Bill Babler

Really, really like their body lines and life like appearance. Not crazy about the colors but there good enough. Personally and I’m sure it’s just me but I just don’t get enough bites on them Bet I’ve got at least 10 bags of different products they make. Always love a local company to do well and I’ll keep trying them, when I can.

Mike McClelland sold myself and Beck 6 each of these Falcon rods between 15 and 20 years ago. They were terribly expensive at the time $200.00 and Mike pretty much gave them to us. 7’ Cenderi Ti spinning. Each one of these has caught easy 1000 plus drop shot fish. I just refinished the cork grips and totally cleaned the blanks and guides. Good for another 20 years. Without a doubt the best drop shot rod I’ve ever had in my hands.

I think LedgeRock might have went out of business. Their building is for sale, unless they moved I’ve tried my best to like their soft plastics, and they look fantastic. Just don’t have very good results with them. Bill Beck taught me the pressure set years ago and I’ve never jerked on a jig since. This method allows you to use lighter line and allows the jig to swim much more freely. I do use heaver line and a stiffer rod when dragging a big football jig deep but 90% of my jig fishing is done with 10-12-14 carbon line. Jigs, 3/16-5/16-3/8-1/2-5/8.

Picasso makes tungsten jig with a very similar weed guard as in the Nu Tech. Personally I think they’re better. Very live skirt with a variety of fish catching colors and extremely small profile due to the tungsten head. Very good hook As with all tungsten it’s hard to keep paint on the head. These have become my go to however. The weed guards, can do some damage to the exterior of the fishes mouth, very similar to the Nu Tech. Hard as heck to hang up however if that’s the main criteria y’all are using for how good a jig is. I still have a couple hundred Pig Stickers that I’m fond of too.

It’s been very good up until the last few days. Buzz baits and big 11 inch worm around cover. Last couple of days it’s been EXTREMELY HARD. Rig that big worm Texas and bury the hook Point deep. Use a 1/4 oz. weight. Throw it in places you don’t expect to get it back. Fish carefully and be prepared to wench them out. I have just started to see Shad, both gizzards and threadfin moving into the river channels and in the deep bends. Most Shad 30’ and under suspended over depth. Surface temps 77-80 degree depending on time of day. Water with a very nice stain for shallow fishing. Shell Knob to KC area. Good Luck PS we got 2” of rain exactly at SK last night

The crowds even relate to some of the hiking trails. I know several parks last year had to limit the number of people per day just due to impact. Fished with a guy Friday that has hiked the Wind River Range for years. Said this year he and his wife were in a total mob of humanity the entire time they were hiking.

She did me a real solid. This was with a very bad person. One of my good friends is an undercover agent. He was a bit apprehensive about her being alone with this individual. “For good reason”. It worked out. She is not a very large human. Good luck on her new opportunity.

We’ll put. I want to preface this. Since Covid, these resources are under EXTREME PRESSURE. As you all know, I’m a snoopy visitor that just love conversation. In speaking with the guides there is a never ending amount of trips or clients continually on these Western rivers. Frankly unlike our tail races they just cannot handle that much traffic, both fishing and floating. Thus the Fishing expectations of the guides we were with was minimal. 4/5 fish and twice that many bites in an 8 hr. day was considered good. Any less was just fishing and anything more was gravy. Trey said he has been out 91 straight days, and was booked full till the 2nd. Week of October. Twin Rivers employ’s 28 guides on a daily basis. Said when he started with them they had 4. At Casper they had 41 full time guides at the shop we went out of and our guide Devon said there were 240 guides working full time in the Summers till November. Those are Lake Fork numbers in its hay day. Trip was nice but there are lots of other options available. As snagged said. Take a nice Western vacation and enjoy the scenery. If you get a day in the water, that’s great.

