Bill Babler

When these guys are not as truthful as they should be it really galls my lower parts. If you don't want to say, don't say. If you lie about it for money, what does that make you? Frankly nothing but a liar and tells me your sponsors products aren't worth having in the boat. Not speaking on this incident but just in general. I have fished with guys that were not trying to hide fishing information, but were promoting products for money that they did not use. I think it is deplorable.

Most of us that do this everyday don't get anything wet but the boat. You should not have to get wet to launch or trailer your boat. When launching back your boat in until the bunks are wet. That is before it floats. Pull up a bit where you can unhook and climb in over the bow. If you have a new style trailer or one with the bow steps you can just climb right in. Even when I was using a walker I had no trouble and I didn't even have the trailer bow steps. You don't have to float the boat on a trailer to launch it. When trailering, again back your trailer in and get the bunks wet. Pull it completely out and then just back that trailer in until only about 3ft. of your back bunk is in the water. Your boat will slid right on and up on the wet bunks. It will stay right in the middle and follow them to the bow stop. If you are a bit short within a foot or two, hook up the bow ring to the crank and make it very tight. Pull the boat out and when you get to the top of the ramp on level ground while the rig is still pulling forward hit the brake. The boat will slide right into the correct position. I don't mean at 20 mph, I mean as you are slowly rolling to a stop. Guides and professional fishermen have been loading and unloading like this since I was a teenager, or the beginning of time. Good Luck

Cow Creek is open but you for sure need a keel guard to launch that ramp is extremely rough. Lots of parking. I know two guys that went to Indian Pt. yesterday and said you could not launch there.

Beck said it was not possible yesterday just before they closed the KC bridge

As long as those creeks are flowing full with muddy water they won't go up there. As they start to recede and settle down, yes the trout will head up as long as the water remains no warmer than low to mid 60's

I personally have not seen any mud, but I have been fishing the main lake from the mouth of Long Creek to Campbell Point.

Taking commercial clients, without a Federal Lic is punishable by fine, jail time and loss of future licenses Fine is neither max or min. It's a one price deal. $5000.00. You can also heap on Jail time up to 2 years in the event of an accident. If you are caught you will also not be able to get a license for 5 years, following your arrest. It's A Federal Arrest All guide insurance finds its way thru Markel they are the clearing house regardless of the sales company you purchase your insurance with. You don't have a Federal Lic you are not insured and are subject to the above. Not a single one of you would put your money in a bank that did not have FDIC Insurance. Guide business is the same deal only we're talking about your life and not your money. This is a job you had better do right as people depend on you each and every day. That's why there is testing, health, knowledge,experience and insurance requirements. Good Luck

I'm renewing mine now. It last 5 yrs and is now as ever a horrible costly proceeding. Medical requirement keep changing and you had better have every T crossed and every I dotted or you won't get it. Phil is right. No liability insurance without a Federal ticket. Most guys guiding in Arkansas regardless what they say are not insured. Without the Fed Lic

Suppliment. Bite was kind of silly yesterday. Fish would load on a bait and then just turn it loose. I'm still either swimming a Keitech or a 4" Ctail and they just would not hold. We did manage low 20's mostly SMJ but did have this fine largemouth. Not finding the K's, and the guys that are say they are still staging fairly deep. Mostly on secondary points back in the creeks, and off the main lake bluffends. Most all our fish were Jaws with a couple of nice ones.

Just spoke to a Guy on their National team and he said it's not so as far as he knows. The guides are like old women on a party line But you never know. I was hoping one of you all would know. Carry on

Rumor going thru the guides this morning was that Keitech Factory had burned. Tried to look it up on the web but have seen nothing. Couple of the distributors are reporting it.

That sounds like a loaded question.

Keitech sells a 3/16th. Round ball tungsten head that is designed to go with their baits. It has a black nickel Diiachi hook. It is the standard to compare any other with if you want to pony up and use them. The head is about the size of a normal 1/8th. and is painted GP, that hook is just about as sticky as they get and then some. I believe it has a 3/0 size on the hook. What ever the frig it is, it is deadly on any of their baits up to 4.2 If I hang one up I make every possible effort short of doning scuba gear to retrieve it.

And that my friends is what is going on at the Dam. Super accurate report, on baits and conditions. I'm finding the same Nada. Buster is catching a lot of gogs on a 2.8 inch swimbait. The deal here is you simply have to have your boat in 25' to 30', even 35 won't hurt. both the gogs and the better spots are coming over 20' if you are just barely moving that swim bait and following the contour back to the boat. I will also tell you and it is happening there is a really strong dropshot bite to the same fish. You can see them suspended and see singles. They will just hammer the shot. Seems early to get that started but its here no matter what.

I agree 100% I don't think the quality is going to change as much as the manufacturing process, and the streamlining of the operations. I do believe that we will see some cross affiliations thru the companies that Johnny is now holding. It's kind of funny that most people think Ranger was the prize in the multi-company buy. It was the entire package and Johnny really wanted the Earl Bentz design and most of all the Allan Stenson Hull of the Triton. You see it now on the New series Z boats. Not quite the same but very similar, just a bit steeper on the sides. Ranger's contribution besides being the No. 1 bass boat company in the world was the live well system that they got from Lund when they were both under the Genmar flag. From what I'm hearing you will be very hard pressed to make a distinction in the quality of the raw materials used in any of those boat lines, from the hull and stringer materials to the carpet or the vinyl or the hardware. Fit and finish and man hours will be the majority of the difference. And here I'm talking about the top of the line boats in each category. As far as consolidation and purchasing power. The materials were already purchased in a staggering amount. Products, services and raw materials have a bottom line no matter what the quantity, in other words if you buy 50,000 box latches is there a difference if I buy 100,000 Probably not as much as you are already at the price break no matter the number. Some folks like the New Wiggle Warts better than the Old ones. Think about it.

