HE DID IT AGAIN

[Bill Babler]

3-21. Good buddy that caught the 7 pounder week before last out did himself yesterday. 

 

This is the best of the best. 8.1 pounds. Said that had over 30 keeps with best 5 at plus 20 pounds. 

Said they were looking at most all of them that were caught on a Dimiki and A-Rig. 

Total FFS day. He said if you didn’t see em you didn’t catch em. They just simply quit casting and went looking. 

Don had Hummingbird stuff including mega live and 2 Apex units last year. 

Total gave it away and now is running 4 Garmin units. Live Scope and Sea Clear harness. 

He is a retired surgeon and is fishing most everyday.  He is also a techno junkie.  And as you may guess money is no factor. 

He has already had 15 fish over 5 pounds since the middle of February and that is his second one over 7 pounds. Kind of what I wanted to do. I’m doing good on the 5 pounders, but not the 7 plus yet. Might have set my goals to high. 

I’m playing Pickleball 4 days a week 3 hours a day. Probably need to be fishing but I just love it. Dropped down to 175 pounds and I haven’t been there in years. 

With a very generous donation we have a new PB faculty in Shell Knob and it’s really fun with the group we have playing. I’m hooked. 

It’s been a few years since any double digit fish have been caught.  I’m thinking in the next 2 months we may see more than one. 
This lake is on Fire. 

Good Luck. 







 

[ColdWaterFshr]

Helluva nice fish and good to see that TR is still holding many giants.  Thats about the only positive I see here.  

Though your buddies face is full of pride, this is like doing a photo shoot on the peak of Mount Everest, when a helicopter dropped you off 50 yards from the summit.  

I'm enjoying pickleball too.  Been playing a couple years now, but not as often as I would like.  There are 75 year old ladies wearing knee braces that can mop the floor with me.  Great game and a surprisingly good work out.  

[Bill Babler]

Don’t agree at all. I’ve always been a deep water fisherman and spent my life and earned a great living looking at sonar. 

I would have failed on Table Rock without it  

I’ve never really enjoyed going down a bank and casting a lure.  I love the nature and being outside but if you would tell me out on that hump they’re stacked up I bet I’d be out there. 

FFS is a tool and you have to know how to use it just like 2D, or Side Image. 

Don has spent over 300 hours on the water this year. He is putting in his time and paying his dues. Nothing is easy. 

He has been out rain or shine. Cold or wind he is out there.  That demands my total respect.  He fished days most of won’t even go outside.

For every fish that eats it 10 refuse it, even with live bait. Seeing them is nice but catching them is an entirely different matter.   It’s totally unreal the amount of refusals  

Knowing where to fish and where they are keeps you from fishing where they Ain’t. 

Every hour I get to spend on the water is precious to me. I love the fishing as well as the catching, but we will all admit the catching is the most fun. 

The analogy of him not earning it is just flat totally off base. Even those that don’t like FFS Can’t dispute him putting in the hours he has to accomplish what he’s doing this year. 





 

[DavidB]

Bill,

I haven't made the jump to FFS, although many here on Toledo Bend have, and I know it would be helpful on our upcoming 42nd annual trip to The Rock.  Can you talk a bit about the learning curve for a FFS sonar newbie?

DavidB

[ColdWaterFshr]

38 minutes ago, Bill Babler said:

The analogy of him not earning it is just flat totally off base. Even those that don’t like FFS Can’t dispute him putting in the hours he has to accomplish what he’s doing this year. 





 

Not trying to be argumentative.  It just seems that his mastery is more of the technology, and not so much the skillset that I think of in a masterful fisherman.  He very well could be both.

But certainly having an unlimited budget to have the newest gear, as you mentioned, has helped him greatly.  Maybe this is an extension of him missing his former life as a surgeon, where he undoubtedly had access to the best technology and this helped him (as it should) to the maximum benefit of doing his job at the highest level.  I'm sure he worked his toukus off too and on some level he misses the grind. 

I guess it comes down to what you really want to see in his posed picture.  If it is just a # . . . 8.1 lbs, and a 7 lb'er the week before, then great.  If we were looking at these pictures alone vs. your story of how he caught them, well it colors it in a different light, doesn't it?  Different strokes for different folks.   Carry on!

[Bill Babler]

Dave. I’ve had 10’s of thousands of hours looking at 2D sonar, or what’s under my boat. 

Years ago really I adapted to really not even fishing a bank if I did not see either suspended fish, bait fish or a tell tale sign of activity prior to fishing that location. 

I have for the last 20 years just not pulled on a bank because it looked good or I have caught them there previously.  I just flat never fish for fish. Really never have since I started guiding or came to Table Rock. 

This is pretty long winded. I did a seminar with McCelland and the first thing he told the group is even if you don’t have FFS, use your 2D prior to fishing a location. You don’t see em, don’t waste your time. This is coming from a guy that’s made close to 3 million in tournaments. 

FFS lets you see not only under but to the sides and out in front. It cuts out hours of unproductive water. 

How many hours are available to most of us on the water?  If we can convert unproductive hours  from fishing barren areas to fishing where we know there are fish activity it’s a game changer. 

FFS is as much about the setup as it is anything. The right equipment that is dialed in and set up correctly is a game changer. If it’s not it’s like trying to drive a screw in with a hammer. You can do it but it’s not going to give you what you want. 

My equipment was set up by one of the best. It was installed and set up by one of its designers from Garmin. 

Different from 2D I’m constantly adjusting my livescope for gain,  range and depth. It take some time to define targets but it’s time spent on the water. Maybe not fishing but learning. 

It’s totally opened my mind and made me a much better fisherman. It’s taught me how fish set up not only in seasonal patterns but how they relate to structure. 

How at times the patterns that we thought we knew were not really what’s happening. 

You know even with the FFS nothing is equal to time on the water. 

There are 1000 of blogs on set up if you think it’s time,  get on line and learn. Get a quality installation and get in the boat and play. 

 

 

[DADAKOTA]

I agree with putting in the time, dealing with weather, and getting them to bite.  You can't argue that it is way easier if you know they are there and can see them and how they react to your bait.

[Bill Babler]

I understand what you’re saying. So as far as technology is concerned I’m guessing you don’t use graphite rods, carbon line no computer in your business or large screen color TV at home. 

Not being argumentative but I’m guessing your not going back and forth in a horse and buggy. 

I respect any skill a person masters. Putting in the time and working hard at it should not taint or diminish the result. 

I’m as good with FFS as most anyone and I have yet to catch a 7 pound plus fish this year.  Dockit is as good as anyone and I don’t think he has either.

Yes I’d absolutely smile if I caught a 7 or 8 pounder using legal methods that I had worked at diligently to perfect and understand as Don has. 

I simply could not degrade someone’s accomplishments after the hours he has spent on it. 

I’m simply at a loss how this offends anyone. 

There is probably no need in me posting further reports as my failures or successes will be influenced by technology.  Of course they have been for the last 30 years. 

Good Luck. 




 

[Mitch f]

FFS is here to stay… Even if they ban it from tournaments, it’s still here to stay, and everything will adapt as always.

[fishinwrench]

I've said it from the beginning.....

"As soon as a Clunn/Nixon/Brauer ect. truly speaks their mind on FFS then suddenly the mindset will change".     

And it happened yesterday.  Hank Parker finally gathered his balls and spoke out.....Now watch as all of the others follow suit.   👍 

 

 

 

This country is a nation full of followers.  Nobody trusts their OWN thoughts and opinions. Fake, Phoney Image Farmers.   How sad.