Bill Babler

It is 4:35 and 26 degree here at the Lodge. There is somebody fishing Clevenger Island. They just came roaring down from the Dam area and slammed on the brakes and started fishing the West side roll off. They must have a powerful mad on at these fish to be a hammering away at almost dark on a wicked cold day like this. Best wishes and a Hot Toddy to ya.

So 8 pound test and a 6'6" medium rod are finesse? Like the worm, but he has no idea what finesse is. He needs to give 5 pound test on a 7' ML rod fishing a 1/16 oz. Ned a fling. Or if he wants to get really crazy he can always throw a float-n-fly. Now that is finesse.

Git, I think there was a pretty favorable post on jig fishing the bushes in the Baxter area made within the last 6 or 7 days, might be a very good plan. I just have to have it around 50. If its cooler out and breezy I'm not your guy

Dave the very first reel I used for the rig was a 200 series Calcutta. Then I went Toad Strangling Blind and switched to that big Curato. Really don't know why I did not return to the Calcutta, it throws the heck out of it and for me it is a lot easier to throw than the wide spool Curado, that seems to be the bench mark for the A-Rig. Since I have just fallen in love with the Lew's Super Duty. Really fits me the best and out throws anything I have ever put a hand on. By the way, I have a 1/2 dozen Calcutta's in 100 to 300 series if anyone is interested. Just ashame for them to be sitting in boxes in my tackle room. These also make fine catfish reels, and of course I originally purchased them as bass reels. I just much prefer the low profile casting reels as they fit my hand much better.

If your interested, before you buy any, Quill and I may have a bargain sale for you. I think I have at least 3 dozen of them, and kind of like Quill, mine have a nice comfy home on either my tackle board or a rust proof box. They do work, but there are much better baits you can also fish at the same time these little pieces of gold are attracting green fish.

Bobby, that looks like a very good rig. A long handled two hander is what you are looking for, just like that. Another trick that I have found that is really helpful in getting distance on that deal is to fill the spool to just as full as you can get it and then keep that braid sprayed with any of the line treatment products. I think there are at least 10 of them out there today, but Reel Magic was the first and it works great for me. It is just flat amazing to see how much further it throws when you slick it up with that stuff. I know ZanDam uses it or something he sponsors and he sprays all his rod guides with it also. He claims it makes the rods throw further and helps with ice up in cold temps. Being from Michigan, he knows about cold weather fishing.

I do have 3 A-Rig set-ups on Spinning gear for those clients that just cannot throw casters. I am using 7' 6" St. Croix MH or a 7' Cara T7 MH heavy spinning rod. For the reels, you got to be pretty careful here as Ab's said. No way I'm putting any of my very top end Shimano or Daiwa reels on them. I have all mine geared up with Lew's 4000 series gold spinning reels. Usually use 30 pound Lew's braid on these. I go pretty lite on the rig, most often using a Flash Mob Jr. Be very careful that you don't engage the reel with the reel handle and make sure the bait hits the water before engaging the reel in any fashion, or you will just tear the guts out of them. Pigsticker also makes a really lite Rig I think on a 1/4 oz frame, so it also works well on a spinning rod. This combo is just a flat white bass killer. Beck is the complete opposite, he is using 5000 series Shimano Sustains on his and 7'6" Daiwa rods. That is pretty much going to eat up a $600.00 bill. He can also use the spinning reels in salt as he has moved to Florida for the Winter months so it comes as a duel purpose reel for him. Again, for us the technique has evolved so much we can dedicate equipment to it. If I were throwing it 2 or 3 days a month for only part of the year, it would be a different story. I'm throwing it 4 or 5 days a week in season, so the equipment is more important to me.

There are a lot of folks that throw it on mono. 15 to 40 pound test. That mono is very heavy and big diameter however and you can throw much heaver pound test braid that is much smaller diameter. For the most part I will use slick 8 or a coated 8 strand braid in the 30 to 65 pound test that is very small in diameter. It throws much, much further and is a lot easier to get unhung without breaking the line. Lew's now has a very good braid and lots of us are throwing it on topwater as well as on the Rig. Only draw back is braid tends to pull down into itself on the spool. I usually peel off a layer or two as soon as I get it loose from a hang up to make sure it is not stuck into itself.

I have always been a 6 to 1 type guy, but I don't reel that rig much when fishing it, so for just picking up slack the new 8.1 or 7.1 might be the deal.