Actually, he bought a BRAND NEW FORD BRONCO for the trip. It has less than a 3000 miles and when he tried to start it the day prior to our trip the total electronic system was out. They picked it up Saturday afternoon and we were leaving at 6 am on Sunday morning. Said it would be out of commission at least to the middle of the week so we took his wife’s SUV. It’s an all wheel drive, but not the ground clearance for those roads. 10 days later the new ford was still in the shop. Distance wasn’t really the problem as much as the water conditions on the N. Platte, on Grey Reef and the Miracle Mile. Everywhere was a ride but better water would have saved the day. No complaining about Pinedale with the exception of the road up to the headwaters of the Green River.

Yes white fish and a sucker. Due to the amount of rain this Summer everything was totally green. No hoppers in the water and I really can’t remember seeing any walking the bank where it was permitted. Most our dry fly fish were on caddis or ants. That 16 miles of dirt/rock road going up to the lake was just about impassable due to the washouts. The 16 mile stretch took us almost 2 hours to drive in a 4X4. There were some ATV’s up there but no campers at all once you left the black top road. I believe they may have set a record for the wettest summer season. Water was beautiful at Pinedale and just flat ugly at Casper. I had originally planned to take my Alaska gear and camp and fish on our own with a couples of guide trips, but the Dr. I went with would just not have any camping or fishing without a guide. Just the big water stuff. I’m not a huge fan of little spring runs, but I would have loved to have time on our own that we didn’t get. We were also in a very small SUV that he insisted on taking and that car just could not handle those roads. Totally bottomed out immediately when we tried I’m from the Ozarks and know bad roads but at both Casper and Pinedale they were the worst I have ever driven on. 5 mph would knock your teeth out. Our guide said he has been guiding there since 2010 and this was the worst he had ever seen them. They had not been going up to the lake as the shuttle service refused to go on the road ( I can see why.) He brought a 4 hp motor so we could drift and then motor back up. Said he would not go back again this season. Probably why this was the best fishing we had the entire trip. Pinedale was totally full of hikers and mountain bikers. Some of the hikers were thru hikers on the Continental Divide Trail. It comes within 5 miles of Pinedale and goes thru the Wind River Range. It’s a resupply and rest stop for them. Man, they were all gaunt. Some of those people looked like scare crows. There were a couple of guys I’m guessing 6’3” they might have weighed 135. Alway thought I’d like to walk a stretch of it, but theses folks are devoting 6 months on a thru hike from Mexico to Canada. Grueling.

My cutty was 21” and the guide guessed 3.5 pounds. For the life of us both we can’t find the picture. We spoke to a group that had booked a trip on the Yellowstone, but didn’t get to fish it as a fish kill was going on. Guide took them to the Madison but they said it was way too technical for their ability. They ended up catching some on the Snake out of Jackson Hole. I had wanted to do some fishing on our own but my buddy would not have it, he only wanted to use the guides. You simply had to have a 4X4 on most of the walk in areas around both Casper and Pinedale to get to the fish. Roads were just terrible and we were in my friends Toyota SUV. We got the windshield broken on the road to the Miracle Mile. Got it hit again going up the Green River road. Really hard trip I thought.

Questionable fishing is following me across the US. After a very tough trip in the West, Table Rock was hard on son Steven and I yesterday. Just flat couldn’t find a depth. 15’ to 48 feet, all over the place. We had 12 bass with 2 small keeps on jigs and then bought a box of crawlers at Big M and caught 6 walleye. 1 keeper but we tossed them all back. Nothing and I mean nothing schooled up, just scattered singles. Did see some top water but as usual this time of year, main channel over 100 ft. And gone in 60 seconds. Quite a few anglers out and not a bunch of pleasure boats. We fished till noon. Surface temps at 80 degree. Water with a nice late Summer tint. Good Luck.

