Out At The Knob Today

[Bill Babler]

Got a new toy. 

Friend told me a location to check today at Shell Knob. Said one of the guys fishing the derby last weekend told him there were dozens and dozens of keeper there. Guy placed in the top 10. 

Really very close to where I have been catching them so I strolled by.  Kind of an odd place and really I would not think deep there. ZERO Shad. 

Bottom 50' to 60' looked jumbled with quite a few trees made a drop between the trees and the bottom lifted. 13 keepers in 13 drops. Missed one and then it was a fish about every 10 minutes. Fished a couple of hours and they just quit. Area about the size of a tennis court. 

Never saw a single school of shad till I got out where I had been fishing, which was about 300 yards from there. 

Shad at Shell Knob today. 50' to 80'. Most of the fish at 55' but not on bait. 

Almost all the fish were small keepers. Never had a fish over 2.5lbs. and I've been catching bigger but not near this number wadded up, that you could just catch and catch. 

Lots of numbers but squeekers. I have quite a few pic's of 15' spots and LM

Surface temps were 54 to 56.5. Didn't get out till 7:45 and was off the water by 10:30

[fowlthing]

Like that jig head... reminds me of the megabass dark sleeper.... with the flat bottom

 

Thanks for any info

[magicwormman]

That jig looks like some that Dutch made me last year. He made some 1/4 & 3/8 with a 2/0 hook. Works great with small swimbaits!

[abkeenan]

Damiki rig jig head. Kinda pricey for what they are but Bill has made up that cost and then some by betting against Mizzou to not cover the spread in both football and basketball. He now has more money than Johnny Morris as a result.

[dwiebenga]

I use the VMC Mooneye jighead and the Armor Shad, and it is a pretty inexpensive rig

[Champ188]

21 hours ago, abkeenan said:

Damiki rig jig head. Kinda pricey for what they are but Bill has made up that cost and then some by betting against Mizzou to not cover the spread in both football and basketball. He now has more money than Johnny Morris as a result.

Does this mean Bill's gonna initiate a hostile takeover of all the Branson-area golf courses from Johnny and return the greens fees to reasonably affordable rates? Seize the White River Marine boat group and restore decent quality to their vessels? Dispense of the $5 use fee for Long Creek Park, which was built with taxpayer funds? Donate sufficient funds to the Corps of Engineers to reopen the Viney launch area (both ramps)? 😁

[Bill Babler]

I'm working on it. 

[abkeenan]

1 hour ago, Champ188 said:

Does this mean Bill's gonna initiate a hostile takeover of all the Branson-area golf courses from Johnny and return the greens fees to reasonably affordable rates? Seize the White River Marine boat group and restore decent quality to their vessels? Dispense of the $5 use fee for Long Creek Park, which was built with taxpayer funds? Donate sufficient funds to the Corps of Engineers to reopen the Viney launch area (both ramps)? 😁

The golf thing is the most egregious of those infractions. But at this point Branson is fast-tracking itself as a national or even global golf destination now. So that said, prices will reflect having the luxury of playing his courses and even the surrounding that aren't owned by JM. Cheap golf around Branson will cease to exist unless it's a complete goat track. Which then will be bought out by JM. Eventually.

[vernon]

23 hours ago, abkeenan said:

The golf thing is the most egregious of those infractions. But at this point Branson is fast-tracking itself as a national or even global golf destination now. So that said, prices will reflect having the luxury of playing his courses and even the surrounding that aren't owned by JM. Cheap golf around Branson will cease to exist unless it's a complete goat track. Which then will be bought out by JM. Eventually.

It's rapidly approaching the point where "locals" won't have to worry about the high price of golf - at least not at Big Cedar.  The goal is to restrict play to resort guests only and they hope to achieve that by next year.

We've been playing Buffalo Ridge since they only had nine holes open during the construction phase but it's just about impossible to get on now even at $185 a pop.  As recently as about three years ago we could just show up over there without a tee time, pay seventy five or eighty bucks and have the place to ourselves.  

Last year we were able to get twilight deals at Buffalo Ridge, Ozark National and Payne's Valley a couple of times which brought the cost down to just fifty or sixty bucks more than we typically pay to play in Palm Springs during high season.

They're great golf courses to be sure but dang......  And to your point Branson Hills (the original Payne Stewart tribute course) has gone from around seventy bucks to a hundred twenty five.

I'm not a Johnny hater but I do hate what he's done to the price of golf in the area.  However I'm also a free market guy and can't really blame him.  People are coming in from all over the country if not the world and lining up to pay what I think is crazy money for golf.  And it don't matter if it's 45 degrees and the rain is coming down sideways they're still packed and I've seen it numerous time with my own eyes.  Heck that's where we go every once in a while to grab lunch and have a beer when we think it's too nasty to fish and usually have to wait for a table and there's guys on every hole on every course.

 

[snagged in outlet 3]

10 hours ago, vernon said:

It's rapidly approaching the point where "locals" won't have to worry about the high price of golf - at least not at Big Cedar.  The goal is to restrict play to resort guests only and they hope to achieve that by next year.

We've been playing Buffalo Ridge since they only had nine holes open during the construction phase but it's just about impossible to get on now even at $185 a pop.  As recently as about three years ago we could just show up over there without a tee time, pay seventy five or eighty bucks and have the place to ourselves.  

Last year we were able to get twilight deals at Buffalo Ridge, Ozark National and Payne's Valley a couple of times which brought the cost down to just fifty or sixty bucks more than we typically pay to play in Palm Springs during high season.

They're great golf courses to be sure but dang......  And to your point Branson Hills (the original Payne Stewart tribute course) has gone from around seventy bucks to a hundred twenty five.

I'm not a Johnny hater but I do hate what he's done to the price of golf in the area.  However I'm also a free market guy and can't really blame him.  People are coming in from all over the country if not the world and lining up to pay what I think is crazy money for golf.  And it don't matter if it's 45 degrees and the rain is coming down sideways they're still packed and I've seen it numerous time with my own eyes.  Heck that's where we go every once in a while to grab lunch and have a beer when we think it's too nasty to fish and usually have to wait for a table and there's guys on every hole on every course.

 

I quit a little over 5 years ago.  Right after boom boxes showed up on the course.  Slow play, drunks, 5 hour rounds and the skyrocketing prices.  I miss the old days of 3.5 hour rounds and the overall better experience on the course.   Not what it was like when I quit.