Any of these top of the line boats have pro's and con's, but they are all striving to get better and improve everyday as Mitch said. The do-dads, bangles and goodies are just not going to stop, and neither is the quality of production and products. It simply can't if any of the boat companies wish to continue. Word on the street is there is going to be a new player in the game in 2018/19. Did I hear the name Forrest Wood? Stay tuned as this saga unfolds as there is a lot of talk out of Mountain Home that the previous regime including Wood and his top executives that quit during the take over, including some of his kin folk are getting ready to get busy as soon as the No Compete Clause ends in 2018 Be interesting.

We had 12 early and then beat feet in just before it let loose. Happy Easter everyone.

Try finding that much true information anywhere else. The underspin is always good early in the season. It is not going as good right now, Use the other methods. Carry On.

Thanks Dave When you or Vernon get down I would love to run one of those.

Thanks a bunch for the clarity Randy. I spoke a bit ago with one of the NumNuts I fished with last week and asked him what TM he had. Again he said an Ultrex. I said you mean an Ulterra? He said,"ya that's the one." As I said Pro's and Con's. Someone will eventually make it just right

The units I fished with were the self raising hard wire with GPS lock it is very possible I misunderstood the name from ultrex to ultera what ever they were they had bugs that needed fixing thanks for the correction The Ultrex problably does not have all that cable on the deck you have to mess with if it is manual deploy either They told me the retail on their units was 2 grand plus

To kind of continue the topic of the fish finders I have had some first hand knowledge in the past month with both the Minn Kota Ultrex and the MotorGuide Xi5 both are GPS locking units and you can also throw in the Minn Kota Terrova, and the MotorGuide X5. I have had the pleasure of fishing this Spring with several clients in their personal boats that use the Minn Kota units and really have not been as impressed as I have wanted to be. I'm not saying if you have any of the above units that its bad, far from it. What I'm saying is they all have issues. I have had the opportunity to not only fish but run all of the above units for several days each on the water. Some of these days were down right nasty with wind and heavy surf. Others were calm and easy, so I have a little bit of apples to oranges in several conditions. Lets talk about the Ultrex. This is a beast of a unit that operates on both a fob and a direct wired foot ignition. It is a self deploying unit and for those of us that are getting up in years and don't like lifting and toting that is a pretty slick feature. Problem is you have massive wires on the deck that allow it to raise and lower and have to deploy and stack when it comes up and down. It is also belt driven and that has been a more than major problem. The belt that raises and deploys the unit seem to burn out at the worst time and in the worst spot. I fished with 2 pro's that both had full sponsorship from Johnson Outdoors that is a parent company of Minn Kota and both with 2016 motors had, had multiple belts burn out. This is a big problem. No belts burned during the time with them, but I did notice that using the foot starter that the motor does not respond with the quickness that I want. It is somewhat of a delay and both the turning speed and the prop speed is very slow to respond. Really very similar to the remote unit in the Xi5 that is not hard wired. I ran these units for multiple days and got a very good feel. Another thing that just did not work as well as it could have is the GPS lock on the unit. It is very slow to respond and I mean very slow, to lock. Both of my fishermen said they thought if the wind was not blowing it would lock you in a 20 ft. radius. If the wind was howling you have a problem. Minn Kota says a 7' lock and both of these guys said, "No How No Way" and I agree. To tell the truth, if the wind is blowing you are not going to get a 20ft. lock. The motor does not seem to have the ability to adjust the speed to hold you on that location if there is any wind at all. You have a very large drift factor. I believe this is in the antenna and the speed it locks onto and holds the satellite. It is not even comparable with the Point 1 GPS antenna of the MotorGuide. If you have the Point 1 system as soon as you hit the lock it goes into hyper drive and makes a light speed full rotation and you are locked regardless of wind, you are there in seconds. The MotorGuide also uses any force it needs in any fishable wind to keep you on the exact locked location. No drift it will hold you. Again I think this is information that is coming thru the antenna system and is just not processed as quickly on the Ultrex or the Terrova. I don't believe its 7', I believe it is right on the spot. Huge difference in the units. There are still bugs in the Ultrex There were bugs in the Gator System of the Motor Guide and they discontinued it. Just about the same system as the Ultrex. MotorGuide says they are going to get it fixed and come out with a hard wired GPS locking self deploying unit with no bugs. They have not done it yet. Bottom line is none of these units are perfect. If you take the Xi5 you have fast lock but slow response due to no hard wire. If you take the X5 you have no GPS lock. If you take the Ultrex you have poor GPS lock and lots of hardware, slower performance and perhaps some warranty issues. In my opinion the Saga continues. I'm thinking before long however one of these great companies will get this right.

Good Stuff Vernon.

Just about the exact pattern I use. It seems if you get up the White or into some stained water they will go head over tail for that GP/Orange. Really I'm only a 3 color guy and perhaps that may be enough. When you put on your thinking cap and review the colors for the Rock or any of the White River Chain, on slow movers you are going to use GP-Watermellon seed, WM candy or the PBJ. Pretty much the go to colors for finesses stuff jigs and craws. At times you can get into stained water for blacks, reds and blues, but day in and day out its the naturals.

Thought I would slip this in on the Spot Remover. I use them quite a bit when fishing the Ned deeper than 20'. When your fishing that deep they very seldom hang up and get to the bottom much quicker. I usually use 3/16 or 1/4. My clients especially if there is any wind what so ever can keep in a little bitter contact with this bait over the traditional Ned head that islighter . With a slime/moss line in the dam area at under 15' and the wind everyday, I'm using it almost exclusively.