Got home day before yesterday. Kind of a marathon. With extremely HOT weather. We were scheduled to fish out of Casper Wy. the first four days with Ugly Bug Outfitters. We were told fishing was “good”. We scheduled Grey Reef on the North Platte and the Miracle Mile. Question is what is good? Fished the mile the first day. Very nice young guide Devin. All indicator triple dropped rigs. I had a total of 3 bites and buddy Don had 5 bites. Lots of moss in the water and had to continually clean the flys. Guide said fishing had been extremely challenging. From Casper to the Mile it’s a 1.45 hour drive on wicked roads and they use clients as shuttles. Lots of wild game along the road to look at but it really did not fish well. Going to say here since Covid all these resources have been punished. Water covered with drift boats and lots of shore fishermen. Tough day. Next day we fished Grey Reef. Extremely high wind and pushing 100 degree. Guide really struggled handling the drift boat. It totally beat this young man up. Same bobber rig with off color water and moss worse than any I have ever seen on Taney. 20’ drift at best. Season at Casper has been really warm and rainy to contribute to algae growth. I had 5 bites in 10 hours and Don had the same. Total for 18 hours of Hard and I mean hard fishing for me was 8 bites and 5 fish to the boat in two days Guide said it was horrible, outfitter said Man that’s good. We cancelled the next two days at a big cancellation fee. Don said I bought us out of purgatory. We feel we were totally lied to by Ugly Bug. Found out later never to trust most of these Western Outfitters. Headed for Pinedale and cooler weather. Had booked with Twin Rivers Outfitters. Good company. 50 degree temps the first morning with Stefan on the Green River. Fast, narrow and technical. Used a dry dropper rig and did fine. I think we each had 15 fish. No giants but decent fishing. These guys fish long hours. There is travel involved so first day was 12 hours. Most fish were on the dropper. We both were totally beat and I had a taco salad that evening that more than didn’t agree with me. Up at 2 am chewing ammonium one after the other. The section of the Green that we were to fish the next day had no boat exit for any reason on private land. I didn’t make the trip. Don caught about 20, mostly on the dropper. One 20 incher. Next day we fished the upper Green with Trey. Huge drive of about 50 miles with a lot of really rough gravel. Started at 8,700 ft. with fish rising everywhere. It was really great. Cold enough to frost your private parts but hot dry fly fishing. Trey thought we caught 50, all on dry flys. I’m guessing upper 30’s. Nothing big but lots of 12 to 16 inch fish. Really fun. Missed more than we caught. Lots of short hits but mostly flat out misses. 13 hour day with travel. We both were totally hammered. Next day again with Trey we fished the New Fork. All dry and not as good a day. I had 9 to the boat and Don had 5. Not many bites. I think I had 12 and Don maybe 10 bites. Another 13 hour day. Lots less pressure at Pinedale but locations were challenging and I’m guessing that was the reason. All in all the cost of a western week guided fishing is very similar to a week in Alaska with not nearly the results. I really enjoyed the scenery and wild life. Super glad we did it but probable will call that good. Alaska is just too good for the same price. I caught a big cutty, when I find the pic. I’ll post it. Also something that surprised me was the pure hatred for Brook Trout. Both guide services wanted to throw them on the bank when we caught one of the little rascals. Said they were invasive and consumed all the rainbow , brown and cutthroat eggs.

Planning to drive to Ogalala tomorrow and then on into Casper on Monday. First day of fishing is on Grey Reef on Tuesday. I’ll keep ya posted.

I run Pro-Guide. Mostly AGM’s up to 31 series. Currently I have switched to lithium and they do come with a price tag, but performance is simply excellent with very little weight.

I agree, but they pretty much solved the problem 10 years ago. Last year I kicked one out of the boat and couldn’t find it Dragging. A month later it got warm enough and I swam down and got it. Cleaned the exterior and did nothing else and it is still working perfect. Rod didn’t recover as well, turned white.

