lot better wind day today than last week, and where the wind, sun and chunk rock met the bass were there. We both believe they would have taken a crank if worked slowley, as for the most part all the fish came no farther than 10ft. off the bank in probably 5 to 12 ft. of water. Boat was sitting in 22 to 28ft.

We ended up with about a dozen bass, all Largemouth with several very nice keeper size fish.

Bill was using a custom Tim Hughe's purple fleck suspending rogue and I was using a custom Buster Loving Purple Back white bellie, suspending rogue.

Both worked very well. Most all the fish came after the initial jerk down during the pause. Some were just there and some nearly ripped the rod out of our hand. You just had to be ready for the soft-strike and be glad when they slammed it.

We both missed several fish, but for the most part we were on em.

The walleye were tough to come by, but the home lake bass we glad to see us.

[Phil Lilley]

You keep talking about those custom rogues everyone's gonna want some... do Tim and Buster still take orders?

[Bill Babler]

It's hard to get much out of Buster, if you arn't a buddy. I'm not saying it's impossible, but he is very selective to whom he sells his baits. You can always give him a try as his baits are extremely custom, being reworked from the bill to hooks to weighting and color. These baits don't simply have a slick paint job, they are indeed the works of an excellent lure crafter. 417-335-0357. They are fish catchers. Glad he's my buddy.

Tim Hughes has been hand painting all varities of hard plastic and wood baits for years. Tim has a complete stable of tournament pro's with many wins fishing his baits. The painting and the colors without question are works of art. www.hughescustombaits.com

Custom Stickbait Rods can also be purchased from The Rod Shop at 816-668-3026

Extreme light weight, with sensitive tips and flexibility thru the rod top with enough backbone to fight a quality fish. Best I have ever seen or used.

The stickbait rods are also wonderful for working spooks or chugbugs in the warmer times making them a duel prupose rod. They are fantastic.

In the next couple of weeks, I will put together the primer for White River Stickbaiting and will get it up with lots of great info from some of the best Stickbait throwers on the system. Stay tuned