WW that is a great point, and made me giggle. Anytime you are dealing with braid you have a chance of throwing the entire rig into the pond. I always not only tell folks but try and practice it myself, that if you catch a fish or you get hung up, make sure you strip your line back to that point or you may have the Boo-Booo of a lifetime waiting to happen. Good Luck

Steve, 64 is the New 44. A couple of things let this 60 yrs. old fling it over and over. First thing first, is you don't throw it the rod does. Probably one of the hardest things that I have to teach my clients. I think maybe if you have a fly fishing background this becomes much, much easier. All fly fishermen worth a salt know that the fly does no propel the fly the line and the rod propel the fly. Throwing the A-Rig is very much like a fly cast. First you need a Rod that is a minimum of 7 feet. 7'6" is really perfect. Anything much longer is getting on the to much side. You are best served with a rod that has a very fast load that will spring when you apply prussure on the butt of the rod with your bottom hand on the cast. The long handled split grip rod works best for me. My left hand is on the extreme butt and really is the propulsion system for the rod and the bait. Your right hand if you are right handed assists with the lift and positioning of the rod. The cast is really a 10 to 2 cast just like a fly cast, loading the rod and pulling down with your left hand on the butt, forcing a bow in the rod that when you hit 10 o'clock releases the tension in the rod and propells the bait. You never swing or cast it like throwing or hitting a base ball. That puts everything on you instead of the rod. I have found out by hundreds of hours of fishing this bait that the rod is very important not only for casting the bait, but being able to cast it for distance and continued time on the water. Practice loading the rod and let it do the majority of the work and you will be a much stronger A-Rigger.

Good Luck and God Bless. BURRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!

Like everyone else, when this deal first started we used what we had to get it fishing to the very best of our ability. During the 3 yrs. that I have been throwing it I have progressed to try and find that perfect combination. This is a method that myself and my clients use for up to 4 months a year now, so it is more than a trivial part of my arsenal. I have perfected it to the point that I can dedicate certain pieces of my equipment to it. Just like the Ned rig, that if fished properly your equipment and how it is set up is very important. Yes, you can kiss your sister, but a super model seems to taste better. " I'm counting my wife in that category." You can always make do and create something that is just about as good, or say, "I can get by with this." Wrench or any of our other fantastic tech's here can take a old hose off one engine and put it on in place of a broken hose on a new engine. Will it work? certainly. Is it the best or right thing to do. Nope. I am a preformance perfectionist when it comes to fishing equipment, we all know this and there is very little doubt. I am always tinkering and trying to find a better mouse trap. It is fun and games for 99% of you. For me it is my livelyhood. If my clients can throw something 20' further and cover that much more water or if they can feel a strike that you normally might miss, and I have said this many times, if I can get them even 1 more bite in a 4 hr. fishing morning, it is extremely important to me. Extremely. In the last 5 yrs. I have had one customer break off a fish. ONE. It happened this year, and was totally my fault. You break off a fish with me and It simply ruins my week, not my day. It is always my fault. About 10% of it is caused by the line. Yep you heard it here. Line or even the knot is almost never responsibe for breaking a fish off while your playing the fish. 90% of the time its the rod and reel. Your rod is your shock absorber and your reel is your brake. If your shock absorber does not absorbe and your brakes are squeeky and rubbing, you got a problem. A huge majority of the new fishing equipment we buy already has poor brakes and poor shocks, without even first touching the road, its still on the lot and its pricy but not very good. Kind of a long winded post about why I do what I do and why as long as I do it, I will continue to look for that better mouse trap. Even if it only allows me to catch one more mouse. Good Luck