I was told by one of the Shimano tech’s in Irvine, Cal. at the national repair center it was a grease issue. If you remember the internal body was full of a white very heavy grease similar as he said to cosmoline. Once it got wet it gummed. As Dutch said it had to be ran almost totally dry. And again as Dutch mentioned, perhaps multiple issues. Now if you look in a reel it has a coating similar to graphite, or just a sheen. I’ve not had one bind in the last close to 10 years, using them 1000’s of hours. They fixed it

Here is a bit more on the story. In 96 my boat was on the floor at the KC Boat Sport and Travel show. Just down the isle was the Grandview BP booth. At the time it was a huge Bass Pro outlet, don’t know if any of you remember it. Manager came up and asked if I would like some BASS pro sponsorship as he was good friends with Joanne and Catfish. I said sure. Made an appointment, went down there and he showered me with equipment including boat bags and boxes rods/reels and tackle. Free. Becky figured it up at close to $1,750.00 retail. We just could not believe it. This was back in the Power Hump days. I also filled out an application for a membership in Bass Pro Outfitters Rod and Gun. I think it was 5 free combos a year and anything else you wanted at 50% off retail. That program is also gone I’ve told the story 1000 times of showing up at Big Cedar for my first BC guide trip proud as a speckled pup with all this gear laying on the deck, and every other Big Cedar guide was using all Shimano, telling me you’ll learn. As for Shimano, in late 90’s they started giving me VIP cards. Again thru the KCBST show. One year they gave me 5 cards. Each card gave you 5 free reels but you could only get 1 of each model per card. That’s 25 reels FREE. Every other year then you could get 1 VIP card, but it changed to 50% of retail. Don’t know if they still have that program, but it was sure sweet. In those days as I believe Wrench pointed out, you had best not let a Stradic get wet or it would get sticky. Keep it dry and it was great. Get it rained on and it was done. Then Orvis came along and also Falcon, Daiwa, Spro, Battery Outfitters, Phoenix/Mercury, Lowrance Minn Kota and later Phil Lilley with Garmin. I did have a Garmin deal but Phil had a better one by 10%. Thanks. I’m leaving out a laundry list. Quick story on a rainy day. Orvis is more than a great equipment company they support their guides to the fullest. Just unbelievable, fantastic support. I have bags and clothes that I got from Orvis 20 plus years ago that I still use today In the early teens they sold spinning rod combos with Shimano reels. Their 3 piece travel spinning rods were at that time and still perhaps the best spinning rod I’ve ever had the pleasure to fish. Way way ahead of their time. No longer in production. At that time Shimano was upgrading their Reel just about every year and every time they would, Orvis would make these available to their Endorsed and Pro-Guide staff at 75 to 90 percent off retail. One year I bought 20 Stradic reels after the sticky problem had gone away I think retail at the time was $119.00. I believe I paid $29.00 each for them. There is lots of help out there and I appreciated all of it and most probably deserved none of it. Enjoy this nice rain.

There are some huge expenses, but most of the guys at that level have vehicle deals, gas deals that are credit cards just for truck and boat fuel, and insurance deals. If it says Toyota/Chevy on their rigs they are getting memo deals or buying outright at Dealer cost. Insurance companies are huge spenders on both the BM-Elite and the MLF circuit. You see the name of an insurance company on a truck or boat and It’s no cost insurance plus a Big Check. There are a few BLF guys. Yes BFL that have gas cards. It’s really a popular way to get your company name on a boat or truck. One of my clients from St. Louis, a long time Bass Cat guy, he retired last year had memo deals with Ford, Bass Cat and had a BP gas card. He fished the FLW when it was just a pay as you go derby. Lots of guys with BP gas cards. For several years back in the day as a low life guide I had both truck and boat deals. I had to pay insurance but got the truck and boat to use at no cost. Both the truck and boat were ran on dealer tags each year, no taxes. That program is gone The boat deal was thru Stratos/Evinrude and Smithville Marine. The truck deal was thru Ford at Claycomo. The boat deal totally made my career, thanks to Joanne Austin the owner. I had that deal for 16 years. Had the Ford deal for four years and chose to stop, could have gone on with it. I had trouble with the trucks on a continuous basis and they just would not pull the boat and got 6/8 mph. On the boat deal I got to pick it out and if I sold it I got a great commission. If I didn’t I just turned it back in to the dealership and they sold it. I turned 2 boats back to the dealer in 16 years so I did well on the program. They did all the maintenance on the boats including trailer tires I had zero expenses on them. The trucks I had to pay for oil changes all repairs were covered and there were a lot. What I’m saying here, it’s not what you know but who you know. Also a quick shout out to Gary Clouse at Phoenix. Back in the Stratos days he did me some fantastic favors and never asked for a thing in return. Excuse the ramble. No doubt the 45 Large hurt Spencer, but he can still afford a ham hock for his navy beans.

