Lake Fork Guide Richie White has been a professional fishing guide since 1990. Richie has top-of-the-line electronics and fishing gear provided at no extra charge, including Kistler rods and Ambassadeur Revo reels. He is a gadget guy with most every time-saving feature you can imagine, including a trolling motor that uses GPS to lock in a position and stows/deploys at the touch of a button.
He is happy to accomodate anyone from beginner to tournament fishermen. Children especially are encouraged to fish with Richie. He will make sure that any kid will have a high quality video of his catch. He guarantees fish!
Richie's specialties are sight fishing in spring, night fishing in summer, deep water fishing in Fall and early winter, and taking out beginners and children.
Richie is a full-service guide. He prefers to do all the lure tying, stowing of rods, photography, videograpy, and netting fish. All you need to do is get out of your seat and a rod will be handed to you.
All rates are the same whether 1 or 2 people
Full day rates:
Sight Fishing: late Feb through April 30 ($550/day)
Rest of the year:
$450 - full day (1 or 2 people). Most full-day trips are 9-10 hours.
Half day rates:
$300 - half day (1 or 2 people). Half-day trips are 5 hours when available
Deposit:
half of amount
Deposits are non-refundable. However trips can be rescheduled (see the section below on rainout policy)
Click on the Paypal logo below to pay
There are several way to go about booking a fishing trip. The easiest method is the online booking program. There, you can see what days are available and immediately lock in a date. It is very reliable and gets first priority. Once you reserve a date, the system automatically blocks the date so that no one else can take it. You then have the option to pay your deposit online via PayPal, or you can send a check or money order through the mail.
You can be certain that if a day is available on the online system, then it will be available. However, it is possible that certain days could be blocked off even though they are available. For instance, I block off the prime of the spawn for repeat customers. So most of March and April will not be open to the public until I've given time for my repeats to book. If you desire one of those days, you must call or email to ask. There are other times that I may have blocked to avoid a conflict even though I could work in a trip. So, if I'm blocked when you want to go, it doesn't hurt to contact me and double check.
Most people like to talk to me via phone or email before reserving the trip. That is advisable if you want my recommendations. To do so, contact me (email is my preference) with the info to the right.
Here's the process I recommend
- Call or email me (or text my cell at 214-five49-4644) if you want my advice about your date (or any other questions).
- Book your date through the online booking program at www.bassfishing.org/GO. This will send us both an automated reply.
- I email you a reply that will ask for a deposit and give you information about your trip (what to bring, motels, phone numbers, etc.).
- You pay your deposit (Paypal, check, or money order).
- I send you a confirmation email that explains when and where to meet, directions, etc.
- You confirm that you agree on the meeting place and time.
- We meet and fish together.
Full-day trips are typically from safe light until 4:00PM. However, fishing hours may be adjusted to revolve around peak feeding times.
January: 6:30AM - 4:00PM
February: 6:15AM - 4:00PM
March: 6:00AM - 4:00PM*
April: 6:30AM - 4:00PM
May: 6:00AM - 4:00PM
June: night trips only
July: night trips only
August: night trips only
September: 6:30AM - 4:00PM
October: 7:00AM - 5:00PM
November: 6:00AM - 4:00PM**
December: 6:15AM - 4:00PM
1/2-day trips:
Mon - Sat: 5 hour trips beginning at first light or ending with last light
Sun: 12:15PM - 5:15PM (between church services)
Night trips:
June - early Sep: 8:30 PM - 6:00AM
*April hours after time change 2nd Sunday of March
**October hours until time change 1st Sunday of November
After booking a trip with Richie, you will be emailed with instructions of what to bring and what not to bring. Richie provides all rods and tackle. So you only need to bring drinks, snacks, and plenty of clothing.
If you are fishing additional days in your own boat, be sure to read the fishing trip checklist article. You may be surprised at how many things you forget to bring until you are on the lake.
Rainouts:
Some of my best fishing days have been rainy days, so I prefer to fish if it is not extremely cold or unsafe. I have enough raingear for everyone, but I prefer you bring your own if rain is inevitable. Since the weathermen are wrong so often, I don't trust them to adequately predict when it will be stormy. Therefore, the earliest I will call a rainout (especially on a high demanded day) is 30 minutes before we are scheduled to meet. If we are scheduled to meet and it is storming (or a hard rain), I will probably try to contact you to see if you want to wait it out, reschedule, or try to fish. If you don't hear from me, please try to contact me. It is likely that I will wait until I hear from you before getting my dry boat out of the storage. Sometimes just waiting a few minutes can be the difference between fishing out of a wet boat or a dry boat. In the event of an unsafe (stormy or icy) fishing day, we can schedule another trip at both of our convenience and your deposit will be applied toward the other day.