There are a dozen names for it and some of them are not flattering. Alabama Rig A-Rig, Umbrella Rig, Mob Rig, School Rig or just plain old Stupid Rig. Thing about it is what ever you call it or how ever you feel about it, this fishing method is legal, deadly effective and here to stay. In the Fall of 2012 this rig started showing it's "Ugly Face" to some and "Oh My Gosh Good" to others. The first one I happen to see was being used by Pete Wenners and Chris Tetrick. They had started using this Andy Poss fishing method after seeing it win multiple tournaments in the Eastern US. Now the fishing method that Andy started in 2009 is wide spread throughout the entire country and at least 20 different bait manufactures make and market variation of the Umbrella rig. As late Winter and early Spring of 2013 rolled around, A-rig fishing as it is known for short started catching huge strings of bass on all of our White River lakes Chain. It was fueled by producing huge stringers of bass that had not been caught here since the fish kills of the early 90's. It has become a staple here to this day. What we thought at first to be a passing fad now is a very important tool in catching large stringers of bass in very cold and cool water months of the year, by simulating small schools of either threadfin or gizzard shad. Most Alabama Rigs are constructed of a 5 arm, wire rig, similar to the spokes on an umbrella. There are umbrella rigs constructed with as many as 20 arms that hold various baits and teasers. You are only limited to your imagine when it comes to attractants. Each state has its own regulations on the rig, concerning how many "Hot Baits" or hooked baits you can have on the rig. In Missouri we are limited to only 3 hooked or Hot Baits. If we are fishing in our Sister water in Arkansas we are not limited to 3. The next question is how in the world with only 3 hot hooks on a multiple baited lure can you select the proper one that the fish will hit. Most Alabama Rigs are built with an extended middle arm. This allows one single hot bait to trail the school or mob. Fish also approach the school most often from the bottom, so wise A-Rig fishermen rig the two bottom arms and the middle extended arm to present the best opportunity for hook ups. The remainder of the baits are teasers and should be presented in a way to make it look as if they are tightly schooled. The bass will most often take the trailing bait or lower extended baits that are not tight to the teaser baits that are in the mob. At times I even further extend the hot middle bait with a 3" eagle claw wire leader. It works to perfection and I rarely get non-hook up bites. Baits and teasers can be anything from willow leaf spinner blades to a variety of soft plastics. Combinations are countless. With over 50 manufactures making soft plastic grubs, curly tail minnows, and boot tail shad imitations. Ok, you have now got your 5 arm rig and your soft plastic Yum-Yums, what hooks are you going to use if the baits are not hooked already and how ya gonna rig it? When I first started I used Storm Wild Eye Shad. This is a fantastic small swimbait. It swims perfectly, comes in a variety of sizes and is nicely weighted with a super heavy hook. It's best feature and maybe its biggest draw back is the heavy Gamakatsu hook. With prices on the A-Rigs running from the 9 to 29 dollar range, you want to get as many of these bad boys back as possible when they reach out a grab some underwater something. And they will. Lots of fishermen have varied the hook strength to match the line strength that they are throwing the rig on. Enough line strength to slightly bend the hook without causing it to break the line that is attached to the expensive A-Rig. When you do hang up, try not and set the hook, just let it come snug and run your boat around behind the snag and try and pull it loose from the rear. This is the best method. For me, I use pretty heavy line. What say you, you are already dragging wire thru the water, might as well put lite rope on it to get it back when that old underwater oak branch tries to snatch it from you. Personally I now use a hook created by Table Rock Bait Co. ie Chompers. It is a jig head hook especially designed for the Alabama Rig. Put a drop of gel super glue on the hook and slide the soft plastic of your choice and your nearly ready to start flinging. That being said, how in the name of Virgil Ward do I attach the teaser baits to this apparatus. It can be done several ways. We all started using a very small hooked jig head, say 1/16th. to 1/8 and simply snipping the hook off at the bend. That gave us the structure to attach the bait and maintain it in a very nice smimming mode. Since we have had time to experiment, most good A-Riggers use a small screw attachment called a Hitchhiker. They can be bought online or at most stores including WalMart. You simply screw the Hitchhiker into the head of the teaser bait and then put the snap of the hiker into the swivel of the A-Rig arm Now, I have my line, my umbrella, and my baits all set up. How do I get this monster in the drink and get it back? When this deal first started most of us tried to just use a heavy jig rod and a reel that would spool enough big line to get it out there a reasonable distance. This seemed to work somewhat OK until you engaged the reel as the spare tire of a bait was still sailing thru the air. Most often you just got a clank and a clink and that was pretty much all your regular bait caster wanted of that deal. There have been a score of improvements in this field also. The best A-Riggers of 2 yrs. ago were using a Shimano Curado 300e as the reel. Still hard to beat, but this is heavy. The reel is also a full hand full for a big guy. For me at 5'9" I"m not that big I was having trouble with my Curados with not only the weight at 10.8 oz. but the size fitting my hand. They also carry a very hefty price of $249.95. The drag is more than solid at 15 pound, so this is the classic reel to handle a 3 plus oz. bait like the rig. It only comes in a gear ratio of 6.4 to1 which is satisfactory, but there are better options now. Lew's features a reel called the Super Duty that was designed with the A-Rig in mind. It is Super tough with Brass gearing a heavy 14 pound star drag and is lite weight of 7.8 oz. This reel is offered in gear ratios of 5.4 to 1 to 8.1 to 1. It is a low profile soft sided palm size reel that fits the hand much better than the bulkier Curado. Paired with the New for 2016 Falcon Cara Super Duty 7'6" casting rod you have a multipurpose outfit that fishes either an A-Rig or the new hit of the month sensation the Whopper Plooper. Just bite off the rig and tie on the Plop and your ready to go. Lew's has the Super Duty regular price for $179.99, but I am seeing it offered on Optic's Planet for $142.00 to $148.99. A full hundred bucks less than the curado and a very nice lighter weight option. The Cara Super Duty weighs 2.1 oz. on a split grip frame so you have a outfit that you can throw perhaps a little longer at a total weight of 9.8 oz. making rod and reel lighter than the curado. Not bad at all for this type of a very heavy preforming outfit. We are completely set up and ready to let it fly now, but where do we do the flinging. The A-Rig can be fished just about anywhere that the fish are. It can be fished this time of the year to suspending fish on bluffends and cove mouths and channel swings just over tree tops. As the water warms it can be fished to staging fish and fish that are rising in the water column. I fish it in very similar locations that I would fish a suspending stick bait, as water temperatures rise. Late Summer and early Fall this bait will again excel as a wonderful dock bait. When shad are schooling and chasing in the backs of the pockets, it is simply deadly around dock corners. The best method I have found is to fish the bait with a slow pulling method, letting the bait sink to the desired level on the cast and then retrieving it by pulling the bait thru the water and picking up the slack with the reel. This method will allow the bait to stall or flutter as it is retrieved. On the strike, and they can be violent, instead of jerking the rod, just continue to reel picking up the pace or draw the rod back as you would by sweeping it as the hook set on a carolina rig. How ever you feel about it, the A-Rig is here to stay. Get geared up properly and see how some of our local fishermen are winding in once unthought of tournament weights. Now is the time for the Rig, so get your umbrella up and get after it. View full article