Fly he had to. If he missed that tournament he was going to be banned. Even if he won the dispute he was going to be banned, for missing the Saginaw derby. He really had zero options. I think he has won over a 1/4 million this year so the 45 large would hurt but he can fight another day. He is also in position to make Redcrest and more money this week. I’m absolutely sure after consulting not only family but legal council that discretion was better than valor in this case. I believe had he pursued this he would have lost and then been banned for life. No one in their right mind would risk millions and millions for a 45 grand fine.

Spencer is fishing Saginaw Bay. To do this he had to pay his $45,000.00 fine. If he had chosen to fight it and missed the tournament he would have been disqualified from any further BPT/MLF event for life. He said it was a life lesson and regardless he did not cheat. He said both of his officials agreed that he did not cheat in either situation. Man what a sticky wicket. I believe Matt Becker probably pushed the grey line just as far if not further and got off Scott free. The fish under the ramp he could not see. He knew there were fish there but it was a blind cast and his official was told this by Spencer prior to throwing over there. I believe that is the one that got him, however he said it was hooked in the mouth and the hook fell out. I believe he did however move the hook on the other one. Just my thought. He said he should not have put himself in that situation as he didn’t need either fish to stay in 2nd. Tough deal he had no chance of winning.

Nice trip. Looked like Margot was running really high. I did notice a skeeter or three🤪🤪

Guys, thanks for the advice, much appreciated. We are set. Itinerary we had to change dates for lodging and floating availability. Casper Wyoming August 21. Staying at the Best Western Ramkota. Fly shop got us a reservation $77.00 a nite so we got a room each. “ No Problem with Snoring.” Drift and wade fishing. Grey Reef. Private Ranch water that the fly shop owns so we can wade. N.Platte Miracle Mile. Float Big Horn River float Ranch access wade Grey Reef unguided Pinedale Wyoming 2 Rivers Fly Shop another great lodging rate at Hampton Green River Float New Fork River Float Private Ranch 2 day wade unguided I think that’s going to do it for this trip I’ll give you the day by day in the Western Rivers Forum Again Thanks much

Total Black eye for MLF. they need to burn the house down and start all over. This is far from the first bug-a-boo. I’m now hearing disputes between fishermen and officials and extremely poor behavior by some of your favorites. Threatening statements to MLF to let their celebrity fishermen do as they wish or they pull advertising from major sponsors Lots and lots of fishermen getting pre-tournament information. It can’t go on this way. Going to have to have a day of reckoning.

OMG , guys thanks so much. Here is our tentative initial plan. We’re arriving in Casper on the 14th. And fishing with Ugly Bug Outfitters and staying at Crazy Rainbow Ranch Lodge. Right on the North Platte with lots of private water to wade from shore. They are an Orvis shop and Lodge. Anyone stayed there or used them? I have 2 good past clients that fished with them for over 20 years and another good friend that has fished with them 13 straight years. All gave them 5 stars. We’re fishing the NP Miracle Mile section one day “Bucket List.” Grey Reef one day and Big Horn one day. So that will be the base for that time. The next part we are very open. Choice’s are going to Pinedale or down to fish the Yellowstone and Big Hole. Not a bit decided on that week so your info is pertinent and any further is welcome. I’m going to reread each post and research everything you all have told me also look up BilletHead’s adventures We’re not so much about fishing the extremely small creeks and spring runs we want to unlimber the 5/6wts. Thanks much, Keep it commin.