Devan S.

So now I am in a real pickle.....I've called around locally. Everyone wants to charge a "diagnostics fee" to confirm my control board is bad and then I'll have to pay labor to have it swapped plus parts. I'm figuring its going to be $400(labor+diag fee + parts). Or I just risk it and buy another board 2X if I have too.

Well more troubleshooting. Reed switches are both normally open. Checked on both controls and they both work. Applied power direct to motor drive and transmission and they both work. Now its down to either toss another $215 on another new control or take to a dealer and let them do it so I have some sort of coverage if I luck into another from the factory bad board.

Yep that is where I bought it but due to the distance obviously I didn't come up there to do simple job. Further investigation looks like there is a reed switch on my old control board. Need to crack the new one open and see where it is at exactly. I'll do some tinkering and maybe give them another call Monday. May just try bypassing that if I could prove that was my problem. More to come.

There is nothing on Youtube or web searches that tell me anything similar to what I am seeing. Its just all about changing the control board. I called Motorguide support this afternoon and they claim I'm very unlucky and my second board is bad as well. Of course, when I call the place I just bought this new board from to ask about support they are going to argue no returns on electrical components. I challenged them as to where the switch/sensor that tells the control the motor is stowed or deployed and they tell me its magnetic switch on the board itself. Wildly interesting considering the entire unit is built of non-ferrous materials I am not sure what reference it would use to "detect" any change in position.

The other day midday my Xi5 just stopped. Lights went out and dead. When I got home I took the cover off, I have voltage at the control board so I assumed I control board was bad. Installed new control board today and still nothing. Its almost as if it does not detect that it is deployed. I have not been able to find a switch or magnet anywhere obvious. Any idea where one maybe or what else to check?

@Daryk Campbell Sr here is where I am collecting my trout in every state information. Here is my current map: I had planned to take some vacation these last couple weeks and go down to the lower Illinois in Oklahoma to check off Oklahoma but as I understand they have stopped stocking there this month(generator down and high temperatures) so I will wait until later in the year. After the first of the year, I will likely make a run down to Shreveport, La and pick up a stocked pond fish in LA. As soon as I know they stocked Lake Lamar Bruce in MS, I will head there and pick up a fish(history says this happens sometime in Mid-December) From there its a couple hours to Sipsey Fork to check off Alabama. On my return, I intend to try and get TN and KY. I was 15 minutes from a spot in KY last year but decided to not make my family endure me fishing after driving for hours. I will probably end up picking up a better non-stocked tailwater locations in TN later. Right now my only major concern is FL. As mentioned before, there is a private pond stocked and open to fishing(for a fee) outside Tallahassee but I haven't looked into it lately if it still open and stocked. I haven't found any state sponsored alternatives. At this point, I haven't researched every state in the northeast but from a temperature and habitat standpoint, once I check off LA/MS I feel a lot better about being able to find a trout somewhere.

100% ill advised.....but when you wanna catch a trout in every state.

Man I want to attend this but I have a trout trip to Mississippi planned that 100% hinges on when they start stocking. I won't know until they tell me they stocked. One of these days I need to make this happen.

Did you happen to weigh/measure any of them?

I feel bad...because of the way Montana does the challenge...we basically skipped right over all of the good stuff. I'm down to Alaska and getting a Paiute.

Woah woah woah....depending on how you went...Utah and Colorado are fly over states now. Man this trip must be good.

should be no issues under generation.

Highly dependent on water levels at Table Rock and generation out of Beaver. I would say certainly yes under generation in a jet. tjm is right there is a boat ramp just below the dam. The TW gage below Beaver is not a good judge of the conditions for no generation as it will almost always read ~916 when Table Rock is significantly lower. No generation and Table Rock below ~916 I'd be worried about 2 spots: There is a riffle run right across from where Clayborn creek enters. Its almost all gravel here and with a run you could probably get through although its a popular fishing location from the bank and not a lot of room to share with others. There is another shallow spot directly downstream of Parker Bottom right in the bend of the river. I think this is probably the first really sketchy spot. There is likely enough depth but there is about a 100-150 yard stretch of shallow water with larger rocks(not gravel). After that you should be clear until you get to the top section of the Special Regulation Area( you might have to dodge some trees down or big rocks through the upper half of the special reg area but they should be reasonable apparent and as I recall it doesn't get super shallow until you are past them. After that I'm not sure as I don't fish that far up very often but it isn't far from there to the dam.

I don't have a problem with the stockers in general I just want regulations that seem reasonable and some protection on the brown trout like the other tailwaters. Right now there are hundreds of them that were dumped in the last couple weeks at the stocking points. They are dumped in under the slot limit at 8-10" and they are getting hammered every day. I've averaged 5-10 the last 3 times down right at the stocking points +/- 200 yards. AGFC will do their shocking survey in the next few weeks and this dump of fish right before will show up in their data. The special regulation area makes no sense to me compared to a straight catch and release area like other tailwaters. If you look through AGFC studies and surveys you will see this is almost always the section they find the biggest fish and where they find tagged fish they are tracking during studies. Its also probably the most difficult significant length of section to access above Spider Creek. The one good access you have to cross the river and risk getting trapped. The 13-16 slot is a joke when its applied to across the board like it is. Look at the BS and NFTW and rainbows are clearly put and take and then they provide some level of protection for the other species. I'd like to see something similar done with browns here but doubt it will ever happen. Bull and Norfork also both get "other species" that Beaver doesn't get. Scouring is a problem in sections but there is several miles of habitat similar to Taney. Lots of similar habitat in the lower SRA area with intermixed boulders down through Parker bottoms and on across from Clayborn creek. Spider Creek through the island below 62 bridge is again a section with decent habitat similar to Taney.

High agreement with Ollie. Lots of stockers, there is some big fish but its a lot more rare then you think and compared to the other tailwaters in Arkansas, it just feels very put and take. I certainly recognize it will never be like the White or Norfork but honestly its not even close to half of what Taneycomo fishes like. Its a shame we don't adopt regulations like the other fisheries and then actually patrol and check people. I fish there a lot and outside Walleye season 1 time I have NEVER been checked over there.