I'm very lucky that I have had the opportunity to be on the water thousands of hours with a jerkbait in hand, as well as in the hands of my clients. You learn a lot watching other folks fish and also having the ability to at times fish people in a manner that helps you experiment with what a fish wants and how he wants if presented. I have had literally hundereds of guide trips that I started each client with a different bait brand. Lots of time close to the same size and color, just a different manufactor and their interpetition of the same color. Sometimes the fish will hit any of the baits and any person in the boat can catch them. Front, middle or in the back, no matter. Other times and I have also seen this to many times to even relate. A guy using a certain bait it catching all the fish. I can rotate this bait thru the line and if all the fishermen are of equal ability and follow the peramitors that I have given them for what I believe is the correct presentation for that particular bait, the fish will follow the bait regardless who is fishing it. Other times your right, a certain guy regardless where he is in the line will catch all the fish. Sometimes not nearly the best fisherman. Jerkbaiting is funny. Few years ago when the McStick came out Beck and I were fishing Aunts Creek with him in the front and me in the back. He was throwing the McStick and I was throwing a Megabass. He was completely smoking me. At one point had me down 6 to ZERO. Before you say anthing about him being in the front and me being in the back, I'lll take the back 9 out of 10 times with a jerkbait, if we are just fishing open water. We switched baits and I, immediatly starting catching all the fish. They wanted the action of that Blue Bandit over the Pro-Blue Mega. Couple of days later we both had trips and headed back for Aunts as it was Aunts Creek time of the year. Needless to say they wanted nothing to do with the Bandit or the Mega. They would however eat a Lucky Craft like they were starving for it. Go figure. Couple of days later Rick Lisek and I were out and both strugging a bit. I was fishing Baxter and he was fishing Kimberling City. He started catching them on a pearl mega and called and said it was on. I switched to it and about the 2nd. throw on a long gravel main lake point all 3 of my clients hooked up at once. We had thrown a Bandit a Lucky Craft in Table Rock Shad that they could not leave alone 2 days prior and a X-Rap all over that point, with nothing to show. I believe sometimes regardless of our ability, each varity of lure has somewhat of a different action and for sure a slight different color phase due to the manufactor will make a difference. My humble opinion. Take it for what its worth Good Luck

Really?

