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Bill Babler
Bill Babler

By Bill Babler •

Table Rock 6-11-18 White River Arm

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Outside of Saturday on Taney, I have been on the Rock the past week most everyday launching either out of Shell Knob or Baxter and fishing up to about Viney, which I see is now open for business.

Surface temps are ranging from 84 degree early to 88 in the middle of the day or at least by 11 as that has been my quitting time most days.  Traffic has not been a problem except for the Kids Camp at Twin Rivers.  They are out pulling tubers before 6 am.

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One quick rant and then I'm on with the report.  I'm going to blame them but if not I will say I'm sorry in advance.  Last Thursday morning I was the first boat at the Shell Knob ramp and there were 8 spotted bass floating up and banging on the ramp.  I should have carried them off but I didn't as my client got there while I was still in the mad mode.  I'm sure it was the Wednesday night derby.  After I got back from my trip around 10am there was someone taking photographs of them.  Don't know who or what as they jumped in their car as I was still in my boat approaching the ramp.  This made news or totally made someone else mad besides me.

If I had a dollar for all the fish that has been killed on Wednesday night over the past 30 yrs. out of Shell Knob, I could retire.  I have heard folks say they have gotten better, but last Thursday was an embarrassment if it was the tournament event on Wednesday night that killed those fish.

Fish from Baxter to Viney Creek are still biting and its not hard to catch 30 to 50 on a guide trip with or without live bait.  They are hitting a drop shot worm as well or even better at times than a crawler.

Top bite is hit and miss but I'm catching them really well on a flutter spoon in the same places that usually hold top water fish.  You can see most of these fish and they are at times pushing to the top and at times just holding at the thermocline between 20' and 30' suspended.  I've been catching them by the dozen out in front of the big docks with at least 75' of water at the ends.  Had 7 this morning off a deep dock and a NO Wake Bouy, including two 3 plus lb. LM.

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You can also catch them swimming a 3.3 Keitech right now the same place as the Flutter Spoon, and also off the long runouts up the White and Kings River.

 Also had a nice walter come in on the Keitech this morning, to client and friend Jack Swank.

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Further up the White you get the better the jig bite is.  It is also really good from Baxter to Big Creek.  Unlike Bo, I'm using a huge Nicholes Craw and catching big SM on it, along with some quality spots, Go Figure. Most of these fish are in the 18' to 25" dragging on the bottom, much like a C-Rig.  Using either a 5/16 or 3/4 Pig Sticker FB jib in GP or Brown to do the damage.  Best Craw color as been Texas Craw.  Best top water has been the WP 110 in Loon, and the best color for the Keitech as been Pro blue Shiner.  I'm also using either a 4" Yamamoto cut tail in Brown/Purple or a watermelon Chompers DSW.

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These fish seem to move everyday from location to location so If they are not where you left them yesterday, look on the next runnout.

If I could think of any more information than that you would know more than I do.  On the other hand knowing more than I do is still not all that much.

Good Luck out there.

 

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bluebasser86
On 6/11/2018 at 3:05 PM, stoneattherock said:

great report...on your rant it seems with any water temps over 80 the livewells are too hot for the kentucky/spot keepers to live more than hour or so..smallies and largies seem to make it...I think a lot of the smaller tourneys should look in to taking digital pictures or just pictures of length..if we mistrust our fellow fisherman enough that we feel they would cheat then heck i dont need to fish with them..save a lot more fish that way for sure...similar results for son and I this past weekend fished from shell knob bridge to cambell point great fish off deep points...problem was boat traffic by noon kicked us off the water...

 

This is what we have done for our Thursday night tournaments. Similar to Major League Fishing, everyone has to have their own scales and they're all the same and checked for accuracy and consistency, you can only weigh fish bigger than a pound, keep track of your biggest 5, and they're released on the spot. Granted, it takes a lot of trust, but it's mostly all the same guys that fish together all the time anyways, and if you get some good ones you have to take pictures for proof. It isn't fool proof, but we're fishing for $150 maybe, it isn't worth killing off our lakes for. Our big end of the year fish off we take pictures on the scales with a verification code since there is a little more money involved, but fish are still released immediately. 

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slowbait
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This topic can be argued for ever. Blame the tournament fisherman, blame the pleaser fisherman. The truth is that there are always some bad apples in the tree. We all need to take care of our catch. If there's one person on this forum that can say he has never killed a fish while fishing is a lair. Back in the good old days there was no such thing as G-Juice or stay alive, ice in live wells and so on. They killed many fish back then. More than now.  The best thing we can do is keep up the awareness and help each other with solutions.  Some fisherman try real hard at keeping fish healthy, while others don't care. That's the world we live in, jerks are among us. It's like driving down the road, how many dead animals (hit by cars) you see because us humans are to DAM lazy to slow down or pay attention. 

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STLbassbuster
On 6/13/2018 at 7:49 AM, bluebasser86 said:

This is what we have done for our Thursday night tournaments. Similar to Major League Fishing, everyone has to have their own scales and they're all the same and checked for accuracy and consistency, you can only weigh fish bigger than a pound, keep track of your biggest 5, and they're released on the spot. Granted, it takes a lot of trust, but it's mostly all the same guys that fish together all the time anyways, and if you get some good ones you have to take pictures for proof. It isn't fool proof, but we're fishing for $150 maybe, it isn't worth killing off our lakes for. Our big end of the year fish off we take pictures on the scales with a verification code since there is a little more money involved, but fish are still released immediately. 

More of this would be great for our sport!

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