Rescheduling:
If for some reason you or your partner can't make the scheduled date and you give me at least a two week notice, I will allow you to reschedule without forfeiting your deposit. If you have a premium date (Mar-June or weekend) and need to reschedule but don't provide adequate notice for me to rebook, you can reschedule to a non-premium date (July-February weekday) without forfeiting your deposit.
Keeping Fish:
One of the things that makes Lake Fork so good is the management of the fish regulations. At the current time, all largemouth bass between 16 and 24 inches must be released. This means that most every fish between 2 1/2 and 9 pounds must be released. For fishermen, that means more big bass to be caught. Although it is legal to keep a fish over 24 inches, Richie has a policy that all fish over that length be released. If you want to get a big fish for your wall, you can get a taxidermist to make a replica. That way, the fish lives and you still get a fish on the wall. Replicas last longer, smell better, and look better than dead fish mounts.
If you are interested in keeping fish for eating, you are allowed up to 5 bass per person under 16 inches. Richie prefers that you keep 11 to 14 inch bass and let the 15 and 16 inchers go. There are certain times that are much better than others for eating fish. The Fall is by far the best season. In the Fall, you can catch lots of small bass and even more yellow bass (barfish). Those yellow bass are even better eating than the black bass and you can keep everyone you want.
Please don't bring videos or cameras. Here's why:
As a production-oriented guide, getting pictures of my clients holding nice fish has always been the goal of my trips. In 1990, I used a Polaroid camera. In 2000 it was a digital camera. In 2010, it was an iPhone. And in recent years, I carry a smartphone with so many megapixels that it takes pictures and video in higher quality than my computer or TV will display.
My goal of getting my clients holding nice fish has not changed. However, my latest obsession is not just getting my clients with nice fish and making them look big, but doing it with high quality pictures and even HD or higher video when possible.
Ever since I got my first GoPro in 2014, I've been working to get not only good photos, but good videos as well. I've tried just about every mount imaginable and I believe I have it down to where I can get a lot of good shots without taking up much of my clients' time.
When reviewing my footage from previous trips, one thing I noticed is just how long a fish is out of water while someone is taking pictures and video. Additionally, I've found that it takes me much longer to edit the videos when someone takes a picture because I don't want to show that part of the video to the public. I got to thinking about it and realized that if I'm taking pictures and videos in the highest quality from the best angle, then there really isn't any good reason to get pictures or videos from my clients' cameras or phone. I can just text them or share them on the cloud.
The more I got to thinking about it, the more I realized that if I have a "no picture/no video" policy, then every picture/video from my boat that I make public will be from the angle that I think is best - and it will be in the highest quality. Additionally, if I'm the only one taking pictures/videos then I don't have to be concerned about getting me or my boat in the shot— or whether I can fish my best spots without the locations getting shared.
So, as of 2017, here's my new policy on pictures and videos:
If you are a professional camera man or have an obsession with photography/videography, then let's discuss how we can work together to get the best pictures and videos. I still have a lot to learn and will welcome any experience. If you have less experience than me at photography, though, please let me do all of it. I want you to be completely focused on catching fish. If batteries need changing or disc is full, etc., I want to be doing that stuff while you have your bait in the water. I am a full-service guide and I want your complete focus to be on fishing.
If you fish with me, it is your trip. I need you to let me know your desires when it comes to photos/videos. If you see me setting up a GoPro and you don't want to be on it, let me know and I'll put it away. On the other hand, if you don't see me setting up a GoPro and you want lots of video, let me know.
I have different views about video, according to the situation. If you bring a 7 year-old, that kid will be famous before the end of the trip. If we are sight-fishing and I find a giant, I may set up every camera I can find. But if we're night fishing or if I have 2 adults during numbers season and I expect to catch tiny fish, I may not take any video unless you ask for it. Please let me know your desires at the start of our trip.
Keep in mind that it is much easier to get a video of a fish being released than it is to get a fish jumping in the air. So be sure to let me know if you want me to make every effort to get fish jumping in the air. That kind of videography requires complete focus and I want to exceed your expectations as a full-service guide.
Starting in 2017, I am trying to get good at making "quick videos" for most of my trips. These are videos shot on my GoPro and compiled and edited on my phone. If all goes well, I plan to post these "quick videos" to both Facebook and YouTube in HD quality on a regular basis. During my busy season, I won't likely have time to put them together the same day. So they may get put in a cue to get compiled during a slower time. But during the slower times, I will often get them posted by the next day.