The Plus 1 is a very good bait. Even with the added depth with the extended bill, we usually weight this bait. Without a doubt, the two primary colors are Pearl and Pro-Blue, for our Ozark Mountain lakes. Buster Loving uses this bait now exclusively for walleye on Bull Shoals. He uses Pearl and he has had Tim Hughes custom paint the plus 1 in several different walleye catching colors. As has already been mentioned this is a very good early season bait, as of right now if we could get the correct water. The Pro-Blue really works well from Cool Water Cove up the James to LongCreek, and it seems that Pearl for some reason works best from Holiday Island to point 9. I usually weight this bait to either sit in a flat or level position in the water column, or a slightly nose up or elevated nose if I can get it to work out that way. With the extended bill it wants to ride nose down, and I just have never had that work as well as nose up. This bait is pretty much a take-off of the old Spoonbill Rogue that we have all used here for years. It is just built on a better platform and throws a lot better with the weighting system. It is not as quick twitch as the lighter Spoonbill Rogue and that I think is why it works better in the cooler water. As the water warms the faster and wider twitch baits seem to work much better. The proper method for the plus 1 is very slow and then slow down even more. 99% of the strikes on this bait should if you are using it correctly come as the bait sits motionless in the water. Long winded post to say, "I like this bait." Good Luck

Great Report. Usually when I have a fish flipping on my seat, I like to have triple hooks in its mouth. They stick better to the seat that way Did you just flip the jig, or did you throw anything else? Thanks And Good Luck

Quill, I have tried and tried to get them to go on a shot, but just cannot get it to happen as well as with the drop shot worm. Don't know if you lose all the action by not swimming it but it just does not work well for me up and down. Another great technique this time of the year is to fish a grub straight up and down. I have tried it on a 3/8 oz. jig head, with very poor results. I can switch and put on a Chompers smoke pepper or a Yamamoto smoke red flex Ctail grub and bamm I get hit. That Keitech for me just has to be moving and get that tail a wiggling and calling for the best reaction. That is just me and my clients, I'll bet for sure some others have had it work for them.

IF I had to give folks my best tip for fishing the Rock, it would be it is not what your using, but where your using it. 90% of the folks that are struggling here are close to fish, they are just fishing out of the wrong side of the boat.

Ticker, that gives us a little more info, thanks. Last year was the first year that TR did not make Bassmaster Magizine's top 100 bass fishing lakes. Trophy fish here, I guess to say are at the fisherman's discretion, with beauty in the sole eye of the beholder. If a 5 lb. LM is a trophy a 4 lb. SM and a 3 lb.plus K is what you are thinking, then yes coming in March thru May 15, you got a good shot. Not so much up the Kings River. If you however are river fishermen and like to float then you have a deal. You can launch up the Kings as far as Grandview which is 6 miles from Berryville and float and catch some very nice river ie creek fish. Lots of 2 pounders, and very little traffic, beautiful sceneic floating. You can get canoes and flat boats in Berryville. Depending on the river you can have some dragging from pool to pool on the upper river, but not bad even for me at 60 yrs. old with bad knees. If you were here last year and stayed on the main lake at Shell Knob and did not catch good fish at that time of the year, I'm sorry to say it was probably on you. You have to remember that Table Rock is not like fishing a river or anything you have in Texas or really most any other place. It is a clear White River mountain lake and fishes unlike most any other. Now if you tell me you had your boat sitting in 30 to 35 feet of water swimming a 4" Ctail grub on a 1/4 oz. ball jig head off the main lake points and long gravel runnouts where the majority of your cast land 100 ft. from the shoreline, then I will say its on the fish. If you were dragging a very small 4 inch worm on a split shot rig or fishing a 3 inch ned rig, slowly twitching an dragging them in 18 to 30 ft. of water, I'm gong to say it was on the fish. If you were throwing an horse head underspin in 3/8th. or slow reeling a wobble head or Biffle bug on a 3/8 oz jig head with a 3 inch craw trailer in 18 to 30 ft. of water and not catching them, I'm going to say it was on the fish. If you were not doing any of the above, you might give that a try out of Shell Knob, and see how the Table Rock Bass treat you this year. Good Luck

Plug, did not know the officer in which you speak of. As you know, there are folks in every job that should not be there. You make any job better for being there or worse it all depends on you. Don't know what he could have done as far as the FAA, or if there were any violations. Never had to enforce or even thought of ever enforcing flight rules. Had pretty much more than I could handle just enforcing state and federal law on the pond.

He really didn't say what spawn he was targeting. Crappie, White's or Bass? Here is another point, if you are after bass, why in the world would you stay that far up the Kings River. Man you are in absolute No-Mans land. No problem in March thru April targeting walleye and whites, but Bass fishing, you are a long ways from anywhere, especially up the Kings. One rain, big rain, small rain, and you are done. If I wanted to fish a River at that time it would be up the James. I cannot even begin to tell you how small that Kings river fishes at that time of the year. We have all had to listen to my rants about the numbers of people up there. It is like Mardi Gras in NOLA. Past guys on this blog have it down, come in March 15 thru 1st of May and have it your way. Trying to fish the spawn here for bass is not the deal. Post spawn Main lake fishing is the way to catch not only numbers, but real quality, especially if you are after some of the big Jaw's we have here. The SM bite from Campbell Point to Long Creek is up and running as they get ready for the boys to chase the girls. Good Luck

I'm going to chime in here. MSHP are way, way more Cowboys than any Water Patrol officer that I either served with or have known before or since. This is coming from a guy ie me that not only was a MSWP officer, but also an instructor at the MSHP academy for 3 yrs. There was a really good piece on the news last night here in SWMO about the cost of combining the two. The fiscal yearly cost by the combination was to drop. MSWP was running a yearly budget of 2.5 million. This was supposed to drop to 1.25 million as Nixon proposed by combining the two agency. the budget had to be increased to 3.25 million or an increase of 3/4 million in 2015. That is 3/4 million over the original budget and 2 million over Nixion's proposed operating expenses. Most of this was due to logistics. The majority was having a complete DUMB A-- for a governor that did absolutely no research and knew less than nothing about our water ways. Without a doubt everyone associated with the water knows that the presence and really the professionalism and knowledge has plummeted completely off the table. In the 80's 90's and early 2000's MSWP was if not one of the best law enforcement organizations in the country. Most every state sent people to Jefferson City to see and try and get a blue print on how to operate an on water safety and law enforcement agency. Most were trying to do it with park rangers or game wardens and it was not working. Missouri had it right, with an agency that was dedicated completely to on water rescue, recovery, safety and law enforcement. No one anywhere had this. The guy behind this was LT. Colonel Jack Reynolds He built the water patrol, through years of on water service and knowing every aspect of on water law enforcement. safety and rescue. This guy was one of my childhood hero's. He worked our section of Lake of the Ozarks when I was a young kid and I followed him through out his career. It was because of him that I became the 1st. college graduate to work for the water patrol. This takes a very special breed of person to function on the water in this capacity. Most every water patrol officer I knew or trained had a very extensive background in boating and water related business or sporting. They were brought up on the water as I was. For cripes sakes the MSHP people they have stuck in boats for the most part are scared shirtless to be out there. They can't drive a boat and have no idea what they are doing. As had been stated they are way more interested in making minor traffic stops than working on public safety. This is HWY Patrol training. You are taught to look for the most minor violation to try to find a bigger one. Safety was always the number 1 goal for MSWP, not seeing how much activity paper you could produce. and NO there is no quota. There is activity, but activity is usually generated thru safety inspections and registration. You don't enforce law the same on the water and on the highway. Now they try to, but it is totally backward. The lack of presence is also a major problem, by attrition. The main focus is on land and not on the water, even under highly busy times. At one time I believe we got up to 84 officers but usually ran about 60. 14 on Lake of the Ozarks and 10 on Table Rock. I cannot say I know the number now, but I'm guessing on a holiday weekend state wide There are less than 30. On the major holiday weekends on Lof O alone, we would bring in officers from all points of the state had have as many as 20 patrolling. The defense for allowing the incarcerated person to drown will be lack of education and proper training by the officer. It is the first time in the History of the water patrol that it has every been sued. Our representative here is Don Phillips a retired MSHP. He said last night that this thing is completely broken and that HWY Patrolmen have no business in boats on the water. Not there deal and they have not had the training that the MSWP had. Nixon had taken a agency that was revered throughout the country and turned it into an embarrassment for the state of Missouri.